CHAPTER VIII 

 SMALL HOLDINGS OR LARGE FARMS ? 



IN outlining any national agricultural policy 

 it is essential to consider the sizes of 

 holdings which can best be worked as 

 economic units. Most politicians, be they Con- 

 servative, Liberal, or Labour, have advocated, 

 or, at any rate, paid lip-service to, the small 

 holding. The Conservative, with shrewd politi- 

 cal foresight, has advocated small ownership, 

 for will not the " magic of property " enthuse 

 every owner of a cabbage patch to fight to the 

 last ditch in defence of the rights of private 

 property ? The Liberal has encouraged, by 

 legislation, the creation of a class of tenant 

 small holders. This policy the Labour man 

 has generally supported, with a vision of land 

 nationalisation. I have written on the subject 

 myself, but, from the point of view of a crafts- 

 man engaged in cultivating a small holding, 

 and not as the advocate of the creation of a net- 

 work of small holdings as a national agricultural 

 policy. The Labour Party, being in the past 

 an urban party, has never seriously committed 



itself to the work of drafting — apart from land 



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