28 FARMING ON FACTORY LINES 



management expenses, chiefly consisting of the 

 writer's fees and expenses, have been about £130 per 

 annum. In the case of an ordinary farmer managing 

 his own farm, this would be regarded as additional 

 profit. 



PURCHASE OF FEEDING STUFFS 



Later in the book, special attention is drawn to 

 the fact that, by the adoption of the Continuous 

 Cropping system, the necessity for the purchase of 

 cakes and meals of an albuminous character, and 

 generally of a foreign origin, can be dispensed with. 

 On this point, when the first year's balance-sheet 

 was published by Sir Horace Plunkett, a tremendous 

 amount of adverse criticism arose. It appeared to 

 the critics that the writer was condemning the pur- 

 chase of such feeding stuffs, and yet, on this and 

 other farms, he himself was purchasing a large 

 amount of such feeding stuffs. These particular 

 critics, as the practical man will easily understand, 

 were not themselves practical farmers. 



The farm was handed over to the writer's manage- 

 ment in November, 1913. At the time, there was a 

 considerable amount of hay belonging to the estate, 

 which had been allowed to accumulate. This hay, 

 shortly after the experiment had been commenced, 

 was put up for auction, and brought what the owner 

 and the writer considered a very unsatisfactory bid. 

 For this reason it was bought in for use on the farm. 

 Properly speaking, it should have gone into the 

 valuation. In addition, a considerable amount of 

 various kinds of cakes were purchased in the 

 first year, as, of necessity, one could not delay the 

 purchase of all the live stock until such times as the 



