vi Preface 



suddenly carried off by death from his work for rural England. I 

 would offer my special thanks for the trouble they have taken on 

 behalf of myself and my work to Mr Henry Rew, Major P. G. Craigie 

 and Mr L. J. Cheney of the Board of Agriculture ; to Mr R. A. Yer- 

 burgh, M.P., Mr H. W. Wolff and Mr J. Nugent Harris of the 

 Agricultural Organisation Society ; to the Earl of Ancaster, Mr G. E. 

 Lloyd-Baker, Lord Brassey and Mr H. C. Fairfax-Cholmeley among 

 landowners ; and among gentlemen who have helped me in the most 

 friendly way by information of various kinds, to Mr E. O. Fordham, 

 Mr Montagu Fordham, Sir Gilbert Parker, M.P., Mr Josiah Wedgwood, 

 M.P., Mr G. P. Gooch, and Sir F. A. Channing. 



The title may seem to be somewhat too comprehensive, and to 

 go beyond what is actually the chief point contained in the material 

 utilised in the book. But I would plead in its justification that there 

 are unfortunately no English works treating of the history and organi- 

 sation of agriculture as they are treated in the German systems of 

 Agrar-Politik : and that though the proper subject of the present 

 volume is the economics of large and small holdings, I have so often 

 had occasion to go outside its strict limits that it seemed desirable 

 to indicate the fact in the title. My intention, however, was to 

 work out this special problem of agricultural economy on the broadest 

 possible lines. For the history of the developments in regard of the 

 unit of agricultural holding in England during the last hundred and 

 fifty years can only be understood when looked at upon the back- 

 ground of the whole contemporary agricultural situation ; and a 

 clear statement of the question as it stands at the present day can 

 only be made when every important fact of rural life in modern 

 England has been taken into consideration. 



HERMANN LEVY 



HEIDELBERG 



February 1911 



