380 ADVERSITY, 1874-1912 



grain, which was ruining their corn-growing neighbours. Almost 

 everywhere retrenchment, not development, was the enforced policy 

 of agriculturists. The expense of laying land down to grass was 

 shirked, and arable areas which were costly to work were allowed 

 to tumble down to rough pasture. Economy ruled in farm manage- 

 ment ; labour bills were reduced, and the number of men employed 

 on the land dwindled as the arable area contracted. 1 



During the years 1883-90, better seasons, remissions of rent, the 

 fall in tithes, relief from some portion of the burden of rates, had 

 arrested the process of impoverishment. To some extent the heavy 

 land, whether arable or pasture, which wet seasons had deteriorated, 

 recovered its tone and condition. But otherwise there was no 

 recovery. Landlords and tenants still stood on the verge of ruin. 

 Only a slight impulse was needed to thrust them over the border 

 line. Two cold summers (1891-2), the drought in 1893, the unpro- 

 pitious harvest of 1894, coupled with the great fall in prices of corn, 

 cattle, sheep, wool, butter, and milk produced a second crisis, 

 scarcely, if at all, less acute than that of 1879. In this later period 

 of severe depression, unseasonable weather played a less important 

 part than before. But in all other respects the position of agri- 

 culturists was more disadvantageous than at the earlier period. 

 Foreign competition had relaxed none of its pressure ; on the 

 contrary, it had increased in range and in intensity. Nothing now- 

 escaped its influence. But the great difference lay in the compara- 

 tive resources of agriculturists. In 1879 the high condition of the 

 land had supplied farmers with reserves of fertility on which to 

 draw ; now, they had been drawn upon to exhaustion. In 1879, 

 again, both landlords and tenants were still possessed of capital ; 

 now, neither had any money to spend in attempting to adapt their 

 land to new conditions. 



In September, 1893, a Royal Commission was appointed to enquire 

 into the depression of agriculture. The evidence made a startling 

 revelation of the extent to which owners and occupiers of land, and 

 the land itself, had been impoverished since the Report of the Duke 

 of Richmond's Commission. It showed that the value of produce 

 had diminished by nearly one half, while the cost of production had 

 rather increased than diminished ; that quantities of corn-land 

 had passed out of cultivation ; that its restoration, while the present 

 prices prevailed, was economically impossible ; that its adaptation 

 1 See Census Returns of Occupations, Appendix VII. 



