158 



ROTAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 



, 1919.] 



MB. CABTF.LL WRKY. 



[Continued. 



3983. The Chairman : They are not put in yet? I 

 have not put them in. I was asked to go on to No. 4 

 and leave the costs. 



3984. .l/i. Hubbins: I want to ask you one mira- 

 tion about Major Hrassc\ - i. HIT. 1 understand ho 

 says " That the farm expenditure included no sum 

 whatever for manager's salary or clerical work. I hat 

 I have i-tei\cd no interest whatever OM tin- capital 

 provided for stocking the farm, <c. That I bare 

 sj>ont considerable sums on farm buildings, Ac., on 

 which the farm has paid no interest. That a con- 

 siderable amount of work, such as fencing, roads and 

 drainage has been done by the Kstate for tli. I 



ul the farm, for which the farm has not been charged 

 anything." Is that because there has been no avail- 

 able surplus out of which these payments might have 

 been made:' --Could you take one item at a timer I 

 have not a copy. 



:v.K>. My question is a general one. What I want 

 to know is, is that because there has been no available 

 surplus out of which these payments might have been 

 made!' Has Major Brassey received no interest be- 

 cause there was no available surplus out of which he 

 could receive interest? Until 4 years ago he ran the 

 farm at a loss. But I think it is due to Major 

 Brassey to explain that when ho took over the estate 

 H was practically ruined from every point of view. 

 There were trees growing through the cottages; prac- 

 tically the whole of his mansion house had fallen in ; 

 over 1,000 acres of it was a rabbit warren ; and, there 

 was not a farm building or a cottage on the land that 

 was really habitable.' . 



3986. And you are hoping in the near future to be 

 able to make pay menu under these headings? He 

 has spent an enormous sum of money in rebuilding 

 the estate. The whole of that 1,000 acres is now 

 under the plough and redeemed ; a lot of the grass 

 land that was practically wilderness is fenced in, and 

 he has made these enormous expenditures, and natu- 

 rally no farm can stand that sort of thing. Latterly 

 he has been reaping the result of his expenditure 

 of the past. 



3987. Mr. Parker : You commented upon the want 

 of adaptability in the majority of the farming com- 

 munity. Can you tell us how far that adaptability 

 may be due. to want of sufficient capital for buying 

 modern machinery. AT.- 1 think it is due more to 

 want of education. 



3988. Not to want of capital? No; want of educa- 

 tion and want of business methods. If a man in a 

 factory finds that he can get a bigger output from a 

 certain type of machine, he si raps the machine ho has 

 got and gets another. The farmer, baring bought a 

 Kinder 20 years ago, sticks to it. although it is very 

 antiquated and very expensive to repair very often. 



3989. What capital per acre is employed in this 

 farm of 2.700 n< 



Mr. C,,<ittey: 31,165 5s. in April, 1918. 



3990. Mr. I'nrkrr: That is about 15 an acre? Y, - 

 '.V.f.n. Do not you think that some of this want of 



adaptability would disappear if a great many farmers 

 \\err able to cniplm that amount of capital on their 

 farms? You, I think it would. 



3992. Is it not rather the fact that a farmer very 

 often takes, say. a farm of 500 acres when he lias only 

 capital for 300 acre-'- i ,-s ; unfortunately, I am 

 afraid that is very often the case. 



3993. You would agree that more capital would do 

 away with some of this want of adaptability ? Some 

 of it; not all of it. Want of education has a great 

 deal to do with it. 



30f>4. Mi. l.rniiiinl : May I preface my questions by 

 telling you that if you lind they are rather i\- 

 nerted and some of them ask for information about 

 .on have already stated, it will l>e duo t<> the 

 fact that owing to nobody's fault, but to the pressure 

 of time. we have only had these papers before us very 

 rerently. In the first place, with regard to these very 

 interesting cost accounts, 1 wish to a~k \ou some very 

 general questions. What is the onal'ty of the Innd? 

 Very heavy clay. Four-horse land. 



< Would you consider that if priees were stioh as 

 to mak the continuation of corn growing profitable on 

 land siioh an your farm consist^ of. they would be 

 Rtiffiripnt to keep under the plough most of the land 

 which has Ixx-n ploughed up during the war, excluding 



land which had really been ploughed by mistake P 

 Not with the present supply of labour that we have. 

 At the present moment 1 ha\c It. women and 1; 

 man prisoners working. When they take the pri 

 a\va\, 1 do not know how 1 shall carry on. 



8006. Do you mean that the. shortage is absolute, or 

 that to make up the shortage will incr< .>.-. the cost of 

 your labour r I >uld not gut the labour if I \ 

 it. 1 would not have prisoners if I could get Kngli-h 

 men; but I cannot get them. 



you suggest that unless more labour is 

 n, ,! available it la a hopeless proposition? Quite; 

 on the quality <>f the land 1 am farming. 



3908. But apart from that diiliculty. it the price was 

 sufficient to make corn growing profitable on your 

 land, you consider it would bo sufficient to keep most 

 of the newly ploughed area in the country under the 

 plough? 1 think so. Of course, it is rather hard to 

 judge. I am more or less confined to Northampton- 

 shire, and I have no knowledge whatever of the Noi t-i 

 and only small knowledge of the South, but I th nk 

 if prices on our heavy clay are made to recompense us 

 for our work there, it ought to pay almost anywhere 

 in Kngland. 



3999. Under these costs for ploughing, and so on, I 

 suppose you charge the keep of the horses? No, I do 

 not. I have put the local custom of 6s. I have not 

 had a costs clerk until the last nine months. I am now- 

 keeping the cost of my horses, and it will be consider- 

 ably below that. 



4000. That would reduce the total cost of produc- 

 tion per quarter?- x 



lO-il Have you allowed anything in. these costs of 

 growing wheat and other cereals for uncxh:> 

 mammal or cultural values obtained by the preceding 

 clc.ining crop? Have you charged anything from the 



<if the preceding crop to the w heat or <>.; 

 Where the crop comes after the tallows I do. I 

 charge half of the fallows tin- first year. '2-~i per cent, 

 the second year, and 2o per cent, the third year. 



4002. And under fallows you include fallow crops 

 and not only bare fallow ? No, bare fallow only. 



4003. Nothing is charged when the cereal crop 

 follows clover or roots? No. 



-l(K)t. Do you consider that the clover or root crops 

 pay their own way? I am, unfortunately, not scient st 

 enough to be certain in my own mind as to the un- 

 exhausted value of manures; and until I am I prefer 

 not to charge them. 



4005. Do you think that the clover or root crop pays 

 it- ow M way and would be worth while for its own - 



The clover crop is a great paying factor, of c<' 

 in the same way that wheat is. 



KMlti. What about roots? Roots are a necessity, and 

 therefore a paying crop. 



4007. Do you mean a necessity to, say, milk pro- 

 duction or a necessity as. say, a cleaning crop? A 

 --ity on any farm where live stork are kept. 



400-v 1 understand that these balance sheets men- 

 tioned under paragraph .'< of your />n ; r/.< of evid 

 will be submitted later. 



I'liiiirmtin: They are here, and I will pass on a copy 

 to you. 



Mr, Li n mi nl : Might I have a look at them when 

 I have finished Then if I have any further questions 

 on the balance sheets, I may put tliem. 



I'hiiirinnii : \ 



KHIit. .Ui. l.<nn<ird: I was very much interc-tcd in 

 what yciii said in answer to Mr. Walker under the. 

 heading of paragraph 4 about the conservatism and 

 lack ot adaptability on the part of many fan 

 Do you think the L nd to increase 



etlieieiicy on the part of the farmer or the reverse? 

 a rather difficult question. 



loin. I am thinking not so much of guarai 

 during the war period when they wei, 

 actually opetathe l,.'e:itiso of the very high figure 

 of world prices; but in the future would a promise 

 ef guai -anteed juices tend to make the farmer feel 

 that the industry had more hopes for him and it 

 was worth his while to put his hack into it; or would 

 it. on the other hand, tend to make him feel he 

 lire, even if he continued rather out-of-date 

 methods?- I think it would rather lean towards the 

 second theory that you raise. He would plongh 

 because he knows he is guaranteed. I do not think it 

 would help much towards efficiency. 



