Brigadier-General BROWNasked the Minister of Agriculture how many counties have demonstration farms; whether these farms showed a profit or loss in 1925; what were the profits or losses; and whether the Government or the ratepayer makes good any losses?
1559W
Mr. GUINNESSSeventeen counties in England and Wales have demonstration farms, all of which made a loss in 1925. Details are given in the attached table. These losses include loan and landlords' charges which do not appear in an ordinary trading account, and they would be considerably reduced if figures representing fair rents were substituted for these charges. Moreover, it is important to remember that for experimental and educational purposes, much work is done on these farms which would not be done on an ordinary commercial farm, and materially adds to the cost of conducting them. If the Ministry is satisfied, after considering reports on the farms and investigations of accounts by its technical officers, that these losses are reasonable, two-thirds of the losses are borne by State funds and the remaining one-third by the rates.
The following is the table of losses on County Educational Farms:
Country. Farm. Loss (including subsidiary accounts and experimental work). £ Cheshire Reaseheath 3,703 Cumberland Newton Rigg. 678 Durham Houghall 3,019 Hants Sparsholt 627 Herts Oaklands 3,221 Kent Grove End 1,689* Lines (Holland) Kirton 1,852 Northants Moulton 870 Northumberland Cockle park 694† Somerset Cannington Court. 2,094 Staffs Rodbaston 2,035 Sussex East Wales 1,718 Sussex West Kingsham 223‡ Yorks Garforth 1,658 Caernarvon Madryn 594 Carmarthen Pibwrlwyd 2,520 Denbigh Llysfasi 2,158 Glamorgan Tregroes 339 Monmouth Usk 261 * Loss is likely to be reduced by additional receipts on sale of hops. † Excludes grant (£350) to Armstrong College. ‡ Loss includes £201 experimental work not included in the Trading Account but excludes profit £2,012 on the Capital Account.