CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS 198 



General Conclusions. 



We may infer from the results of this experi- 

 ment that it is not favourable agricultural conditions 

 alone which determine the success of small holdings. 

 Here we have a most flourishing colony in spite of 

 the fact that it is far from main roads, stations, and 

 markets, and not on particularly good land. 



It seems rather to suggest that small holdings 

 would be a special boon when established in con- 

 nection with any local industry, and this not only 

 as a means of keeping the men employed in it on 

 the land : for it appears indirectly to solve one of 

 the vexed questions of agricultural labour viz., 

 the supply of extra hands at busy times. Here we 

 have a constant supply of men available for harvest 

 and hoeing who, if they were solely dependent on 

 agricultural labour, would be inevitably thrown out 

 of employment during the winter. This, in time, 

 leads to the forsaking of agriculture as a calling, and 

 to farmers being handicapped by lack of labour. 



SMALL HOLDINGS ON REW FARM, DORSET. 



Rew Farm is in the parish of Martinstown, three 

 miles from Dorchester. It was purchased by Sir 

 Robert Edgcumbe in 1888, and sold out in thirty 

 freehold lots ranging from 1 to 31 acres. 



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