434 PRESENT-DAY EXPERIMENTS 



They are all agriculturists, or connected in some 

 way with the land ; 40 per cent., however, though 

 country-bred, are coming back from town life. 

 About one-third are Salvationists. 



The Likelihood of Success. 



If there is any criticism to offer, it is merely to 

 suggest that it will take picked men, both from the 

 point of view of knowledge and industry, to culti- 

 vate 5 acres single-handed by spade labour. There 

 is no doubt that on this class of soil it can be done, 

 especially when, as in this case, no time will be 

 lost in seeing to the marketing of produce, and it 

 will be possible for the small holder to turn his 

 whole attention to production. There is a possi- 

 bility, however, that the average man will find this 

 amount of land quite as much as he can manage, 

 and it will be interesting to note what percentage 

 of the men find this to be the most suitable size, 

 and what exact type of cultivation they will find 

 the most profitable. 



A study of all the schemes which have been 

 considered in this volume seems to point to the 

 fact that, as far as we have gone in the question, 

 small holdings to be successful must occur as a 

 natural growth, and be evolved out of local con- 

 ditions. Here the undertaking is more on the 

 lines of an artificial experiment. A new method 

 of cultivation on new lines is being introduced into 

 a purely agricultural district. But it must also be 

 remembered that all previous schemes have been 



