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are available, and the small holdings have not been a great 

 success. Wliat is wanted by small farmers and crofters especi- 

 ally, is ownership of the land they occupy." Mr. Cameron 

 states that it is .undoubtedly difficult for young men who 

 wish to marry and settle 011 the West Coast to obtain land for 

 small holdings, but adds, that with the conventional require- 

 ments of modern life there is no prospect of small tenants 

 being able to make an adequate living .at the present low prices 

 of produce. Small holdings, he says, do well as homes from 

 which to go in quest of work to the centres of population and 

 industry, but will not support a family in comfort. Mr. 

 Wilson writes : " Yes ; the difficulties have been almost insur- 

 mountable. Hundreds of families applied to the four parish 

 councils of the district, and those councils did their duty, but 

 the Inverness County Council blocked the applications, with 

 the result that the cottars of South Uist, Barra, and North Uist 

 took forcible possession of the large farms, which led to the 

 Congested Districts Board being brought into being and to the 

 purchase of lands in Barra. The present proprietor of North 

 TTist has done a great deal of good in settling labourers on 

 holdings." Both the Harris proprietors, Mr. Wilson states, 

 have been giving land to agricultural labourers for over 

 20 years, but this is not the case in South Uist, where not a 

 single allotment or small holding has been obtained under the 

 Acts, although the parish councils fought for years on behalf 

 of the labourers. 



KIRKCUDBRIGHT. Mr. McDowall states that small holdings 

 could be obtained if required, but there is no demand, and the 

 decrease of the agricultural population in his district cannot 

 be traced to any lack of 'them. Mr. Biggar writes : " There is 

 a scarcity of small holdings (from 40 to 80 acres), and such 

 holdings command a higher rate per acre, but the additional 

 rent does not seem to be sufficient inducement for anyone own- 

 ing land to increase the number." He states that there is no 

 demand for allotments. 



LANARK. Mr. Grilchrist (Bellshill) writes : " There has been 

 no demand that I am aware of for small holdings or 'allotments, 

 and I do not believe that either would be successful in the 

 mining districts, as the returns would not equal the wages 

 received for work in the other industries. The difficulty has 

 not contributed in any degree to the decline in the agricultural 

 population." Mr. Scott (Lesmahagow), on the other hand, 

 states that so far as lie knows there is no land available either 

 for small holdings or allotments, and he has no doubt this has 

 contributed to the decline. He writes : " If land could be had 

 for small holdings accompanied by some scheme of financial 

 assistance in the shape of loans at moderate interest, and a 

 systematic and combined method of dealing with and market- 

 ing the produce, I believe the demand for such holdings 

 would be great and their success assured, and that a great 

 increase of a sturdy and healthy class of population would 



