MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



41 



15 October, 1919.] MESSRS. ALLISON, JNR., McNico^, STEWART, DAVIDSON, MCLAREN. 



[Continued. 



Mimed immense quantities of cake on the farm, and 

 during the war that has not been available. Then 

 again, during the war we used principally quick-act- 

 ing manures in order to get quick results, whereas 

 in pre-war times we applied manures which had a 

 lasting effect. With regard to labour, the ditching 

 and that sort of work was excluded, and a lot of the 

 hind has not been properly cleaned owing to the 

 shortage of labour. We were for a time during the 

 war extremely short of labour. 



14..583. Are you finding labour more plentiful now? 

 Yes. 



14,584. Have you been increasing your labour staff 

 since the war ? Slightly. 



14,58.3. You have been increasing your permanent 

 staff since the war ? I may say in my own case I 

 have changed conditions. I have increased it. 



14.586. Has there generally been an increase in 

 your district of the permanent staff since the war? 

 I would say there might be a slight increase. 



14.587. What you are contemplating is that you 

 have to put back into the land a good deal of the 

 mammal value which you used up during the war? 

 We used up an asset during the war which will have 

 to be put back. 



14.588. May I put it to you that what you have 

 been doing during the war has been to take money 

 out of the land which you put in formerly, and you 

 have been putting rather more into the "bank than 

 you did formerly? It might be so. 



14.589. It is a case of transferring the balance you 

 have made, during the war from the bank and putting 

 it back into the laud in the shape of fertilisers when 

 you can get them :-- Y.-v 



14.590. It ought, therefore, not to be reckoned as 

 at item of increased cost for the future, but simply 

 a matter of adjustment of your farming operations 

 in the light of what lias happened during the past 

 three or four years? Of course every vear must 



nd by itself. 



11.591. No, I think if you are going to farm on the 

 principle that every year stands by itself you will 

 not get many farmers left in Scotland. You have 

 to take your farming operations over a period of 

 vcai-s, and when you h.ive, set your good years against 

 your lean UMTS lo curry you along:' Yes, that is so. 



14.592. You have had your good years lately, and 

 one reason why those years have been so good is 



11 have exhausted the fertility of the land 

 you have been putting nothing back into it. It is 

 not, therefore, an item that ought to be charged 

 against your crops, but an item which you should 

 have provided for in the last three or four years? 

 Mr. Allison): There should have l,..,.ii a reserve fund 

 created. (Mr. St, _, -I \ : There was a reserve fund 

 of cumulative fertility created before the war, and 

 it has been exhausted during the war. 



14.593. Tim has been sometimes said to be an item 

 of cost that we ought to take into account in future 

 costs which will be greater because of that fact? 



Utaon) : From the point of view of accounting 

 I should say that is a wrong principle. f.Mr. 



cA icol) : There are certain costs which the war has 

 caused which are a charge on future production that 



the dirtiness of the land, the labour required to 

 clean the dirt out. 



14.594. Against that, again, you have prices rising 

 rapidly than wages prices keeping ahead of 



While you have, rate* of wages rising, your 

 not risr 11 in tin- same proportion 



because \oiir staff has be,.n decreased. You have. 

 therefore, a balance there which ought to have been 

 placed in reserve to meet your extra costs in future 



You are making a profit which ought to I' C 

 placed in reserve to meot that. T think I ah quite 

 i ! bt on tlie accounting s( |e- (.Mr. ,l//i.-//i) : Yes, 

 you are quite right on the accounting side. The only 

 thing to bo taken into consideration is that the quan- 

 tity put back into the land has to be put back at an 



ive cost. 



14,605. Yes. von are quite right there. You stated, 

 Mr McNicol. that the reduction of hours have meant 

 an increased etwt. Have the farmers of the > 

 1-othian. for example, increased their staffs ?(Mr. 

 MtViett) : Yes, where thoy can get them. 



14.596. Their permanent staffs? Yes, they have. 

 1 tluuk some, of them have done so where they could 

 gel them. 



14.597. Can they get them? Not in every case. 



14.598. What increase would there be taking the 

 whole county now? I really could not tell you. 



14.599. If I were to state to you from my know- 

 ledge of the county and my knowledge of the number 

 of workers in the county now, that the number of the 

 permanent staff in East Lothian is pretty much the 

 same as it was in the May term of 1918, would you 

 )>e prepared to accept that? There is not a great 

 deal of difference with the exception that we art- 

 employing more casual labour. 



14.600. You are finding it more difficult to get 

 casual labour? Than when? 



14.601. I think if you turn to your statement of 

 evidence it hardly squares that what you are say- 

 ing. You say in your statement of evidence: "The 

 supply of casual labour for seasonal work is still 

 deficient"? You said we were finding it more diffi- 

 cult to get it. We are not finding it more difficult 

 to get it now than we did then, but it is still deficient ; 

 it is not more deficient than it was. 



14.602. Have you increased you casual labour? 



Yes. 



14.603. To what extent? We are taking all the 

 casual labour we can get. 



14 604. Are you getting more than you did before? 

 Yes, we are getting more. 



14.605. Is it an appreciable quantity? Yes. 



14.606. Where does it come from? From Edin- 

 burgh and from tramps off the road. We are getting 

 Irishmen also now that we did not get before the 

 war. 



14.607. How many Irishmen have you got doi:ig 

 casual labour? I do npto know; I 'have not the 

 .statistics of casual labour, but I can assure you we 

 have them. 



14.608. You get casual labour from Edinburgh 

 that is one of your sources of supply. What quantity 

 can you get from Edinburgh? We cannot get much 

 of it, but the Irish part of it is the principal casual 



labour. 



14.609. Taking into account the fact that you haw 

 only had a slight increase in casual labour and very 

 I'.ttle increase in the ]xrinancnl staffs and a No tin'. 

 fact that there is a reluctance on the part of the 

 workers to work overtime, to what extent has cost 

 ben increased by the reduction of hours? They work 

 the overtime, hut they do it grudgingly. 



14,010. To what extent has tie reduction of 

 hours affected the c<>st? I have not gone into per- 

 centages? (Mr. Allixon): Would it interest you to 

 leive this table of casual labour showing the "actii.pl 

 wages paid in 1914, and 1918? It shows that the 

 increase is almost entirely in casual labour. 



14.611. To what county does that table refer? 

 Renfrewshire. 



14.612. I can quite agree that is the case with 

 regard to that farm. I know the farm you are re- 

 referring to. You made a statement, Mr. McNicol. 

 that the reduction of hours has increased cost. You 

 are simply stating an opinion there, are you?- -(Mi'. 

 McNicol) : Yes, a very geaieral one. 



II. ill:-!. You have no evidence to .submit in support 

 of it? No direct evidence. 



14.614. I think you made a statement in reply to 

 Mr. Thomas Henderson that the hours worked in your 

 District were 50 excluding stable work and that the 

 stable work might add 4 hours pe-r week, making 54? 

 --Yes, roughly it does. 



14.615. jl -would like to put it to any of the 

 farmers who are here present that if your horsemen 

 i le not putting in more than four hours a week doing 

 (".able work would you keep them after the next 

 to'-m? We have to keep them, because probably we 

 could not get anyone else. 



34.616. Can you feed, groom and bed a horse on an 

 average of four hours a week ? Not properly. 



14.617. Then they are not doing that part of the 

 work in your district properly? We are not satisfied 

 t ith that part of it. 



14.618. What is your experience, Mr. Stewart, in 

 ><ur county. How long do the men require for stable 

 work? (Mr. Stcimrt): I think it is longer than 



