242 FARMING ON FACTORY LINES 



It may be mentioned that Ration 1 is similar to the 

 rations used by the Department. The prices at which 

 vetch hay and winter greens are charged in the experi- 

 ment, both then and at the present time (this is a 

 very important point), are greater than the cost of 

 production of these crops has been for several years. 

 They are such as to warrant the writer in saying that 

 any farmer, in spite of the higher cost of labour, 

 manure and seeds, can still produce these crops at 

 those prices. 



On the other hand, objection might be taken to 

 charging at the present time, roots at £1 per ton, as 

 against 10s. Such objection will not be made by any- 

 one growing roots. The crop requires such a large 

 amount of hard labour, that it is very doubtful whether 

 they can be produced at less than £1 per ton at the 

 present time, whereas in the case of giant rape and 

 similar greens, the cost of hand labour involved in 

 the growing of these crops is almost insignificant, 

 practically all the work being done by horses and 

 machinery. 



Leaving out the question of the cost of the produc- 

 tion of winter greens or roots, the great point to be 

 remembered is, that winter greens, as distinct from 

 roots, are tilled at a time of the year when the rain 

 helps instead of hinders the tillage operations. Prac- 

 tically all the work is horse and machine work, or, to 

 put the case in a nut-shell, in actual farming practice 

 it is more easily possible to grow 20 acres of winter 

 greens than it is to grow 3 or 4 acres of roots . v 



Another criticism which has been advanced is that 

 it is unfair to charge food to the cattle at actual cost 

 prices. In other words the food should be charged at 

 cost price, minus the manurial value, but this is an 

 argument which applies in both cases. The value of 

 the manure produced would be just as great, if not 



