COLONISING CROWN LANDS. 91 



who now pays £5 an acre for the use of it, and 

 it produces approximately an extra £25 an acre 

 towards our national wealth. I have never 

 seen such a fine crop of mustard grown for seed. 

 The men were reaping it with hooks, and it 

 overtopped their heads with stalks like bamboo 

 canes. Mustard grows luxuriantly on this 

 black, fen, silty soil, and is a favourite crop with 

 many farmers. 



Close to the field of mustard is another bit 

 of land which would have been classed as 

 undeveloped land. This has now been culti- 

 vated by a small holder and fruit-trees planted 

 in it ; and though the tenant, a gardener, pays 

 £5 an acre rent, he evidently finds the tilling 

 of it profitable. 



As I passed through Moulton to the Parish 

 Council holdings (which were created after the 

 passing of the 1894 Act by voluntary arrange- 

 ment with the Commissioners for Crown 

 lands), I witnessed a type of the old, isolated, 

 uneconomic holding, owned by a man with 

 insufficient capital to develop it. The cottage 

 and buildings were falling into decay, and 

 the weary old owner was looking as wretched 

 as the horse he was holding. It has now 

 passed into the hands of the mortgagers. 



