f 18 Cost of Manual Labour in Milk Production. [Aug., 



one roof. As a result of the economy of labour thus effected 

 the labour bill per cow on this farm was last year about eighteen 

 per cent, lower than that on Farm P. 



On Farm H, a small farm of 92 acres (59 arable and 33 grass), 

 in the North Riding, which was taken over by the present tenant 

 three years ago as practically a derelict farm, a good deal of thought 

 and ingenuity has been made use of in adapting to modern re- 

 quirements, at very little cost, old and dilapidated buildings. 

 A small six horse-power Powell paraffin, engine with magneto 

 ignition, root cleaner and pulper, cake crusher mill and chaff 

 cutter, together with the necessary gearings, were picked up 

 cheaply second hand and fixed by the tenant himself at a total 

 cost of under £130. On this farm, on which before 1918 the 

 arrangements for the feeding of stock were exceedingly primitive, 

 no single labour-saving device existing, in 1919 in attention to 

 13 cows the labour bill amounted only to £6 Is. Id. per head, 

 2s. 4d. per head per week, or 2Jd. per gallon of milk produced. 



Farm CA. — Perhaps one of the greatest improvements as far 

 as the economising of labour in attention to stock is concerned 

 has been made on Farm CA. When first we got in touch with 

 the farm some three years ago the implements and machinery 

 certainly needed bringing up to date. The engine used for 

 grinding was a beam engine dated 1808, with a fly wheel 

 12 feet in diameter. The boiler — fitted with no tubes — was 

 21 feet in length. The extravagance of the fuel consumption 

 can be gauged from the fact that it was always necessary to start 

 getting up steam the day before it was intended to use the 

 engine for grinding. The grinding was done between millstones ; 

 there was no chaff cutter or root pulper or slicer on the premises, 

 straw being fed long and roots fed whole ; cake, however, was 

 broken in a machine which had been devised and used for 

 crushing bones in the days before bone meal and steamed bone 

 flour were on the market. 



In May, 1921, the old engine and plant were scrapped and 

 sold for £56 10s., the fly wheel of the engine having to be 

 broken up with dynamite charges before it could be removed! 

 A gas engine, root cleaner and pulper, chaffing machine, mill 

 and cake crusher, with the necessary gearings, were purchased 

 for £192 5s. 0d., and fixed by means of the labour on the farm 

 at a total net cost of £307 6s. 2d. for engine, machinery, material 

 and labour after allowing for the C5G 10s. Od. received on the 

 sale of the old plant. 



