Large and Small Holdings. 
21 
The main object of improved agriculture is to raise the 
greatest possible amount of produce from the soil with the least 
cost of labour. It seems to be the desire of some countries to 
make the land carry as many human beings as possible, without 
any regard to their prosperity and comfort. 
The following Table, which is condensed from Major 
Craigie's statistical paper, gives a concise comparison of the 
agricultural products of England and the Continent : — 
ation. 
Inhabi- 
tants 
Cows 
Other 
Cattle 
Sheep 
Yield per Acre 
"3 
per 
per 
c. 
o 
p.1 
per sq. 
mile. 
sq. mile. 
per 
sq. mile. 
sq. mile. 
of 
Wheat. 
of 
Barley. 
of 
Potatoes. 
millions. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
biishels 
bushels. 
bushels. 
25 
483 
36 
57 
322 
28-9 
34-4 
252 
22 
192 
36 
38 
33 
15-7 
13-5 
109 , 
16 
126 
15 
24 
85 
11-5 
13-6 
38 
.S8 
184 
31 
32 
110 
15-3 
18-7 
114 
Germany 
45 
217 
43 
32 
92 
18-9 
4 
315 
77 
37 
56 
21-4 
4i*9 
173 
H 
487 
70 
51 
32 
25-9 
34-9 
Sweden 
4f 
27 
8 
4 
8 
124 
Italy 
28 
257 
16 
21 
77 
li'g 
COEEESPONDENCE. 
Living as I do in an arable county, and being more inti- 
mately acquainted with the farming of East Anglia than with 
the agriculture of other districts, I thought that some advan- 
tages might appertain to small holdings in other counties, 
which I fail to discover in Norfolk. I felt certain that where- 
ever grass predominated, there small holdings abounded, and I 
knew that there were sundry farm products that could be grown 
in small quantities quite as economically as on more extensive 
holdings. I therefore wrote to some friends in different parts 
of England, asking them to furnish me with some of the advan- 
tages of small farms over larger ones. In no one instance have 
they reported in favour of the greater productiveness of small 
farms. Tradesmen occupying plots of land often manure them 
heavily, and grow greater crops than the ordinary farmer, but 
the small farmer, who has no other calling, is not much addicted 
to the use of oil-cakes, nor given to spend much money in 
artificial manures. 
Selecting some of my correspondence as typical of the rest, I 
will begin with the most favourable of all the reports. It 
comes, as might naturally be supposed, from Devonshire, and is 
kindly furnished to me by Mr. J. B. Spearing, who many years 
