MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



177 



20 August, 1919.] 



MR. R. STRATTON. 



[Continued. 



farmer could depend upon to make of his wheat, which 

 is, after all, the main proposition,, although in your 

 part of the world barley is worth more than wheat? 

 I do not see why you should put it like that. I con- 

 sider it is in the interests of the country to give us a 

 good price for wheat. 



4590. We look to people in your position to come 

 here and help us to solve the problem that we have to 

 solve, which is, first of all, whether a guarantee is 

 necessary to meet the increased cost of labour, and, if 

 so, what is a reasonable sum to put it at? It is to 

 men of experience like yourself that we look for guid- 

 ance in this matter? I think that 80s. would be as low 

 as one could expect. 



4591. Mr. Overman: As regards your costs for this 

 year, are they figures that represent the customary 

 figures of the country, or have you worked them out on 

 actual prices paid? Take your item of 1 4s. an acre 

 for ploughing? Yes, 1 have worked them out. It is 

 rather below the price of steam ploughing, and below 

 the price of tractor ploughing. 



4592. How much do you charge for horse labour? 

 5s. a day. 



4593. How many acres do you plough with a single 

 plough a day? Two-thirds of an acre. 



!. On that light land? Yes, on short days in the 

 winter they would not do more than that. 



J59.). Yes, but on an average? Three-quarters of 

 an acre. 



4596. How many acres dragging? 7J acres. 



4.597. I see there is no muck put on to any crop? 

 Yes, in statement No. 5 on to the grass. 



4598. All your muck goes on to your seeds? Yes. 



4599. Have you kept pretty accurate accounts in 

 the past few years? Not the last few years. 



4600. As regards these 400 lambs from 400 ewes, is 

 that a deduction you draw from book-keeping, or is 

 it actually the number of lambs you have bred on 

 the average? That is my experience. 



4601. From figures? No, from memory. The re- 

 gular flocks in our neighbourhood do not average one 

 lamb per owe. 



4602. What flock do you keep? Hampshire Downs. 



4603. At weaning time do you sell the lamb? No. 



4604. When arc the lambs born? At the end of 

 Kcliru \ry or early in March. 



4605. When do you sell them ? We sell a* 7 months. 



4606. That is about the average time? Yes. 



4607. Arc many of them sold as store lambs, or are 

 some sold to the fat market? As a rule, stores. 



460H. 3fr. Anhby: The foundation of your system of 

 farming is the sheep consuming the roots? Yes. 



4609. You have estimated the costs and the receipts 

 from your sheep farm? Yes. 



4610. Which, on your own figures, gives you a very 

 small profit of about 21 ? That is a loss of 21, 

 not a profit. 



4611. That loss has to be transferred to the various 

 crop accounts? Yes, and you see beyond that loss 

 th?y pay nothing for hay, or the straw, or the roots; 

 you quite realise that. 



4612. Yes, I quite realise that. Will you look at 

 one or two of your items of expenditure: " Hurdles, 

 20 dozen, 26." What docs that 'exactly mean? We 

 buy 20 dozen each year. 



4613. Will you look at another item lower down : 

 " Deaths, 5 per cent, of eiwes"'; that is 20 ewes out 

 of a flock of 400. You put that at 4 each, 80? 

 Yes. 



4614. What have you done with the skins? We 

 inicht have kept those ewes for six months before 

 they died, and we would put the skins against the 



of keep. 



U;l">. Then you have an item: "Rent, 250 acres 

 Down at 7s. 6d. an acre." Is this land your own? 

 No. I rent it. 



6. Do you pay 7s. 6d. an acre for it? Yes. 



461". Have you ever made estimates of this kind 

 be-fore? No. 



4618. Are you sure? 1 sent figures much like these 

 to the Costings Committee or it might have been 

 an enquiry with regard to the Wages Board some two 

 or three months ago. 



4R19. What was the rent you paid then? I could 

 not tell you. 



25125 



4620. Has your rent been increased this year? Yes, 

 it has. 



4621. You stated a few moments ago that your total 

 capital per acre was about 17? Yes. 



4622. Does that include these sheep? That is a 

 point I should think it would. 



4623. Would you just think about the interest on 

 the crops and on the sheep? Are you not duplicating 

 it? You have put 1 an acre against each crop, and 

 you have put 120 interest against your sheep? 1 

 think I have in that instance, but it ought really to 

 show against sheep. If you are making a separate 

 sheep account it ought to show it there. 



4624. If your 17 an acre includes these sheep you 

 are charging rather more than 5 per cent, interest 

 on 17 against each crop, and you are also charging 

 it against the sheep. You will have to knock out 

 that item of interest on the sheep, or halve it on the 

 crops? Yes, that would be so, I think. 



4625. Would you look at the last item on that page : 

 " 400 ewes at Is. 2d. per lb., plus skin, 40 Ibs. each 

 at 7 months old, 54s. each"? Yes. 



4626. Should not you consider that in normal times 

 those lambs will weigh about \ cwt. each? Did you 

 not, as a matter of fact, consider that? No, I do 

 not think so. One of my neighbours picked out a 

 few of his best lambs and sent them to our local 

 grading centre last Saturday week. He thought they 

 were 46 Ibs. each, but they were graded at 42 Ibs., 

 and 'they actually weighed 40 Ibs. They were his best 

 lambs. 



4627. Have you ever weighed any lambs? Oh, yes. 



4628. Recently? I have not weighed any this year; 

 I sold a few last year. 



4629. Have you weighed any lambs within the last 

 two years? Yes. 



4630. Did they, as a matter of fact, average 40 Ibs. 

 each?- -That is about what I thought they would put 

 them at. When they were grading them they did not 

 put them at 40 Ibs., and they did not come to 50s., 

 so I stopped the grading of them and sold them as 

 stores. 



4631. The whole of these figures on the sheep account 

 are estimates? They are the result of my experience. 



4632. But they are estimates? 



The Chairman : 1 think the witness has already said 

 that the whole of these accounts are estimates ; they 

 are not the product of his book-keeping. He has 

 already said that he has not kept accounts in the last 

 few years. 



4633. Mr. Ash by : Let us turn to your rotation for 

 a moment. You are, as a matter of fact, in this 

 general paper estimating the cost of the whole rotation 

 in this current year? Yes. 



4634. You have 8 crops, 5 of which are consumed 

 by the sheep, and on wh'ch you lost money? Yes. 



4635. Three of them you sold? There are four 

 cereal crops, are there not? 



4636. Yes, I beg your pardon, four cereal crops ; so 

 that if you t;;ke, say, 8 acres as representing one crop 

 in the rotation right through this year you have 4 

 acres which are yielding you cereal crops which you 

 are going to sll? Yes. 



4637. The average- cost of the whole 8 acres when 

 you have deducted everything is 10 12s. 5d. an acre? 

 Yes. 



4638. You deduct the roots fed to cattle, and the 

 value of straw, and you get to about 10 an acre? 

 Yes. 



4639. Then you say you have I5J quarters of corn 

 which, roughly speaking, is about 4 quarters an acre 

 on your 4 acres? Yes. 



4640. Have the prices you have received from these 

 4 quarters up to date met the total cost, including 

 the loss on sheep? Ye%. Two years ago we had a bad 

 crop of corn, but last year we had an ove" ^verp.^e 

 crop. 



4641. But they have, ns a matter of fact, more than 

 covered the cost, including this rather undue amount 

 of interest? I should say so. 



4642. Might I put this que^jtion to you : You admit 

 that each one of these groups of figures are estimates? 

 -Yes, 





