Small Holdings and Agriculture 



be started in all counties as a real and not a 

 manufactured demand arises. 



But putting people on the land in a country 

 like England, where, in general terms, a small 

 holding tradition does not exist, is a very difficult 

 proceeding. There is only one way in which 

 success can be achieved on a large scale, and 

 that is by settling the small holders in colonies, 

 or, better still, by letting the land to co-operative 

 societies. Nothing that I have seen in the 

 practical working of the Small Holdings Act 

 leads me to change or modify that view. 



In the early stages of development the 

 colony system should have been adopted almost 

 to the exclusion of finding small bits of land 

 for scattered individuals. Most of the opposi- 

 tion and bad feeling created amongst sitting 

 tenants has been due to the forcible taking of 

 land from larger farms for individual appli- 

 cants, whereas when once the movement is well 

 on foot it will be time enough for County 

 Councils to satisfy one or two applicants in 

 each parish. But even at this stage it is not 

 too late to adopt the colony system. The 

 colonies should be founded in really suitable 

 places. A whole farm or farms should be 

 taken and divided up, and then the small holder 

 must go to the place where he can get his 

 holding ; this of itself would form a valuable test. 

 In America men will go hundreds of miles to 



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