I02 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



first in a generous and enlightened way, and while, on a 

 small number of great estates, reductions were not 

 immediately necessary because the rents had not been 

 raised in the time of highest prices, in a large proportion 

 of cases, especially in the counties most severely hit by 

 depression, substantial reductions only began when con- 

 siderable numbers of the old tenants were either broken 

 and had to leave, or reduced to such a position that the 

 reductions were unavoidable, and were generally too 

 late to keep the old tenants going.^ 



It may not have been possible to forecast the conse- 

 quences. Still, we have Mr Read's and other evidence 

 to show that fair warning was given by some sagacious 

 agriculturists. 



The complaint is very general, both in the evidence 

 and in the reports of Assistant Commissioners, that the 

 farmer who farms his land liberally and well, does not 

 obtain a reduction of rent to the same extent that the 

 farmer with little capital who farms badly does, and this 

 acts as a premium on bad farming.^ 



The only weapon a tenant has to obtain a reduction 

 of rent is the notice to quit. There is much evidence 

 to show that this has been ineffective to obtain adequate 

 reductions for old tenants in time, and that it has been 

 found more than useless in the case of men who have 

 expended much money and skill, and labour, in main- 

 taining or increasing the productiveness of their farms. 



The farmer who has run down his farm and exhausted 

 its fertility can lose nothing by quitting, and therefore 

 serves his notice. The farmer who has farmed well has 

 a continually increasing stake invested in his holding, 

 and has formed business connections which it would take 

 him years to build up in a new neighbourhood. In gen- 

 eral, all he has is in the farm. His losses in removing, 

 even in good times, would be a deterrent, in bad times, 

 when everything is sold off at the worst, are absolutely 



'Pringle, Beds, Northants, pp. 8, 9-19, 20. 



2 A. Spencer, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, etc., p. 20; Raw, Dorset, 

 p. 28; Wilson Fox, Garstang, p. 17 ; Rolleston, 13,654 ; Hope, 12,233 ; 

 Carrington-Smith, 9705. 



