- 6 7 



Seventy years ago many of the great landlords of this country 

 were at work making land on the sands, by marling and chalking, 

 on the heavy clays by drainage, by paring and burning etc. Some 

 of the best land in Cheshire and Norfolk grew out of pure wastes 

 in this fashion. The process stopped, partly because labour grew 

 dearer, partly because the organising and speculative instincts of the 

 landlords were turned in other directions that promised a bigger 

 return, but with our improved means of moving earth on a large 

 scale it ought to be possible to repeat the old successes. There is 

 a lot of poor Crown land on the borders of Surrey, Berks, and 

 Hampshire (Bagshot Sand, unfit to grow anything but villa residences 

 and rhododendrons) yet bordering the area occurs both the London 

 Clay and the Chalk, the two materials which if incorporated with 

 the sand would make of it a fertile soil. Similar waste sands are to be 

 found all over England, and in the East Midlands are many weary 

 miles of poverty-stricken Oxford Clay, too heavy and wet for the 

 plough, growing only miserable grass, land that can be bought for 

 10 an acre and rented for los. But on a big scale it is almost 

 certain this land could be profitably reclaimed by close drainage, 

 making the tiles on the spot, and by incorporating a certain amount 

 of burnt clay with the soil, to which improvements must be added 

 a judicious manuring with lime and basic slag. These experiments 

 in reclamation, since they mainly require unskilled labour judi- 

 ciously organised might be coupled with social experiments in uti- 

 lising the unemployed. " 



FREDERIC IMPEY. Small Holdings in England. -London, P. S.King 

 & Son, 1909. 



For more than 30 years it has been the Author's constant study 

 to urge the great gain which would accrue to the national welfare 

 if there were a great increase, in the numbers of cultivators of small 

 portions of land. 



He has visited many parts of England where successful small 

 farms exist and made the personal aquaintance of the hard working 

 people who cultivate them. 



In the year 1884 the Allotment and Small Holdings Association 

 published a leaflet, written by Mr. Impey, entitled "Three acres 

 and a cow " and the agitation thus commenced has been con- 



until the Small Holdings and Allotment Act 1907 was passed. 

 'essity for establishing experimental Small Holdings. Before 



