CHAPTER II 



THE NATURAL OCCURRENCE OF 

 SMALL HOLDINGS 



To trace the causes which have led to the dis- 

 appearance of the small holdings which at one time 

 existed all over England would entail a review of 

 our land system from the earliest times. If a 

 revival of such holdings to-day necessitated a 

 return to the conditions under which they formerly 

 flourished, it would demand a detailed study of those 

 causes. But, under our altered conditions of trade 

 and agriculture, such a study is now merely of 

 historical interest, and a knowledge of it would 

 hardly help us in the reconstruction of the small- 

 holding system. Anyone wishing to get a general 

 idea of the sequence of events which led up to our 

 present conditions could not do better than read 

 Mr. Jesse Collings's recent book on Land Reform. 

 In three chapters which he devotes to the land 

 system he shows how the people have been 

 divorced from the soil, not so much from economic 

 causes as from arbitrary class legislation. The 

 chief form which this took was in the enclosure of 

 common lands. Over 7,500,000 acres were enclosed 



8 



