REDUCTIONS INSUFFICIENT 97 



Mr Clare Sewell Read says that you must now make 

 six or seven rents to live, in consequence of the relatively 

 increased expenses that we have in these days of high 

 farming. Though nothing, in his opinion, can now 

 save most of the Norfolk farmers from ruin, he holds 

 that rents must be further reduced. 



Mr Rew reports from North Devon general protests 

 against the present rents as excessive, and that landlords 

 ought to reduce them. 



Mr Rankin admits that reductions of rent, in such 

 proportion to fall in prices as would enable farmers to 

 meet their outgoings, " would in most cases sweep away 

 the rent altogether." 



Mr Albert Pell says, " A further reduction of rent would 

 improve the farmers' position, and if I was a farmer I 

 would go very strongly in for that, and I think I should 

 be justified." 



Mr R. Stratton says that Monmouth and Gloucester- 

 shire farmers are paying too much. " It is difficult to 

 understand how land can be worth anything at all, if 

 you are to judge of the value of the land by the value 

 of its produce." 



Mr Wilkinson says, " You cannot get a sufficient re- 

 duction of rent so as to enable you to meet the require- 

 ments of the times." 



Mr Forster, who has received a reduction of 40 per 

 cent, w'here most tenants have had only 25 per cent., 

 says, "It would take on an arable mixed farm 60 per 

 cent, to meet the difficulty." 



Mr James Hope : " I cannot see how the men are to 

 live at all, unless it comes off the rent. It cannot come 

 off the labour bill, or off the manure and feeding stuffs, 

 or else the fertility is let down." 



Mr Lander says that the first remedy suggested by 

 the Shropshire farmers for the depression is the reduction 

 of rents. 



Mr Ferguson (Perthshire) : " A further reduction of 

 rents is the only thing we have in our own hands — 

 labour and taxes cannot be touched — we used to draw 

 more out of the land, and the only apparent way to get 



