TYPICAL HOLDINGS 409 



advantage. The remaining forty-five, who have 

 other occupations, are continually pressing the 

 Parish Council to supply them with more land. 



Amongst the men interviewed who had not 

 enough land for a living was a man who had 

 worked as a labourer for nineteen years. He 

 and his son held 2^ acres of the Parish Council 

 land, and were badly in need of more. His son kept 

 a horse and pony, and bought crops off the farmers 

 to retail in Birmingham, and he himself got odd 

 work at hedging, etc., in the winter. Most of their 

 land was in strawberries and corn. 



Another young man, who was the successful 

 applicant for a ^-acre lot out of seven others, was 

 the son of a nail-maker, and had a horse and cart, 

 which he used for buying up produce and reselling. 

 He was an instance of how a young single man 

 could begin in this way, and gradually get more 

 land of his own to cultivate in spare time. 



There were two cases where original allottees 

 under the Parish Council had moved on to small 

 holdings provided by the County Council at 

 Catshill, a mile or two distant. Their work on 

 the Parish Council land had proved invaluable as a 

 preliminary training. 



In comparing this district and the methods of 

 working the small holdings with other places where 

 the same sort of cultivation is carried on, one 

 notices the following points : 



1. That there are at the present time no 

 particular local industries or forms of employment 

 of a different nature, the men using their holdings 

 as adjuncts, to fall back upon ; but amongst those 



