12 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



placed land that has escaped — sometimes rich pastures, 

 in other districts the deep loam of the fens. 



Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire show, except locally, 

 a less serious phase of the distress. Mr Fox in 1895 

 reports of Lincolnshire, " Owing in the first instance 

 to bad seasons, commencing in 1874, and then to the 

 rapid and continuous fall in all prices from 1882 and 

 1883, coming at a time when there had been great losses, 

 through decreased yields and sheep rot, and also when 

 the land was much deteriorated, the farming industry 

 has suffered blow after blow, until the present time, when 

 the situation is extremely critical and the future outlook 

 of the gloomiest character." 



During the wet seasons "grass was deteriorated, 

 manure washed out of the soil, and there was no oppor- 

 tunity of getting the farms clean." " The strong land felt 

 the effect of the wet first, and that suffered more than 

 any other, as it became perfectly sodden and almost 

 incapable of being worked," while the warp and marsh 

 lands were seriously affected also. In mere physical 

 condition, the hot seasons of 1887 and 1893 had a dis- 

 tinctly restorative value. But this county has, from the 

 quality of its several types of soil, and from the high 

 standard of cultivation maintained for generations, and 

 the large amount of capital in the hands of farmers, held 

 out better than East Anglia. 



The letting and selling value of land, where there is 

 any demand, has gone down practically nearly one half 



The best farms are said on good authority to have 

 depreciated 20 per cent, the average farms 33 per cent, 

 and the heavy clays from 60 to 75 per cent^ 



Much of the land, especially in North Lincolnshire, 

 is still well farmed and in a high state of cultivation, 

 and the rich potato and market gardening lands in the 

 south and east are still productive, though rents have 

 fallen. There is a striking absence of the "tumbled- 

 down " and " twitched-down " land of several other 

 counties, and there has been so far little, if any, of the 

 starving off of stock, especially sheep, which has helped 

 ' Messrs Thompson & Sons, quoted by W. F., p. 48. 



