64 HOLDINGS 



by the working farmer is 160 acres for dry farming 

 and about a quarter of that area in the case of irrigated 

 land. Even granting uniformity of physical conditions 

 it is clear that variation in the capacity, resources, 

 and ambitions of the farmers will demand farms of 

 corresponding variety, and no one would attempt to 

 prescribe a rigid standard for any country ; but within 

 elastic limits definite standards are indicated as most 

 suitable to definite types of farming both on economic 

 and on social grounds. Some countries have recog- 

 nised that the distribution of the land is a factor of 

 vital importance to agricultural production, and have 

 not hesitated to break away from their historical and 

 legal traditions with a view to divide up the land to 

 the best advantage. Other countries are aiming at 

 smaller results of the same nature, but without adopt- 

 ing such drastic measures. In western India peasant 

 farmers dominate the situation. We find them every- 

 where, either as proprietors or as tenants. This is 

 a condition to which many countries aspire, and 

 the present system of land-holding would be satis- 

 factory if it were not for the fact that the pressure of 

 population on the soil and the working of the Hindu 

 law of inheritance have resulted in the splitting up of 

 a large proportion of the cultivated land into holdings 

 which fail to conform to any reasonable economic 

 standard. This result is a common experience of 

 countries where similar conditions have existed, and 

 the evil is commonly referred to as " the subdivision 

 of holdings". In India the problem presents two 



