326 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



Andover, with rents down to nothing, many of the tenants 

 continue losing money;" that, in another district, "the 

 tenants had borne the brunt of the bad years, and now, 

 when it was too late, the landlords were offering reductions 

 which at an earlier stage might have saved the tenants from 

 collapse ; " and that farmers had reported to Dr Fream, 

 " the disinclination and refusal of landlords in most cases to 

 meet their tenants," and that "good farmers have not 

 been sufficiently well treated and met by the landlord, and 

 so long as any balance was thought to be at the bankers, 

 no reduction was made " are withheld. Further, if rents 

 were referred to, Mr James Stratton's important evidence, 

 that, although rent had been reduced 50 per cent., it would 

 have to go down 25 per cent, more, should have been 

 quoted. 



The effects of the depression in Berkshire, Notts, and the 

 East Riding, and in Kent (paragraphs 42-47), seem in- 

 sufficiently indicated. 



The effects of the depression in the counties of Somerset, 

 Devon, Cornwall, Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Worcester- 

 shire (paragraphs 54, 55), seem to be underrated in the report, 

 partly because here, as throughout the report, there is a dis- 

 position to measure depression by the actual reduction in rents, 

 or, in other words, to treat it solely as a landlords' question, 

 whereas there is much evidence that rents are complained of 

 as excessive in these counties, and therefore it is probable 

 that in the practical result to the tenant farmer, the degree 

 of loss, which, having regard to the conditions of the dis- 

 trict and its type of agriculture might otherwise be slight, 

 is made severe by the postponement of an adequate reduc- 

 tion of rent. 



The references to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham, and 

 Northumberland (paragraphs, 60, 61), seem to me inadequate 

 and misleading. The reports of Mr Wilson Fox on the 

 Garstang district of Lancashire, and the Glendale district of 

 Northumberland, supported by much evidence from wit- 

 nesses, show that depression has been acutely felt by tenant 

 farmers in both these counties, and that there have been 

 heavy losses by all classes of farmers, and that the position of 

 many is precarious. As to Lancashire in particular, high 

 rents and insecurity have clearly operated to make the fall 

 of prices more difficult to meet. Mr Pringle's report on 

 Durham and the North Riding brings the disastrous losses 



\ 



