THE OPEN FIELD 107 



of Axholme to the student of farming is extraordinary, 

 for here you find in full and living operation a system 

 which speaks visibly of many of the customs of the 

 prehistoric Aryan communities a system too which 

 it was the object of every agricultural reformer, from 

 Tusser to Arthur Young, to break down. The 

 farmers form a compact and somewhat isolated com- 

 munity ; they own (subject always to the mortgagees) 

 their own land, they know one another and their 

 neighbour's land intimately, and yet, in spite of all the 

 obvious gain to be derived from a redistribution and 

 gathering together of the scattered holdings, they have 

 never attempted to do so either in bad times or good, 

 nor have they evolved any system of partnership in 

 work or sale. We are told that the economic success 

 of small holdings depends on welding them together 

 into co-operative communities, but if the Isle of 

 Axholme furnishes any indication of the future the 

 men who are going to teach the English farmers to 

 co-operate have got an up-hill task before them. 



