246 PEASANT PROPRIETARY AT HOME 



is being actively continued), I was told by a local 

 resident who had special facilities for knowing the 

 truth of what he said, * Within a radius of ten miles 

 of this town there is drawn from the land, in the form 

 of fees for conveyancing, transfers, negotiations for 

 mortgages, commissions, and other legal expenses and 

 charges, mainly in connection with small freeholds, 

 a sum of at least 5,000 a year.' 



Can the land, and especially the land cultivated by 

 small holders, stand such a drain as this ? Are not 

 these conditions a primary cause, rather, why so much 

 of the small farming in this country is in a state that is 

 absolutely rotten ? Here we have questions that are 

 well deserving of consideration. 



Looking, in the first place, at the price which the 

 would-be peasant proprietor must pay for his land, 

 independently of legal charges, it is certain that the 

 English agriculturist who desires to purchase a small 

 holding in the open market labours under special dis- 

 advantages. It is not alone that he has to compete with 

 a number of others possessed of similar aspirations, but 

 various causes have combined to give to much of the 

 land in this country more, perhaps, than in any other 

 country a market value which is in excess of its 

 commercial value that is to say, its value when it 

 is wanted for the production of commodities for sale. 

 This is especially the case in regard to land which 

 might be utilized for residential purposes for the sake 

 of the social advantages afforded by the ownership of 

 an estate or in the interests of sport. Not only do 

 established country families seek to increase their 

 properties, for one reason or another, by incorporating 

 therein any bit of freehold they can secure in the 

 immediate neighbourhood, but the market value may 

 still further be kept above the commercial value by 



