MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



175 



20 August, 1919.] 



MR. R. STRATTON. 



[Continued. 



4509. Has that increased correspondingly: what 

 would be the increase in that? We used to pay 3d: 

 and 4d. an hour overtime. Now we pay lOd. and Is. 



4510. Do you nob have a special harvest wage? 

 Yes, in Wiltshire Is. an hour overtime, and as a per- 

 sonal arrangement between myself and my men I pay 

 them Is. a day in addition but that is not according 

 to the Wages Board scale. 



4511. The minimum of the Wages Board is 36s. 6d. 

 and Is. overtime for harvest? -Yes. 



4512. You have no special lump sum that you pay 

 in Wiltshire as is the case in some districts? No. 



4513. What was the payment in 1914? I did piece- 

 work in those days. 



4514. So that they are not really comparable? No. 



4515. With regard to paragraph No. 4, Sheep, what 

 do you mean to suggest when you say sheep are 

 unprofitable? Has sheep feeding been unprofitable 

 during the last few years? Most unprofitable. You 

 have my statement of accounts. 



4516. Do you feed your sheep on roots? At certain 

 times of the year. 



4517. I do not think you would say that it has been 

 the general experience that sheep feeding has been 

 unprofitable during the last three or four years? 

 Yes, I should say so. 



4518. Even making allowance for the value of suc- 

 ceeding crops after the sheep feeding? I take it you 

 ought to take the sheep by themselves. 



4519. If you are giving food to sheep, roots or 

 whatever it may be, there is a considerable residue 

 which goes to the benefit of the succeeding crop ? Yes. 



4520. Do you not credit the sheep with anything 

 for that? You will see from the balance sheet I have 

 got out for our eight course system that I cultivate 

 four crops for the sheep. For four years the land is 

 under sheep, and they do not pay a half-penny for 

 that. 



4521. Why do you keep them if they are unprofit- 

 able? Because we cannot grow any corn without 

 them. 



4522. Part of your cost of sheep feeding really 

 belongs to the cost of corn growing? It does at 

 present. 



4523. When you speak of prices, have you worked 

 out in any sort of detail the cost of growing wheat in 

 your district? Yes, they are shown on these accounts 

 that you have before you. This is for a whole eight 

 course rotation. 



4524. Yes, I 'was coming to that. I see in each of 

 the accounts you put down a sum of 1 for interest 

 on capital? Yes. 



4525. You put down that sum whatever the total 

 cost may be. How do you get at it? I should take 

 my capital from the farm and average it at about 17 

 an acre on my arable land. 



4526. You take it simply over the average without 

 regard to the operation? Yes. 



4527. If you look at your Summary of Totals, I do 

 not quite understand the item " Roots fed to cattle, 

 80 tons per annum. At 1 10s. per ton this is 6s. 

 per acre. Value of roots fed to cattle per acre for 

 eight years, 2 8s." Is 2 8s. an acre all you return 

 for your roots? The 400 acres of arable land is half in 

 corn and half in sheep's feed. The sheep eat practi- 

 cally the whole of the produce of the 200 acres except- 

 ing 80 tons which I pull off for feeding my bullocks. 



4528. 80 tons is 120 worth of roots every year, is 

 it not? Yes. 



4529. You take- the acreage of the whole farm into 

 account in the 6s. per acre? Yes. In a course like 

 this I take it yon must take the whole 8 years together. 



J.^TO. Then yon say: "The produce of this acre 

 of land in corn for 8 years should be 15J quarters." 

 That is something less than 2 quarters a year? Yes. 



4531. Is that the actual acreage in corn, or is it 

 the whole acreage of the farm? The whole acreage. 

 It is a trifle imdor an average of 4 quarters a year. 



4532. Mr. lien: With regard to the question Mr. 

 Douglas asked yon about farmers wanting guaranteed 

 prices of grain for this year, I think it was not quit" 

 cleared up what was in vour mind. Ho askrd you 

 whether farmers were afraid of prices falling below 

 the 46s. guaranteed by the Corn Production Act. Was 



26125 



not the feeling rather that farmers were afraid that 

 prices would fall below what they were last year? 

 They knew that wages were fixed at a high scale, and 

 would not drop to the 25s. under the Corn Production 

 Act, and they felt, did they not, that they must have 

 some protection in the case of a big drop in the 

 world market price of grain? Yes. 



4533. The question of the 45s. did not come in unless 

 they considered in relation to it the question of the 

 25s. minimum wage. You knew that your wages were 

 36s. 6d., and you wanted a guarantee of prices to 

 enable you to pay that sum, did you not? Yes. 



4534. In your production I see you take the con- 

 stant figure of 15s. an acre for unremunerative work? 

 Yes. 



4535. Do you arrive at that by accounts, or is it 

 just an estimate of what it will amount to? It is 

 rather an estimate, but I think it is a low one. 



4536. It is taking all the crops there throughout 

 the rotation? Yes. 



4537. In the grass, for instance, you would not get 

 that? The only things I meant to bring out in these 

 accounts were the cost of corn, wheat, and barley, 

 mutton, and beef. You cannot take the cost of hay 

 by itself, ] take it, in this case. 



4538. You do not show where you use your farm- 

 yard manure? Yes, I do. It is in the 5th year. 

 I only charge the labour: " Dung hauling, 2." 



4539. Yes, that is so. Is the spreading included in 

 the 2? Yes. 



4540. The value of the manure you have lumped 

 into the results of the crops? I have charged nothing 

 for the value of the manure. 



4541. Have you any idea as to how much of the 

 value of the subsequent corn crops is due to the 

 eating of the turnips by the sheep ? On our Wiltshire 

 Hills, on account of the loss incurred in keeping the 

 sheep, farmers have given them up. As a rule they 

 have got on and made money very well for four or 

 five years, but after that they can grow practically 

 nothing, and if these sheep are given up altogether 

 I believe the land will be derelict. I do not think 

 without the sheep, even with artificials, you could 

 grow enough to pay for the cultivation. 



4642. It is light land, I take it? Yes. 



4543. Is 12s. 6d. an acre an ordinary rent for land 

 capable of growing 4 quarters of wheat to the acre in 

 your district? Yes. 



4544. In your sheep account you charge deprecia- 

 tion of ewes 5s. a head over the whole flock? Yes. 



4545. Do your ewes depreciate from the time they 

 are shearlings? In my case I buy regular draught 

 ewes, and keep them two years, and my depreciation 

 is much heavier than that. 



4546. It is not a breeding flock? No, but is there 

 not a flock of teggs being kept practically for nothing 

 a year? 



4547. There is the wool, of course? The shepherd's 

 wages are 117 a year, and it would take the wool to 

 pay for that. 



4548. In the results have you only 400 lambs 

 practically one lamb per ewe from these old matured 

 ewes? Yes. we do not do much more than that. It 

 has been a particularly bad year this year, and it is 

 rather surprising to have had so many. 



4549. Your average does not exceed that, taking 

 one year with another? No. 



4550. 3/r. Anker Simmons: The land that is re- 

 ferred to here is just the olasd of land that we have 

 got to pay special attention to, inasmuch as it all 

 depends upon the future price of cereals whether it 

 will be kept under the plough or not? That is exactly 

 my opinion 



4551. Unless some price can be guaranteed which 

 will protect the farmer, at any rate, from heavy 

 loss, this ground will go down to grass, and "will be 

 grazed as a sheep run? Yes; that is my opinion. 



4552. It is very essential to us that we should get 

 reliable figures as to the cost of production of various 1 

 crops ? Quite. 



4553. I am rather struck with one thing in your 

 tables: Do you not grow oats at all? I hardly grow 

 them at all now, and I do not think that it affects 

 these figures. We have been so hit by eelworm and 

 wireworm, and drought that from growing big 

 acreages of oats we have only got 14 acre* this year. 



