i9io.] 



Small Holdings in Surrey. 



13 



A third case is that of a small holder, who, when sixty years 

 of age, lost his employment as herdsman, when the herd of 

 cows which he tended was sold. He had managed to save 

 four or five hundred pounds, and after much searching for a 

 suitable small holding in the district, found two or three pieces 

 of land close to a large village in Surrey, with homestead and 

 cottage. He bought the goodwill of a dairy connection and 

 a small coal business from the outgoer, and at the present 

 time one of his sons is managing the coal business, another 

 son has charge of the milk-walk, and he and his wife work at 

 home and attend to the stock, home and homestead. This 

 they have done for the last five years, and appear to be 

 thriving. 



Five years ago, a man who had been a farm labourer for 

 twenty or thirty years, earning fair wages, and saving out of 

 them, started in a small way as a market gardener, taking 11 

 acres near the suburbs of London, at a rent of 565. an acre. 

 He devotes himself to market gardening, cultivating flowers, 

 apparently, with much success. He sends his produce along 

 with others to Covent Garden, where he either hires a stall 

 or consigns his produce to the salesmen. He says his venture 

 has been successful and his income greater than when he 

 earned wages as a farm hand. 



These. are a few instances out of many, and show the way 

 in which some small holders and holdings have originated in 

 the county. Needless to say, many such have failed, either 

 through want of capital, or knowledge, or from sheer 

 misfortune. 



The unsuitability for the small holders of the southern or 

 Wealden district of Surrey, both on account of the nature 

 of the soil, and the distance from good markets, has already 

 been pointed out, but it is in this district, at Newdigate, a 

 village between Holmwood and Redhill, that a colony of 

 small holders has been established. 



It is of interest both as an object lesson and as affording 

 an example, and perhaps the only example in the county, of 

 an organised attempt to solve, by private enterprise, the 

 problem of rural depopulation, and for these reasons it 

 deserves more than passing reference. 



In the year 1902, an organisation was formed known as the 



