HAMPSHIRE 9 



for vacated farms. In one district it was stated that 

 3000 acres might be had rent free.^ 



DeaHng further with the great corn-growing belt 

 of country where depression has been most severe, we 

 find that in Hampshire much of the land which formerly 

 yielded large returns with turnips, oats, and rotation 

 grasses, is now worth nothing, and has gone out of 

 cultivation. Mr James Stratton estimates this area as 

 " about one-eight of the whole county." 



Dr Fream, in his report on the Andover side of the 

 county at the close of 1893, gives a deplorable picture 

 of despairing farmers, asking for " prairie rents," and at 

 their wits' end to find any profitable or economical 

 substitute for wheat, which can no longer be grown with- 

 out heavy and constant loss. 



North of Andover there is much land letting at 2s 6d 

 an acre, upon which the tithe is 6s, and yet with " rents 

 down to nothing," not even a fair interest on the cost of 

 buildings, much less enough to enable landlords to carry 

 out repairs, the majority of tenants seem to be losing 

 money. 



The average fall of rents has been 50 per cent, but, in I 

 Mr Stratton's opinion, rents must go down 25 per cent. § 

 more to enable tenants to make ends meet. Mr Stratton f 

 himself was able to hire a square mile of arable land for i 

 a sovereign, in other words for the rates and taxes and | 

 cost of cultivation.^ ' 



Mr Eyre's interesting evidence as to small holdings in 

 the New Forest district is dealt with in the chapter on 

 small holdings. 



Although the position has probably improved not a 

 little since the disastrous drought of 1893, Mr Stratton's 

 opinion that landlords who had no other resources than 

 agricultural land could not maintain their estates, and 

 that tenants are on the verge of ruin, cannot be treated 

 as an exaggerated view of the position in many such 

 districts. 



In adjacent districts of Berkshire and Oxfordshire, 



' App. B. I. p. 19. 



* This farm has since been relet by the owner. 



