PREFACE 



THE main purpose of the present volume is (i) to show, 

 by a series of facts and figures now to a large extent 

 first published, the substantial development which 

 following on the decline in cereals, and aided by 

 changes in our economic conditions has taken place 

 in various subsidiary branches of agricultural or kindred 

 pursuits, encouraging a spirit of confidence in the con- 

 tinued possibilities of the agricultural situation ; (2) to 

 give some idea of what is actually proceeding in this 

 country in the way of an increased acceptance of the 

 principles and practice of agricultural combination ; 

 and (3) to discuss some of the principles on which the 

 advent of the ' small holder ' can best be encouraged. 



In dealing, however, with these three phases of the 

 transition which I thus seek to describe, my aim has 

 been less to give exhaustive details in regard to each 

 (a task which would have involved the writing of 

 several books instead of one, and an amount of labour 

 that could not well have been undertaken by an in- 

 dividual inquirer) than to present, in a single volume 

 of modest dimensions, such concrete examples and 

 illustrations as would allow of a general idea being 

 obtained of the situation as a whole. 



