Economic Aspects 109 



For, generally speaking, those exceptions are small farms on which 

 stock-feeding and market-gardening were not the main objects. 

 They were those which were chiefly concerned with corn-growing. 



To cite the Isle of Axholme once more. At the present time, as 

 shown above, the small holdings of this district are not indeed pasture 

 farms, but their arable land is not used chiefly to grow corn for the 

 market, but to produce food for cattle on the one hand and vegetables 

 for the market on the other. This, however, is a new state of affairs 1 . 

 Formerly the district was renowned for its corn-producing yeomanry. 

 After 1880 this class fell into great distress, and were quoted as an 

 example of the failure of small holdings to meet the crisis 2 . Their 

 history is perhaps almost unique in English agricultural history, but 

 it is very instructive where the question of the unit of holding is under 

 consideration. Up to 1880 the Isle of Axholme was possibly the one 

 district in which the old yeomanry still predominated. In the period 

 between 1760 and 1815 they had not decided to transform themselves 

 into large farmers, but had retained the old communal spirit 3 , had as 

 a body undertaken improvements 4 , and had successfully carried on 

 corn-production throughout the period of high prices. But the custom 

 of leaving the land to the eldest son led, during the good years (1850 

 to 1880), to the practice of burdening it with mortgages, inasmuch 

 as the price of land had increased considerably. When the drop in 

 prices came, and profits fell, "the rent now due in the shape of 

 interest/' sums up Mr Pringle in his report to the Commissioners of 

 1894, "far exceeds what would be a 'fair rent 5 .'" This was the ruin 

 of the old corn-growing yeomanry, who perhaps felt the crisis more 

 immediately than the farmers, since the latter could get their rents 

 lowered. They disappeared ; and their successors, together with a few 

 wise survivors of their own class, diminished the corn crops in favour 

 of other, now more profitable, agricultural pursuits, and especially 

 developed stock-feeding and potato and celery growing. This 

 policy proved a complete success 6 . Agricultural distress practically 



1 Channing, op. cit. p. 284. He says that the area under wheat fell off considerably, 

 while that under oats (probably for use as fodder) increased by 40 / , while " there has been 

 a rapid and persistent development of special crops, such as celery, carrots, beetroot, and 

 other vegetables." 



2 O. Stillich, Dieenglische Agrarkrisis, Jena, 1899, p. 92. 



3 Bear, A Study etc., pp. 16, 24. 



4 Drainage, in particular, was carried out at their common expense. On this point 

 cp. also Rae, op. cit. p. 563. 



5 Report on the Isle of Axholme, by R. Hunter Pringle, 1894, Vol. xvi, Pt. I, p. 682. 



6 Bear, A Study etc., p. 24 : " Small farming in the Isle of Axholme must be regarded 

 as a success." 



