SCOTLAND — ARABLE DISTRICTS 23 



Mr Smith, Longniddry, East Lothian, said that the 

 land of medium or inferior quality was being half-starved 

 and insufficiently farmed. The fall of 20 to 40 per cent, 

 in rents did not meet the fall of prices and greater cost 

 of production. 



Mr Dun, from the Galashiels district, states that 

 where there have been fair reductions men with ample 

 capital have held on fairly, but the high rents under old 

 leases have ruined many and reduced capital. " Lower 

 rents are the first remedy." 



Mr Gibb, Berwickshire, says that losses have come 

 year by year now on crops, now on stock. The capital 

 of farmers has been much reduced. 



Mr Elliott thinks that with rents only down 20 to 40 

 per cent, it is impossible to make money, and tenants 

 are losing capital. 



Mr Rutherford, speaking of Roxburghshire, thinks the 

 land is being deteriorated and farms run out owing to 

 depression of prices and insecurity of tenants' capital. 



In Perthshire, Mr Ferguson, a large farmer of ex- 

 perience, states that few farms are paying their way. 



The highest rented of the three farms he holds is the 

 only one of the three that makes money, and that only 

 because everything is sold off at Perth, which is near, and 

 manure cheap and easy to bring back. 



The new men who come in and take farms at the old 

 rents are not making a profit, but " are living on hope." 

 " I shall be very glad if I get out without loss, 

 without counting any interest on my capital." The 

 increases in the wages of labourers makes the poorer 

 land less remunerative even at lower rents. 



The reductions of rent represent nothing like the 

 reduction in prices of produce. 



" If I had not made some money in the good times, 

 I could not have stood the bad." 



" Not one farmer that I know is making his present 

 rent." 



" The men who have very little capital are in a very 

 bad way indeed." " Those who have let their farms 

 down have got deeper in the water, and cannot get out." 



