SMALL-HOLDING SYSTEMS 15 



on the other. Attention is called to the fact that 

 these causes have nothing to do directly with the 

 purely agricultural reasons which make small hold- 

 ings an economic success or the reverse. 



It was pointed out in the preceding chapter that 

 there still exists in England a definite small-holding 

 system, consisting of holdings which are a survival of 

 ancient times, and of new ones which have cropped 

 up more recently. That this should be the case, 

 in spite of the general trend of events tending to 

 their destruction, leads us to regard both these types 

 with peculiar interest, and to ask what are the 

 special conditions which are favourable to their 

 existence. 



Now, if a man gets a living on a small area it 

 necessarily implies that the return from the land 

 itself must be relatively very great, or the produce 

 grown must be of such a quality or of such a type 

 as commands a relatively high price. Failing this, 

 if the small area in itself cannot produce a sufficient 

 return for a living, it must be so situated that the 

 insufficiency of the land is supplemented by some 

 money-producing factor. 



Amongst these supplements are the common 

 rights we have mentioned as being the support of 

 so many small holders in former times. In the 

 few places where such rights have persisted we 

 find that this has been the reason of small holdings 

 persisting also, such as in the neighbourhood of 

 the New Forest and round what was originally 

 Malvern Chase. The extinction of the bulk of 



