xliv INTRODUCTION 



of such a kind as to effectually deter any other local authorities 

 from putting into force the powers it is supposed to possess. Some 

 parish and district councils, however, have put into force their 

 compulsory hiring powers under the Local Government Act of 

 1894. But the whole method of obtaining land by local author- 

 ities was hampered by the gentlemen who were elected to the 

 local authorities not being in sympathy with the demand for 

 allotments and small holdings, the labourers not being so alive to 

 their own interests as to get their own representatives elected 

 upon them. ,* 



The Small Holdings and Allotments Act, 1907. came into 

 force on January i, 1908. This Act has several important provi- 

 sions. It gives county councils compulsory power to hire, as well 

 as buy, land for small holdings. The rent or price of the land 

 is to be fixed by a single arbitrator appointed by the Board 

 of Agriculture, in case no agreement is come to by voluntary 

 arrangement. The management of allotments is taken out of 

 the hands of the district and given to the parish councils, and the 

 size of an allotment is increased to five acres. 



In case county councils take no steps to put the Act in force 

 when asked to do so, the Board of Agriculture can take action. 

 Two Small Holdings Commissioners have been appointed to see 

 that the local authorities do their work. The Treasury has made 

 a grant of 100,000 a year towards the expenses of these commis- 

 sioners. There are provisions in the Act which ensure that the 

 local authorities shall report every year to the Board of Agriculture 

 as to the demand for small holdings and allotments, and the steps 

 which are to be taken to supply them. 



The Small Holdings and Allotment Act, 1907, may be regarded 

 as the Peasants' Land Charter, and likely to re-establish small 

 holdings in England to as great, if not greater, extent than existed 

 in the middle of the nineteenth century, thus placing it on an 

 equality with Wales, where, out of 65,000 holders of land, over 

 48,000 hold less than fifty acres, and the Act being extended to 

 Scotland, whether on the hire or purchase system, security of 

 tenure being accorded, there is no question of the success of allot- 

 ments and small holdings restricted to occupation by persons 

 possessed of practical knowledge of economic agriculture and 

 horticulture. This, however, is contingent upon the crops being 

 favoured by natural aids and the cultivators safeguarding them. 



GARDENING. During the 'time of the Roman occupation, 

 through Saxon and Norman down to Magna Charta, horticulture 

 appears to have been co-operative with agriculture, and to the total 

 dismantling of the abbeys in 1540 was confined to the monasteries 

 and baronial castles in a great degree. In this demolition not 

 any of the abbeys were spared, except in cases where they hap- 



