Il6 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



estates, farms are not put up to auction, nor let to the 

 highest bidder ; the rent is determined by expert valua- 

 tion based on the current values of the produce. 



On the Holker estates in North Lancashire, rents have 

 remained unchanged since the valuation made in 1826. 

 " The large farms are still paying rent on the old valua- 

 tion. In a few cases the rents have been reduced." ''■ 



Sir Massey Lopes, even in Devonshire, has not let his 

 farms by tender ; his rents are moderate, and his tenantry 

 go on from father to son. 



The Duke of Richmond, who goes personally into 

 every detail of his estates, takes the best evidence avail- 

 able, and then fixes the rent himself at what is, in his 

 opinion, absolutely fair. " I should offer it to the old 

 tenant at the rent which I considered, after consulting 

 with my factor and commissioner, was the rent which 

 ought to be paid, and if anybody else offered to give me 

 a larger rent I should not take it ... I should think 

 that he did not know so much about it as we did," He 

 is strongly against letting by tender. " I think it would 

 be fatal to set them bidding against each other." ^ The 

 tenantry have thrived and remained from generation to 

 generation. 



The evidence of Mr Muirhead, agent to Lord Aber- 

 deen, is important on these points. On the Haddo 

 Estate, which seems to have been always moderately 

 rented, a revaluation by arbitration was offered to the 

 tenants in 1886, and carried out on about one-third of 

 the estate. The new rent was fixed for five years at a 

 reduction of 23 per cent., and in 1890, things being 

 better in that district, half of this reduction was with- 

 drawn. At the end of a lease the farm is offered to the 

 sitting tenant at a valuation which is based on the 

 quality and fertility of the soil, the character of the 

 buildings, position as regards railways, etc. It is only 

 when farms are definitely given up that offers are re- 

 ceived from outsiders, and the highest bidder is not 

 taken, but the best qualified farmer. Small increases of 



' Wilson Fox, Garstang, App. B. 6, p. 53. 

 -22,686; 22709; 22,603 ; 22,705. 



