330 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



hopes that we form of a success of our scheme. " Settling," 

 so we shall do well to remember in the outburst of our 

 kindly feeling towards our retiring warriors, is not the 

 acceptance of a " living," or of the goodwill of a " going " 

 business sure to yield an income, but the entering upon an 

 undertaking which in unskilled hands is certain to miscarry. 



In skilled hands it is pretty sure to turn out well. We 

 have, very naturally, been led by the circumstances under 

 which the subject has been brought forward, to regard the 

 question of Small Holdings as pre-eminently a social question 

 — such as indeed it is — that to a very great extent we have 

 lost sight of the very important economic bearing which 

 it has as a question of Agriculture. However, the agricul- 

 tural side of the question yields very little indeed, if anything, 

 in importance to the social. Upon the point of the agri- 

 cultural value of Small Holdings all the world which has 

 experience of it — which means practically the whole world 

 with the sole exception of our own country — is completely 

 at one. Small Holdings have brought wealth as well as 

 happiness to the countries accepting them. The small 

 holder's agriculture may not be scientifically as perfect as 

 that of the large farmer. Most improvements in Agriculture 

 have admittedly originated on large farms, or on farms 

 occupied by owners. But the small holder's husbandry 

 is superior in meticulous attention given to small things, 

 in the results of the constant watchfulness, the minute 

 care given to all operations by the cultivator. And natur- 

 ally so. He has more direct interest in those apparent 

 trifles. And he is in a position to overlook his farming 

 continually, at all moments, and in every detail. He is 

 a much better imitator of the up-to-date agriculturist than 

 the medium farmer, having his wits about him and being 

 continually on the alert. And where his proficiency as 

 an imitator and an adopter of good novel practices is up 

 to the mark, the result is apt to tell very much in his favour. 



In the debate in the House of Commons on July lo, 1916, 

 Mr. Prothero, then not yet Minister of Agriculture, bore 

 witness to the value of small holdings on agricultural grounds, 

 stating that " his experience had convinced him that small 



