FARM BUILDINGS 285 



or even than it was when each farm had only a single 

 tenant. 



Still another fact of special importance has reference 

 to the buildings on both the Willow Tree and the 

 Cowbit House Farms. It is often assumed that, in the 

 cutting-up of a large farm into small holdings, special 

 difficulties are presented by the risk of not finding a 

 good tenant for the farmhouse, and by the question as 

 to what shall be done with the farm-buildings. But 

 these difficulties have been very readily overcome. 

 The Willow Tree farmhouse was adapted at little cost 

 for the use of two tenants, and Cowbit farmhouse is let 

 to one of the tenants, G. R. Scott, who began work on 

 the land at the age of eight years, spent his youth as a 

 farm servant, left the land to work as a railway 

 employe, returned to it as horseman, was next a shep- 

 herd, worked his way to the position of foreman, 

 became a small holder, and now farms 40 acres of 

 land on the estate. As for the house, its condition of 

 neatness and scrupulous cleanliness, as I saw it on the 

 occasion of a surprise visit, would have done credit 

 even to a Dutch housewife. The farm-buildings have 

 been so adapted, at a cost of about 100, that no fewer 

 than eight of the small holders have each their 

 separate storeroom, stable, yard, etc., while five have 

 each a section of the cart-hovel. There is also a stack- 

 yard, which is occupied in common, and here I saw 

 stacks in course of construction by nine different 

 tenants. 



Instead of there having been any trouble in disposing 

 of the original buildings, the chief fault I should be 

 disposed to find is that there are not buildings, and 

 especially not dwellings, enough on the estate. Many 

 of the tenants live two or three, and a few of them 

 even seven miles by road away from their holding. 



