58 



ROYAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 



21 Odobtr, 1919.] 



MIL E. M. NUNSKI.KV. 





l.'i.lOO. And that you do get, and have got a 1- 

 working day than you liaxi- -taled here: NO. \\hen 

 tlu> men had a 10}-hour day mi that t|> land, 1 did 

 not us i\ rule get <i Imurs work from the horses and 

 the nn'ii h:> were \\itli the hurst's. Other inon J 

 should get nli, nit 8 hours u.,ik from; Inn now ihcy 

 have lens, th>< whole of the time that is lessened is 

 taken i.ti their working time. 



15.101. I .suggest you have done wonderfully well 

 amidst all these difficulties:'--! have tried to do my 

 beet. I do not say it is sn \\itli all my land. 

 you 1 am only referring now to the land farther off. 



15,101*. CouM yon give us any idea as to what 

 the view <>t the farmer i^ regarding I lie future of 

 agriculture? No, 1 do not feel inclined to pledge 

 myself as to the \i<\\> <>i farmers generally. I will 

 give my own view. 



15.103. Von would not like to say as to whether 

 they have any confidence in the future to encourage 

 them to go on with farming? No, I will only speak 

 for myself. 



15.104. Then is it your view that you look forward 

 with any confidence as far as the future of agricul- 

 ture is concerned:' No. I do not. If I were a young 

 man I should either throw it up altogether or go to 

 another country. I certainly should not go on 

 farming. 



15.105. And yet you tell us you were prepared to 

 purchase your farm:' I have been obliged to pur- 

 chase it. If you want the full particulars, I took 

 that farm in 1916, in worse condition than any farm I 

 have ever known. The last two tenants had failed 

 at it. There was nothing done. There had not been 

 a chain of In-due cut for 10 years, or an acre of corn 

 li ed for 10 years. I took it on a verbal understanding 

 that we should not be disturbed for 3 years certain, 

 and after that, if we went on farming properly and 

 paid the rent, we should m.t be disturbed. Two years 

 afterwards the agent wrote to me and said : " I am 

 very sorry, but 1 have orders to -ell that farm this 

 year. If you like to buy it 1 will give yon the first 

 offer; if not, I must give you notice to leave." I 

 consulted my son, who had been turned out of the 

 other farm two years before, anil he said: " Do as 

 you like, father ; but if we are turned out of this I 

 shall leave the country." I felt myself bound, against 

 my own better judgment, and I say so to-day, and 

 really against my own wishes, to do what I could to 

 help him. and I bought the farm. I am very sorry I 

 was compelled to do so. 



15.106. I understood you to say that the farm which 

 you held for a great number of years had been sold? 

 Yes; that was sold over my head, and we were turned 

 out. 



15,107 Y<m could have purchased that? It would 

 have had to be at a very high price. I was not pre- 

 pared to give the. price that was given. 



15,108. Do you suggest that a very high price was 

 given for it!' Would you tell us the amount per 

 aero it fetdttdP About 27, or C27 lo s . per acre 

 something of that sort. I w.i.s prepared to give about 

 4,200 for the house and 200 acres, and that lot 

 made 5,R50. 



1."., 10!). Hut you ! do \on not. that then' 



have been a considerable, number of farms purchased 

 by farmer "i .1 great many. 



I 10. Ami at very good prices? Yes. 



15.111. At a much higber price per acre than the 

 you are quoting of L'27 r Yes, some; but the 



average in Northampton would not be much more 

 than that. Of course I have no data to go on. hut I 

 should think the average would not be over 30. 



15.112. The purchasing of farms in that way would 

 rather suggest, would it not, that the farmers had 

 c infidem-.. rather than lack of confidence' 1 do not 

 think that. I think it is simply this, that they know 

 if thev leave that farm they cannot get another. We 

 all know they have made money the last (he \. 



I have always admitted that and they have bought 

 their farms rntber than leave them. Hut I tell \ou. 

 I think it m a bad speculation. T was very sorry I was 

 obliged to dn it. I have no confidence, but cannot 



.k for other'. 



1". 1 !.'! 'if i 1,'ntiJiin*: I am not quite sure about one 

 thing I understand from these accounts that the 



figure shown as profit does not include any charge 

 lor in threat? No. 



15,114. Nothing at all by way of remuneration for 

 your own labour or your son's labour.' 



Ki.li.~i. Nothing for skill in management:' Nothing 

 at all. 



lo,ll<J. You have given credit in tbe-e accounts for 

 the rental value ot your hmi . "i . - . it is all in- 

 cluded in the rent and is in the rent. 



10.117. Have you given credit in the' farm accounts 

 for the rental value ot the house you live in!- 1 

 understood you had? It is all included in the rent. 

 The rent c.t the house is in the farm. 



15.118. But you do give credit in the farming 

 account for the produce of the farm you consume 

 in your own household!' Yes; but I am afraid that 

 was not given, I say at once, in ll'l.'t. When I kept 

 my accounts 1 always did so; but my son did not do 

 it for some few years after he began, hut last \ear 



it is included. It would make a diliere of. 'per 



liaps, 100. 



15,11!'. Mr. I'ni'ki r: 1 see you divide your farming 

 experience into three periods, 1878 to 189-1. l>-!i5 to 

 I!H3. and I'M I to li'l*. In the first period you only 

 made 3 per cent on your capital and an average of 

 1-151 a year?- Yes. 



15.120. I suggest to you that unless you had had 

 some kid of outside means, that first period must 

 have led to ruin- Yes. if I had only had the amount 

 of capital when I started. 



15.121. You withstood the times, but a great many 

 others came to grief, I snppo-e!' Yes. There was 

 hardly a farm in my own parish or in an adjoining 

 parish that did not change hands in that time; and I 

 should think in five cases out of six the farmer had 

 failed. 



I"). 122. What the farmer fears is, that owing to a 

 fall in the world prices for products of the farm, 

 and also the inci eased expense of labour and shorter 

 hours, a similar experience may come again!' I think 

 it will be worse. I think it will come more quickly 

 and more severely. 



15.123. And farmers maintain that they ought to 

 be protected against a similar experience if land is 

 to remain under the plough? Yes. 



15,121. In the second period you made 10 per cent. 

 on your capital!' Koughly. 



1 "i,l 25. Do you consider that a fair profit to cover 

 the interest on your capital and remuneration for 

 your own work? No, I do not. If you reckon my 

 own time and my son's nd during that time I was 

 engaged constantly in it. a lot more than I have been 

 lately I do not think it leaves sufficient. It is only 

 an average of 796. I think, really, we ought to have 

 received quite half that, and more for our own work, 

 and so on ; I have allowed nothing for market ex- 

 penses and out -of pocket expenses of that sort. 



15.1 24). Do you consider 20 per cent, a fair and 

 reasonable profit, or very much on the right side 1 

 should not call it n really very extravagant profit; 

 but I should be- perfectly satisfied and rather more 

 than satisfied with it. 



15.127. Do you think a farmer making 15 per cent. 

 on his capital would have- every inducement to do 

 the land \\ell and put further capital into the farm'r 



Yes, if be bad security for that further capital. 



15.12*. If be bad security of tenure- 1 Yes. 



15.129. Mr. Liniinril : Was 1 right in understanding 

 that, the land which you are lavim; down to grass was 

 ploughed no since the outbreak of war' Yes. most of 



il I also intend laving down 50 or (50 or perhaps 

 100 acres more all that lies furthest awav from home. 



15.130. The land which yon have actually laid down 

 already, was land ploughed up since (be outbreak of 



Yc. 



15.131. And before that it bad been grass land since 

 about 1"O- Some of it. Some of it was laid down 

 in I*!*:, or 1 *!(!. Some of it T took in 18P1. and there 

 wore 70 or s0 acre* of that 1 laid down soon afi 



15132. 1 understand it would only pay you to keep 

 this land under the- plough if the price of wheat woi-e 

 as high ax 100 shillings a c|iinrter!' I do not 1JV,. to 

 fix any price, but T cannot soo that I could if the 

 hours of labour are reduced. 



