CCCVI 



acres are taken to yield, for a family consisting of 5 persons, corn 

 necessary for subsistence and for seed. 77 per cent, of tlie holdings 

 are under that average and of this again 58 per cent, are under 5 acres. 

 In Wurtemburg the average size of separate properties is stated to be 

 about three-quarters of an acre. Mr. Wolff quotes the following testi- 

 mony of a German official in regard to the beneficial effects of small 

 holdings on the industry and thrift of the labouring classes : " The 

 unmistakable advance in productive farming observable in the plain of 

 the Rhine — the district principally affected by the (sab-dividing) Lan- 

 drecht — stands in the closest possible relation to the growing sub-division. 

 The advantage afforded by the fact that every day-labourer in the 

 country may acquire a small plot of land, may, by industry and thrift, 

 add to his modest holding, and eventually raise himself to the position 

 of an independent Bauer, cannot be rated too highly ; for the prospect of 

 making himself economically independent is one of the most powerful 

 incentives to the exercise of economical virtues. The smallness of the 

 proprietary plots in the plain of the Ehine is accordingly no evil, but 

 rather a direct advantage. Rach one of these small cultivators makes 

 it his endeavour to raise from his soil, by the cultivation of ' trade- 

 plants,' of vegetables and the like, the most remunerative crops, and to 

 employ the surplus of his working power as profitably as he can at some 

 trade, at paid day-work or otherwise." 



As regards the second of the remedies suggested by the reviewer, the 

 idea that Government can '* enforce " the breaking up of the village 

 system and the substitution of homestead farms without a change in 

 rural conditions is entirely chimerical. The proposal evidently owes its 

 origin to a misapplication of the teachings of English Agricultural 

 History to the conditions of rural life in India. There is a good deal 

 of misapprehension as to the nature of the ryots' cultivation which is 

 oftentimes likened to the open field or champion system as it prevailed 

 some centuries ago in England. The last remnants of this cultivation 

 were swept away by the partition of Samudayam lands in the Chin- 

 gleput district, and no ryot is now hampered in the cultivation of his 

 holding to the best advantage, though the villagers, owing to their 

 poverty, need each other's assistance in connection with the various 

 incidents of rural life. The enclosure and consolidation of holdings were 

 brought about in England by social and economic causes and the Legis- 

 lature, in so far as it interfered at all in the matter, did so with a view 

 to arrest a -too rapid transformation. The leading facts as regards the 

 conditions under which development of English agriculture took place 

 may be very briefly noted. During the middle ages, England had a 

 monopoly of the wool trade, so much so that the revenue required for 

 carrying on the continental wars was derived almost wholly from an 

 impost on wool, the rate levied in emergencies being as high as 100 per 

 cent, ad valorem. The trade was a most profitable one and common 

 lands were extensively enclosed and holdings consolidated and turned 

 into sheep-walks, with the result that where hundreds of ploughmen 

 were employed their places were taken by a few shepherds. In the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century thousands of agricultural labourers 

 were thrown out of employment and reduced to a condition of the 

 greatest misery. The Legislature strove to stem the tide by insisting 

 on landlords maintaining a certain proportion of the area of their estates 

 under tillage and the necessary farm buildings, but without effect. Mr. 



