Economics of the Size of Farms 1 8 1 



advantages of the medium holding, it will be better briefly to sum- 

 marise the general results obtained. 



It has been shown that the large holding is absolutely superior to 

 the small in regard of corn-growing and mixed husbandry, and in the 

 breeding of pedigree stock ; that in potato-growing it has the advan- 

 tage, while in stock-feeding it is on an equality with the small holding. 

 The reason in each case is that all these branches of agriculture 

 demand in the first place intensive application of capital. That is in 

 the foreground, while the need for labour of a special quality and an 

 individualised nature falls into the background, these employments 

 permitting of reduction to a series of mechanical processes and the 

 substitution of machinery for hand-labour. This is not to say, however, 

 that the individualised attention would not be desirable even in these 

 large-scale businesses, as for example in pedigree stock-breeding. 

 The point is simply that this desirability shrinks into insignificance 

 as compared with the absolute need for a free expenditure of capital. 

 Small holdings, on the other hand, excel in fruit and vegetable growing, 

 in poultry-breeding and in stock-farming generally with the excep- 

 tions noted above. In the fattening of stock, large and small holdings 

 are fairly balanced. The question as to whether the feeding is on an 

 arable or on a pasture-farm is important, since the small holder is at 

 a considerable disadvantage on the former as compared with the large 

 holder. It follows that the chances of the small farm are at present 

 improving in this sphere, the mixed husbandry of an earlier period 

 having become unprofitable, while stock-feeding as the sole object of 

 an arable holding is much less common than as the object of a holding 

 entirely or almost entirely devoted to pasture. The advantage (or 

 in some cases rather the capacity to compete) on the part of the 

 small holding in these, the most profitable agricultural occupations of 

 the present time, depends on the fact that in these cases the demand 

 for a quantitative and qualitative intensity of labour is greater than 

 that for intensive application of capital. The question is not of 

 mechanical processes, but of matters needing individual attention and 

 of the care of living creatures. The prime condition of success in all 

 these branches of production is therefore qualitative intensity of 

 labour in the highest sense of the phrase ; work in which the heart 

 and mind and individual capacity of the worker, and not some 

 external rule, must be the teacher. Such work has never been 

 obtainable from hirelings at any time ; it has always been charac- 

 teristic of the head of a concern. Therefore it is that wherever such 

 work becomes of fundamental importance, there the small holder can 



