AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES 235 



The second annual meeting was held in January, 1864, when the 

 secretary reported a membership of 193 and a balance in hand of £42. 

 Hy. Hoggarth was appointed secretary in 1867 — his son is now secretary. 



In 1895 the club made a report to the Central Chamber of Agri- 

 culture with regard to the effects of the late agricultural depression 

 on farming in South Westmorland. The district reported on is an 

 area of about 12 miles round Kendal — the farming, mainly pastoral, 

 devoted to dairying and the breeding and rearing of stock. The 

 proportion of arable land to pasture in the higher districts is 5 to 7 

 per cent., intermediate districts 10 to 12 per cent., and in the lower 

 districts 15 to 20 per cent. The rents in low land district average 

 30/- per acre, in the intermediate district 15/- to 20/- per acre, enclosed 

 fell land 2/- to 4/- per acre, and where improved 6/- to 8/- per acre. 

 Reductions and remissions of rent on the five largest estates of from 

 6,000 to 40,000 acres 12 to 20 per cent. Sheep farms are now recovering 

 the difference. The selling value of land has fallen two-fold. The 

 demand for farms has been well sustained. No farms have been 

 unoccupied or taken in hand by the landlords. At the present time 

 the profits provide a bare living for the tenant. The value of live 

 stock has fallen in the last 10 or 12 years as follows : Calving cows, 

 30 per cent. ; store stock, 25 per cent. ; fat beef, 35 per cent. ; sheep 

 fell 25 per cent, up to two years ago but have recovered 5 to 10 per 

 cent of the fall. Labourers and farm servants' wages have remained 

 practically stationary. Machinery is more used. There has been no 

 sdteration in the system of farming, but there is less ploughing. Sub- 

 jects of complaint : Excessive railway rates, imequcil rating of property, 

 and excessive taxation of land. 



"In no county have landlords been called upon to sacrifice so 

 little during the recent agricultural depression as in Westmorland," 

 wrote A. B. Taylor in 1890. " The market is overstocked with 

 people looking for small farms." 



In 1899 F. Punchard, writing to the Estates Gazette, says : " Small 

 farms have obtained as a rule higher rents — there have been plenty 

 of applicants," and in 1900 he writes : " The letting of farms at old 

 rents or even at slightly advanced ones, has been a less difficult matter, 

 especially as agricultural prospects have, on the whole, been very 

 good throughout the year." 



