68 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



success. At the end of 1912 the total quantity 

 of land let for the purpose of allotments by the 

 various local authorities in England and Wales 

 was 31,189 acres, of which 7,143 acres were the 

 property of the councils, and 23,946 acres were 

 leased. This land is let to 117,562 individual 

 tenants and 21 associations. For small agricul- 

 tural holdings, 154,977 acres had been acquired, 

 of which 104,533 acres had been purchased for 

 £3,385,262, and 50,444 acres leased for rents 

 amounting to £63,528. Of this land, 124,709 

 acres had been let to 8,950 individual small- 

 holders, and 212 acres sold to 20 small-holders. 

 In addition, 6,094 acres had been let to 49 

 co-operative small holdings associations, who 

 had sublet the land to 967 of their members. 



But after five years of the operation of the 

 Act the total number of small holdings in Eng- 

 land and Wales only represents 15 per cent, of 

 the cultivated area of the kingdom ; and the 

 total of the cultivated area has continued to 

 decrease in spite of the Act. Moreover, it cannot 

 be said that this small holdings movement has 

 tended to better cultivation. The best that an 

 official report on the working of the Act (a 



