Legislative Action 153 



recognized that the profitableness of those branches of agriculture 

 was a fundamental condition of the success of small holdings. Many 

 theorists deduce from these facts the proposition that all such socio- 

 political action is quite unnecessary ; that the economic tendency will 

 make its own way. Mr Kebbel, for instance, says : " The number of 

 small farms seems to me to have declined with the extension of arable 

 land. May it not be that their revival will be a natural consequence of 

 the restoration of this land to grass? I think this is worth waiting for; 

 and that any legislation would be premature till the probable extent 

 of the change which is already in progress can be first calculated 1 ." 

 But it would be, to say the least, one-sided to regard these State and 

 voluntary efforts from so fatalistic a standpoint : and this because the 

 question of the unit of holding is only in part an economic question. 

 If the course of its development were simply dependent on economic 

 or capitalist conditions, it would be quite correct to say with Mr Kebbel 

 that the increasing profitableness of pasture-farming and market- 

 gardening would bring about a rapid change in the size of farms 

 without any interference by the State or by social reformers. But 

 though the fundamental economic conditions are favourable to the 

 rapid extension of the small holdings system, non-economic forces 

 are making in the contrary direction: and against these the conscious 

 attempt to revive the system on the ground of its social advantages 

 may be a very effective weapon. 



1 Kebbel, op. cit. p. 160. 



