TYPE OF HOLDER 207 



Present Condition of Holdings. 



At the present time (1905) the number of holders 

 has fallen to twelve, and the clause limiting each 

 holder to 3 acres has not been enforced. Of 

 the eleven agricultural labourers, there are now 

 only two left. Two had bettered themselves, and 

 left to start farming. The rest had either left the 

 neighbourhood, or did not care to go on with the 

 holdings after a few years. The lots, as they fell 

 in, had mostly been taken up by tenant farmers. 

 These men as a rule seeded the land down for 

 mowing. The remaining plots were cultivated in 

 the ordinary way for corn and roots. 



No special crops were grown, and no one had 

 gone in for the market-garden type of cultivation. 



Individual Cases. 



One of the remaining labourers, holding 1 acre, 

 worked for a neighbouring farmer at 18s. a week, 

 with extra harvest money. He had a family of 

 five small children. 



He had dug all his holding by hand, and had 

 half the land in wheat and in potatoes alternately. 

 He recommended this system to small holders 

 working for regular wages, as it gave least work. 

 The potatoes cleaned the land for wheat, and once 

 the grain was sown in the autumn the work was 

 done till next autumn, save for an occasional 

 weeding. He kept pigs at home, which supplied 

 him with manure, and sold whatever stuff he did 



