DESCRIPTION OF PURCHASERS 197 



ledge of land agents, valuers, and surveyors, ignorant 

 often of the state of the case as regards smaller 

 men, is based on their experience in connection 

 with tenant farmers. The farmer has two heavy- 

 preferential payments which he must meet i.e., 

 the labour bill and rent ; it is possible for him in a 

 bad season to be a heavy loser. The small man, 

 who has paid for his land, has no preferential 

 charges, so that any crop is to him a source of 

 profit, and poor land is not valueless to him in the 

 same way as it would be to the farmer who has 

 large outgoings on it. 



Original Occupation of Purchasers. 



The majority of the holders were not originally 

 employed solely in agriculture. 



In Sir R. Edgcumbe's report, published by 

 Mr. Rider Haggard in ' Rural England,' he gives 

 the list of professions as follows : 8 agricultural 

 labourers, 3 gardeners, 2 coachmen, 2 stonemasons, 

 2 watchmakers, 1 carpenter, 1 shopkeeper, 1 police- 

 man, 1 blacksmith, 1 cooper, 1 carman, 1 postman, 

 1 porter, and 1 general dealer. 



On inquiring into the history of the eight agri- 

 cultural labourers, I gathered that the majority of 

 them, while occasionally engaged in farm work, had 

 been small hawkers and general dealers, and the 

 acquisition of holdings had formed a foundation for 

 the pursuit of the same trade on a larger scale. Some 

 of them had formerly rented small bits of land. 



Of the other holders originally employed in 



