MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



'67 



21 October, 1919.] 



MR. A. H. POTTS. 



[Continued. 



15.398. You have a market ready at hand in the 

 town for all you produce and your cart or waggon 

 goes into the town with the produce and hrings back 

 the manure:' Yes. 



15.399. That is a special kind of farming ? Yes. 



15.400. You do not trouble about the minimum 

 rate of wages, because as you say owing to the 

 higher standard of wages which prevails at the 

 collieries in your immediate neighbourhood you could 

 not get anyone to work on a farm at the minimum 

 wage? That is so. 



15.401. Therefore, the minimum wage is not 

 necessary to protect the workman of such a farm 

 as yours? That is so. 



15.402. That is quite clear?- -Yes. 



15.403. The next point is this : is a guarantee 

 necessary in your case to enable you to continue 

 farming under the Corn Production Act? At present 

 you are getting a maximum and minimum price 

 both fixed under the Defence of the Realm Act. 

 Are you aware of that? Yes. 



15.404. With a price of 75s. 6d. I understand you 

 could continue on your present system of farming 

 and make a reasonable profit? That is bo. 



15.405. The Defence of the Realm Act will shortly 

 come to an end. The fixing of prices under the 

 Defence of the Realm Act will come to an end and 

 you will either be driven to the Corn Production 

 Act or some amendment of it or you will have to 

 rely upon the play of the market that is the 

 competition from abroad and the world prices as 

 so fixed. Do you follow? Yes. 



15.406. What I wanted from a farmer carrying on 

 your class of farming was your view as to the future. 

 Would your position be secure could you carry on 

 your business first of all with a guaranteed price of 

 45s. for wheat as provided by the Corn Production 

 Act? I do not think that the guaranteed price would 

 be sufficient in my particular case. 



15.407. I suppose yours is not a special case. There 

 are other farms carrying on a similar class of busi- 

 ness are there not? Yes, in my particular district 

 round the town there are, but it is the most ex- 

 pensive kind of farming on account of the wages 

 we have to pay. 



15,406. I quite understand that. Therefore, at 

 what price would you have to have wheat as a 

 minimum price to enable you to pay your present 

 outgoings for wages and such other outgoing^ as 

 you do have and continue to carry on your industry 

 with a reasonable profit? I have thought myself 

 that it should not go below 60s. 



15,409. You think with 60s. you could still pay the 

 wages that are above the minimum rate in your dis- 

 trict, and pay all your other outgoings and leave you 

 a profit? I think so. 



1.1.410. Have you considered the matter carefully? 

 Not in an expert way from the point of view of 

 figures. I am just an ordinary farmer and not an 



Xpert in any way. I have told you how it is I have 

 come here, and I have given you the result of my 

 farming from the experience- of' my farm books. I 

 have not gone into it as an expert in any way. I am 

 simply an ordinary small farmer, and I have put that 

 forward specially that I come here as a typical small 

 farmer who knows a little bit about <>ooks. 



15,411. Am I to take it that you have reallv con- 

 sidered it or that you have not. If you have not 

 considered it I will not pursue the question? I havo 

 considered it,. 



15,412. How many sacks of wheat do you grow to the 

 acre on your farm? It entirely depends upon the 

 season. 



]-">.413. On the average? It fluctuates from six 

 ^I'-ks up to 13. We had a great year last year when 

 we had 13 sacks. 



114. You tell me as I understand that you want 

 some guaranteed price to continue your present sys- 

 tem of farming with wages and outgoings at their 

 present rate, and you think that 60s. a quarter 

 would bo enough? Yos, but it is really so very diffi- 

 cult because of the tremendous fluctuations there are, 

 especially with such strong clay land as I am farming. 



1 Yll.'i. How many horses do you have to employ? 

 W 'lo not plough very deeply on account of the clay 

 - some-times with three and sometimes with two. 



26370 



When we are ploughing to any decent depth we have 

 to employ three horses. 



15.416. That is all you can tell me, that you think 

 60s. a quarter would be enough to keep you going ? 

 \es, that is my view as a farmer who has kept books 

 and profit and loss accounts, but not costs, which is 

 quite a different thing. 



15.417. I am told that the minimum wage in your 

 district is 42s. 6d.? I think that will include per- 

 quisites, and as I have already told you in my evi- 

 dence, perquisites in my cage are in addition. 



15.418. How much are you paying now? Between 

 45s. and 50s. 



15.419. So that you are paying 2s. 6d. to 5s. a week 

 more than the minimum rate? -Yes. There are such 

 various values for perquisites that I have never got 

 at what to value the perquisites at, and that is such a 

 strict question that I am afraid I cannot answer it 

 accurately. 



15.420. Mr. Duncan : Just one point on your income 

 and expenditure table. You put your wages for the 

 period under review at 463 Os. 2d. ? Yes. 



15.421. Is that the cash wage, or does it include the 

 value of the perquisites? No, that is the cash wage. 



15.422. What perquisites do you give in addition? . 

 'I give half-a-ton of potatoes and a pint of milk a day. 



15.423. Is that shown in the statement? No, that is 

 not shown because it comes into profits and it goes 

 out again on the other side of the account, and of 

 course I do not show it. 



15.424. Do you produce the milk on the farm? Yes. 



15.425. Does that item appear in your sales? No, 



not the perquisites just the milk sold outside. 



15.426. I suppose you supply your own household? 



That is so. 



15.427. That does not appear in the statement 

 either? Yes, in paragraph 5 you will see there is 

 40 put down for produce consumed by household. 



3. Of course, there are houses which are in- 

 cluded in the total rent of the farm? Yes. 



15.429. How many houses have you? Three. 



15.430. If those were allowed for it would necessi- 

 tate a slight adjustment of the account? Yes, they 

 would make a difference. 



15.431. Mr. Edn-ards: What is the area of your 

 farm? Two hundred acres. 



15.432. You say you buy all your manures and still 

 you have only 74 6s. 7d. down for manures ? Yes, 

 the value of that manure is chiefly in the carting 

 and the labour. I have a good distance to go for it. 

 That is the cash vnlue of the manure paid to the 

 person who lets me have it, but really the value of 

 the manure would be more than that if it were taken 

 out in another way. 



15.433. How many loads does that represent? Th^ 

 loads are not shown here. 



15.434. My point is this: You do not keep sitock 

 and you said you made up the fertility of the farm 

 by buying manure? Yes. 



1"). 135. Still, although you get annual receipts from 

 the farm of 3,645 17s. 6d., I find you only pay 

 74 6s. 7d. for manure? I can explain that. The 

 war made a great difficulty in getting manure, and I 

 only got a small quantity of farmyard manure, as it 

 is called, but really town manure. I, therefore, had 

 to make it up by getting scavenging manure from 

 South Shields. We got that for nothing so far as 

 cash payment is concerned, but it costs a lot in 

 labour. Still, I was very short of manure, and the 

 farm will suffer for that in the future. I got into 

 that difficulty owing to the war. 



15.436. That being so, and you having produced no 

 manure on your own farm, your farm must have lost 

 considerably in fertility? Yes, in the last two years. 



15.437. Mr. Green : I simply want to ask you, as a 

 typical North Country farmer, whether you hiive any 

 fear of the future with regard to falling prices? 

 I have not any very definite opinions upon that, 

 because the situation is so complicated and one hears 

 so many different views with regard to it. 



15.438. You are not worried about the guaranteed 

 prices? I am in this position, that I really do not 

 know. 



15.439. At any rate, you are not keen about 

 gauranteed prices? You mean at 45s.? 



E 2 



