326 POSSIBILITIES OF THE SITUATION 



thus certainly be allowed, and encouraged, to continue ; 

 and here I would say that any well-considered scheme 

 for settling small holders on the land should certainly 

 aim at enabling them to produce milk, poultry, eggs, 

 fruit, flowers, vegetables, live-stock, and so on, accord- 

 ing to circumstances, in preference to starting them on 

 the growing of corn or other farming crops. 



But one material factor in the situation is that there 

 should be stepping-stones. For a new beginner to 

 attempt too much at first will be to lead to almost 

 certain failure. From this point of view, allotments 

 should precede small holdings, and they should prefer- 

 ably be regarded for a time as merely supplementing 

 the work done for some farmer in the neighbourhood. 

 This would benefit alike the man and the farmer. 



In the agricultural, as in the industrial, world, there 

 are seasons or periods when constant employment 

 cannot be found for a fixed number of workers ; but 

 the labourer who had an allotment would be able to fill 

 up profitably these periods of leisure and provide better 

 for his family, having at the same time a greater 

 inducement to remain on the land. The surplus 

 labour of the rural districts would thus be more readily 

 absorbed and be rendered more available for the farmer 

 at times when he needed all the assistance he could 

 get. Beginning with the small allotment, the labourer, 

 as time went on, would he able to undertake a larger 

 one, and so on until he got a holding or a farm which 

 would absorb the energies of himself and family. 

 Scores of well-to-do cultivators have started in this 

 way, and hundreds of others might succeed as well as 

 they if they were enabled to make a good start. 



The small holdings or the small farms would follow, 

 and might well be taken up by the men who had 

 already gained a certain amount of experience on the 



