SMALL HOLDINGS. 93 



Another farmer of experience said : " Any 

 great extension of small ownership must be 

 accompanied by a very general increase of agri- 

 cultural education. To make a small holding 

 pay, not as a tenant with a landlord to face 

 the big capital calls, but as an independent and 

 strictly self-supporting owner, needs special skill 

 and special industry. If we embark on a scheme 

 of small holdings, we must also embark on a 

 scheme of practical agricultural education. On 

 the Continent, in the overseas dominions, in 

 Ireland, the small owner was very sedulously 

 wet-nursed at the outset by State officials, in 

 many instances is still under close tutelage. We 

 should have to wait until the next generation for 

 small-holders who would make small holdings 

 pay if left to themselves. If you investigate 

 some of the paying examples in England to-day, 

 you will find that the small-holder is being 

 helped considerably by some friendly landlord." 



Another view was this : " The cheapest pro- 

 duction of all large crops is on big farms man- 

 aged with plenty of capital. The wheat from 

 America and Australia is almost all from large 

 farms. Garden produce can be best produced 



