SmaU part of the time of a man and his family. Colonel Maude 



Holdings remarks that small yeoman farmers with 20 to 50 acres of land 



Allotments were verv numerous 50 or 60 years ago, but that this class 



k has been almost extinguished, principally owing to the strain 



on their resources caused by the bad seasons and diseases 

 amongst stock in the later seventies. He is convinced that 

 tenant farmers are in a better position during long periods of 

 depression than small occupying owners. He thinks that if it 

 Avere wanted, land could be easily obtained for small holdings 

 provided it was not taken from the best land near the villages, 

 leaving the poorer land to the large farmers. Mr. Beadon 

 remarks that in the Huddersfield district most of the farms are 

 small, and are worked by the occupiers and their sons. 



(b.) Counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, Cheshire, 

 Derby and Stafford. 



CUMBERLAND. Mr. Tinniswood observes that the price of 

 small holdings per acre is much higher than that of larger 

 holdings, and that the cost of buildings is a bar to the extension 

 'of their number. Mr. Shanks writes : " Small holdings of 

 60 acres and under let at tremendous rents. Competition for 

 this class of holding is so keen that depression is sure to 

 follow. Farms of 300 acres and upwards I do not refer to hi'l 

 farms can be had at little more than half the rent of the for- 

 mer." Mr. Watt writes : " IThe prospect of being able in the near 

 future to rent small farms would in my opinion induce the 

 better class of labourers to remain on the land and to take a 

 greater interest in agriculture. Here the question of capital 

 comes in, which is met to some extent in the ' Fell ' districts 

 by the landowners providing the standing flocks of sheep. An 

 extension of such a system on a substantial financial basis 

 would give the best class of men a start." 



WESTMORLAND. Mr. Punchard states that there is no reluct- 

 ance to provide land for small holdings or allotments where an 

 adequate return can be looked for, and provided that the best 

 meadows or pastures of the larger farms are not demanded; 

 the essential difficulty is the cost of erecting buildings meeting 

 the modern requirements of sanitary authorities, and the pros- 

 pect of insufficient return in the shape of rent. " Land- 

 owners," he remarks, " are more ready to provide the small 

 holdings than suitable tenants are likely to be found who 

 would or could pay adequate rents." Of the small farms which 

 formerly existed he writes: "Despite a desire on the part of 

 sundry large landowners to maintain these small holdings, they 

 have gradually disappeared because their maintenance called 

 for unremunerative outlay of capital. Whenever a house on a 

 small holding has got much out of repair and has required a 

 considerable outlay in money, the inability to secure an 

 adequate return of interest has resulted in the abolition of the 



