1 6 Large and Small Holdings 



was not to be prevented by the theoretical considerations adduced to 

 prove the tecrmical^superiont^ qfj^-ComWriation of pasture and 

 arable. Arthur YourTg~wrote as early as 1 77 F that no doubt his 

 views as to the advantages of pasture-farming would meet with much 

 opposition, as corn-growing was generally held to be more profitable 1 . 

 And in 1808 his son wrote: "A new turn has everywhere been given 

 to the face of the country. The return is speedy and certain in 

 tillage; in live-stock it is distant and uncertain 2 ." 



Thus from 1760 onwards serious changes were in progress in the 

 conditions of sale and production of agricultural commodities. These 

 changes were the causes which led to great changes in the customary 

 unit of agricultural management. 



Precisely at the time when the rise in corn-prices began, mention 

 begins to be made of the enlargement of holdings, or, as it was called, 

 "the engrossing of farms." It is noticed in a pamphlet of 17643; and 

 in another of 1766 we are told that it has already " become a common 

 practice with the landed gentlemen, in every part of the kingdom, to 

 throw several estates together, to make capital farms ; or for several 

 landholders to let estates, which lie near together, to one man 4 ." 

 From this time forward there is hardly any publication dealing with 

 agriculture which does not contain some discussion on the subject of 

 the engrossing of farms, L the _ swallowing up of the little holdings by 

 the larger, and the like. In 1776 Peters said that "the growing evil 

 of ^engrossing farms is spreading itself every day," and that even 

 those farmers who already held three or four farms were not yet 

 satisfied with the extent of their land ; the " modern farmer " was not 

 content with a hundred or two hundred acres. Nothing less than 

 a thousand would satisfy him 5 . 



The passion for large farms, however, did not reach its height till 

 early in the~nineteenth century, when the small holdings disappeared 

 in hundreds to be replaced by large ones 6 . In numbers of villages 

 twenty, thirty, and even forty or fifty farms were absorbed by one 



1 Farmer's Letters, Vol. I, pp. 136 ft. 



2 Arthur Young, junior, A General View of the Agriculture of Sussex, 1808, p. 226. 



3 Considerations on the Present High Price of Provisions and the Necessaries of Life, 

 1764, p. 7. 



4 Two Letters on the Flour Trade and Dearness of Corn, 1766, p. 19. 

 6 Peters, Agricultura, p. 176, also p. xvi. 



6 Adam Murray, A General View of the Agriculture of Warwickshire, 1813, p. 33 : 

 " There appears to be a disposition among the landlords, when the small farms fall in, to 

 increase them in size, by laying two or three of them together"; and Duncumb, op. cit. 

 p. 33 : u Of late years the practice of consolidating several estates in one, has much reduced 

 the number of small farms." 



