AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



of the century were still confronting them. In consequence 

 of the legacies and annuities which eldest sons had to pay on 

 the basis of the high prices which prevailed before the depression 

 of 1875, a great many yeomen farmers were " over head 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. This gradual decline is illustrated 

 in a most interesting manner by the figures available for the 

 parish of Abbey Quarter, as shown in Table XXII. 



TABLE XXII 



" 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 insure 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." 



