SMALL HOLDINGS OR LARGE FARMS? 141 



is too small for their application. It is true that 

 he can show a greater production to the acre 

 than the large farmer in vegetables, fruit, and 

 poultry, but he cannot compete with the large 

 farmer in the production of meat and corn, 

 nor in the production of milk, though many- 

 successful small holders are dairy farmers. 



It is obvious that an extensive farm is re- 

 quired for the keeping of a fine flock of sheep 

 or a herd of cattle, where first-class bulls are 

 kept, and although there are a number of 

 successful small holders who keep a few cows, 

 I am sure that the production of milk would be 

 greater, its quality cleaner, the labour extended 

 in its production lessened, if the cows were 

 kept on well-regulated large dairy farms. Not 

 much attention is paid to cleanliness in small 

 cow-sheds, and on small grass farms few up- 

 to-date labour-saving machines are to be 

 found for the cleaning out of cow-sheds, or for 

 the distribution of manure, and it is on these 

 small farms where there is an enormous waste 

 of time in the delivery of milk, even if it is 

 only to a railway station. 



But there are even stronger objections to the 

 small farm as an economic unit. Small fields 

 may be convenient to the individual holder, but 

 the ground taken up by hedges and banks, the 

 weeds and pests they harbour, are a national 

 waste. It is said that in one estate in Notting- 

 hamshire, on which the tractor was used at the 



