KNOWLEDGE OF THE ACT 383 



desire in those counties for small holdings. What- 

 ever else the reasons may be, this is most certainly 

 not the true one, if you take the counties as a 

 whole. 



An indication has already been given of the 

 reasons which make the agricultural man distrust 

 the effectiveness of applications. A want of definite 

 knowledge of the Act itself is no doubt another 

 strong reason. 



In some cases the County Councils, however, 

 have gone so far as to circulate notices of the Act. 

 Gloucester prepared a pamphlet showing the pro- 

 cedure to be followed by persons desirous of 

 acquiring a small holding, and sent a notice to all 

 the Parish and District Councils requesting infor- 

 mation about any cases where there was a demand. 

 It, however, only received three applications ; an 

 arrangement was made in one case, and the two 

 others were dropped. 



Cheshire communicated the effect of the Act to 

 all Urban and Sanitary Authorities and Boards of 

 Guardians, inviting applications. It, however, 

 received none from this source. Somerset circu- 

 lated an analysis of the Act, but only two applica- 

 tions were received. 



In the face of these statements an outsider would 

 have just cause to suppose that there was no 

 demand amongst the people themselves. One 

 proof, however, that this is not a true test is that 

 Worcestershire also, in early days, sent out over 

 2,000 notices on the Act, and received only two 



