6 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



mould and manures are washed off the surface on to the 

 great mud beds of the rivers. The plants are at once 

 waterlogged and starved." " When once the strong, three- 

 horse, clay land is let lie untended for twelve months, 

 the probability is that it will pass out of cultivation 

 altogether." 



And recovery, in these cases, is economically impos- 

 sible. This heavy land would require two years' fallow- 

 ing and a good dressing of lime, and in many cases 

 thorough redraining to restore it to cultivation. But 

 this description of land is now not worth more than £^ r 

 or £6 an acre, and the process of restoration would cost I* 

 from twice to three, or, even in some cases, four times 

 the freehold. 



The situation is the less hopeful for this class of land, 

 because it will not naturally bear really good grass. 



The heavy land is ho^lessjpr , arable purposes if 

 present prices continue. 



Mr Darby's evidence does not materially qualify the 

 general results stated. His contention is that most of 

 the land is earning some small rent, and although he 

 does not deny that the cost of restoring the workable 

 condition of the heavy clays, under present circum- 

 stances, is prohibitive, he thinks that the "tumbled- 

 down " deteriorated fields could be made much more of 

 than they are now. He does not attempt to disprove 

 the general disappearance of high cultivation, or the 

 enormous depreciation of values, and his evidence rather 

 turns on the definition of the word " derelict " land. 



Mr Matthews, who farms nearly 1600 acres on the 

 Dunmow side of Chelmsford at a rent of ;^i an acre — 

 land more easily worked, and suitable for heavy manur- 

 ing with fertilisers — states that selling off all ^ roots, 

 clover, hay, and straw, feeding bullocks, and going in 

 also for poultry and pigs, he has done fairly well, and 

 " keeps even now on the right side of the line." ^ Others 

 are in the same position. Farmers even on this better 

 soil cannot save money. Mr Matthews wholly confirms ' 

 Mr Pringle's views of the worst districts. 



Turning to Suffolk, the heavy lands which form 



