RURAL COUNCILLORS. 101 



I thought he displayed a rather unusual 

 amount of eagerness in his invitation. First 

 he showed me a splendid crop of standing 

 wheat and some samples of turnip seed which 

 his men had thrashed with the flail upon the 

 rick-cloth. By carefully selecting the seed 

 each year from the best plants, he was able to 

 sell the seed at a high price and make as much 

 as £06 an acre from his field of turnips. 



" Now," said he, " come and see the allot- 

 ments I sublet to my men on this farm." 

 The strips of oats and wheat on these allot- 

 ments were pathetically short compared to 

 the crops of my friend, and the land on 

 which they grew was dirty. 



" There you are," he said, " there are your 

 small holdings. What do you think of them ? 

 I help the men all I can. I lend them a 

 waggon when tliey want to carry their corn 

 to the thrashing machine. I even thrash it 

 for them. Whenever a man wants an imple- 

 ment he has only to ask for it. So all that is 

 made easy for them ; yet you see failure staring 

 them in the face here. A man cannot serve 

 two masters ; he has no time for both jobs. 

 When the Small Holdings Act of 1907 was 

 passed, my bullock-man came to me and said — 



