§ MR. JOHN WARDTo ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether the Crown farm at Burwell, Cambridgeshire, has been let to a tenant since 1905; whether the tenant has farmed it or sub-let it to other tenants; if so, how many subtenants are there, and what is the size and rent of each small holding; and what is the financial result of this new arrangement to the tenants and the Crown.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) The Crown farm at Burwell was let to my hon. friend the Member for East Cambridgeshire as from Michaelmas, 1906, for the purpose of establishing small holdings and allotments. Full particulars of the letting and sub-letting are given in the First Report (1907) of the President of the Board on the Agricultural Crown Lands, a copy of which I will be pleased to send my hon. friend. As mentioned in that Report there was an actual loss of £690 17s. 3d., without allowing for rent or Crown Receivers' fees for superintendence, during the two years to Michaelmas 1906 while the farm was in hand, whereas by the letting a rental of £700 per annum was secured. The President has no official knowledge of the result of the arrangement to the sub-tenants, but my hon. friend the Member for East Cambridgeshire has been good enough to supply the following interesting particulars. The rent has been paid in full and to time. No smallholder has given up his holding. The amount of stock now on the holdings is two and-a-half times as much as it was in 1906. The small-holders have spent £750 on feeding stuffs and £600 on new implements during the past year, while the amount of outside labour paid for amounts to something over 24s. an acre.
§ MR. NICHOLLS (Northamptonshire, N.)To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, if he can say whether a tenant held the Crown farm at Burwell, Cambridgeshire, during 1904 and 1905; what amount of rent was paid by such tenant; if there was 85 no tenant in possession, what arrangements were made for conducting the farm; and what was the profit or loss during that period.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) For the two years from Michaelmas, 1904, to Michaelmas, 1906, the Crown farm was in hand for want of a tenant. The farm was stocked by the Commissioner of Woods, and was cultivated and managed by a resident bailiff, under the superintendence of the Crown Receivers. Upon the farm being relet as from Michaelmas, 1906, the stock and crops were realised, and the total loss for the two years, without charging rent or Crown Receivers' fees for superintendence amounted to £690 17s. 3d.