112 TIPTREE, ESSEX 



represented about 8 tons ; but I was informed about 

 half this would be the usual return. He had also 

 put up a long range of glass-houses. 



As an example of the thrift and industry of the 

 local people, he told me how thirty-five years ago 

 ten of them had started a branch of the Wholesale 

 Co-operative Society with a capital of 28. Now 

 they had an annual turnover of 17,000, paying 

 nearly 1,000 a year in dividends. The practice 

 is for the men to buy shares, and let their dividends 

 accumulate until they have a chance to invest in 

 land, etc. 



Another holder visited was an old man who had 

 started life as a farm-labourer. He now owned 6 

 acres and had built his own house. He rented 6 

 acres besides. He had just finished ploughing a 

 piece of land after a crop of turnip seed, and had it 

 ready for planting with cabbage for seed. 



We also visited a 45-acre field which was let in 

 plots to eight people at 42. 



The seed crops grown here were chiefly mangel 

 and scarlet-runner beans. The mangel seed crops 

 this year were estimated at about one ton to the 

 acre, worth about 18 to 20. 



In considering the factors which have led to this 

 natural development of small holdings, a most 

 important one at the present time is certainly the 

 employment of labour induced by the presence of 

 the jam factory and the company's fruit farms. 

 There are 100 permanent hands employed at the 



