Country Life
Estrin?* FAILMS.
SINCE I wrote on the subject last week a number' of the smaller local papers have published news about the difficulty of letting farms. In one district where tenancies have been surrendered one after another, the rents on those retained have been reduced almost to vanishing point in the endeavour to• retain the tenants. One particular farm has been . let for, exactly the amount of the tithe, which is high, 8s. an acre. On one Midland estate of rather more than 2,000 acres, with about 80 houses, the gross rental from this Michaelmas will not exceed £800, including five farm-houses and out- buildings which are big, comfortable, and spacious. Almost everywhere in England, if the chalk comes near the surface or the clay is heavy or the sand light, the land will cost its owner something like £1 an acre on the average, in some places more, in some less, but in very, very few will it return even the minutest profit.
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