1 i 2 Large and Small Holdings 



successful 1 . Cheshire, which had long been celebrated for its small 

 and medium-sized dairy-farms, was said to have suffered less from 

 the depression than any other county in England 2 . Wherever stock- 

 feeding and dairy-farming flourished small holdings prospered, while 

 large farms did not do nearly so well 3 . Monmouthshire 4 , Leicester- 

 shire 8 , and other counties might be cited 6 . The same was true where 

 the small holders devoted themselves to fruit, vegetables, or poultry- 

 breeding. To fruit-farming, for instance, was attributed the superior 

 prosperity of the small holders and cottagers as compared with the 

 large farmers in Herefordshire. The latter gave no such intensive 

 care to the fruit as the former 7 . In East Sussex, where rents had as 

 a rule been very remarkably reduced, the small poultry-farms were in 

 many cases found to be paying as much as ever 8 . In many parts of 

 the country the small holders, selling no corn, had even profited con- 

 siderably by the fall in its price, since they got cheaper food for their 

 cattle, pigs and fowls 9 . 



Speaking generally, therefore, the success of the small and medium 

 holdings in withstanding the crisis depended on the branch of agricul- 

 ture which they pursued. Even in the great days of corn-growing the 

 small farm had proved its economic inferiority to the large farm so 

 far as this commodity was concerned. When corn-growing fell on evil 

 times, the small arable farmers suffered even more severely than the 

 large. But comparatively few small holdings had been given up to 

 corn : and the branches of production to which they were mostly 

 devoted and in which they excelled were precisely those which after 

 1880 became most profitable. Therefore in general the small holdings 

 had a better chance than the large during the period of depression. 

 Accordingly the evidence as to distress among small holders, if rightly 

 interpreted, is seen to concern exceptions to the general rule ; only an 



1 Cp. A. J. Burrows, The Agricultural Depression, 1882, pp. n f. : "At this moment 

 very few small farms remain upon the hands of the landowners, and many of these have lately 

 been let at an increased rental ; while many large arable farms are unlettable even at con- 

 siderably reduced rents." 



2 Report of 1894, qu. 10,407. 



3 Ibid., qu. 4218-4220, evidence of Sir Gardner Engleheart : " Looking generally at the 

 property under your management, would you say that the depression is more felt by the large 

 farms or the small ones ? I think mostly by the large ones. Is that specially in the case of 

 the grass districts ? Yes. You think small farms have answered better ? Yes, I think so." 



4 Ibid., qu. 35,126. B Ibid., qu. 13,313. 



8 Ibid., qu. 13,668. 7 Ibid., qu. 5541 (Rankin). 



8 Ibid., qu. 3533 ff. and 3828 ff. 



9 Ibid., qu. 37,454 (Olver) : "In the west of Cornwall they (the small farmers) are 

 practically dependent on the dairy, the making of pork and so on ; they buy a great deal of 

 their grain, and are gainers by the low price of corn." 



