1908.] 



Small Holdings in Hampshire. 



91 



was marketed along with that of larger growers, and he usually 

 had a fair share of the trade. 



The cost of labour is much the same as in other market 

 gardening districts, labourers being paid 18s. per week and 

 4d. per hour overtime. Six-roomed houses range from ys. to 

 85. per week, labourers' cottages from 4s. to 5s., exclusive of 

 rates, which are 2s. lod. in the pound, but suitable houses are 

 very scarce. 



In many out of the way districts, I have often come across 

 men who have specialised in the production and cultivation of 

 some particular flower, although in many cases it would be 

 only proper to class these holders as small nurserymen. 

 Within a few miles from Winchfield, 1 know one man who 

 makes quite a comfortable living by the cultivation of violets 

 and carnations. 



Unsuitable Holdings. — The greatest failures among the small 

 holders of Hampshire are to be found among those who 

 have possessed limited capital and a still more limited 

 knowledge of agriculture, with little or no idea of how to 

 manage the holding, which they may have striven for many 

 years of their life to acquire. My observations are not 

 based on a few isolated cases of failure, but on a large 

 number and over a long period of years. In the majority of 

 cases the land possessed by these holders has been quite 

 unsuited for the purposes to which they had applied it. The 

 soil has generally been a heavy clay or gravelly soil, and the 

 freehold has often been taken up at £20 to £25 per acre, 

 which price includes fencing. As there was no house accom- 

 modation a building of the bungalow type v/as usually 

 erected at a cost of from £120 to £150, while the acreage of land 

 comprised in these holdings varied from 1 to 10 acres. 



Near Medstead, Ropley, Overton, and some other districts 

 where the majority of these holdings are situated, no associations 

 for the fostering of co-operative ideas are in existence, and 

 each holder has to act entirely on his own initiative and 

 responsibility ; so that with unsuitable soil, small floating 

 capital, and poor markets the difficulties in the way of success 

 have been insuperable. The few men who are in any way 

 successful usually seek other employment than that afforded 

 by their own portion of land, and are found ploughing, 



