i9o6.] Decline in Agricultural Population. 537 



older people, cottages with gardens and allotments, and also 

 small holdings from 10 to 50 acres." Some correspondents 

 express doubts as to whether an increase of the rural population 

 would in all cases result from the cutting up of farms. 



Difficulties in providing Small Holdings, — While the 

 advantages of small holdings as an incentive to the younger and 

 more desirable class of men to remain on the land are generally 

 recognised, the difficulties of providing them are forcibly referred 

 to by many correspondents. Various obstacles are mentioned, but 

 that which may be said to overshadow all the rest is the cost 

 of equipment. The difficulty, as one report says, " is not in 

 obtaining land, but in the cost of putting up the requisite build- 

 ings," or in another phrase, " the essential difficulty is the cost of 

 erecting buildings meeting the modern requirements of sanitary 

 authorities and the prospect of insufficient return in the shape 

 of rent." The greatly increased outlay on the house alone, 

 as compared with former times, is commented on. Allusion 

 is made by several correspondents to the fact that the rents 

 of small holdings are high in comparison wirh those of medium 

 or large farms, and the cost of equipment is referred to as one 

 of the causes. The capital outlay involved necessarily works 

 out at a higher sum per acre on a small area than on a large 

 one, and except by the provision of cheaper capital or by the 

 erection of a less durable house and buildings in the one case 

 than in the other, it is difficult to see how this inequality can be 

 avoided. The higher rents of small holdings are also sometimes 

 attributable, as frequently pointed out, to other causes, such as 

 proximity to markets, advantages of soil and situation, as well 

 as to the /act that the smaller the amount of working capital 

 required, the wider is the competition for farms. 



Conditions of Success. — The conditions which conduce to the 

 success of small holdings, as well also as those which lead to 

 their failure, are indicated in many of the reports. Instances 

 of failure, both of old-established small holdings and of some 

 which have been recently laid out, may be found. An example 

 of the former is given by the late Mr. Punchard, in West- 

 morland, where holdings of 15 to 30 acres were formerly 

 held in connection with village industries. " With the loss of 

 these industries, and therewith the loss of casual employment 



