FARMING BY MACHINERY
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sui,—In reply to Mr. Beesly's letter regarding my article, " Farming by Machinery." In spite, or because of, the fact that 1 have mechanized the whole of my farming operations, I am employing more labour on that portion of the Wexcombe Estate which I own than my predecessor did. He was farming badly, producing little at a heavy loss because his labour was badly organized, whereas my output with milk and eggs is high—probably ten times as high per acre as that of the previous owner's.
The farm labourer is still worthy of his hire if his employer has the energy and ability to organize and plan his work. It is amazing what work can be got through daily on the farm/ if carefully planned. In my own case, I have seven units of sixty milking cows, and each of these sixty cows is milked and fed by a man and a boy. All work done to these 420 cows is carried out by seven men and seven boys. In the case of the poultry my unit is 4,000 laying hens, for which all the work is done by a man and a boy. This is made possible by employing a properly organized " folding " system. Providing this country decides in the near future to buy British eggs and not the produce of Holland, Belgium, China, or Czechoslovakia, I hope to have 20,000 laying hens'on this system, and conse- quently give employment to four more men and four more boys. Whilst on the subject of employment, I should like to say that I have not yet tackled the problem of pigs, but I see no reason why, if the Government encourages the production of food in England, I should not run a thousand pigs at Wexcombe, and so continue to do my little bit towards relieving unemployment and helping in some minute measure to adjust the country's trade balance. Assuring these dreams to be fulfilled the employment at Wexcombe would be very greatly in excess of that of my predecessor's and that because of mechanization I
In reply to Mr. Beesly's query regarding the acreage supporting 420 cows. My portion of the Wexcombe Estate is about 1,100 acres, and before purchasing an adjoining farm, I was carrying nearly 500 cows on that acreage. Since that purchase I have, of course, greatly increased the number of
cows. Trusting, Sir, that I have not unduly trespassed upon 'Your valuable space, and•that I have satisfactorily answered
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