140 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



Fox remarks that rents are more reduced on large than 

 on small farms, and this has led to the conclusion that 

 small farms have suffered least, but this is really due to 

 the heavy labour bill on the big farms; while one of his 

 farmer witnesses is of opinion, " the 50 to 100 acre men 

 have felt the depression least, because they and all their 

 family work, and are not paid, their labour going to the 

 landlord as rent." 



Much of the inability of landlords to reduce rents to a 

 level at which profits again become possible, or to pro- 

 vide the improvements^and repairs on which profitable 

 working must to some extent depend, is clearly due to 

 the heavy charges on land, either in the form of mort- 

 gages, or under settlements for the benefit of members of 

 the owner's family. 



As there are no available records of mortgages and 

 other charges, it is impossible to estimate with any exact- 

 ness the amount of the existing encumbrances on agri- 

 cultural land. But that they are exceedingly large is 

 undoubted, and in some districts and on some estates 

 absolutely crushing. 



Sir Arthur Arnold, from his own experience and from 

 the opinions of experienced solicitors in England, thinks 

 that land is as heavily mortgaged in England as in 

 Ireland, and that the total amount would be about 

 ;^400,ooo,ooo. In his opinion, the existence of heavily 

 encumbered estates, and their perpetuation through the 

 system of settlement in a more or less paralysed condi- 

 tion, is eminently prejudicial to agriculture. Registration 

 of title, and the accompanying record of all mortgages, 

 would both facilitate borrowing money for improvements 

 on easier terms, and " would very shortly lead to the 

 extinction of insolvent landowners, and the easy transfer 

 of land to persons well able to supply the capital for its 

 cultivation." 



The excessive pressure of encumbrances on many 

 estates has been due to over-confidence of owners and 

 solicitors in the future increase of values of land. In 

 the times of high prices, rents were easily raised, without 

 resistance by tenants, and the nominal capital value 



