The Landowner 



the possible risks entailed. 



In many cases an owner's present straightened 

 circumstances are not due to his own but rather 

 to past mismanagement, and to the fact that his 

 father or grandfather overbuilt the property. A 

 landowner who is too fond of bricks and mortar 

 can work more harm to his estate than one who 

 is too fond of horses, and there are doubtless 

 many afflicted landowners who will heartily en- 

 dorse that opinion ! It is sad to think of the 

 number of beautiful old manor houses destroyed 

 in the early part of the nineteenth century to 

 make room for the sham gothic mansions, so dear 

 to the hearts of our grandfathers. But apart from 

 the size of the family mansion, there is evidence, 

 on most large estates, of extravagant expenditure 

 on the farm buildings put up sixty years ago by 

 agents or proprietors who were affected by the 

 wave of megalomania that swept the country 

 when wheat was £\ per quarter. These large 

 farm buildings are often inconvenient and have 

 never repaid the money spent on them ; for it 

 is noticeable that farms less extravagantly 

 equipped bring in quite as much rent to-day 

 as do those with very large buildings. 



The policy which prevailed some years ago 

 of merging small farms in large ones is another 

 cause of heavy loss of revenue. 



Estates with but few farms in excess of 300 

 acres have suffered far less reduction in their 



15 



