MIGRATION OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 73 



wanted at the farm. It can scarcely be expected that 

 men should work on their allotments in fine weather, and 

 on the farm in wet weather. 



The economic fact that the tendency of allotments is 

 to lower wages, or at any rate to prevent them from 

 rising, cannot be overlooked. In the village where the 

 Daily News commissioner found " the most thriving 

 allotments " he found also the lowest wages. 



The Select Committee on Small Holdings reported in 

 favour of the creation, by the advance of a sum not 

 exceeding 5,000,000 to local authorities, of a class of 

 State-aided peasant proprietors. This proposal, if acted 

 upon, would be presumably intended to provide for farm 

 labourers the " career " which was alluded to above. The 

 subject was brought before the Fanners' Club last year by 

 Mr. Druce, and I need not therefore do more than mention 

 it in passing, especially as no definite scheme is at present 

 before the country. I would only venture to observe that 

 in the proposals which I have seen, it is a condition 

 precedent that the man wishing to acquire a small holding 

 should possess a not inconsiderable amount of capital 

 to provide not only the stock for the farm, but also a 

 proportion of the purchase money. It appears that 

 such a scheme would only avail to help the farm labourer 

 who by thrift and industry has accumulated considerable 

 savings ; and it occurs to me that this is just the man 

 who at the present time is best able to help himself. 



In this connection attention may be directed to the sug- 

 gestion made by Lord Thring in the Nineteenth Century for 

 January, 1892. He suggests that succession duty should be 

 paid in land by an actual slice out of the estate and 

 that the same system should be adopted with respect to 

 the redemption of the land tax. By this means the 

 State would come into possession of a number of small 

 parcels of land all over the country. Lord Thring 

 further suggests that for the sale of these small estates 

 recourse should be had to the Land Registry Act of 1875, 



