318 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



ing. He has more capital, and can buy and sell in the best 

 markets ; he can purchase better stock, and save labour and 

 the cost of production by using the best machinery. By 

 buying in large quantities he gets manures, cakes, seeds, &c., 

 better and cheaper than the small holder. 



Besides the small holders who have outside industries to 

 fall back upon, those who are aided by some exceptionally 

 favourable element in the soil or climate, or proximity to 

 good markets, should do well. Yet in the Isle of Axholme, 

 the paradise of small holders, we have seen that the Com- 

 mission of 1894 reported that distress was severe. This, how- 

 ever, seems to have been largely due to the exaggerated land- 

 hunger in the good times, which induced the tenants to buy 

 lands at too high a price ; and under normal conditions, such 

 as they are now returning to, the tenants seem to thrive. 

 In this district the preference for ownership as opposed to 

 tenancy is, in spite of recent experiences, unqualified, though 

 it is admitted that the best way is to begin by renting and 

 save enough to buy. 1 The soil is peculiarly favourable to the 

 production of celery and early potatoes ; and large tracts of 

 land are divided into unfenced strips locally known as ' selions ' 

 of from a quarter of an acre to 2 acres each, cultivated by men 

 who live in the villages, each having one or more strips, some 

 as much as 20 acres, and it is considered that 10 acres is the 

 smallest area on which a man can support a family without 

 any other industry to help him. 



Yet in the fen districts and on the marsh lands between 

 Boston and the east coast of Lincolnshire, where the land is 

 naturally very productive, many people are making livings out 

 of 5 or 6 acres, mainly by celery and early potatoes. 2 Other 

 districts adapted naturally to small holdings are those of Rock 

 and Far Forest, the famous Vale of Evesham, the Sandy and 

 Biggleswade district of Bedfordshire ; Upwey, Dorset ; Cal- 

 stock and St. Dominick, Cornwall ; Wisbech, Cambridgeshire ; 



1 Jebb, Small Holdings, p. 25. 2 Jebb, op. cit. p. 28. 



