16 
Large and Small Holdings. 
wheat-growers of Dakota and the Western States has not been 
satisfactory. Even they have felt the keen competition of 
Indian wheat ; they can no more make a profit by sending 
wheat to Liverpool at 30s. per quarter than the English farmer 
can grow it at that price. 
The new settler in America, whether in the States or across 
the Dominion border in Manitoba, generally goes as far West 
as he can to claim his " homestead " of 160 acres. No sooner 
does he acquire this right than he often proceeds to mortgage his 
estate to enable him to build his shanty, stable, &c. For the 
money so advanced he has to pay 8 or 10 per cent, in the best 
settled parts, and should he go further West, he is charged 10 
and 12 per cent. Manual labour is so dear, and the summer so 
short, that he must have the aid of those costly machines which 
the small farmer rarely uses in the old country. For these he 
pays upon " the three-years'-system," and has to give a " chattel 
mortgage " on his crops to the implement maker, his spare 
capital being required to buy horses, carts, &c., and to make 
provision for the maintenance of himself and family until the 
first harvest is reaped, which is rarely less than 18 months 
after his arrival. In good times it is an uphill fight, but when 
money is made, it is saved. With poor crops and low prices, 
the small farmer in Western America is possibly no better off 
financially than the bulk of English farmers, and of home 
comforts he has certainly much less. 
Coming now nearer our own shores, the position of the 
peasant farmer on the Continent of Europe, and his capacity to 
cope with the larger cultivator, may afford a better contrast than 
the farmers on the other side of the Atlantic. The land which 
the peasant occupies in France is generally his own. The 
number of landowners is about 8,000,000 ; but they do not 
show signs of great prosperity when it is stated " that more 
than 3,000,000 are exempt from taxation by reason of their 
poverty." Mr. H. M. Jenkins told the Duke of Richmond's 
Commission that the Irish " gombeen man " exists in France 
and Belgium ; and in the January number of the ' Edinburgh 
Review' we read that the peasant borrows money at usui^r's 
interest from the " local Rigore," and that small proprietors owe 
two, three, and four years' interest, and are " mortgaged up to 
the hilt." It appears that 1,815,000 holdings under 12^ acres 
do not cover more than 12,000,000 acres ; those from 12^ to 
100 acres embrace 44,000,000 acres, leaving 27,000,000 acres 
for holdings over 100 acres ; the total acreage of France being 
about 83,000,000 acres. In France, farms over 100 acres cover 
one-third, and in England three-fourths of the cultivated land. ■ 
In France, about 94 percent, of the holdings are under 50 acres. 
