ECONOMIC FOLLY I9I 



He adds : — " On four farms I manage we pay in rent 

 and manures £^,24.^. This year the amount spent in 

 feeding stuffs was ;i^3030, and the same last year. Unless 

 we are to receive ample compensation under the Act 

 we shall be at a decided disadvantage in getting these 

 farms into a quite exceptional state of fertility, and 

 expose ourselves to be outbid by 'land suckers/ who 

 offer an increase in order to enter and suck the fertility 

 out." 



" In another ten years there will be no need for an 

 Agricultural Holdings Act under the present system ; 

 the bulk of the best men are getting so frightened as to 

 say, ' if we are to have no security we must make pre- 

 parations.' There have been cases of insufficient com- 

 pensation which have ' shaken the faith of the best 

 farmers in keeping their farms in very high cultivation.' " 

 The same feeling is expressed by Mr Dutfield from 

 Monmouthshire : " Tenants find they would do better 

 often by the old bad principle of letting the farm down 

 a little in the way of cropping, and going out and 

 making no claim." 



And this view of things seems to be acquiesced in by 

 some land agents, in our opinion most unwisely. 



Thus the agent of a large Lancashire estate says : " A 

 tenant takes a farm and farms it highly to benefit him- 

 self ; of course, after some years, the farm is improved. 

 The tenant has only done his duty, and what is best for 

 the farm, and having really repaid himself he wants to 

 be repaid a certain sum by the landlord as well. But 

 tenants generally settle the 'betterment' question for 

 themselves by farming the place out, and they some- 

 times overdo it, and make a loss for themselves in the 

 last year. ^ " 



Not only is deliberate bad farming thus encouraged, 

 but, by the time scales of the ordinary valuers, the bad 

 farmer is able to concoct a claim, and get considerable 

 compensation for outlay in the last few years, when he 

 has been systematically depleting his farm, and deserves 

 to be penalised, not compensated. 



' Wilson Fox, Garstang, p. 40. 



