214 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



prevailed before the depression of 1875, a great many yeomen 

 farmers were "overhead and ears in debt." Not only had prices 

 fallen but the number of years' purchase at which land could be 

 bought had been reduced. These estates were usually mortgaged, 

 and often so heavily that the farmer who nominally owned his 

 land had more to pay as interest than the tenant farmers paid as 

 rent. It is said that this class of farmers had been gradually 

 decreasing in numbers for many years. 



" There have been three causes for the gradual diminution in 

 numbers of the statesmen," says Mr. Fox. "In the first place, 

 many of them, tempted by the high prices offered for their land 

 by large landowners, have sold. . . . Secondly, a number of them, 

 since the lower prices, have let their land to tenants. But, thirdly, 

 the qualities which are necessary to ensure success on a small 

 holding, and which should be conspicuous both in the owner and 

 his wife, namely, energy and thrift, are not necessarily hereditary 

 qualities . . . and there are cases where land has had to be sold 

 because the mode of life which was pursued by the father and 

 accompanied by success was not acceptable to the son." 



In Westmoreland the landowning farmers had gradually disap- 

 peared until, in 1895, they were nearly extinct. " However we 

 may regret the change," to quote Coleman, after Wilson Fox, " it 

 appears to have been inevitable. Land is an expensive luxury 

 and not a profitable investment. As civilization progressed and 

 the cost of living increased, returns were not proportionately ad- 

 vanced. The land became gradually burdened with charges, and, 

 often suffering in condition, was eventually parted with, going 

 as a rule to swell the larger estates. Nor, as regards the public 

 advantage, need such a result be lamented, for it is quite certain 

 that a flourishing tenantry under a liberal and wealthy owner are 

 far more productive than owners whose means are too straightened 

 to allow of the proper application of capital. Probably the most 

 complete illustration of this change is seen in the Earl of Bective's 

 fine property at Underly, which comprises about 25,000 acres, 

 ... A large part of this property was formerly owned by small 

 proprietors, mostly statesmen. These men held on as long as 

 possible, and were eaten up by debts and charges, and the soil 



