284 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



The eldest son, on inheriting, has too often put heavy 

 charges on his little estate for the benefit of the rest of 

 the family, just as big owners have overburdened their 

 big estates. Bequests and sales have led to minute 

 subdivisions into strips and plots of land often wide 

 apart. This means loss of time, doubling the cost of 

 labour,^ and also makes thorough working and manur- 

 ing more difficult. Many of these men have been ruined, 

 and their land gone to the lawyers. 



On the other hand, many, even of the heavily mort- 

 gaged small owners, have in past years cleared off their 

 mortgages, or have in later years been able to transfer, 

 in some cases, to a new mortgagee on easier terms. 



Mr Pringle describes them as hardworking, thorough 

 in management, frugal and thrifty in their home life. 

 Their " work is neatly and seasonably performed, their 

 root-crops and corn stubble remarkably clean." The 

 heavy cropping requires liberal returns of manure, which 

 in bad times has not been always available ; but, taking 

 the Isle of Axholme as a whole, the standard of agri- 

 culture is extremely high. The houses, too, are com- 

 modious and comfortable. In the good times, money 

 had been spent freely on buildings and domestic 

 comforts. 



Of the smaller holdings, 80 per cent, are freeholds, and 

 90 per cent, are under arable cultivation. Wheat has, of 

 course, decreased its area materially, while oats have 

 increased over 40 per cent, and there has been a rapid 

 and persistent development of special crops, such as 

 celery, carrots, beetroot, and other vegetables, which take 

 up most of the land formerly left in fallow. 



One drawback is the comparative scarcity of job 

 labour for small holders, to whom the addition of wages 

 from time to time would be a great help. 



The suffering in North Lincolnshire is not confined to 

 the small freeholders. Mr Pringle gives cases which 

 showed that tenant farmers of large farms are as badly 

 off as the small owners, and on an estate of 3500 acres 

 the rent has fallen from £6S6om 1882 to £:^S^S ""^ 1892, 

 ' Amounting, in some cases, to £$ 14s an acre. 



