THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Vol, XV. No. 8. 



NOVEMBER, 1908. 



SMALL HOLDINGS IN SOUTH-WEST LANCASHIRE.* 

 John O. Peet, B.Sc, 



County Instructor in Agriculture for Hereford. 



Lancashire is essentially a county of small farms. In the 

 south-western portion of the county, particularly in the district 

 situated along the first twenty miles of the route from Liverpool 

 to Preston, small holdings are especially numerous. A large 

 proportion of the holdings in this district are under 50 acres, 

 and few exceed or even approach 100 acres in extent. That 

 the division of the land into small farms is of no recent date is 

 evident from the character and age of the houses and buildings 

 upon them. There is little evidence of any great change in the 

 size of the holdings having taken place for a long period, the 

 most notable occurrence in this direction being the gradual 

 disappearance of the smallest class of holdings in the districts 

 most remote from the towns. 



Soil. — The soil throughout the district is derived from the 

 rocks of the New Red Sandstone series, and like most soils of 

 similar origin is naturally productive. For the main part it is 

 a free- working loam, which readily responds to liberal manuring 

 and is well suited to potato culture and market gardening. 



* Previous articles on Small Holdings have appeared as follows : — The Creation 

 of Small Holdings under the Act of 1907, Mrs. Roland Wilkins (Z. Jebb), April, 

 190S ; Small Holdings in Hampshire, J. C. Newsham, F.L.S., May, 1908; Small 

 Holdings in Herefordshire,/. O. Peet, B.Sc, August, 1908. 



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