92 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



It was a pleasure to turn from this pathetic 

 sight to the modern, economic small holding 

 created to meet a strong demand and designed 

 for modern agricultural requirements. Such 

 holdings would not have been possible had they 

 not been backed by the capital of the Crown, 

 which has spent no less than £8000 for their 

 equipment. A high rent is of course necessary 

 to meet all charges, including interest and 

 management, but after all £2 : 10s. an acre is 

 not a rack-rent for five acres of this fertile 

 soil, nor is £20 for a new cottage of five or six 

 rooms as clean and bright as a new pin, with 

 the five acres attached. There are other 

 holdings for stock-keepers, and these range from 

 forty to fifty acres. The five-acre men usually 

 have some outside work to do, and they get 

 the fifty-acre man, who keeps a team of cart- 

 horses, to plough, harrow, and horse-hoe their 

 land, on which potatoes form the chief crop. 

 I saw a photograph of these fields taken just 

 before the Parish Council decided to acquire 

 them, when the land was full of thistles as 

 high as my knee. Now this land, which 

 was once given over to the bullock and the 

 sheep, is peopled by a new race of English 

 yeomen. In the place of thistles are potatoes ; 



