io6 Large and Small Holdings 



extensively used, a stock-farm may yet have more arable land than 

 pasture, the arable being chiefly devoted to crops used as fodder. 

 There are, however, figures which prove yet further that not only 

 pasture-farming, but stock-feeding generally, at least so far as cattle 

 and pigs are concerned, belongs to the domain of the small farmer. 

 The number of animals kept per 100 acres on the various types of 

 farm is given in the following table 1 : 



Class of Holding Cattle Pigs Sheep 



i 5 acres 29-9 49-8 29-9 



520 31-4 22-1 31-6 



2050 27-1 12-5 44-3 



50100 23-1 9-1 50-9 



100300 18-5 67 62-9 



300500 147 5-1 84-8 



500 looo n'2 4*2 103*2 



over looo 8*2 2*9 107*8 



Here it appears that the relative number of cattle and pigs kept 

 regularly decreases as the size of holding increases, but the sheep 

 increase. The latter result seems to indicate the reason for the increase 

 of pasture land on farms of over 1000 acres as compared with those 

 of 500 1000 acres. It is not that ordinary stock-farming increases, 

 but that these very large holdings often consist of great sheep-walks ; 

 that is to say, wide stretches of land covered with poor pasture. 



It is not so easy to show the extent to which the other branches 

 of agriculture, as fruit and vegetable growing and poultry-farming, 

 are developed on the various classes of holding. No statistics are 

 available. But almost all reports and publications on the subject 

 mention these businesses as being primarily conducted on the small 

 farms 2 . It appears that where the soil is suited neither for pasture 

 nor market-gardening, small farms are often conspicuous by their 

 absence 3 . " A rapid development of special crops, such as celery, 

 carrots, beetroot and other vegetables " is ascribed in the first place 

 to small holders, as for example those in the Isle of Axholme, 

 who have chiefly developed the cultivation of potatoes, celery and 

 cabbage 4 . So with poultry-farming. The large farmers left it alone, 

 as they did dairy-farming and stock-breeding 5 . On hundreds of 



1 Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 1886, p. 104. 



2 Small Holdings Report, 1889, qu. 7389; and 3765, 3766, 3773. Cp. also H. Samuel, 

 Liberalism, 1902, Chapter v, The Land Question. 



8 Final Report, p. 357: " In counties like Suffolk, where there is little good pasture 

 land or land suited for market-gardening, small farms and freehold farmers are rare." 



4 Ibid., p. 355. Cp. also Bear, A Study etc., p. 18. 



5 Lord Wantage, in Small Holdings Report, 1889, qu. 1945. 



