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LAND REFORM 



As regards these farmers, had the Land Purchase 

 Bill been law, or had they been tenants in Ireland, 

 they would without difficulty have become owners of 

 the farms they had occupied for so long, and which, 

 presumably, they had well cultivated. 



Another estate of a similar size was sold in Devon- 

 shire in 1903. Omitting the mansion, with land, parks, 

 etc., and other parts of the property not suitable for 

 occupying ownerships, the particulars of the holdings 

 sold are as follows : — ^ 



These details are given to bring home to the 

 general reader the uncertainties to which the farmer 



^ An account of this sale appeared in the Press, but the figures given 

 are from a copy of the " Sales Particulars," for which the writer is in- 

 debted to the courtesy of Messrs. J. and H. Drew, surveyors, Exeter. For 

 the present writer there is a special interest attached to this sale. One 

 of his parents was born on the estate, and all his very numerous relatives 

 worked on it (or on the adjoining one), either as labourers on the land or 

 in trades connected therewith. The wages of agricultural labourers in 

 those days were, for men, 8s. per week, women gd. per day, girls 6d. per 

 day, with, in all cases, an allowance of cider. 



