88 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



possible, a moderate return for farmer's capital and 

 skill. 

 , ,. The position of some of the farmers whose ac- 

 ^ counts are analysed in this chapter is only intelligible 

 ^ — * in view of many statements in evidence that farmers are 

 ?^ <. universally reluctant to realise by selling out in these 



rr" times of bad prices, and that the more embarrassed they 

 f F^ are the more they" cling at all hazards to their farms. 

 «i These accounts should also be considered in their 

 ^ -v bearing on the general evidence, that many farmers in 

 cF most districts have been paying rents out of capital till 

 ' they break down and their farms are taken at great 

 'Vj. reductions by new tenants. 



The analyses of the accounts seem to establish a 



strong probability that the two tendencies disclosed — 



the tendency on the part of the best farmers to keep up 



the high cultivation and fertility of their farms to the 



utmost, in the hope of better prices and results, and the 



tendency of owners and agents to maintain the item of 



- j^ rent, irrespective of the necessity of establishing some 



' " '"Jt' sort of equilibrium in the farmer's outgoings by subor- 



f C dinating non-reproductive to reproductive items of out- 



^^ goings — these two tendencies have probably been largely 



^ responsible for the ruin of many deserving and capable 



» 'p and hardworking men, and for the wholesale deteriora- 



7 ' tion of the soil in the districts most affected. 



Summary of Accounts. 



The facts and figures brought before us in the farm 

 accounts are tabulated in the Appendix to this Report. 

 Of the ninety-seven ^ English farm accounts set forth in 

 the " Particulars of Expenditures and Outgoings on 

 Estates and Farm Accounts reprinted from the Reports 

 of the Assistant Commissioners," ^ twenty-one are omitted 

 from consideration as being accounts of owners farming 

 land in hand, or as being imperfect in details. They do 

 not illustrate the relations of landlord and tenant in the 



' Accounts VI and X refer to the same farm. 

 2 Parliamentary Paper (C. — 8125), 1896. 



