Small Holdings and Allotments 43 



culture in recent years has been most marked, and 

 reference has been made in the previous chapter to the 

 great work of cattle-rearing in Ireland. 



There was a time when the rural population of Britain 

 exceeded the urban population, but during the last half 

 century there has been a steady exodus from the country 

 to the town. This change is not wholly for the good 

 either of the people or the land, and it has been the 

 effort of statesmen in recent years to restore the people 

 to the country by offering them opportunities to settle 

 there and gain some direct interest in the land. 



During the first half of the nineteenth century 

 thousands of acres of commons and waste grounds 

 were enclosed in Britain, depriving the rural labourer 

 of the privilege of grazing his cow, pig, geese, etc., free 

 of charge. This was one of the causes that led to the 

 depopulation of the rural districts. Now the tendency 

 is to offer Small Holdings and allotments that may be 

 rented from the County Councils, and the Act that 

 was passed in 1908 has produced very satisfactory 

 results. 



A Small Holding is defined as an agricultural holding 

 of from one to 50 acres ; and of such farms, 11,000 have 

 been let by various County Councils to small holders 

 who are now cultivating about 180,000 acres of land. 

 Besides this work of the County Councils a good deal 

 of land has been let for the same purpose by private 

 owners, and the Co-operative Small Holdings Associ- 

 ation has sub -let about 8000 acres of land. Among the 

 counties, Norfolk easily takes the lead with its Small 

 Holdings, and is followed by Cambridge, Isle of Ely, 

 Bedford, Somerset, and Worcester. 



The general application of the word allotment is to 



