191 2.] Changes in Agricultural Holdings. 103 i 



It cannot be suggested that these figures are applicable to 

 this country. The point of interest is that they are based on 

 the average of a large number of actual figures obtained 

 over a series of years on many farms, and consequently 

 represent fact, not opinion. 



It is necessary, however, to point out that the issues appear 

 to be simpler in the States, in so far as agriculture there seems 

 more specialised, and consequently less complex from a book- 

 keeping point of view. A farmer who confines himself to 

 producing wheat or cotton has a much simpler problem of 

 costs to solve than one who takes up mixed farming in this 

 country, and has to combine corn-growing with beef or mutton 

 production, and, perhaps, horse-breeding as well. Then, 

 again, intensive farming and its necessary accompaniment, 

 an approved rotation of crops, presents a more difficult 

 problem. 



The Acreage and Live Stock returns of Great Britain for 

 191 1 again show an increase in the number of small holdings. 



The number of holdings of the small- 

 Changes in the est class— 1 to 5 acres— increased in 

 Number and Size of England and Wales during the year 

 Agricultural Holdings. 19I0 _ IT by 2,085 and in the 5 to 50 acre 

 class by 1,601, so that the total increase 

 during the year was 3,686. So substantial was this increase 

 that the number of small holdings in England and Wales is 

 now greater than in 1903. 



From 1903 to 1908 small 'holdings declined steadily in 

 England, and although in Wales there was no general 

 tendency, the lowest point in England and Wales as a whole 

 was reached in 1908. This continued decline was only con- 

 sistent with the tendency disclosed by previous periodic 

 returns at various dates. Thus in 1890 the number was 

 calculated at 309,290 and in 1895 it had fallen to 299,378. In 

 the three years since 1908, however, there has been an increase 

 of 5,312 or nearly 2 per cent. The changes in the number of 

 holdings of from 1 to 50 acres in size are shown in the first 

 table on the next page. 



The above figures represent only net increase and not the 

 number of new small holdings created. The contraction of the 



