A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



extra prices which the best of these animals realize (best in quality, irre- 

 spective of size) marks a great advance in the practice of cattle-breeding in 

 Suffolk. 



The depreciation of the value of land in Suffolk at the commencement 

 of the twentieth century as compared with the worth of estates in the 

 seventies is a subject rather for the statesman than for the historian of practical 

 agriculture. Taking the county as a whole, the loss sustained by the principal 

 landowners since 1873 is very heavy, 1 although the really good sporting 

 estates are not so much depreciated. 



Terms of hire have been greatly affected by the facts just mentioned. 

 In the first half of the nineteenth century to get hold of a fine corn-growing 

 farm in Suffolk under a popular landlord was considered a good start in life 

 for a farmer's son. Occupations keenly sought after some years ago are now 

 gladly disposed of to any tenant with capital sufficient to take a farm. 



Years ago the tenant would close with his landlord under a lease no 

 one would now sign. The agent at that time kept watch and ward 

 over the most trifling matter that affected his client's interest. There 

 were clauses in the leases then in use which protected the landlord on 

 every conceivable point ; but the tenant seldom made stringent terms for 

 his own protection. He was content to submit to any condition with regard 

 to game, hedge-row timber, sale of produce, which not even the most careful 

 agent of the present day would think of asking a tenant to adopt. And yet 

 he lived on the best of terms with both agent and landlord. 



Yearly agreements with fair terms between landlord and tenant have 

 almost entirely superseded the 7, 14, or 21 years' lease. The dark days in 

 farming have warned the tenant not to bind himself far ahead. ' Security 

 of tenure ' brings him no comfort when he thinks of the rapid downfall of the 

 past ; and possibilities of a future even worse. He has no idea of being 

 bound hand and foot to a position which threatens ruin, without any prospec- 

 tive remedy for low prices, high rates, and yearly increasing labour troubles. 



As regards cottages, there is an immense advance both as to numbers 

 and improvement in structure, new ones having been erected in place of 

 the old. Thatched roofs, low rooms, and clay walls have been superseded 

 by red brick, slates, or the best form of pantile. The decrease in population 

 has, however, resulted in many empty tenements, and the deserted dwellings 

 have, of course, been those least desirable to live in. The grandfathers of the 

 present generation passed their lives in cottages which long ago would have 

 been condemned by the sanitary authorities, even if the newer and more 

 comfortable one did not tempt the tenant to desert his old house. Unfor- 

 tunately recent legislation, instead of encouraging the landowner to erect new 

 cottages, has had a contrary effect ; the laws which some rural district 

 councils have put in force involve so much unnecessary expense that less 

 wealthy landlords decline building. 



Suffolk homesteads, as a rule, are miserably bad. They are insufficient, 

 costly to the owner to keep in repair, and far from adequate to the requirements 



1 Instances supplied by an auctioneer of old practice in Suffolk : — (i) Estate bought in 1874 for £4,000 

 sold in 1897 for under £900 ; (2) 292 acres, a choice property, bought in 1870 at £45 an acre, sold in 1897 

 for £16 an acre ; (3) Auction price 1873 £13,000, the same in 1893 £1,850 ; (4, 5, 6) £35, £40, and 1 

 £34 per acre some years ago lately realized respectively £5, £6 10/., and £5 per acre. 



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