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PARLIAMENTARY PUBLICATIONS. [Sept. 1895. 



ticularly of corn -growing land, is reported to have depreciated 

 to an enormous extent. Land is described by agents, auctioneers, 

 and valuers as a drug in the market. In June 1894, farms 

 comprising 1,388 acres v/ere totally abandoned, and between 

 Michaelmas 1894 and January 1895, 30 more farms, comprising 

 3,853 acres, became derelict. A very large number of witnesses 

 examined by Mr. Fox, comprising landowners, agents, and 

 farmers, maintained that if present prices continue, a considei'able 

 quantity of the very heavy and the very light land must go out 

 of cultivation. 



Mr. Fox goes on to say that in every part of Suffolk farmers 

 have been, and are, suffering from the effects of the depression, 

 and that he hardly knows how to lay the facts before the Com- 

 mission with sufficient emphasis. While there may be a few of 

 the larger farmers with capital, who have not had to injure their 

 business by curtailing expenditure in actual necessaries, and 

 who may consequently be enabled to hold their own, yet the 

 evidence of the effects of the depression is overwhelming. The 

 opinion was generally expressed that small tenant farmers had 

 suffered more than large ones. 



As regards the position of the Scotch farmers in the county, 

 Mr. Fox states that whatever success may have attended their 

 efforts is to be attributed to their leaving expenditure on the 

 arable land alone ; to the management of their cows and dairy ; 

 to the curtailment of labour by letting the land lie in grass, and 

 by working themselves with their families,; and to the reduction 

 of their personal expenditure to the lowest possible rate. 



The supply of labour appeared to be quite equal to the de- 

 mand ; in fact, in 1893 and 1894, in a number of districts men 

 were in irregular work even in the summer time. In 1894, the 

 wages of labourers were lis. in East and 10s. in West Suffolk 

 up to the autumn, while in November a number of farmers in 

 West and North-west Suffolk reduced their men to 9s,. and, in 

 exceptional cases, even to 8s. The wages of horsekeepers are as 

 a rule about 2s. a week more than those of ordinary labourers, 

 frequently with cottages free or at a reduced rent. Stockmen's 

 wages varied in 1892 from 13s. to 15s., with cottages at a nominal 

 rent or free ; they now vary from lis. to 13s. 6d. ; 10s. being paid 

 in some cases. Shepherds' wages vary considerably, and generally 

 range from 14s. to 20s. a week. They get, in addition, cottagCvS 

 free, with lambing money. Most of the Suffolk farmers state 

 that the labour of the present day is inferior to that of former 

 times, and this is generally attributed to the fact that so many 

 of the best young men leave the country districts to seek situa- 

 tions on railways and in the police force. 



In speaking of remedies for the depression, Mr. Fox states, 

 that the great majority of landowners and farmers in Suffolk 

 consider that, at the present juncture, the question of prices is 

 of paramount importance, and all others purely subsidiary. It 

 was, however, generally suggested that the agricultural interest 



