ords and tenants was so reduced that neither could afford
to spend an unnecessary penny. Land deteriorated in condition,
drainage was practically discontinued ... less cake and less manure
were bought, labour bills were reduced, and the number of males
employed in farming dwindled as the wheat area contracted.'[680] The
year 1893 was remarkable for a prolonged drought in the spring; from
March 2 to May 14 hardly any rain fell, and live stock were much
reduced in quality from the parching of the herbage, while in many
parts the difficulty of supplying them with water was immense.

In the same year another Commission on Agriculture was appointed,
whose description of the condition of agriculture was a lamentable
one. The Commission in their final report[681] stated that the seasons
since 1882 had on the whole been satisfactory from an agricultural
point of view, and the evidence brought forward showed that the
existing depression was to be mainly attributed to the fall in prices
of farm produce. This fall had been most marked in the case of grain,
particularly wheat, and wool also had fallen heavily. It was not
surprising therefore to find that the arable counties[682] had
suffered most; in counties where dairying, market gardening, poultry
farming, and other special industries prevailed the distress was less
acute, but no part of the country could be said to have escaped. In
north Devon, noted for stock rearing, rents had only fallen 10 to 15
per cent. since 1881, and in many cases there had been no reduction at
all. In Herefordshire and Worcestershire good grass lands, hop lands,
and dairy farms had maintained their rents in many instances, and the
reductions had apparently seldom exceeded 15 per cent.; on the heavy
arable lands, however, the reduction was from 20 to 40 per cent.

In Cheshire, devoted mainly to dairying, there had been no general
reduction of rent, though there had been remissions, and in some cases
reductions, of 10 per cent.

In fact, grazing and dairy lands, which comprise so large an area of
the northern and western counties, were not badly affected, though the
depreciation in the value of live stock and the fall in wool had
considerably diminished farm profits and rents. But of the eastern
counties, those in which there are still large quantities of arable
land, a different tale was told. In Essex much of the clay land was
going out of cultivation; many farms, after lying derelict for a few
year