A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



state of affairs attributed to the smallness of their holdings and their conse- 

 quent pauperization after the end of the war, 333 but probably really due 

 to the pursuit of a system of farming unsuited to the district and to their 

 own means. 



During the ensuing fifty years a considerable movement towards the 

 conversion of arable into pasture took place, and in the Weald there was a 

 noticeable increase in the number of cattle reared. The rapidly increasing 

 population of the south-coast watering places, moreover, provided an ever- 

 extending market for all kinds of agricultural and garden produce. At the 

 same time there were still complaints of serious depression from nearly every 

 part of the county. One land agent wanted tenants for fourteen farms, and 

 on those which he had succeeded in letting he had allowed a reduction of 

 rents varying from twenty to twenty-five per cent. A gentleman had taken 

 a farm near Brighton at 300 a year which had formerly been let 

 and another farm, the rent of which had fallen since 1 872 from ^55 to 

 a year, was not considered a safe bargain by an experienced land valuer. 



Throughout the county there had been very general remissions of rents, 

 varying from ten to twenty per cent., and one agent writing in February, 

 1880, stated that, whereas he had only had nine tenants in arrears in 1876, 

 in 1878 there were thirty-six, and though the rents for 1879 were not yet 

 collected he feared a yet further increase. It was again supposed that the 

 Weald farmers were scarcely solvent, and this in spite of the fact that in 

 many cases they lived harder and worked harder than the ordinary labourer, 

 while their children were for the most part less well educated than his. 



In the Chichester district the hill farms where sheep were bred and barley 

 was grown had suffered but little until quite recently. They were, for the 

 most part, owned by substantial men, the small farmers having been bought 

 out about the middle of the century. Even here, however, there were 

 complaints of the general rise in the cost of production due to high rents and 

 high sanitary and school rates, and the expense of machinery, together with 

 the rise of wages and the deterioration in labour, consequent on the better- 

 educated lads leaving the neighbourhood. Both here and in the Pulborough 

 districts it was said that the cottage accommodation for the labourers was 

 good, rents varied from is. to 2s. bd. a week, there were few allotments, but 

 the general condition of the labourer, according to the Pulborough Market 

 Committee, had improved in the last few years. 334 



The increasing popularity of poultry and dairy farming and the fall in 

 the prices of corn and sheep, tended in subsequent years to re-adjust the 

 balance between the Down and Wealden districts of the county. Owing to 

 the lack of capital the small Weald farms, where poultry could be reared on 

 anything varying from \ acre to 15 or 20 acres, easily found tenants at 

 a comparatively high rent, and further breaking up of the larger properties 

 was contemplated and indeed carried out where the owner had sufficient 

 capital to build. On the Down farms, on the other hand, where sub-division 

 was impossible, considerable reductions of rent were again necessary between 

 1873 and 1893, and further scarcity and deterioration in labour was noted 

 a difficulty not met with on the smaller holdings where the farmer and his 

 family could carry on all the work themselves. A member of the East 



*" Accts. and Papers, 1833, v. *" Ibid. 1 88 1, xvi. 



212 





