AGRICULTURAL COMMISSIONS 



37 



tion ; many farms, after lying derelict for a few years, were let 

 as grass runs for stock at a nominal rent. The rent of an 

 estate near Chelmsford of 1,418 acres had fallen from 1,314 

 in 1879 to 415 '"n 1892, or from i8s. 6d. an acre to 5?. iod. 1 

 The net rental of another had fallen from 7,682, in 1881 to 

 2,22,4 in 1892, and the landlord's income from his estate of 

 13,009 acres in 1892-3 was is. an acre. The balance sheet of 

 the estate for the same year is an eloquent example of the 

 landowner's profits in these depressed times : ~ 



RECEIPTS. 



Tithe received 

 Cottage rents . 

 Garden 

 Estate 

 Tithes refunded by 

 tenants 



In the great agricultural county of Lincoln rents had fallen 

 from 30 to 75 per cent. 3 The average amount realized on 

 an acre of wheat had fallen from 10 6s. $d. in 1873-7 to 

 2 iSs. nd. in 1892 4 ; and the fall in the price of cattle between 

 1882 and 1893 was a little over 30 per cent. Many of the 

 large farmers in Lincolnshire before 1875 had lived in consider- 

 able comfort and even luxury, as became men who had invested 

 large sums, sometimes 20,000, in their business. They had 

 carriages, hunters, and servants, and gave their children an ex- 

 cellent start in life. But all this was changed ; a day's hunting 



1 Parliamentary Reports, Commissioners (1894), xvi (l), App. B. ii. 

 a Ibid. App. B. iii. 3 Ibid. (1895), xvi. 169. * Ibid. p. 164. 



X 2 



