114 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



tion of the average farmer of moderate means is no 

 greater than that of a first-class artisan." " Next to low 

 prices, the most potent cause was generally considered 

 to be the unwarrantable competition which exists among 

 farmers themselves." 



" The competition is so great that the difficulty of land- 

 owners and factors is not to take unreasonable rents." 



Competition has also been deliberately stimulated. 

 Thus Mr Ballingall says : " In former times it was not 

 unusual for unfair means to be used when an estate was 

 to let to induce one offer and then another, to get the 

 highest possible." 



Mr Rew states that at present in North Devon a 

 practice is complained of, of "offering the farms by 

 tender, and then selecting a tenant, and endeavouring to 

 induce him to give the highest bid." 



It is of course natural to say that the tenants are to 

 blame for their own folly. 



" The farmers were themselves to blame for raising 

 the market price of the rent to a fictitious value." And 

 again, " It is the tenant's fault that rents are high and 

 not the landlord's, because tenants will bid against 

 each other." ^ 



In this opinion it is impossible to concur. It can never 

 be to the real interest of the owner any more than it can 

 be consistent with justice, for a landlord to charge a rent 

 for agricultural land which he knows cannot be made by 

 the produce of the land. He ought to be perfectly 

 aware that the offer of an excessive rent must be either 

 dishonest, reckless, or ignorant, and that the temptation 

 of a temporary gain in times when the possible margin 

 of profit is narrowed to a minimum, v/ill be dearly 

 bought by injury to his estate, as well as loss to the 

 offerers. The tenant farmer is not to blame, if finding 

 others are trying to get the same farm, and knowing 

 that his only or best chance in these times is to secure 

 a good farm, if possible, out of which he can get some 

 immediate return, he is compelled to overshoot the mark 

 and bid a sum which handicaps his own chances heavily, 

 ' Wilson Fox, Garstang, p. 17 ; Rew, North Devon, p. 17. 



