CHAPTEK IV. 



HOLDINGS. 



It is generally recognised that in farming, the size, 

 shape and constitution of a farm are matters of much 

 importance to success. In theory the standard would 

 be fixed by economic considerations in accordance 

 with the nature of the farming attempted . In practice 

 it is found that in different countries the standard 

 varies enormously in accordance with the pressure of 

 the population on the soil, the laws of inheritance and 

 historical causes. At one end of the scale we find 

 huge sugar estates controlled by joint stock companies 

 which command the most efficient labour-saving de- 

 vices and harvest thousands of acres of cane every 

 year. At the other end of the scale comes the two 

 acre holding of the Japanese peasant who wields his 

 hoe from morning till night, and treats each plant in 

 his field to a separate dose of liquid manure. In 

 England the economic standard recently prescribed 

 by good * authority is 2000 to 10,000 acres for a farm 

 run on business principles. In some of the western 

 states of the United States of America the standard 

 aimed at by the Government and largely maintained 



* " Agriculture After the War," by A. D. Hall. 



63 



