CHAPTER VI 

 SMALL AND LARGE HOLDINGS 



A I ^ HE question of the relative production of grass 

 and of arable land has been dealt with in a 



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preceding chapter. In this chapter the relative 

 production on small and large holdings will be con- 

 sidered ; but in the case of small holdings the question 

 of the proper proportion of grass to arable comes in, 

 in some ways more strongly than in the case of the large 

 farm. For, to justify its existence, the small holding 

 should produce more per acre than the large farm — in 

 other words it must be more intensively (or highly) 

 cultivated — but grass is the least " intensive " of all 

 crops. This does not mean that there should be no small 

 grass-land holdings ; from 5 up to 20 acres of grass 

 can prove invaluable to a man who has some other 

 occupation and whose holding is supplementary. It is 

 the full-fledged small farm of 30 to 50 acres which should 

 have the maximum possible amount under the plough. 



At the outset let me say that I do not take the view 

 that England should become a country of small holdings, 

 any more than I would say that the large farm of several 

 thousand acres should supersede farms of all other sizes. 

 There is room for the development of both^ and we shall 

 probably see this development in the next thirty years 

 or so. 



In some parts, the number of medium-sized farms of 



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