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 years, were let as grass runs for stock at a nominal rent The rent of an estate near Chelmsford of 1,418 acres had fallen from L1,314 in 1879 to L415 in 1892, or from 18s. 6d. an acre to 5s. 10d.[683] The net rental of another had fallen from L7,682 in 1881 to L2,224 in 1892, and the landlord’s income from his estate of 13,009 acres in 1892-3 was 1s. an acre.  The balance sheet of the estate for the same year is an eloquent example of the landowner’s profits in these depressed times[684]: 

11:12 AM 7/25/2005RECEIPTS. 
L s. d.

Tithe received 798 5 9
Cottage rents 495 8 6
Garden " 213 5 10
Estate " 7,452 14 8
Tithes refunded by tenants 530 15 2
--------------
L9,490 9 11
==============

PAYMENTS. 
L s. d.

Tithe, rates and taxes 2,964 1 9
Rent-charge and fee farm rents 179 0 4
Gates and fencing 8 7 8
Estate repairs and buildings 4,350 12 8
Draining 170 6 1
Brickyard 170 1 8
Management 936 14 7
Insurances 58 11 5
Balance profit 652 13 9
---------------
L9,490 9 11
===============

In the great agricultural county of Lincoln rents had fallen from 30 to 75 per cent.[685] The average amount realized on an acre of wheat had fallen from L10 6s. 3d. in 1873-7 to L2 18s. 11d. in 1892[686]; and the fall in the price of cattle between 1882 and 1893 was a little over 30 per cent.  Many of the large farmers in Lincolnshire before 1875 had lived in considerable comfort and even luxury, as became men who had invested large sums, sometimes L20,000, in their business.  They had carriages, hunters, and servants, and gave their children an excellent start in life.  But all this was changed; a day’s hunting occasionally was the utmost they could afford, and wives and daughters took the work from the servants.  The small farmers had suffered more than the large ones, and the condition of the small freeholders was said to be deplorable; a fact to be noted by those who think small holdings a panacea for distress.[687]