212 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



than 5 per cent of the farmers of England owned the land which 

 they cultivated. 1 



THE RECENT DEPRESSION AND THE PRESENT SITUATION 



By 1836 the depression which followed the war had practi- 

 cally ceased and the period from this date until 1 875 was, on the 

 whole, an era of great prosperity for English agriculture. The 



learn, was in many cases a shade worse than occupiers of small holdings " 

 (Parliamentary Papers, 1881, C.-2778.-II, p. 176). 



In his report on Lincolnshire, Mr. Druce says, " There are large numbers 

 ... of small freeholders in the Isle of Axholme. . . . Here the small freeholders 

 appear to have existed for many years." (Parliamentary Papers, 1881, C.-2778- 

 II, p. 384.) In the eastern-central, and southern, and eastern parts of the 

 county small freeholders are also numerous. They are to be found south of 

 Boston in South Holland, notably in Kirton and some other villages in that 

 locality ; again west of Boston to Eildmore Fen, and the West Fen, and north of 

 Boston, running quite up to the Humbre at a little distance from the sea coast, 

 but not on it, there are also large numbers of them (ibid., p. 385). 



In Durham many of the small estates had been absorbed by the large ones. 

 " The yeomen are passing away, generally to the great advantage of the com- 

 munity, as the land in the hands of large proprietors is as a rule better managed 

 and far more productive." " I am bound to say," continues Mr. Coleman, " that the 

 inferior and comparatively neglected condition of small freeholds interspersed 

 among some of the larger estates was very apparent, and seemed to indicate that 

 a still further absorption which, in the nature of things, must sooner or later 

 occur, will be beneficial rather than otherwise. Of course in making this state- 

 ment, I do not say there are not notable exceptions ; but what I have stated is 

 the general rule " (ibid., p. 216). 



Mr. Doyle, in commenting upon the improvements in agriculture as in part 

 due to the decline of landownership on the part of the farmers, says : "The class 

 of freeholders, such as the ' statesmen ' of the north, or the ' grey coats ' farther 

 south, are gradually disappearing through force of a law that is more effective 

 than legislation" (ibid., p, 260). 



Druce reports on the counties of Essex, Hertford, Huntingdon, Leicester, 

 Norfolk, Northampton, Rutland and Suffolk, and for these counties the common 

 statement runs, " Peasant proprietors are rare and not more prosperous than the 

 tenant farmers," or " The number of peasant proprietors is very small," or 

 " There are hardly any peasant proprietors in the county " (Parliamentary Papers, 

 1882, C.-3375, pp. 5, t,^, 34, 46. 65, 70, 87. 91. 29). '"The Fen district of Cam- 

 bridgeshire is noted as an exception to this rule" (ibid., p. 14). And of Hert- 

 fordshire he states, " It seems to me that there were proportionately a larger 

 number of yeomen owners, that is to say, of farms 100 to 500 acres, in this 

 county than in any other in my district" (ibid., p. 34). 



1 John Rae, "Why have the Yeomen Perished?" Contemporary Review, 

 October, 1S83. 



