THE PRACTICAL SIDE 



OF 



SMALL HOLDINGS 



CHAPTER I 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



Although public interest in Small Holdings 

 has only been keenly aroused during the past 

 ten years, the system has been established 

 in various parts of England for a long period 

 of time. 



The author pointed out in a paper read 

 before the Manchester Statistical Society in 

 1904 that in some parts of England farming 

 was becoming impossible, that large areas 

 of land were being neglected or abandoned 

 altogether, while the country population 

 were drawing a large proportion of their 

 supplies of farm and garden produce from 

 large cities, in spite of the fact that the 

 quality was inferior and the prices exor- 

 bitant. We expressed our belief that the 

 difficulty was partly educational, and partly 

 that the younger men and women were dis- 

 satisfied with the humdrum routine of an 

 unpromising country life — a dissatisfaction 



