SMALL-HOLDING OWNERSHIP 231 



comes to power and proceeds to fulfil its promises 

 as to granting State aid to tenants or others who 

 wish to purchase land, that it accepts this view as 

 sound and lays it down as a provision that the 

 intending purchaser must show himself to be in 

 bona fide possession of, say, one-third of the agreed 

 value of the estate. Then I admit, notwithstanding 

 my own strong predilections in favour of freehold, 

 that it does become worthy of serious consideration 

 whether some alternative plan of long or perpetual 

 leasehold would not be preferable, at any rate where 

 the little man is concerned. For this reason. As a 

 general rule, except where the soil is very good and 

 it is proposed to put it to the purpose of intensive 

 culture or market-gardening, even with the help of co- 

 operation it can scarcely be expected that the peasant 

 farmer will make a decent living and pay up the 

 instalments of his debt punctually on a less area than 

 20 acres, at any rate in most parts of England. 

 It may be remembered in this connection that even 

 in Denmark some authorities whom I consulted 

 thought that the State small-holder should be sup- 

 plied with not less than 10 tondeland, that is about 

 13 acres, as on most soils any smaller area would 

 scarcely suffice for the earning of a livelihood. 



Let us say that the cost of such a twenty-acre 

 holding in England is ^20 the acre, or ^400, to 

 which, as these will not often be ready to hand, must 

 be added that of a house and the necessary buildings, 

 with well, fencing, and drainage, at an outlay of not 

 less than ^300. Further, the expense of stocking 

 the holding with live and dead stock and the en- 

 closing of the same must be allowed for at % the 

 acre, the very least sum in my opinion at which it 



