PEASANT PROPRIETARY 223 



Besides the labourers there are tradesmen, and 

 those with partial occupation, in our villages and small 

 country towns who would gladly become owners 

 under the terms named, and would be among the 

 best of cultivators.^ 



In short, the statement that there is no "land 

 hunger " in England is happily not borne out by facts. 

 If a government were to adopt — not in a perfunctory 

 manner, but as a national policy — measures for a 

 systematic supply of small holdings in different 

 districts, the demand (the land hunger) which exists 

 would be speedily revealed. In this way alone, grad- 

 ually, can that desirable element in our social life, a 

 peasant proprietary, be restored. 



In the meantime, individual support given to any 

 movement (Garden Cities, Small Holdings Associa- 

 tions, or any other agency) which has for its object 

 to place families permanently on the soil, is a patriotic 

 act. A contribution to this object is of tenfold more 

 value than that given to many forms of relief of 



tions named. Many of these applications are most interesting and con- 

 tain particulars which show their genuine character. 



About twelve years ago a small company of three or four men hired 

 from Lord Carrington 650 acres of land in Lincolnshire on a 21 years' 

 lease, at a rental of ^1018 a year. The company, of which Mr. R. Winfrey 

 is the chairman and leading member, divided the land into small holdings. 

 There was not only a demand, but an actual craving for the land on the 

 part of the labourers in the district. The holdings were all taken up, and 

 the men are doing well. The supply of land on fair terms, in this case 

 as it has done in other cases, disclosed the great demand that existed. 

 For particulars see "The Creation of Small Holdings in Lincolnshire 

 and Norfolk," by J. H. Diggle (Foster and Bird, King's Lynn). 



^ On the occasion of a visit of the present writer to a small place in 

 Gloucestershire a man spoke to him on this point. He said : " I am a 

 wheelwright, and trade is bad with me. One of my two sons has just 

 left for Gloucester to seek work. Had I a small holding of my own I 

 could have kept my family together. We could have filled up spare time 

 on the land and done very comfortably." 



