I04 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



Mr Wilkinson : — " What we complain of in North- 

 umberland is this— that the sitting tenant, perhaps, has 

 farmed his farm well and cannot get as fair a bargain 

 for that as does the man who farms his farm badly." 

 In his opinion, tenants who have large interests at stake 

 in their land are at the mercy of the agents, both as 

 regards rents and agreements as to mode of cultivation. 

 He was told " to sign an agreement, or leave the farm." 

 He gives, as an instance of the position in which the 

 tenant stands, his own case as a sheep farmer. 



" It takes a number of years to get a proper stock to- 

 gether, and I do not consider it fair to have my stock 

 forced upon the market at an inopportune moment. My 

 own agent said to me once, 'You cannot afford to sell 

 your stock in these bad times,' and I say he has no right 

 to exact rent from me under these conditions." "The 

 sitting tenant cannot get the same reduction, if he has his 

 farm well stocked, as the man can who farms his farm 

 badly." 



Mr Olver (Cornwall) — " If the tenant farmer improves 

 his farm and wants a reduction, the landlord replies ' I 

 can make no reduction, your farm will always make its 

 money.' But if he racks his farm and goes to his land- 

 lord, the landlord sees that he cannot make the rent and 

 makes the reduction ; this hardship to the improving 

 farmer is strongly felt all through our county, that the 

 good farmer is not properly secured." The same witness 

 points out that the improving tenant has also to pay 

 higher rates in consequence of the refusal of a reduction. 



Mr Kidner, who himself felt compelled by his interests 

 at stake in the holding to renew his father's lease at a 

 greatly increased rent, and with conditions which made it 

 difficult to work the farm at a profit, thinks that con- 

 siderations of this kind, and the losses by removal, 

 prevent tenants from being free agents in bargaining. 



Mr Pringle, as the result of his inquiry in Beds, Hunts, 

 and Northants, believes that " since 1879 there have been 

 very many examples of cruel injustice accidentally in- 

 flicted on tenants who were apparently hardworking and 

 conscientious." The tenant who has worked a farm for 



