36o THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



in our case — possibly under the provision of the Land Trans- 

 fer Act of 1897 permitting a similar claim to " cautioners." 

 Or, if that were not practicable, it should not pass the wit 

 of man to devise some new special law. 



Mr. Prothero, as already observed, owns to an appre- 

 hension that the " scarcity of winter employment, at times 

 felt in the past, will probably be reproduced under the 

 rule of Small Holdings." That apprehension appears to 

 me excessive. The proposed re-afforestation, though it 

 may help locally — as it has done at Winterslow — cannot 

 indeed count for very much in a national aspect. And 

 cottage industries, which it would be most desirable to 

 introduce, if that were to prove practicable on economically 

 sound lines, have among ourselves, even more than among 

 neighbouring nations, gone the natural way of decay. The 

 well-meant and well-supported attempts made in Ireland, 

 by that deserving body, the United Irishwoman, to introduce 

 them there, although they have led to the discovery of 

 much, and in some cases very original, aptitude — as visitors 

 to the occasional exhibitions of work resulting must have 

 perceived — have not generally led to particularly 

 encouraging results. Abroad artificial assistance, such as 

 might not prove available among ourselves, has in some 

 cases kept them alive beyond what natural conditions would 

 have permitted. Nevertheless those industries, which are 

 attractive by their picturesqueness, are generally on the 

 decline. It wants some special circumstances to make 

 them successful. The lace makers in Lorraine, the embroid- 

 erers in Luneville, under French rule the weavers and spin- 

 ners of those superior " Articles de Sainte Marie-aux-Mines," 

 and some such skilled men and women as the wood carvers 

 of Bavaria, the clockmakers of the Black Forest, and the 

 meerschaum workers of Thuringia, manage to make a success 

 of their particular industry, while the sunshine of demand 

 lasts. But for the moment, at any rate, cottage industries, 

 opposed as they are, speaking generally, by Trade Unions, 

 are under a cloud. However, the widespread prosperity 

 of small holders in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, 

 etc., in districts where there are no cottage industries and 



