134 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



example is Catshill, in Worcestershire. I visited 

 this after it had been established nearly twenty 

 years, and I could not help feeling that some- 

 how or other the occupying owners felt over- 

 burthened. In a report issued by a Small 

 Holding Commissioner we learn that "only 

 fourteen out of the twenty-seven original pur- 

 chasers remained in occupation of their holdings, 

 that at least five holdings had been the subject 

 of speculative sale, and that, speaking generally, 

 the cultivation of the holdings is poor, and in 

 many cases bad." It is only fair to state that 

 the accuracy of this report has been gravely 

 questioned by the Rural League. 



Nevertheless, this is the best the advocates of 

 small ownership have to show, and whether the 

 cultivation is good or bad one cannot set on one 

 side the knowledge that should these holdings 

 become the centre of a thriving town the 

 descendants of the present owners might 

 degenerate into an idle class, living upon un- 

 earned increment — persons who might not have 

 the slightest interest in agriculture. 



Another favourite example of small owner- 

 ship is in the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire. 

 There is nothing new, as at Catshill, about these 

 holdings. They are as old as English history. 

 In the "selions"of the Isle is revealed their 

 ancestry. There in lines graven by the plough 

 one can trace history back to the days of the 

 Heptarchy. We seem immediately to step 



