298 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



is ample evidence both of the value to the community 

 of this type of agriculturist, and of the strenuous industry 

 and self-denying thrift which always accompany its 

 development. 



It is too often argued from the casual utterances of a 

 few despairing men that they would have been better off 

 and have had fewer hours of labour as labourers, that 

 the effort to achieve independence is a mere folly. The 

 almost degraded position of the agricultural labourer in 

 England, a generation or even half a generation ago, 

 and the instinctive desire of the most energetic type of 

 labourers, to emancipate themselves by means of allot- 

 ments and small holdings is the direct answer to this 

 specious fallacy. Both in the interests of agriculture, 

 and of the social elevation of the rural population, it is, 

 in my opinion, the plain duty of the legislature to 

 promote, by every practicable and sound method, the 

 development of a system of small holdings, and to create 

 facilities and machinery which will enable small holdings 

 to be freely formed where the conditions of soil, markets, 

 and population are favourable, and under conditions 

 which will provide against the special dangers under 

 which so many small freeholders have suffered hitherto. 



Sir Arthur Arnold, then President of the Free Land 

 League, made important suggestions to the Commission. 

 In his opinion, small holders produce more, and the best 

 agricultural results are to be obtained " where a man's 

 total energies are given to the cultivation of his own 

 land." 



The Allotments and Small Holdings Acts are useful, 

 but the results wholly insignificant and insufficient. 

 "What we look forward to is a much wider extent of 

 distribution of land by alteration of the Land Acts, and 

 that a very much larger breadth should pass into the 

 hands of possessing cultivators." ^ 



He recommends the application to Great Britain of 

 the system of land purchase, restricted to holdings under 

 ;^50 a year rent. This would not at present operate 

 largely, but under altered conditions of the law there 



• Arnold, 33,955, etc. 



