Sept. 1895.] 



PARLIAMEXTAKY PUBLICATIONS. 



223 



sources of income can enjoy. Mr. Rew thinks that Dorset is, 

 to some extent, fortunate in having many landowners in that 

 position, but he points out that it is essentially an unsound basis 

 for agriculture to rest upon. Some of the best and most sub- 

 stantial—and, in times past, the most successful — farmers in the 

 south of England were to be found in Dorset, but with the 

 present outlook it appears that the race is likely to die out. 

 Many still hang on, but others are leaving, either voluntarily or 

 perforce, a business in which they cannot any longer obtain a 

 fair return for their capital, which is said to be surely and 

 steadily leaving the land. Although the occupiers of the smaller 

 and better mixed farms may hold on, it is, in Mr. Rew's opinion, 

 difficult to foretell what will be the future of the large hill 

 farms in the chalk district unless better times come quickly. 



The condition of the Dorset labourer, where his employment still 

 continues, is stated to have greatly improved, though no one can 

 say that his wages are at a satisfactory level, but while he has 

 suffered proportionately less from the depression than either the 

 owner or the occupier, his position is becoming more and more 

 precarious. 



The remedies for the depression suggested to Mr. Rew included 

 the amendment of the Agricultural Holdings Act, bimetallism, 

 relief of the burdens on land, reduction of railway rates, the re- 

 imposition of the malt duty, the marking of foreign meat, the 

 provision of easier and cheaper methods of land transfer, and 

 State loans for the execution of improvements. 



Report on the Comity of Suffolk, by Mr. Wilson Fox, Assistant 

 Commissioner to the Royal Commission on Agriculture. 

 [0.-7755.] Price Is. Id. 



Mr. Wilson Fox states that agricultural depression appears 

 to have been first felt in Suffolk in 1879. The cause is usually 

 attributed to low prices, owing to foreign competition and cheap 

 freights, but there is, it seems, a strong, widespread, and 

 growing feeling among agriculturists of all classes, holding, 

 different political opinions, that the primary cause of the de- 

 pression is the present system of currency. It is universally 

 stated that the condition of the land has gone back since 1879 

 except in a few districts. On the clay and very light soils, the 

 land is frequently very foul, being choked with weeds and. 

 thistles. The deterioration of the land is attributed to the em- 

 ployment of less labour, to deficient manuring, to want of 

 marling and claying in some districts, to wet seasons which 

 particularly affected the clay lands, and to less stock being kept. 

 Generally speaking, there appears to be very little grumbling 

 about rent in the county. The rents now paid per acre and the 

 transfer of tithe from the tenants to the landlords have in very 

 many cases left the owners an insufficient margin to keep up 

 drainage and buildings. The selling value of property, par- 



