Economics of the Size of Farms 177 



relatively more than his larger rival. A churn to work two gallons 

 of milk per hour costs 2. 15^., while one with a capacity 12 times as 

 great costs only .8. lew. 1 Thus it is by no means correct to say, 

 as Dr. David has said 2 , that there is no question of competition 

 between large and small farms in the matter of machinery, because 

 the machines are at the disposal of the latter as well as the former. 

 The initial cost of the machines, and especially of the machines of 

 greatest capacity, is relatively lower for the large farmer ; and their 

 use is therefore cheaper for him. It is of course quite another 

 question whether the use of machinery is of such great importance 

 in dairy-farming as to result in an absolute superiority of the large 

 to the small holding. This does not seem to be the case. So long 

 as no satisfactory milking-machine can be found, the small holder 

 has the advantage, not only in the sale of fresh milk, but also in the 

 production of dairy-products, the cheaper and better milking being of 

 fundamental importance. As regards marketing, the two types of 

 dairy-farm are fairly on an equality. As regards labour, machinery 

 does not play such a role, whether in butter or cheese-making, as 

 does cheap and good hand-labour, in which the small holder always 

 has the advantage. The machines can to some extent compensate 

 the large farmer for his weakness as compared with the small farmer: 

 they do not, as in the case of corn-growing, increase his superiority. 

 A dairy-farmer producing on a large scale, selling wholesale, and 

 using machinery, has few advantages and very important dis- 

 advantages as compared with a small farmer who does the work 

 himself with the aid of his family, sells his products in person 

 (or through his wife) and employs little or no outside labour. The 

 division of labour itself, which elsewhere, as e.g. in corn-growing, 

 is so profitable, is on the large dairy-farm often simply a necessary 

 evil. The reader will remember, for example, that it is said on high 

 authority to be desirable that milking and butter-making should be 

 undertaken by one and the same person. 



No fact goes further to prove the superiority of the small holding 

 for dairy purposes than the remarkable custom which exists in some 

 parts of the country under the name of sub-letting the dairy 3 . That 

 is to say, that the large farmers sub-let small dairy-farms out of their 

 own holdings. They supply all the stock, including the cottage 

 and the cows. The small sub-tenant does the work himself, with 

 his family, and pays the large farmer a certain rent per annum 



1 Catalogue of Dairy Machinery Appliances, p. 47. 



J David, op. cit. p. 691. 8 See e.g. Colebrooke, op. cit. p. 50. 



L. I2 



