286 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



evidence, that the solid comfort and prosperity of former 

 times has left considerable resources to draw upon. 



In the New Forest, where the policy of consolidating 

 farms wholly failed, and lOO acres is about the largest 

 type of farm, the commoners and cottagers with small 

 holdings ranging from 6 to 20 acres (the most workable 

 size being I2| acres), have done well by turning out 

 cows, ponies, and pigs in the forest, under the rights 

 secured to them by Acts of Parliament. 



Mr Briscoe Eyre, who came specially to give evidence 

 as to this district, said : — 



" Everybody turns out something. Many labourers 

 double their wages by stockkeeping, and some have been 

 known to save all their wages for a series of years, 

 making their living by their forest rights. A labouring 

 man will get hold of one animal somehow, a cow, or a 

 mare, and then that makes the foundation of his 

 fortunes. . . . When once they have something like ^5, 

 either in stock or money, they then go steadily up in 

 the social scale." 



" They reckon that if a man turns out a lot of pigs of 

 all sizes in a good mast season he can clear los per pig." 



There is an immense deal of money made in the 

 Forest by ponies, and efforts are being made to im- 

 prove the breed. 



Though ordinary farm land in neighbouring districts 

 has fallen one-half, these small holdings have not gone 

 down at all in value. 



Land which would sell in larger holdings at ;^20 to 

 £2$ an acre, fetches in small holdings about ;^4o an 

 acre. 



Small holders, who are the sons of the labourers of 

 the past generation, are actually investing their savings 

 in these little holdings, if they can buy them, to pay 4 

 or 5 per cent. At recent sales in the Forest, land in 

 small portions has sold up to iJ"ioo an acre. 



Mr Eyre says the industry and thrift of the small 

 holders, and " the way in which they seem to have 

 money whenever they want it for their own purposes," 

 is astonishing. Labourers who worked at 12s a week 



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