NORTHERN COUNTIES I 5 



that for some years he has " been hard set to make a 

 balance, and has had heavy losses," and Mr Christopher 

 Middleton, near Middlesborough, says, " profits have 

 vanished," and that he cannot " understand how rents are 

 kept so high. They must be paid out of capital. He 

 would not like to say any farmer is making a profit 

 beyond living." " Not half the farmers in the country 

 have sufficient capital employed on their farms." 



The evidence of Mr Riley, Mr Harrison, and others 

 was generally to similar effect. 



In the grazing districts near Skipton the position of 

 farmers has been extremely precarious. 



Lancashire farmers have hitherto held their own 

 through periods of depression by their remarkable 

 industry and thrift. But in the last few years it is clear 

 that the heavy fall in prices, especially of stock, has 

 swept away the whole or most of their margin, and there 

 have been no sufficient reductions of rent to re^ore it. 



" Most of the farmers are nearly ruined, and many are 

 farming on borrowed capital. Some large farmers state 

 that, after feeding and clothing themselves and their 

 families, and paying no wages to their sons and 

 daughters, they have made nothing for the last year or 

 two, and some have had to draw on capital." ^ Some 

 witnesses think there has been deterioration of farming 

 and of the soil, but Mr Fox thinks that in many cases 

 the land is farmed even better than formerly. 



The economic loss of the last few years has not fallen 

 exclusively on the tenant, although remissions of rent 

 have fallen far short of a fair proportion to depreciation 

 of produce. On many estates a heavy outlay has been 

 maintained to keep tenants going. 



In Northumberland, agriculture seems to have been 

 kept in a somewhat more stable position. Security 

 of tenure, by long leases, concentrated the capital and 

 enterprise of improving tenants on the land in the good 

 times, and even in the bad times the heavy expenditure 

 of landlords in improvements has helped to mitigate 

 loss. But Mr Scott, farming nearly 10,000 acres, and 

 * Mr Wilkinson, quoted by Wilson Fo.x, Garstang, p. 13. 



