168 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



A very learned man living in the county of Dorset set out 

 to test the weight of the obstructions placed in the path of 

 the labourer applying for a small holding. This was Dr. 

 Alfred Russell Wallace, who, in the course of an interview, 

 related to me the story of the amazing document he sent 

 in to the Dorsetshire County Council making an applica- 

 tion for a small holding. 



He really wanted a small holding for his son and suggested 

 to the County Council that if he cultivated some of the waste 

 heath land where only gorse and heather flourished it would 

 be doing a good thing for the nation. He was prepared to 

 pay los. an acre rent, though the only access was by way 

 of a cart track, and the tenant at that time was probably 

 merely paying a shooting rertf for the land. 



The manner in which he filled up his application form 

 must have puzzled bucolic councillors. " Age : 89. Experi- 

 ence : 65 years' gardening and science ; " and he got the 

 village postman to attest to the uprightness of his 

 character ! 



He had to wait nine months before anything was done, 

 and then the County Council stated that the waste heath- 

 land might be let to him at 2 an acre with the addition 

 of a possible compensation to the sitting tenant ! 



" Of course I rejected the offer," said Dr. Wallace, " but it 

 proved conclusively to me the failure of the Small Holdings Act 

 as administered by a Council like the Dorsetshire County Council. 

 This County Council's inquisition is worthy of the Russian 

 autocracy. It is preposterous to treat a countryman who is 

 naturally cautious and industrious with suspicion. The very 

 fact that a man applies for land on which to work shows that he 

 has character, without any further evidence. Besides, the 

 cultivation of land helps to build up character ; and these County 

 Councils overlook the fact, too, that if the applicant has a family, 

 he brings with him to the soil potential capital." 



I glanced across the heather, which stretched for miles 

 down to Poole, where the harbour glistened like an in- 

 land lake. The air was redolent with pine and bracken. 

 Surely it was foolish, I thought, to check the enterprise of 

 a wonderful old scientist of ninety years of age, willing to 

 use his knowledge on the uncultivated heath. 



