

ROYAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 



15 Oclbtr, l'Jl.] ME.KSKS. ALLISON, J.su., M. Nn .i., STEWART, DAVIDSON, 



14.496. It Menu to be a high coat U>r l.iUmr an com- 

 pared to English costs?- (Mi M \ ,i ir'i : Climate may 

 have aomothing to do with that. 



(.Mr. .lllitun): Our labour u fairly uniform. 



14.497. 1 should like to ask Mr. Stewart a question. 

 With regard to draining the land i- it tin- opinion of 

 Ui National Union of Farmers of Scotland that there 

 should b fcomo State loan for draining tho html ..- 

 wa accomplished in 1846, under Sir Robert Pool." 

 1 think there should be. A great many fanners and 

 proprietors are not in a position to expend this 

 money. 1 may say that tho general practice in Scot- 

 Und at the present time is for the proprietors to 

 supply the tiles and for the tenant to do the labour. 



14.498. Yes, but it is no good one landlord doing it 

 and another landlord not doing it so that it could 

 only be done rationally under the State scheme P 

 Yes, I agree to that. 



14.499. With regard to your statement, Mr. Mc- 

 Nicol about overtime being grudgingly worked, of 

 course one can see your point of view. On the other 

 hand you do not think there is something healthy 

 about the tendency from the point of view of citizen- 

 ship I mean to say men do not rare to work long 

 hours now-a-days, and probably if they had more 

 leisure they would make better citizens for the State 



they would have time to educate themselves and 

 think, and so forth? (31 r. 3lcXicol): It depends 

 exactly on the point of view. It depends a good deal 

 upon the men too. % 



14..">00. Here in England we find that many of the 

 workers complain that the farmers do not give them 

 the opportunity to earn overtime. That has been the 

 case especially this last sumn.er during har- 

 I rcinnot .say that is the case in our district. 

 The farmers have generally offered the men overtime. 

 I only eay that in certain instances tide men have 

 grudged to work overtime. 



14,501. Do the other farmers lien- this morning 

 agree with you as regards that point? (Mr. David- 

 ton): My men work overtime very willingly. It is 

 only in a very few cases that we require them to work 

 overtime, such as the busiest times during harvest 

 and turnip hoeing. 



(Mi. M We cannot <l.-al very well with 



hours in our case, because of the hunbing reason and 

 nil that when the men have to be up early and to work 

 late in order to get finished; they suit themselves to 

 the climate. 



14,002. They are always very willing to work, are 

 they? Yes, they are always very willing. 



1*4,503. Mr. Edward*: Have you taken into account 

 Mr. Allison, the smaller farms of Scotland in your 

 accounts and estimates? (Mr. Allison): We havo 

 i mi. avoured to secure returns from the smaller farms; 

 but we have not been successful. 



14,504. You do have a large number of smallhold- 

 ings in Scotland I presume? Yes, wo do. 



>~i. Your estimates, therefore, only refer to a 

 portion of the farmers of Scotland? Yes. 



14,506. Mr. MeNicol, you mention in the last para- 

 graph of your ;./<>M that the rents are not altered 

 except in oases where leases hav run out and have 

 been renewed and where the IIMM-, have (,,.,.11 i, . 

 the rent* have mostly been raised? (31 r. M<Mcol): 

 Yes. 



1 1. .V)7. I should like to have some further informa- 

 tion a to the tendency of that? The tendency where 

 the leases are fairly old is for tho rent to rise. If 

 tho leases are <-omparativcly modern the rent 'may 

 rise slightly, but not nearly so much as in the case 

 of the older leases. 



''. You also say that the farmers have been 

 1 to retain their holdings by buying them. 

 You ue the word " forced." What do" you mean 

 by that? I do not oxactly say they are "forced. 1 

 do not mean that there is any compulsion put upon 

 them to buy their farms, with this exception, that 

 they have a sentimental attachment to a place in 

 which they may havo resided probably in some cases 

 for generation*. Then when syndicates li.ivo come 

 along and bought estate*, if tho tenants wished to 

 keep their farms, they havo been forced to buy them 

 at a biggish price more than they were willing to give, 



in order to retaan their place. What I want to bring 

 out ia that the buying of their place under forced 

 circumstances like that is going to handicap them in 



.ukiiig of the holding. 



11. .'.'.'. 1 under. stand you to say that these farmers, 

 good S-otti.sh farmers, have actually paid more for 

 their farms than they .ire, in their judgment, worth? 

 Yes. 



14.510. It has been mentioned here once or twic* 

 that the fact that farmers are buying their farm* 

 ih proof positive that they are very successful, and 

 that they have great confidence in the future. What 



. -.'ay t" that? I do not say it applies in every 

 case. I think that a good many of the sales which 

 have taken place lately hare been more or leas under 

 the circumstances of which I havo spoken. 



15.511. The fact that the farmer is buying his 

 farm is really no proof that he has money to pay 

 for it, or that he has any confidence in the future? 

 No. In many cases they havo to bond or mortgage 

 the farm after they have bought it in order to pay 

 for it. 



14,511'. To what extent does that prevail, in your 

 opinion? I really do not know, of course, but I 

 know it is done. 



14.513. Mr. Stewart, in paragraph six of your 

 l>ri-cis, you say that farm buildings, fences, drains, 

 ditches, roads, etc., havo deteriorated and require, 

 attention. In order to make it quite clear in my 

 mind what is the practice in Scotland, I should like 

 to know how you divide that work up as between 

 tho tenant and the owner? (Mr. Stcicart) : It is 

 partly the tenant's duty and partly the proprietor's 

 duty. In eome cases whore leases have been entered 

 into at the beginning of the war the landlord was 

 not able to execute his part of the contract owing 

 to the want of labour and the work is standing hack. 



14.514. What part does the landlord have to do? 

 The fencing and tho drains. 



14.515. What about the ditches? Except in th. 

 <:m- of sonic big water-course, the ditches are 



i ally kept by the tenant. 



11.516. And the roads? The roads are generally 

 kept by tho tenant. 



14.517. You say here: "Whether this increased 

 under cultivation is to continue or not is an 



entirely economic problem." What do you mean hy 

 that? If the country wants farmers to grow grain, 

 we ran only grow it if it pays us; if it does not 

 pay us in the future we shall have to do the same 

 a.s was done in the time we came through in the 

 past the land will have to revert to grass. That 

 is tho only solution. 



14.518. Yon mention about the big rise in the rates 

 in your parish? Yes. 



14.519. I suppose that is going to be a very 

 important factor throughout Scotland in regard to 



in the future? Yes. That only refers to the 

 education rate. In our county, I believe, tho road 

 rate and other rates havo also increased enormously 

 I cannot give you the figures exactly at tho 

 moment. 



I I..VJO. I havo been given to understand that 



-h farmers arc very much ahead of either tln> 



English or the Welsh farmer, and to clarify my mind 



I should like your opinion on ono or two points that 



I have noted here. You just mention the question 



of a guarantee casually. I do not see whether 



you pui very great weight on a guarantee. Do you 



think that a men- guaranU-o of prices will prevent 



ih. land in Scotland going back to grass? (Mr. 



.!/ \iVol): I do think the guarantee will prevent 



nl going back to grass. (31 r. M< Lren) : 



I |K>int out that the men farming inferior land in 



the hill districts where I am cannot exist without 



guarantee I mean he cannot Keep ploughing. 



II. ''-'!. 1 think you havo already said that the 

 guarantee you refer to is a guarantee to cover the 

 mere cost of production. Do you mean to say that 

 tho guarantee is to cover the cost of production on 

 tho kind of land farmed by you the poorest land? 

 (Mr. McLaren): Not especially on that land. I 

 was just pointing out that that land will go back 

 to grass if there is no guarantee or if some assist : i mi- 

 is not given to the farmer on tho poorest class of 

 land. 



