CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTORY 



THE study of small holdings as they exist in 

 different parts of the world to-day has practically 

 been confined to other countries. Anyone turning 

 his attention to the facts of this country is met 

 at the outset with an absence of any information 

 in a collected form which would enable him to 

 realize what our actual position is in regard to this 

 question. The few detached accounts which exist 

 are, as a rule, of various isolated experiments, which 

 have been made with a view to bringing people 

 back to the land ; whereas the many localities where 

 small holdings are a natural occurrence are practi- 

 cally ignored. This possibly accounts for the idea 

 prevalent amongst a large class of people that, 

 although in old days small holders formed a con- 

 siderable part of our agricultural country, they have 

 now almost completely died out, and that it is 

 only under certain very special conditions they can 

 exist at all. This is true to a limited degree ; at 

 the same time there is still to be found in very 



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