20 
Large and Small Holdings. 
kingdom had not been invaded by agricultural depression when 
he reported to the Commission. No doubt the fall in the price 
of beef and butter has now been felt bj the Danish farmers. 
The products of the dairy in Denmark are more carefully 
handled and more scientifically treated than with us, but it ap- 
peared that the large farms, rather than the smaller ones, produced 
the best articles, and made the best returns. The abolition of 
the law of distress in Denmark has caused fore-rents or security 
to be given by tenants, and consequently labourers are hindered 
from becoming small farmers. Although the hours of labour 
are from 5 to 7, the Danish labourer earns less than the 
English, a single man's wages, with board and lodging, being 
5Z. a year. Ke eats little meat, except bacon, but he sometimes 
saves money to buy his cottage or a little bit of land. The 
cost of the transfer of land in Denmark is 2 or 3 per cent. ; in 
France and Belgium, where the Government stamps are heavy, 
it ranges from 7 to 10 per cent. 
After a long and minute examination by the Royal Com- 
missioners upon all branches of foreign farming, Mr. Jenkins 
gives his final answer thus : — 
" The system of agriculture pursued in this country (England) produces 
more food than the system of any other oountry he had visited, and he 
should be very sorry to see any system of foreign agriculture applied to this 
country." 
And my friend, Major Craigie, sums up his admirable paper 
on the size of " Agricultural Holdings in England and Abroad " 
in these words : — 
" My main conclusion must be that England has plenty of experience of 
small farming now. There may be room for more in special situa- 
tions where dairying, market-gardening, and fruit-growing can be carried 
on ; but no data I have drawn from foreign records can be taken as offering 
any condemnation of a system of agriculture which, judged by its results, is, 
in spite of all our present drawbacks, second to none in its aggregate pro- 
ductive capacity." 
The member of the Royal Agricultural Society who suggested 
that the attention of the Society should be specially directed to 
this question of " Large and Small Farms," is still more 
emphatic in his condemnation of " la petite culture," for he 
says : — 
" Special details on the subject of small holdings, whether from France, 
from Belgium, or from Italy, all conclusively point to an amount of personal 
misery and suffering amongst the cultivators, that is most appalling to 
peruse ; and it ought to become one of the highest functions of a Society like 
ours to warn the native population against following examples that experience 
shows ultimately bripg ujxin the cultivators of these small holdings such 
dreadful privations and such persistent personal miseries." 
