CONSOLIDATION OF HOLDINGS 87 



where the owner is hampered by his lands being scattered 

 amongst the fields of other owners. Legislation is badly 

 needed to enable consolidation to be carried out in these 

 cases in spite of the objection of a minority of owners or 

 occupancy tenants. 



The policy I would recommend to a landowner is to 

 carry out the consolidation of holdings in such a way as to 

 provide all occupancy tenants with areas equal to those now 

 held, and on free land, whether sir land or not, he 

 shoulds provide holding of various sizes, taking special care 

 to have some larger holdings of 50 or 100 acres and 

 upwards which could be rented to men who are enter- 

 prising cultivators and have learnt, or are willing to learn, 

 improved methods. 



Upon the larger holdings so provided landlords should 

 invest some money in providing the tenant with a good house 

 and with proper farm buildings. He will need grain pits (in 

 dry soil) or asubstantial godown for storing grain and bhusa, 

 etc. He will need a cattle-shed, and a shed to store his 

 ploughs, harrows, seed-drills and other improved implements. 

 On compact holdings, it is a great advantage to have fields 

 fenced in some way. Wire fences may prove too expensive ; 

 but mud walls which may perhaps be covered with heavy 

 ridge-tiles securely fixed on the top will usually prove satisfac- 

 tory ; and the landlord may offer to pay the tenant half the 

 cost of constructing these to the landlord's satisfaction. 



I have assumed that on the larger of the compact hold- 

 ings the tenant will be induced to live on the holding ; but 

 the great majority of the tenants will still prefer to live in 

 the village and to go daily to and from their fields. It will 

 be the landlord's duty, therefore, to do all he can towards 

 improving the houses in the village and its sanitation. The 

 present custom by which the tenant pays no rent for his 

 house and nothing for the land on which it stands 



