14 
Large and Small Holdings. 
"In 115.525 holdings between 50 and 500 acres, there are 17,899,000 
acres. 
" In 4696 holdings over 500 acres, there are 3,434,000 acres." 
Major Craigie then gives some curious instances of the lar^e 
number of small landowners in different parts of England. He 
mentions a parish in the Isle of Ely which contains 11,000 
acres and 1800 inhabitants, and which has 304 holdings owned 
by 179 proprietors, of whom 68 occupy their own land. Temple 
Bolsall, in Warwickshire, has 4815 acres, with a population of 
1157, and has 30 owners farming their own estates. In the 
two parishes of Epworth and Ovvston, in the Isle of Axholme, 
Lincolnshire, there are in the former parish 145, and in the 
latter 112 owners farming holdings under 20 acres; and in 
the east of that county there are in Leake 156 owners, in 
Wrangle 103, in Friskney 94, and in Hogsthorpe 53, all 
farming their own estates of 20 acres and under. 
Many like instances might be quoted of the great number 
of small landowners in many parishes in Norfolk and other 
counties, and it is a common remark that where they exist the 
land is badly farmed and the labourers are only casually 
employed. 
Mr. S. B. L. Druce reported to the Royal Commission on 
Agriculture upon the whole of the Eastern district of England, 
which included Lincolnshire, and his general conclusion as to 
whether the small men did or did not stand the bad times better 
•than their bigger neighbours is thus summed up in that report : — 
" It seemed to me they had felt them more ; they had not indeed lost so 
much money (proportionately, I mean), because they had proportionately less 
to lose, but they felt the pinch more ; they had nothing to fall back upon, 
nor was their credit good enou;?h to enable them to borrow money to tide 
over their difficulties. Living as most of them appeared to do from hand to 
mouth, and depending solely on the crops of the current year to pay that 
year's expenses, when their crops failed, as they did in 1879 and 1880, they 
were unable to meet their expenses, and so were placed in a very serious plight, 
and had to trust to the forbearance of their creditors, mortgagees, and otiiers 
to keep on their holdinzs. The large farmers, on the other hand, though 
their losses had without doubt been very ]iea\y, were not placed in .so serious 
a plight; their credit was not gone, they had not exhausted it in the purchase 
of their farms, as the small freeholders had, and they had their stock to tail 
back upon when their crops had failed. Then too their losses had been in 
many cases partially shared by their landlords, who, as a rule, had made 
remissions of rent, but the mortgagees of the small freeholders had made no 
remissions." 
And Major Craigie, after having elaborated his figures so as 
to embrace the live-stock kept per acre and the labourers em- 
ployed upon the farms, and after having given the size of different 
holdings in every county of England, thus concludes : — 
