8 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



tion of the naturally rich soil of the north-eastern part of 

 the county, the splendid results of arable farming in 

 Norfolk were due to the triumph of science and capital 

 over the " niggardliness of Nature," and there has been a 

 steady tendency to revert to the poorer condition of 

 things a century ago, a tendency accompanied by wide- 

 spread ruin to both landowner and farmer. ^ 



Mr Read, whose lengthened experience and authority 

 is of exceptional value, describes the condition of the 

 farmers of Norfolk as "verging on absolute ruin and 

 wholesale bankruptcy." 



" Almost all the land that has been improved during my 

 lifetime has now gone back to its original condition!' The 

 light lands are not now worth as much as they were 

 before they were broken up ; the heavy land which 

 steam cultivation and high farming has made so pro- 

 ductive, and the light fens, which were drained fifty years 

 ago, have now all gone back. Bad seasons began the 

 troubles, persistent fall in prices deepened them, and the 

 impoverishment of both owner and tenant have helped 

 to complete the work. The land has either drifted out 

 of the old cultivation altogether, or production is less, 

 because the land can neither be properly stocked nor 

 farmed, 



Mr Rew describes the position at the close of the year 

 1894 as one of acute panic. The long process, which 

 had begun in the bad seasons from 1876 to 1883, was 

 brought almost to a close by the unpropitious harvests 

 of 1892 and 1894, and the drought of 1893, coupled with 

 the great fall in prices of corn, wool, cattle, and sheep. 

 The Report of the Committee of the Norfolk Chamber 

 of Agriculture estimates that the depreciation of the 

 freehold value of agricultural land has been;^25 an acre, 

 / or ;^30,ooo,ooo, in the whole county, while the tenant 

 farmers have lost ;£<, an acre of their capital, or over 

 i^6,ooo,ooo.2 On Lord Leicester's estate, where no tenant 

 had ever before thrown up a farm, eight farms were 

 vacated from Michaelmas 1894. As in Suffolk, even on 

 excellent estates, there have been few, if any, applicants 

 > Rew, Norfolk, p. 3. * Norfolk, p. 25. 



