SMAIvL HOI^DIXGS IN SCOTI^AND II/ 



relation to Forestry are immediateh committed to the Commissioner for 

 Small Holdings. An Advisory Committee has been appointed bj^ the 

 Secretary for Scotland to advise the Board in this matter, and an^Vdvisory 

 Officer has also been appointed. 



The sum available for the Board's work, known as the Agriculture 

 (Scotland) Fund, is £200,01)0 per annum, of which £35,000 represents 

 the sum previously paid to the Congested Districts Board, and £165,000 

 is a new Parliamentary grant. The Fund is to be expended on the consti- 

 tution and equipment of new holdings, loans to existing landholders for 

 buildings, and in connection with the other duties of the Board, including 

 those transferred from the Congested Districts Board. The administrative 

 expenses of the Board are met, not out of the Fund, but out of a separate 

 Parliamentary Vote. In addition to the Fund, certain sums are made avail- 

 able by the Development Commissioners for the schemes of the Board in 

 connection with agricultural education and research, the improvement of 

 live-stock, etc . 



§ 14. Work of the board of agriculture. 



Small Holdings. — When the Board began their work on ist. April, 1912, 

 about 1,700 applications for new holdings and for the enlargement of exist- 

 ing holdings awaited them. By the e nd of the year 1912 the total number 

 was 5,353. of which 3,370 were for new holdings and 1,982 for enlargements. 

 Of the applications for new holdings fully five-sixths came from the crofting 

 counties, the rest of Scotland contributing only 550 (i). The reason for 

 this preponderance is, as already" stated in connection with the work of 

 the Land Court, that the full privileges of fixity of tenure and of judicial 

 rent have been familiar in the crofting counties since 1886. There is reason 

 to believe that when the benefits conferred by the Act are full3' understood 

 in the southern counties, there will be an increasing and steady demand for 

 them. 



About 50 per cent, of the apphcants desired holdings of over 25 acres ; 

 over 500 asked for holdings between 10 and 25 acres, and about the same 

 number for holdings uiider 10 acres, while many stated no definite area. 

 The larger holdings are sii.ch as will occupy the whole time of the holder 

 and his family. In the northern districts the smaller holdings are of the 

 crofting type, where the holder either practises some other industry, such 

 as fishing, or desires to have along with his small arable holding a share in 

 common grazings. In the lowland districts the smaller holdings are applied 

 for by men who either have .some other xegiilar employment or intend to 

 use the land for market gardening or the like. 



(i) In the case of applications for enlargements the proportion from the crofting counties 

 was even greater. This is explained by the fact that such applications can be made only 

 bv landholders. 



