320 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



price of grain keeps wretchedly low ; stock has improved, and 

 there is undoubtedly to-day (1908) a brisker demand for farms, 

 and in some localities rents have even advanced slightly. 

 The yeoman — that is, the man who owns and farms his own 

 land, perhaps the most sound and independent class in the com- 

 munity — has, unfortunately for England, largely disappeared. 

 Even of those who remain, some prefer to let their property 

 and rent holdings from others ! It has been noticed that the 

 labourer's lot has improved in this generation of adversity ; 

 and well it might, for his previous condition was miserable in 

 the extreme. The farmers have suffered severely, many losing 

 all their capital and becoming farm labourers. The landlords 

 have suffered most ; they have not been able to throw up 

 their land like the farmer, and until quite recently have 

 watched it becoming poorer and poorer. The depression, in 

 short, has driven from their estates many who had owned them 

 for generations. Those who have survived have usually been 

 men with incomes from other sources than land, and they have 

 generally deserved well of their country by keeping their estates 

 in good condition in spite of falling rents and increasing taxation. 

 No class of men, indeed, have been more virulently and 

 consistently abused than the landlords of England, and none 

 with less justice. There have been many who have forgotten 

 that property has its duties as well as its rights ; they have 

 erred like other men, but as a rule they play their part well. 

 Even the worst are to some extent obliged by their very 

 position to be public spirited, for the mere possession of an 

 estate involves the employment of a number of people in 

 healthy outdoor occupations which Englishmen to-day so 

 especially need to counteract the degenerating influences of 

 town life. Many of the great estates ^ are carried on at a 



^ According to the Commission of 1894, the amount expended on 

 improvements and repairs alone on some great estates was : On Lord 

 Derby's, in Lancashire, of 43,217 acres, ^200,000 in twelve years, or 

 ^16,500, or Ts. M. an acre, each year. On Lord Sefton's, of 18,000 acres, 

 ^286,000 in twenty-two years, or about ^13,000, or 14J. an acre, each 



