98 Large and Small Holdings 



and further into the country. As the agricultural holdings in the 

 neighbourhood of the towns are mostly small, a considerable pro- 

 portion of the total number of small holdings must be annually 

 affected in this way : and the loss is naturally felt proportionately 

 more severely in England, which has altogether only about 245,000 

 holdings of I 50 acres, than it is, for instance, in Germany, with its 

 15 millions. It is true that holdings of I 5 acres are the most 

 liable to disappear in this way ; but holdings of 5 50 acres are also 

 affected. If the detailed statistics for this particular class of holdings 

 in 1895 and 1905 respectively are compared, it will appear that they 

 have decreased most markedly in those counties which are not purely 

 agricultural, but which either contain or border on large towns or 

 industrial districts. Thus the greatest fall in the number of such 

 holdings (5 50 acres) is in the West Riding of Yorkshire, while the 

 less industrially developed East Riding loses a much smaller number. 

 Lancashire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire, 

 all manufacturing counties, also show considerable decreases, as do 

 Middlesex and Surrey, counties which may almost be considered 

 simply as extensions of the ever-growing metropolis. On the other 

 hand counties which are still mainly agricultural in character, and 

 which lie outside the great centres of industrial and city life and the 

 chief lines of communication, show an increase and not a decrease of 

 these holdings. This is the case in Essex, Kent, Sussex, Hants, 

 Devon, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire. In Wales, 

 too, which is still, as compared with England, an agricultural country, 

 these holdings of 5 50 acres have in the period in question increased 

 from 30,969 to 3 1,626*. 



But obviously the disappearance of small holdings in consequence 

 of the extension of towns and industrial life has nothing to do with 

 the question considered as one of agricultural economy. From this 

 point of view the only matter of importance is whether the decrease 

 of small holdings is in any degree due to their being thrown together 

 to form large farms, or to some similar cause. What is shown by 

 the statistics is simply the fact of decrease, without any indication 

 as to whether this is caused by consolidation of holdings or by the 

 spread of the towns. The decrease due to non-agricultural causes 

 would have to be compensated before an increase over the whole 

 country could appear in the statistics. So that from the point of 

 view of agricultural economy it is perfectly possible for holdings of 



1 Small Holdings Report, 1906, Minutes, pp. 189 f. 



