FOREIGN CONDITIONS 5 



the means of using this other form of employment 

 to better advantage. 



As already stated, the variety of conditions, of 

 which some idea will have been given above, is the 

 keynote of the small-holding question in this 

 country. This differs very much from the broad 

 classifications into which the conditions in other 

 countries can be arranged, and which affect not so 

 much the type of small holding itself as the 

 prevalence of large holdings as opposed to small 

 ones. 



For instance, if we take France, we are told that 

 it is 'a country of infinite variety,' and that the 

 natural conformation of certain parts of the country 

 renders the system of small holdings inevitable. * In 

 Normandy, Le Nivernais, in the plains of Beance 

 and Berry, districts of vast pasture and corn-fields, 

 involving a large capital outlay on stock or up-to- 

 date, costly machinery, large properties must always 

 prevail ; but in Burgundy, in the countries of narrow 

 valleys divided by low hills, of small fields, of 

 vineyards perched on rocky hillsides, of market- 

 gardens, peasant proprietors will always flourish 

 and tend to increase.'* 



In Ireland the agricultural conditions are even 

 more uniform. The great basin of carboniferous 

 limestone, which forms practically the whole centre 

 of the country, affords a huge grazing and pasture 

 district, where the holdings are all much of the 



* Reginald Lister, Memorandum supplied to Small 

 Holdings Committee, 1906. 



