ACTION IN NORFOLK 287 



that the tenants voluntarily agreed to subscribe to a 

 guarantee fund a sum equal to half a year's rent of each 

 holding, large or small, up to 4 acres, in order that 

 such fund should be available to indemnify the six 

 members of the association who had made themselves 

 responsible for the payment to Lord Carrington of 

 upwards of 1,000 a year rent should there be any 

 loss in respect to land let to the members. The fund, 

 which now amounts to 225, further constitutes the 

 capital of the Spalding Agricultural Credit Society, into 

 which the Spalding Common Provident Allotments 

 Club has now been transformed. The society, which 

 is amliated to the Agricultural Organization Society, 

 grants loans, at 5 per cent, interest, for the purchase of 

 stock, etc., and for reproductive purposes, 4 per cent, 

 being paid to the members who have advanced the 

 money. The steward to the association is honorary 

 secretary to the Credit Society. 



The success of the South Lincolnshire experiment led 

 to the starting, in 1900, of the Norfolk Small Holdings 

 Association by a syndicate of gentlemen, which included 

 Lord Carrington, Mr. F. W. Wilson, M.P., Mr. 

 Winfrey (president), Mr. A. Jermyn, of King's Lynn 

 (honorary secretary), and several others. But in Nor- 

 folk no land was available for leasing, as in South 

 Lincolnshire, and the policy of purchase had to be 

 adopted instead. The conditions, therefore, in Norfolk 

 are somewhat different. Three farms were bought at 

 Swaffham, Watton and Canbrooke, and Whissonsett 

 representing a total of 337 acres, at a cost (including 

 conveyancing, enfranchisement of copyholds, initial 

 repairs, fencing, and adaptation of the land for about 

 sixty holdings) of 8,709. Here, therefore, it was a 

 matter not merely of so many gentlemen signing a 

 guarantee for payment of rent, as in South Lincoln- 



