Agricultural Depression at Home and Abroad. G81 
tricts ; but a few are the generalisations of Assistant Com- 
missioners : — 
Reductions or Rent. 
County 
Reduction per cent. 
County 
Reduction per cent. 
Northumberland 
20 to 25 (average) 
Hereford . . 
. 20 to 30 
Cumberland 
30 to 40 
Somerset . . 
. 20 to 40 
York .... 
10 to 50 
Oxford . . . 
. 25 to 50 
Lancaster . . 
5 to 30 
Berks . . . 
. 90 (one estate) 
Stafford . . . 
10 to 25 
Suffolk . . . 
. Up to 70 
Leicester . . 
40 (average) 
Essex .... 
. 25 to 100 
Nottingham 
14 to 50 
Kent .... 
. 15 to 100 
Warwick . . 
25 to 60 
Sussex . . . 
. 42| (one estate) 
Northampton . 
50 (one estate) 
Hants . . . 
. 25 to 100 
Huntingdon . 
40 to 50 (average) 
Wilts .... 
. 10 to 75 
Derby . . . 
14 to 25 
Devon . . . 
. 10 to 25 
Gloucester . . 
60 (one estate) 
Cornwall . . 
. 10 to 100 
The cases in which a reduction of 100 per cent, is given 
are those in which there is more or less land let rent free, the 
tenants paying the amount of the tithe to the landlords, as well 
as the rates to the collectors. In addition to the permanent 
reductions named above there have been temporary remissions 
in certain years pretty generally. 
Since the preceding remarks were written some fresh 
reports from Assistant Commissioners have become available. 
Mr. R. H. Rew, writing of the Salisbury Plain district of Wilt- 
shire, mentions reductions of rent as having been made on a 
number of estates ranging from 10 to 75 per cent., with tem- 
porary remissions extra in some cases. He found that a good 
deal of land had gone out of cultivation, and that changes of 
tenancy had been numerous, while the losses of farmers who 
have not been obliged to quit their holdings have been heavy 
as a rule. With any further fall in price, or a series of bad 
seasons, he says he cannot see how it is possible for the greater 
part of the land in the Salisbury Plain district to be farmed 
even in the most economical fashion. There are thousands of 
acres just on the margin of cultivation, he adds, and a very 
slight further pressure would lead to their being turned into 
sheep-runs of “ prairie value,” as m.uch of the hill land has been 
turned already. 
In his general remarks on the condition of agriculture in 
the counties of Ayr, Wigtown, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries 
Mr. John Speir, who visited those counties as Assistant Commis- 
sioner, found depression to a greater or less extent, landlords 
and tenants alike having felt the pinch of hard times. The 
value of land has fallen in each county, but there are no 
farms in the landlords’ hands. The majority of the farmers are 
barely making ends meet, and many are living on past savings 
