SMALL HOLDINGS 319 



and Tiptree, Essex. Apart, however, from by-industries, and 

 exceptional climate, soil, and situation, the small holding for. 

 the purpose of raising corn and meat, as distinguished from 

 that which is devoted to dairying, fruit-growing, and market 

 gardening, does not seem to-day to have much chance of suc- 

 cess. If farms were still self-sufficing, and simply provided food 

 and clothing for the farmer, the small producer even of corn 

 and meat might do as well as the larger farmer on a lower 

 scale, but such conditions have gone ; all holdings now are 

 chiefly manufactories of food, and the smaller manufactory 

 has little chance in competition with the greater. 



The example of foreign countries is usually held up to 

 Englishmen in this connexion, and the argument naturally 

 used is that ' if small holdings answer in France and Belgium, 

 why can they not do so in England ? ' On this point the testi- 

 mony of Sir John Lawes is worth quoting.^ ' In most, if not 

 in all continental countries,' he says, * the success of small 

 holdings depends very materially on whether or not the soil and 

 the climate are suitable for what may be called industrial crops: 

 such as tobacco, hops, sugar beet, colza, flax, hemp, grapes, 

 and other fruit and vegetables ; where these conditions do not 

 exist the condition of the cultivators is such as would not be 

 tolerated in this country.' That is the reason probably why 

 small holdings, apart from exceptional conditions, do not 

 answer in England ; the Englishman of to-day is not anxious 

 to face the hard and grinding conditions under which the 

 continental small holder lives. 



Since Mr. Haggard's tour the black clouds which have so 

 long lowered over agriculture have shown signs of lifting. 

 Rents have been adjusted to a figure at which the farmer has 

 some chance of competing with the foreigner,^ though the 



' Allotments and Small Holdings (1892), p. 19 et seq. 



"^ The gross income derived from the ownership of lands in Great 

 Britain, as returned under Schedule A of the Income Tax, decreased from 

 ;^5i,8i 1,234 in 1876-7 to ^36,609,884 in 1905-6. In 1850 Caird estimated 

 the rental of English land, exclusive of Middlesex, at ^37,412,000. Cf. 

 above, p. 310. 



