SCOTLAND — GRAZING AND DAIRY DISTRICTS 25 



Mr Stuart, from Banffshire, stated that the larger farms 

 had changed tenants three or four times within nineteen 

 years. Reductions were made to the new tenants which 

 had been refused to the old tenants. The average re- 

 duction to the new tenants on fourteen of these farms 

 after the old tenants left was 30 per cent. Six of the 

 old tenants of these fourteen farms had gone bankrupt. 

 Tenant farmers had lost much capital and can no longer 

 make the improvements they did before, as they have no 

 margin of profit, and no security. Mr Stuart himself 

 has been losing money for several years on his farm, 

 and has only received an abatement of 5 per cent. The 

 value of his own permanent improvements was completely 

 covered by the rent. Land which had been reclaimed 

 was reverting, and about 9000 acres in Banff have sunk 

 back to their natural condition. 



The position on liberally managed estates, like those 

 of the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Aberdeen, is 

 obviously more prosperous. 



The Duke of Richmond says that, except higher 



prices, there is no other way in which a tenant can be 



helped to meet these times than to lower his rent : — 



" I have reduced the rent, and therefore I have given 



practical reason for thinking that if things remain 



as they are at present, a reduction of rent is 



necessary. If prices fall, I certainly shall not be 



able to put them back to the old rent before the 



remission." " A landlord ought to be beforehand 



to make remissions, and not to wait until he is 



asked to do so." 



If a liberal policy of this nature had been universal, 



much of the severity of the depression in Scotland would 



have been mitigated, a very large number of tenants, 



who have been crushed out between high rents and low 



prices, would have been saved, and much of the economic 



loss to both landlords and tenants would have been 



prevented. 



Mr Speir, in his report on the south - western 

 counties of Scotland, which are mainly given up to 

 dairying, stock farming, and also have arable districts, 



