Conclusion 203 



the more could they afford for meat, butter, cheese, fruit and vege- 

 tables, especially as money-wages, so far from following the price 

 of bread, were actually rising. The consequence was an enormous 

 increase in the consumption of all those articles which had only 

 under exceptional circumstances been touched by the general popula- 

 tion during the period of high corn-prices. Accordingly, the direction 

 of agricultural production was again changed. Intensive stock- 

 farming, the production of first-class meat, dairy- farm ing, fruit and 

 vegetable growing, and the sale of eggs and fowls took the place of 

 the now unprofitable corn-growing. And the conditions of the 

 market and of production being thus altered, the question of the unit 

 of holding was altered for the first time for more than a hundred years. 

 Large farms diminished in number as corn-growing was driven off all ^ 

 but the most fertile soils. They held their ground where the branch 

 of production adopted suited this form of holding, as e.g. in the 

 breeding of pedigree stock and in sheep-farming. But this was the 

 exception. As a rule, the new types of farming were such as were 

 proper to the small holding. They demanded in the first place the 

 personal labour of the occupier and his family, that is to say, intensive 

 application of labour rather than of capital. Therefore, as corn-prices 

 fell, the chances of the small holding improved, and it emerged from 

 the dark realms of forgotten things to become an object of the greatest 

 interest and importance. Today in England its praises are celebrated 

 and the conditions of its success are studied by agricultural authorities 

 and by political leaders. Landlords, after a century of contrary 

 practice, endeavour to divide their farms and to reduce them to the 

 size which was the rule in the England of the past. The State seizes 

 upon the moment as favourable to its need for the creation of small 

 holdings as a barrier against the flight from the land, and it has 

 become possible to carry through legislation aimed at a revival of 

 such holdings which not so long ago was held to be a Utopian dream, 

 since it would have been in opposition to the economic tendencies of 

 the day. 



The dependence of the problem of the unit of holding on the 

 conditions of the market for the various kinds of agricultural pro- 

 duce is thus clearly evident. Those conditions determine what shall 

 be produced ; and what branches of agriculture shall hold the first, 

 second or third place. Therefore they obviously also influence the 

 unit of holding. For this in its turn is dependent on the varying 

 profitableness of the various branches of agricultural production. 



