290 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



them. On the whole they have done extremely well 

 till the worst pinch came. 



At Willingham, the industry of many small holders 

 makes something out of asparagus, potatoes, and fruit. 

 Elsewhere " men who work hard can still get along on 

 30 to 40 acres," though it is generally by adding other 

 industries. And most of them have too little capital 

 for essential improvements, such as claying their land. 



In South Lincolnshire, the competition for small free- 

 hold farms in the good times, and the ease of mortgag- 

 ing, saddled many men, as in the Isle of Axholme, with 

 charges which have crippled many of them in these 

 times of fallen values. 



The majority who bought their holdings left 60 to 80 

 per cent, or even the whole sum on mortgage at 4J up 

 to 6 per cent. In the east and south of the county, the 

 highly productive marsh and fen land sold for ;^8o 

 to ;i^i20 an acre up to 1879.^ In the good times land 

 paid well, even at those rates. But " those who bought 

 about 1878, and started on their farms with no margin 

 of capital, found themselves face to face with steadily 

 falling prices, with a series of wet seasons, with a rate of 

 interest to pay representing a rent much higher than 

 those who were renting land next door to them," and 

 with no prospect of a remission, unless it was thought by 

 the mortgagees that they would lose by foreclosing. 



After 1879, stock and capital gradually melted away. 

 If the mortgagees foreclosed they would lose at least 20 

 per cent, of the money advanced.^ 



One of these small freeholders says : " I have brought 

 up a family and nearly worked them to death. They 

 said, ' Father, we are not going to stop here and be 

 worked to death for nothing,' so they went off into shops 

 and left me and the old woman to struggle along." 



Another : — " I and my three boys, the eldest eighteen, 

 work the land, and my wife and daughter when wanted. 

 We have been working eighteen hours a day for several 

 days, and average ten to twelve during the year. I have 



' Wilson Fox, Lincoln, p. 60. 



' Calthorpe quoted by Wilson Fox, p. 67. 



