Small Holdings 



the seasons impress it, and the general order 

 implies it. A man cannot easily watch crops 

 growing and be a Socialist; environment beats 

 him; he becomes a believer in the established 

 order of things, the rights of " him that hath," 

 whether tenant to be undisturbed or landlord 

 to be unalarmed, he finds that whatever may be 

 said or done, Nature takes about the same course, 

 and he turns Tory. 



The startling fact about small holdings is that 

 they succeed against all probability. Running 

 counter to modern ideas they should be im- 

 possible, yet they apparently set economics at 

 naught. The trend of the present time is towards 

 the growth of large concerns at the expense of 

 small ones, stores squeezing the shopkeeper, 

 trusts crushing the manufacturer, whilst all over 

 the world commercial undertakings run together 

 in monstrous combinations. 



Other things being equal, the man who tills 

 one acre of ground gets more from it pro rata 

 than a man who has twenty acres, the man with 

 forty gets more than the man with two hundred. 

 If the soil be good no plot of ground seems too 

 small from which a man may earn his living. 

 Putting aside the host who market garden 

 around great cities, the most flourishing small 

 holders are the Channel Islanders, whose farms 



57 



