160 Large and Small Holdings 



farm is expensive, and has to be paid for by the hirer. Farmers who 

 hire their machines, too, are tied down to certain days, whereas the 

 farmer who has his own has it at his disposal at any day or hour. 

 In consequence of these difficulties small holders are often obliged 

 to resort to hand threshing-machines. The latter thresh about 

 10 25 bushels an hour, whereas the steam-engine threshes 48 65 

 bushels. 



Nor is the case of other machines used in arable farming more 

 favourable to the small man. For example, almost every farmer has 

 a drilling machine. It costs 28 to 30, or on a farm of 30 acres 

 about i an acre. The same machine can do the work needed on a 

 farm of 300 to 400 acres, when the cost will be only about is. 6d. per 

 acre 1 . Then there are winnowing machines, corn fans, straw elevators, 

 sowing machines, the very widely used reaping machines and the 

 reaper and binder. All these are found almost exclusively on the 

 large arable farms. The small farmer cannot afford to buy them, and 

 these particular machines are not to be hired. Unless he can borrow 

 them from a large farmer he has to do without them ; that is to say 

 to carry on his farm without the aid of the modern improvements in 

 technique. 



A few words will suffice as to the qualities of the various types of 

 holding in relation to the cultivation of green and root crops, a matter 

 which only comes into consideration here in so far as such crops play 

 an important part on farms devoted to corn-growing. Where they 

 are only grown for the purpose of feeding the stock on the particular 

 farm, their production is not, of course, to be regarded as a branch of 

 agriculture pursued for its own sake. Here the question is as to their 

 production concomitantly with corn-production and for the market, 

 that is to say, generally speaking, simply as an item in the system of 

 rotation adopted on large arable farms. Large farming appears to 

 have the same advantages in the case of these crops as in corn- 

 growing. All that has been said as to the lower cost of ploughing 

 naturally applies to them also. Nor is there any essential difference 

 between the two kinds of crops as regards the application of machinery. 

 Turnips, in particular, require a great deal of machinery if cultivated 

 scientifically. And even if the small farmer can get the use of the 

 machines, he still cannot obtain the same results as the large farmer. 

 To obtain a good turnip-crop it is necessary, among other things, that 

 the very complicated process of sowing and manuring should be carried 



1 Small Holdings Report, 1889, qu. 7492 (evidence of the Secretary of the Farmer's 

 Club, Mr Druce). 



