EFFECT OF CREATING SMALL HOLDINGS 239 



We have seen that France, with her 92,442,745 acres Foreign 

 of cultivated area, has 5,550,000 smallholdings; Gcr- '^'^amples 

 many, with her 108,211,772 acres of cultivated area, has 

 5.558,317 small holdings; Hungary, with her 54,303,938 

 acres of cultivated area, has 2,795,885 small holdings, 

 while we, with our 48,000,000 acres under cultivation, 

 have only 1,104,637 small holdings. 



Even little Belgium, with her tiny 4,350,000 acres of 

 cultivated area, has as many as 829,625 smaU holdings. 



Give to our country a small holding's system pretty 

 much on the same principle as we find obtaining in every 

 prosperous State in Europe, and our 48,000,000 of " cul- 

 tivated" areawillgiveus, on the German basis, 2,500,000 

 agricultural holdings; on the French basis, 2,850,000; on 

 the Hungarian basis, 2,500,000; and on the Belgian 

 basis, 9,000,000. 



But if we bring the twelve to fourteen millions of acres 

 of waste land before referred to, into the field of opera- 

 tions and add them to our 48,000,000 of cultivated area, 

 our agricultural holdings would then amount, on the 

 basis of the small holdings of the four countries above 

 given, to: 



3,330,000; 3,800,000; 3,333,000 and 12,000,000 



respectively, instead of the miserable 1,104,637 " Hold- 

 ings " of sorts now on the agricultural register. 



If a vast body of new electors is imported into the 

 politics of the State, a body, moreover, created out of 

 the prescience of a wise Government, it follows that, 

 apart from the well-known conservative bias of all agri- 

 culturists, the Government would, at least, ensure the 



