Economic Aspects 103 



distress farmers had no longer capital enough to work them. But 

 obviously if it had paid to work them the capital would have been 

 forthcoming. If no one wished to invest his capital in large farming 

 it was because better profits could be made elsewhere. Agricultural 

 capital was withdrawn from large farming and invested in small 

 farming. The large farms were not unlet because there were no 

 capitalist farmers : capitalist farmers failed to appear because the 

 profits to be made on large farms were not sufficient to attract them. 

 The interesting question is why small farms had become more profit- 

 able than large. 



The large farm began to be regarded as the ideal unit when in 

 the middle of the eighteenth century corn-production became the 

 great object of the farmer. Since 1880 corn-production, instead of , 

 being the most profitable branch of agriculture, has become the least 

 profitable. Stock-feeding, dairying and market-gardening have taken 

 the lead. Accordingly landlords must aim at multiplying such 

 holdings as are best suited for these purposes. What these are will 

 best be shown by a study of the typical units of holding in relation to 

 the branch of agriculture pursued on each. So far as corn-growing 

 and pasture-farming are concerned this study is fairly simple, as 

 statistical evidence is to hand. 



The statistics confirm what Robertson at the end of the eighteenth 

 century and Caird in the middle of the nineteenth stated as the result 

 of their own observations, that in the pasture districts of the west 

 holdings were smaller than in the corn-producing eastern counties. 

 This division of pasture and corn-land into geographical areas persists 

 up to the present day, being chiefly due to the climatic and geological 

 conditions 1 which favour pasture in the west. The figures of 1895 

 divide the English counties into four geographical districts. Of 

 every 100 acres of agricultural land the percentage of arable 2 was as 

 follows : 



District I District II District HI District IV 



(eastern and north- (south-eastern and (west-midland and (northern and 



eastern counties) east-midland counties) south-western counties) north-western counties) 



687 46'! 40'! 32*5 



Thus arable predominated only in the east and north-east. It 

 was nearly 50 per cent, in the south-east and east-midlands. But in 

 both the western districts pasture predominated considerably. The 



1 J. Caird, in Journal R. A.S., 1869, pp. 69 f. 



2 The corresponding percentages for the area under wheat were 10*3 ; 5'7 ; 3*9 ; r8. 



