1903.] on Bural England. 331 



vident and ambitious, ought to be able to raise himself in the world. 

 Tou may ask bow it is possible upon his scanty wages ? I answer 

 that where opportunities exist it is done, meaning by opportunities the 

 chance of acquiring small holdings, either as owners or as tenants. 



I will give you some examples. Epworth, in the Isle of Axholme, 

 has an area of 5741 acres held by 294 occupiers, of whom 235 hold 

 under 20 acres apiece, 115 holding under 10, and 80 under 2 acres. 

 When I visited the place in 1901 nine of the largest farmers in it, 

 working from 200 down to 40 acres respectively, were stated to have 

 risen from the position of farm labourers to that which they held at 

 that date, and the same facts obtain, as I was informed, amongst very 

 many of the smaller owners and occupiers, both in Epworth itself 

 and in the neighbouring villages. 



Most of these men did not confine themselves to potato growing, 

 for which the isle is famous, but followed a course of general farming, 

 and according to my informants raised more grain per acre than the 

 large farmers, quite an equal weight of beef, more pork and vege- 

 tables, but less mutton, small holdings being unadapted to sheep. 

 It was also said that their little properties are not by any means so 

 heavily mortgaged as is commonly supposed. 



Another nest of small holders is to be found at Downham in 

 Cambridgeshire. These for the most part hold their own land under 

 a copyhold tenure, of which the fines payable on death or sale press 

 heavily upon them and must generally be met by raising money upon 

 mortgage. The result is that tbey have to work very hard to earn 

 a living, harder indeed than the ordinary farm servant. Yet the 

 results of my personal inquiries were that none of them would have 

 been willing to exchange their lot for that of a labourer ; that they 

 did live, and reared large families ; and that very few of the young 

 men migrated to the towns, as most of them hoped in due course to 

 hold land of their own. 



To take a third instance, which is particularly interesting, since 

 here the land is not remarkable for richness, being chiefly a thin 

 black earth upon the chalk, and there existed no hereditary leaning 

 towards small holdings. In 1888 Sir Robert Edgcumbe purchased 

 the Rew Farm of 343 acres in Martin stown, Dorset. This he sold 

 on an instalment system extending over 9 years, in lots of varying 

 sizes to 27 purchasers, of whom 24 have in his own words " made a 

 thorough success of their holdings," which average about 11 acres 

 each.. Within 6 years all the purchase money had been paid off, 

 with the exception of about 500Z. Also 14 of the purchasers had erected 

 dwellings on their lots. In 1888, when the farm was bought, the 

 total population on it amounted to 21 souls. In 1902 there were 

 nearly 100, and it was still increasing. In 1888 the rateable value 

 was 215Z. In 1902 it was 346Z., that is to say, 60 per cent. more. 

 During the same period the rateable value of the entire parish in 

 which the farm lies fell 26 per cent. 



I had hoped to dwell upon the results of Major Poore's experi- 



