A TYPICAL HOLDING 83 



There is a cow and pig club in the village, and a co- 

 operative credit bank has been established some years. 

 Amongst the holders interviewed, one man 

 rented and owned 20 acres. He kept two men 

 and a boy in constant employment on the land, 

 having another occupation himself. From 2 acres 

 last year he had received 89 for celery and 

 potatoes. He had on the place two dairy cows, 

 two heifers, three yearlings, and two calves, besides 

 pigs and 150 head of poultry. He had a few acres 

 of grass land, and grew all the produce for the 

 animals' consumption, but occasionally bought hay. 

 He believed that a man could live very comfortably 

 without other employment on 15 acres. He 

 accounted for the rural exodus by saying that in 

 former days the men only stayed because it never 

 occurred to them that there was anything to do but 

 farm ; and that there was nothing inherent in farm- 

 ing in that district which made it more profitable 

 in old days, but that it could be made to pay as well 

 now as formerly if people chose to work. A large 

 farmer and old resident in the district, who had 

 worked his own way up, corroborated the state- 

 ments as to the financial position of freeholders 

 now as compared with twenty years ago. The 

 small holders were all getting on well, and he 

 knew many cases of men in good positions who 

 had started as labourers. But he said there were 

 many men now who preferred a good foreman's 

 place to farming on their own account, having 

 suffered themselves in the bad times. 



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