SMALL HOLDINGS OR LARGE FARMS? 139 



so that he could write long letters to the 

 papers to explain how, as a paid servant, the 

 labourer was worthy of his hire ; but he 

 would, I opine, make a better salesman. 



Speaking generally, small holdings are more 

 successful where the occupiers have not had to 

 sink the bulk of their capital in purchasing 

 land. As tenants they have achieved a large 

 measure of success in favoured spots such as 

 the vale of Evesham, and the fenlands of 

 South Lincolnshire. The vale of Evesham 

 presents a picture of smiling prosperity due 

 partly to the soil, climatic conditions, the near- 

 ness to markets, and to the " Evesham 

 custom" in tenant rights which the Govern- 

 ment has now adopted as a national custom. 

 Yet if one examines an estate map and detects 

 the number of times the same name appears on 

 different one or two acre strips, one instantly 

 realises the appalling waste of time there must 

 be in cultivating land divided up in this 

 manner. Nearly every small holder in 

 Evesham possesses a bicycle. There is not 

 only the waste of time in cycling to your hold- 

 ing and back, but when you find you are able 

 to cultivate more than one acre, there is the 

 waste of time in cycling from one strip to 

 another, and your various strips may be divided 

 by many other strips, rented by individuals who 

 are put to the same inconvenience as you are. 

 Then imagine the economic waste in the pur- 



