1908.] Creation of Small Holdings. 



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larger farms. In these instances numerous questions arise at 

 once : What type of holding are we to go in for ? Can we run 

 any sort of small holding anywhere, or must we adapt the type 

 to the special conditions of the district ? If so. what circum- 

 stances are essential to success ? If once we get a clear idea 

 on these points, we shall be better able to cope with the practical 

 side of the question ; and the practical experience of the past 

 gives us plenty of data upon which to form such ideas. There 

 are not so very many parts of England where some form or 

 other of small holdings does not exist. Moreover, when such 

 holdings have occurred naturally, each district seems to have 

 given rise to a special type of its own. It will repay us to 

 examine what has determined this special local type and then 

 to consider, in the establishment of new holdings, how far we 

 should do well to be influenced by these local conditions. 



We can leave to a later stage a further question : to what 

 extent can we artificially mould and alter conditions so as to 

 make a given type of small holding succeed anywhere. 



What, then, has determined the types of small holdings in the 

 various districts ? We find that the type is invariably an 

 outcome of certain local conditions ; our inquiry therefore 

 resolves itself into a study of what these conditions are which 

 have conduced to the success of holdings in the different localities. 

 An attempt has been made to classify what appears at first to 

 be an endless variety of local reasons. The result has made 

 dear the two following points : — 



(i) That there are certain definite conditions which, under 

 known methods of cultivation, are essential to the successful 

 establishment of small holdings. 



(ii) That in any district the existence of one only of these 

 conditions has been sufficient to ensure success. 



Before tabulating these conditions it will make things clearer 

 to consider for a moment what a small holding implies. It is 

 obvious that if a living has to be produced off a small area — 

 (1) this area must be relatively very productive, or produce 

 crops for which relatively large cash returns are obtainable ; 

 or (2) there must be some means of supplementing the actual 

 return from the land itself. 



Under the first heading the necessary qualifications are one 

 or other of the following : — 



A 2 



