CHAMBERS'S 



ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



A DICTIONARY OF UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE 



easant Proprietorship is a 



system of cultivation of small 

 holdings of land by occupiers 

 who own the land, or hold it 

 on some secure or permanent 

 tenure. Perhaps there is no 

 question on which there is a 

 greater diversity of opinion. 

 On the one hand the small 

 cultivator is held up an a pattern of industry, 

 thrift, and prosperity, and on the other as an 

 example of unceasing toil and miserable failure. 



Arthur Young held that the best system of agri- 

 culture was that which secured the largest amount 

 of produce from the land. It is evident, however, 

 that another consideration of great importance 

 must be taken into account viz. the numl>ers, 

 quality, and condition of those engaged in tilling 

 tin 1 soil. Though nations might attain to brilliant 

 positions by trade, commerce, and the accumula- 

 tion of wealth, yet the permanent strength, the 

 solidity, ami resisting power of a country must 

 closely depend on the number and condition of 

 its rural population. Hence if it could ! proved 

 that vast areas of land could be cultivated at the 

 greatest money profit, by means of machinery and 

 a handful of labourers, yet such a method of culti- 

 vation would IN; adverse to the real interests of 

 the nation as a whole. 



There is substantial evidence, however, that 

 small holdings of land are more productive in pro- 

 portion than large farms, anil that they are specially 

 adapted to the production of certain kinds of food. 

 It is from these causes that the rent value and 

 purchase price of the smaller holdings in continental 

 countries are so much higher than are found to 

 obtain with the larger farms of Creat Britain. It 

 is frequently quoted in opposition to this view 

 that tne yield of corn per acre is much greater in 

 Kngland than on the Continent. This comparison, 

 however, is of little value from the fact that the 

 an-rage of continental production is much lowered 

 through the low yields of poor land, hillsides, and 

 365 



wastes, which, if in England, would not be culti- 

 vated at all. The evidence of the Royal Com- 

 mission on Agriculture (I**S) shows that the vast 

 majority of holdings in the Netherlands are from 10 

 to 60 acres, held for the most part by cultivating 

 owners, and that the small and medium-sized farms 

 are generally the best cultivated and managed. 

 Mr Jenkins, the assistant commissioner, gave 

 many examples of what he terms ' intensive ' culti- 

 vation in Holland. One of these is that of a man 

 who owned 22 acres of land, and rented 10 acres 

 more. He hat! thirty milking cows in the fields, 

 and ten feeding beasts in the stall. He fed every 

 year thirty beasts besides his own cast cows, and 

 spent above 600 per annum for food, principally 

 for winter keep. 



Belgium is rather a country of small cultivators 

 than of peasant proprietors. If we leave out of 

 account tne owners of very small plots of land, it is 

 the small tenant-farmer who is the most important 

 element in Belgian agriculture. In spite, however, 

 of excessive rents, the insecurity and other draw- 

 backs of tenancies as compared with ownership, 

 Belgium is a striking example of the advantages 

 of la petite culture. M. de Laveleye states that 

 Belgium is the best cultivated and the most pro- 

 ductive country in the world ; and refers to 

 Flanders, with land naturally the worst in Europe, 

 as a marvellous triumph of care, industry, and fore- 

 thought on the part of the cultivators. According 

 to the report above quoted, the available supply 

 of milk and ite products per head of the popula- 

 tion is in Belgium about twice as great, as that 

 in Great Britain. In most districts in Belgium 

 the lal>otirer is a petit mltivateitr i.e. while 

 hiring himself out as a labourer, he cultivates 

 and often owns a piece of land stocked with 

 rabbits, pigs, poultry, goats, and sometimes one 

 or a couple of cows. A man of this class in the 

 Ardennes, who was working with bis son for a 

 farmer at five francs per day, was found on inquiry 

 by the present writer to be the owner of a cottage 

 with 6 acres of land, two cows, and other smaller 



