Agricultural Holdings in Germany. 33 



nearest approximation to the one acre limit adopted 

 here. The fact that the German holdings include also a 

 relatively small number of gardens (not ornamental gardens), 

 which are omitted from the British returns, will not mate- 

 rially affect the comparison ; more especially as by far the 

 greater number of such gardens are of very small area, and 

 are therefore eliminated in an investigation into holdings of 

 above one acre only. 



Of the 3,704,695 German holdings which are of acres 

 and over there are 1,382,964, or 37-6 per cent., of less than 

 five acres ; as against 117,968 British holdings, or 22*7 per 

 cent, in the corresponding group of holdings of above i 

 and not exceeding 5 acres. The disproportion between 

 the relative numbers of these small holdings in the two 

 countries appears more striking if comparison be made of 

 the areas ; the German holdings of this group covering 4-5 

 per cent, of the total cultivated area, and the British only 

 I- 1 per cent. This is not due to the greater average 

 size of the German holdings of this class (which is only 2*6 

 acres against 3*1 in Great Britain) but to the much greater 

 preponderance of large farms in this country, especially 

 of those between 50 and 500 acres. This appears from the 

 following table, exhibiting the number of holdings of over 

 five acres : — 



Size of 

 Holdings. 



Germany, 



1 Great Britain. 



Number, 



Per cent. 



Number. 



Per cent. 



5 to 50 acres 



50 to 500 acres - 



Over 500 acres - 



2^014,940 

 292,982 

 13,809 



86-8 



12-6 



0-6 



235,481 

 , 161,438 

 5,219 



58-6 

 40-1 

 1-3 



Total 



2,321,731 



100 



402,138 



100 



The cultivated area in the same groups of holdings is 

 noted in the succeeding table, which brings the same 

 features into stronger prominence. From this it will be 

 noticed that farms of over ,500 acres form a larger proportion 

 of the cultivated surface of Germany than they do in Great 

 Britain, and this although the average (cultivated) size of a 



C 



