EXCESSIVE SUBDIVISION 237 



These tables throw an interesting light on the size 

 of the average holdings in Holland, but they convey 

 no really adequate idea of the lengths to which the 

 excessive subdivision of land has been carried in that 

 country. Small as the holdings are, one has to re- 

 member that a large proportion of them would not be 

 represented by one piece of land, but would comprise 

 many different strips or parcels. 



What has been happening in different parts of 

 Holland under the system of peasant proprietary in 

 vogue there can be easily realized by the reader. Let 

 him assume that a Dutch farmer is the proprietor of 

 a square patch of land representing not more than 

 10 acres, and having access to a road along only one 

 side. He has, say, four sons, and on his death he 

 leaves the land to be divided equally between them. 

 Should the land then be cut up simply into four smaller 

 squares, the effect must be that only two of the sons 

 will have access to the roadway, the two others being 

 isolated therefrom. To avoid this the land is divided 

 lengthwise, so that each of the four gets a fourth of 

 the frontage. But in course of time the four sons die, 

 each of them, as we will again assume, leaving four 

 sons in turn to succeed him. Further divisions follow, 

 and the square piece of land originally held by one 

 man is now to be owned by sixteen. But each of those 

 sixteen will want his frontage to the road, so that again 

 the division takes place lengthwise. Repeated sub- 

 division for a series of generations would be bad enough 

 in any possible circumstances, but it becomes still 

 worse when that question of access to the road arises 

 in addition. 



A good deal of what was once common land has been 

 divided and subdivided on the same principle. In 

 either case the strips of land may become just the 



