Economics of the Size of Farms 179 



individual birds need attention ; the henroost must be clean ; feeding 

 must be regular and the food clean and properly prepared ; and 

 all this needs a loving carefulness not to be expected from wage- 

 labourers or hired servants. It is beyond dispute that the wife of the 

 large farmer is not inclined to devote such intensive labour to the 

 purpose 1 . It was quite characteristic that a farmer should tell the 

 Commission of 1894 that poultry-keeping would not be worth his while, 

 since he would have to pay some one to do the work 8 . Poultry will 

 only pay where the farmer's wife and daughters will themselves look 

 after them. Another advantage of the small holder is that, as is 

 often said in England today, a small flock of poultry lays better 

 than a large one. " Six hens," writes Mr Read, " will generally lay 

 more eggs per fowl than a dozen, and a dozen than a score 3 ." So 

 Mr Lawry writes 4 that a small flock on a small area will do better 

 than the large farmer's flock, which is always given a wide range. An 

 incidental advantage of the smaller area is that fewer eggs will be 

 lost than where the hens can wander over a large field or fields. To 

 provide impenetrable hedges, or even wire fences, over a large area is 

 too heavy a task to be undertaken on an ordinary farm, so that the 

 hens easily get into places where they are not intended to be. Still, 

 the main advantage of the small holder is here again the intensiveness 

 of his labour and his heightened interest in the work. The con- 

 sequence of the conditions indicated is that large farmers seldom 

 manage poultry-keeping profitably. " Whenever large poultry-farms 

 have been started in England, as, for instance, at Bromley in Kent, 

 they have failed," says an expert, writing in 1891. 



(5) Pedigree Stock-breeding. One other branch of stock-farming 

 remains to be considered : viz. the breeding of pedigree or herd-book 

 stock. Here, in contradistinction to all the other branches, the large 

 farmer has almost a monopoly. It is not wonderful that this should 

 be the case. The purchase of such stock demands a considerable 

 capital ; the prices sometimes obtained have already been mentioned. 

 No small holder can hope to provide himself with a pedigree bull or 

 registered ram. Then besides the initial cost the breeder has to provide 

 expensive foods, exquisite stabling, and the transport of animals to 



1 Cp. a defender of the large farm in this sphere ; Read, op. cit. p. 1 2. 



2 Report of 1894, qu. 16,976-16,978. 

 s Read, op. cit. p. n. 



4 J. W. Lawry, Small Holdings in Cornwall, in Journal R. A. S., 1891, pp. 391 f. 

 8 W. B. Tegetmeier, Farm Poultry, in Journal R. A. S., 1891, p. 68. 



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