COST OF CREATING HOLDINGS 13 



ever, be vast tracts in places unsuitable for resi- 

 dential purposes where no such competition is taking 

 place. We are led to ask, why, therefore, do not 

 small holdings occur in a natural manner in such 

 places, granted that the land is otherwise suitable 

 for small-holding cultivation ? 



This leads us first to the consideration of some 

 points in connection with the initial creation of 

 small holdings. It has cost nothing to destroy 

 those holdings which already existed, but it costs 

 a good deal to supply any which are to take their 

 place. In old days the enterprising small man 

 without capital could, by his own labour, gradually 

 build himself up a small holding by squatting on 

 common land and getting patches under cultivation ; 

 in later times he could arrive at the same result by 

 taking enclosed but uncultivated land on a long 

 lease at a nominal rent, on which he put up his own 

 house. * In this way he was at the same time 

 creating his own holding and getting a living. 

 These conditions are now practically destroyed, 

 although an analogy can be found to them in the 

 newly developed fruit-growing districts, where the 

 men have acquired the land in the first instance at 

 an agricultural price, and created their own capital 

 by raising its value to market-gardening price as a 

 result of their own labour. | But for the most part 

 a creation of holdings means an initial outlay, which 



* See Reports on Mr. Harris's holdings at Halwill, and 

 Mr. Fryers at Verwood. 



j- See Reports on Calstock, Tiptree, and Cambridgeshire. 



