54 POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS 



children, too, are early broken to hard work and are 

 bred up without the temptations to the dissipation 

 of energy which beset a town dweller. 



(4) The setting up of small holdings generally brings 

 about an intensification of the farming of the land on 

 which they are situated. In order to live at all the 

 occupier of 10 or 20 acres cannot be content with the 

 return per acre satisfactory to the large farmer ; the 

 small holder must, therefore, break up grass land and 

 cultivate it as a market garden ; if he is producing 

 milk he must stock his land heavily and buy food 

 from outside. 



On the other hand, the disadvantages of small 

 holdings may be summed up as follows : 



(1) The independence of the small holder is often 

 purchased dearly at the cost of the excessive labour 

 of the occupier and the " sweating " of his family. 



(2) There are many losses and failures, both at 

 starting and when a series of bad years occur. 



(3) In themselves, small holdings are necessarily 

 uneconomical units for dealing with land. Most 

 farming operations become much cheaper when 

 carried out on a wide scale ; the use of machinery is 

 only profitable on large fields and when the machine 

 can be given a full measure of work in proportion to 

 its cost. The large farmer is more likely to apply 

 science and bring knowledge to his business ; the 

 small holder must be conservative in his methods, 

 and generally becomes very unprogressive. Though 

 the personal attention that the small holder can give 

 to details may be supposed to be of special value in 

 the handling of milch cows, the management of fruit, 



