Cost of Growing an Acre of Wheat.
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Remarkable Evidence in Favour of the Farmer.
By "Agricola.'
IT HAS, OF LA PE, become a commonplace wing, that farmers are making money.. There. are two sides to this question, for farmers are undoubtedly now obliged to pay out money as they have never contemplated—let alone done—before. One feels much sympathy for the farmer, ignored in the past and now patronizingly "governed" by amateurs who understand neither the man nor his work.
The farmer has not got labour of the right kind. Other industries, in that so many of them depend upon repetition work from self-acting machinery, can absorb untrained and inexperienced men • and Women without great loss of production. In the engineering trades, as a matter of fact, the output of new hands, after but a few weeks of tuition, is not infrequently found to be in excess of the.pre-war standard (Trade Union) rate. Not so in agriculture. The land is a hard taskmaster. Each district, each farm, and even each field, has its own peculiarities to be mastered if the yield is to be up to normal. Again, physique is a real factor. The sturdy man or woman counts on the land more than in the workshop, whereas farmers, to put it mildly, are getting all sorts and ill-conditions. So far as soldiers go, about 16 of them are equivalent to five genuine farm labourers. .
Manures, Seeds and Stock.
Manure cannot be obtained in anything approaching the requisite quantities. When partial supplies are available, the problem of their cartage from canal or railway is almost as difficult as the final distribution and spreading. Seed, potatoes for example, is now seen to have been procurable only at a cost which bears no proper relation to ruling prices for the crop. Beasts have been purchased in patriotic response to departmental urgings, at fabulous outlay, only to bring about the reward () of new and impossible statutory fixed sale prices below the farmer's own outgoings.
The Serious Cereal Side.
It is, however, when one turns to cereals that per haps the worst case of all presents itself in support of the farmer's new prayer—save me from my new friends. What were agricultural motors to do for them,? How many acres a day was each of them to plough or cultivate Where is the fulfilment of Mr. P. D. L. Perry's nine acres a day?
The answers to the foregoing questions can be given very tersely. They may be statecithus : • The Food Production Department did not-provide the skilled staff without which breakdowns are inevitable, and its signal failure in this 'vital matter has sown doubt and misgiving" amongst farmers throughout the land td the grave detriment of the new mechanical aids, the use of which that department professed to father.
The average ploughing and cultivating per tractor per month is known—although not publicly admitted —to have been under 30 acres per month, this disappointing and meagre result being largely.attributable to the placing of the work of supervision in the wrong hands locally in scores of instances.
Mr. Perry's zeal, a quality which nobody wishes to )340 deprecate as a business asset, was misplaced in more senses than one. He set an impossible scale of performance, and he allotted duties to many men who were completely out of their element in attempting, them. Work on the land, and repairs to private motorists' cars call for opposite qualifications in those who aspire to administrative or executive appointments. , • The Remedy.
Let-farrners both set and do their own work. That is the remedy. Help them, advisedly, but do not take the. conduct of their own jobs—the very inducement to personal effort—from them. Let -us have fewer Government tiactors, fewer men in black coats, and more confidence in the Inborn wisdom of the man of the soil, Dispel at once the idea that ale Board. of Agriculture insists on doing the tilling its own way, on ground of its own choice, on its own dates, and at its own rates. • Give the farmer the right to buy tractors and, get them, coupled with reasonable scope for him to employ on terms of free contract the. services of men who are supplied by or through his old friends and connections amongst agricultural machinery agencies in which he has confidence. There has been too much officialdom; too little utilization of the men
who real!y. know. . Real Costs.
It is high time to throw overboard all pre-conceived notions about costs per acre. We must bring all outgoings into the reckoning. By no other means will it be possible to gain a true and impartial perspective on the one hand, or to cease the practice of selfdeception, that worst form of hypocrisy, on the other. The first-thing to jettison is the "am all and do all" motor tractor. It does not exist, except on paper or in the makers' catalogues. "One tractor oneijob " is the other extreme, and is but little less damaging to the just claims of those who manufacture or Sell modern agricultural motors, seeing that several farming operations can undoubtedly, with the right implements to hand and but little if any adjustment of the power unit, be successfully achieved by one tractor, although not, of course, simultaneously.
Capital is needed, but most farmers have it. If they have not, County War Agriculttiral Committees have powers to assist all desirable applicants. Farmers do not seek to be "spoon fed.' They are brought up in a free atmosphere, they love independence, and they do not take fright at committing themselves to making their own purchases if their customary periods of credit are .allowed—as they should be.
Real costs can only safely be examined in relation to actual sale ,prices. Taking wheat as the serious crop for war purposes, is it not folly to expect to plough and cultivate for 15s. an acre? Yet one still hears that figure mentioned, whilst it should beat least 50 per cent. higher. Is it not equal folly to look for-a five-quarter crop from land which has been down to grass for 10, 15, 20 or more years? Yet all tive errors continue to run in, if not to dominate, the minds of some of our new agricultural "authorities."
Facts must be faced, on both sides of the account, and it is satisfactory to know that they are encouraging, subject to proper handling, not hopeless. The agrirnotor can beat the horse.
With the foregoing observations in mind, readers of TILE COMMERCIAL MoToR may be the better prepared to appreciate the significance of the official estimates circulated this month by the Board of Agriculture; and the more ready to agree that, by the time the
Oil from Britain.
Why have the oil beds of Britain not been exploited ere this I The reasons are not far to seek. Primarily it was the big Pennsylvanian boom of the 'sixties which led to the oil possibilities of Britain being overlooked. The facility with which the oil could be won attracted capital to the United States and to other countries where it may be secured with_ equal ease and low financial outlay, and 'where, tOo, the capitalist is not hampered by vexatious laws pertaining to mining rights and royalties. But with the passage of years and the exhaustion of shallow deposits, the cost of winning the oil from Mother Earth abroad has steadily risen until to-day it approaches what Would be incurred for a similar enterprise in this country The moment has come for us to devote.earnest attention to this question. By the Bill which has been introduced into the House, prospecting is to be carried out upon a scientific basis, while operations will suffer no harassing interferences and delays from vested interests. The Government has at its command as competent and skilled a corps of oil engineers. as could be found in any part of the world-einen of peculiar and wide experience, whose practical knowledgeohould prove invaluable in this new venture. We understand
. that the authorities arc equipped with all the necessary machinery to carry their scheme to success. and that a spirit of whole-hearted optimism. prevails. But while • the Government intends to pursue systematic investigations, it should not completely curb private initiative, inasmuch as many of the most productive fields of the world have been brought into existence through the dogged efforts of the ,soldier of fortune as represented by the indomitable prospector.
The Government's action deserves appreciation, inasmuch as the " wild-catter " will be debarred from: taking advantage of any speculative fever which is certain to 'become, malignant once oil is struck. It will be a national industry, and -if conducted on the lines implied in the Bill,' should meet!,with(suceees. The outlook is rosy, and we may. yet he able to attribute a further domestic industry of .far-reaching possibilities to the war.
The Petroleuth Production Bill ,provides for a royalties fund to be set up into which 9d. for every ton of oil raised is to be paid. After meeting certain expenses, the money thus •provided will be-distributed amongst the owners of the oil-bearing land, whilst the unlicensed getting of petroleum will mean fines. farmer has borne the costs, not only of mechanical cultivation, inclusive of labour, depreciation and maintenance, the State prices for wheat are none too " fat." The table is given in detail, as it has been issued by the Board of Agriculture.
It is worthy of note that the foarth column in the table, the items in which add up to £10 8s. (iii. per acre, is the estimate of a specially-appointed-technial committee at the Board of Agriculture. The same cornraittee's estimate for the 1.91a season was Eft 7s. ad. per acre.
Tractor Trials: Were they All Bogus?
We hold no brief for any make of tractor,but we are concerned with any endeavour to provide tretetars for the autumn ploughing, and we think that Government Departments are not doing a tithe of what they should do to this end. There is we believe, to be anariquiry into the circumstances of the trial of three tractors at one of Mr. Edge's farms on 28th July, and we believe that such an inquiry will show it to have been well-intentioned and innOcent in all its aspects. That inquiry to be useful, however, should deal with all the tests and trials in which the WhitingBull tractor has figured, and we submit the following questions in view of the answer of Sir Richard Winfrey in the House o" f Commons to a question implying that the trial was a bogus one :— (1) When the Whiting-Bull was ploughing for the Army at Hounslow in. February last, did Mr: P. L. D. Perry send art inspector (described by him as a qualified engineer) to see it working? (2) Did Mn Perry, when writing to Mr. Prothero in April last, say, in regard to the inspection above referred to, that the "report was quite favourable" ?
(3) At the trial in Kent on 12th July (when the inspectors arrived late and the machines were brought out and set to work specially) did not the inspectors express their satisfaction with what they saw -of the working, but did they take the fuel consumption, measure the acreage ploughed, or measure the drawbar pull?
• (4) If these measurements were not taken, on what grounds did the Food Production Department assert that the Whiting-Bull was inferior to other tractors ? (5) Was a trial arranged by the Food Production Departmentat Woldirrabam; Kent, on or about 8th August, and was a Whiting-Bull bought the day before and driven aver to the scene of the trial and at once-put to a scanty test with no previous adjustment or preparation7 (§) Again, were any measurements taken of fuel consumption, acreage ploughed in a given time, or drawbar pall?
Mr, S. F Edge havvvritten to Messrs. H. Ford and Son pointing out that his first letter to them (vide our last issue) was written in his private capacity, and stating that the much debated "trial" was merelyone of a number of opportunities that he has prouided for testing agricultural mote_rs on his _farms. r.43