^98 JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURATi SOCIETY. 



Nor is the man who, under present conditions, undertakes to wring 

 a Hving out of a small-holding as a rule much better off than the farm 

 labourer. If he is fortunate enough to possess sufficient capital for his 

 purpose and has a practical knowledge of the business he has under- 

 taken, he may get along fairly well and his life will be comparatively 

 free from worry and privation. But they are few, indeed, who are so 

 happily circumstanced. The average man has to fight from hand to 

 mouth, leading a life of brutalizing drudgery. If he is to have the 

 remotest prospect of success, he and his family must make a special 

 study of the art of elimination. They must learn to do without all sorts 

 of conveniences and amenities which people in civilized communities 

 have come to regard as necessary to their well-being. Leisure and 

 comfort must be abjured and life reduced to securing the elementary 

 necessities of .food and shelter, and then only as the result of hard and 

 unremitting toil. After years of unnecessary work and worry, of those 

 who persist in the struggle a few ultimately emerge with a measure of 

 success, but the large majority go under. Through it all there is, as 

 of old, the nerve-racking monotony and loneliness for the women and 

 the indifferent education and lack of opportunities for the advancement 

 of the children. No free and progressive people can be expected to be, 

 nor ought to be, satisfied with such an existence. 



Taking all the circumstances into account, I submit that no per- 

 manent improvement in the situation is possible until the worker on 

 the land is assured not only of an existence under much better material 

 conditions than hitherto, but also of being afforded more leisure, more 

 frequent opportunities for intercourse with his fellow-men, and of being 

 kept in closer touch with the multitudinous matters of human interest 

 which form the mental life all civilized communities. In these pro- 

 gressive days, and in such a liberty-loving land as ours, it is futile to 

 attempt to find a solution under conditions less reasonable. 



In any national scheme intended to attract the people back to the 

 land, one would expect to find that those aspects of the question to 

 which I have drawn attention would be recognized and dealt with, 

 but in the Small Holdings Act they are entirely ignored, and w^hile that 

 is so I contend that it can never be a success. Agriculture has been 

 so long neglected that exceptional remedial measures are necessary to 

 restore a proper balance between it and the industrial and intellectual 

 life of the nation. There are plenty of men of suitable type, ready and 

 anxious to settle upon the land, but they are debarred by lack of capital. 

 Of the few who by perseverance are at length enabled to make the 

 adventure, many, from insufiicient means, will either make a disastrous 

 failure or be doomed to a life of unnecessary privation and toil. In 

 addition to land the essentials of success include such things as dwelling- 

 house, out-buildings, tools and appliances, manure, in some cases live- 

 stock, and, most important of all, a reserve fund to fall back upon in 

 the event of bad seasons in the early years, or of disastrous happenings 

 at any time. If the Small Holdings Act is to have any real chance of 

 accomplishing its purpose it must be supplemented by a fund which, 



