174 



HOYAL COMMISSION <>N AGRICULTURE. 



MR. R. STRATTON. 



Receipt* for sheep : 



400 lamb* at Is. 2d. per Ib. plus skin. 

 40 lt. each at 7 months old, 54*. *. d. 



each 1,080 



from 330 ewe* at 16*. each ... 304 



Total receipt* 1,384 



(Thin roncludrt tht rvidtncr-in-ehirf.") 



117!). I>r. Dmi.yl'i* \ i .-ak in your cvidei! 

 the severity of control which, you say, was unjustly 

 exercised, and then you say when it was known .last 

 spring that control and ti\td prices were to come off 

 in a few month'.' time farmers were seriously alarmed. 

 Will you explain why that was? I go on to explain 

 that. I say: "It was generally considered by men 

 who should have known that the price of farm produce 

 would, with the release of shipping, rapidly fall." 



4^80. Do you suggest that farmers were actually 

 dependent at that time upon control to keep up prices? 

 I understood, under tho Corn Production Act, that 

 wo were to have a guaranteed minimum price to cover 

 the cost of production. 



4461. Do you suggest to me that farmers believed 

 that the prices of cereals would fall below the level of 

 the Corn Production Act? Not below the 45s. 



4482. What were they afraid of ; I only want to get 

 your meaning quite clear? As I say, we had the extra 

 "rise in wages, bringing the wages to 36e. 6d. a week, 

 and we knew very well that we could not produce corn 

 at so low a price a* even it is to-day, 75s. 6d., with 

 that wage. 



4483. The removal of control would not have re- 

 pealed the Corn Production Act, would it? No, it 

 would not remove the guarantee, but while there was 

 control there was no necessity for a guarantee. When 

 the control was taken off it was another matter. 



4484. The control of cereal prices gave no guarantee 

 of any price? I fancy w-o rather realised that it did. 



4485. That was a mistake, was it not? Do yon say 

 that In your neighbourhood there was a great un- 

 willingness to take or to buy arable farms? Yes. 



4486. You do not suggest that was general in the 

 country, do you? I do. in our neighbourhood. 



4487. Was your neighbourhood rather peculiar in 

 that respect? I only speak from my own experience. 



4488. Has there not been a very keen market for 

 farms? Not for arable farms. 



4489. I will take your answer? The farm I had in 

 mind waa, in my opinion, the best arable and sheep 

 farm in tho Warminster district, and they had 

 great difficulty to let i*. They have let it now, but. 

 in my opinion, they have had to accept a very poor 

 class of tenant. 



4490. Was that because the expense of going into 

 farms was so great the cost of stocking, and so on? 



That was a farm which requ'rod a flock of sheep, 

 and sheep lose so mm h monev that people would not 

 face it. Further, Mr. I.Ioyd George and various mem- 

 bers of the Government tnld the country to expect a 

 fall in the price of food, and wo havo"beon expecting 

 this fall. 



4491. Are you go irtuch influenced hy the statements 

 of political speakers in your part of tho country? 

 Oh, yes. 



4492. To go on to your other point, paragraph No. 

 9, Labour, you say and it is an important matter 



" I nm satisfied that the amount of work done by our 

 men ia less and the quality worse than it has been 

 during my experience." What period are you 

 refrring to? The period following the first two 

 of v 



1103. During that period 1 suppose a large mimhfr 

 of your younger workers joined the Army? Yes, Inn 

 diifinc the first two years of the wnr I was <iuire 

 satisfied with the amount of work done. After that 

 we hud to hnve soldiers and nnv m--n we could get, 

 rind their work was of a verv indifferent charartAr, 

 and, as T suggest here, our better men could n^t see 

 whv they should put in a good dav's work and serv/j us 

 faithfully while tho other men were only r*oing half a 

 dav's work. 



4494. The substitute lnhour was inferior in 

 character ? Yes. 



You think that had some had effect upon the 

 other men? Yen. 



4496. Of course that substitute labour has no 

 appeared or is disappearing?- Yes. 



ll!'7. Have you any reason to believe that there is 

 any permanent deterioration .my deterioration |,ir 

 uure of the quantity or quality of lalmui I 

 am asking simply for information; it is a very im- 

 portant point!' As I HT il a fanner li. 



got a chance to get rid of a man if he is uiisa: 

 turv, ami joii have to employ all the men yon 

 e nl their efficiency, that will gradual!' 

 to bring down tlie quality of labour. 



11!'^. Tliat simply means that labour heir 

 yon have to employ indifferent labour a. aril as the 

 i 1 iss of labour? > 



' You have to take what you can get ' \< I 



have now plenty of men, and havo had during the last 

 fortnight, but, as you know, we had a very dry sum- 

 mer, and there was not much work to do, and as two' 

 or three of my men were unsatisfactory I suggested t 

 Michaelmas that they should go somewhere cUe. I 

 think that will have a good effect. 



4500. You regard the difficulty as a temporary one. 

 It is sometimes suggested that the increase of v 



has had a tendency I do not make the sugg. 

 myself, but I have heard it suggested to depi. 

 the industry of the agricultural labourer. Do you 

 believe that, or have you any reason to suspect it? 

 T do think it is somewhat true, but I should not like 

 to make a general statement tn that elfr.t. 



4501. You do not really put that forward as a serious 

 factor for the future? No. 



4502. You do not think that the increase of wages 

 has had a bad effect upon the productiveness of 

 labour? I do not think so. 



4503. I do not quite know what things you have in 

 view when you speak in the very flattering way that 

 you do of the Scotch educational system. What 



you refer to? I have known gentlemen from 

 land, and they tell me that the education given in 

 Scotland is very much better than ours at what I think 

 they call the Board Schools there. The farmers' sons 

 and the labourers' sons go to the same school, as the 

 education that is given there is quite good enough for 

 the farmers' sons. Also you see Scotchmen pet on. 

 wherever they go, all over the world. For instance, I 

 had a Scotch boy working for me last summer; he was 

 a soldier. I as a rule do my harvesting by piecework, 

 and the old man who used to take the money and 

 divide it among the men had got a bit past it, and so 

 I asked some of my other men to take the money and 

 divide it. They said they were not scholars enough to 

 do it, and the only person I could get who was capable 

 of doing it was this Scotch boy. 



l. Is there anything of a practical kind that 

 you meant to suggest by that paragraph? Yes. We 

 are thoroughly dissatisfied with the education given to 

 our men. If they write to us for a place they cannot 

 write a legible letter or express themselves at all. I 

 do think if they were better educated they would he 

 far more useful to us, and I should like to see them 

 trying to take, these small holdings and farms and 

 getting on. 



I.MI. 1 ). What you are putting to us. apart from 

 national questions, is really that you think it would 

 be good for everybody all round if we had a higher 

 standard of general intelligent <? --Yes, and I do think 

 that the men betuceu Hi and 50 who were educated 

 under the old svstcm seem more intelligent than the 

 hoys of 18 and 25 who are coming to us now. 



4506. To go to your third heading. Kxpcnditiire. you 

 show the increases in the wai'i-s of day labourers 

 during the War. Yon r,i\r ran--, rising gradually from 

 a very low figure of 14s. a week pre-war to a figure 

 five years later of 36s. 6d. a week? Yea. 



4607. That does not cover over tho year the whole 

 tf the payments, does it? No, that is not an average 

 figure. 



4508. There are other payments, are there not, in 

 addition? There is the harvest payment, for example? 

 Yes. 



