79 



distance apart, are occupied by one farmer, who needs a foreman on 

 the farm distant from his residence ; and to the increase in small 

 residential estates, the owners of which employ a bailiff to manage 

 the land connected with the residence. The decline since 1901 may be 

 due to the return of some farms to separate occupation. This develop- 

 ment has undoubtedly created openings for some intelligent labourers, 

 but the proportion of foremen and bailiffs to total employees is very 

 small, and some of the positions are held by persons who have been 

 farmers, and their sons. 



With agriculture organised on a small scale it might be presumed 

 that extensive opportunities would arise for the erstwhile labourer to 

 obtain control of land and capital. This has not proved to be the case. 

 The proportion of labourers who can, apart from the Small Holdings 

 Act, become small-holders or farmers, varies in different counties. In 

 some parts of Devon and Cornwall, where farms are small, as many as 

 40 per cent, have been labourers or are the sons of labourers ; but 

 taking England as a whole at least 70 per cent, of the farmers are of 

 farming stock i.e., descendants of men who have been employers in 

 agriculture and it would be rash to assume that the other 30 per cent, 

 had been labourers or were the sons of labourers. Many, perhaps most 

 of them, are sons of other inhabitants of the countryside, particularly 

 of tradesmen whose business is connected with agriculture. As distinct 

 from farms, small holdings that have come into existence independently 

 of the Small Holdings Act vary in number and proportion in different 

 counties, the proportion being high in such counties as Cornwall, 

 Cheshire, Lancashire, Holland division of Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, 

 Cambridgeshire, and Bedfordshire, where either dairying or market- 

 gardening fostered these holdings.* 



Since 1908 the number of small holdings established by County 

 Councils has also varied. In some counties the number of holdings 

 would provide opportunities for advancement for as many as 6 or 7 

 per cent, of the labourers, in others less than one per cent. These 

 holdings, too, tend to be more numerous in the market-gardening and 

 dairying districts. But not nearly all the old small holdings or those 

 recently established are sufficiently large to support a family. Taking 



*NUMBER OF SMALL AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS IN ENGLAND AND WALES, 1915. 



Average Proportion 



Size. Number. Acreage. Size in to Total 



Acres. Acreage. 



1 to 5 acres 91,570 282,980 3 1.05 



5 to 20 acres 121,698 1,366,990 11 5.04 



20 to 50 acres 78,454 2,636,094 33 9.72 



In the most numerous groups of small holdings, between one and five, and five 

 and twenty acres, there are many which cannot be classified as agricultural units. 

 A study of 360 holdings in Oxfordshire showed that only 32 per cent, were genuine 

 units in agricultural production. The others, while producing crops, were run 

 as adjuncts to other businesses. Also, many holdings in these classes consist 

 solely of pasture let as ' accommodation land ' to tradesmen and others. Some 

 of the holdings in the 20 to 50 acre group are in practice attached to other holdings, 

 thus constituting a medium-sized farm. 



