.^6 
Large and Small Holdings. 
not been industrious, and if each had not possessed a special 
talent for his special business, they would not have succeeded 
in life as they have done. 
Just one word upon Wales. That country is full of small 
farms, and until quite recently the wave of agricultural depres- 
sion had reached only the outside portion of the Principality. 
But during the last two years the depreciation of cattle and 
dairy produce has smitten the Welsh farmer severely; some rebel 
against the payment of tithes, and others threaten to import the 
Irish Land League across St. George's Channel. What will 
happen in Wales, should agricultural distress long continue, 
when at its first visitation the Welsh farmer shows such signs 
of irritation and rebellion, is difficult to foretell. When distress 
has lasted a dozen years and become chronic, as in the grain- 
producing counties of England, both parson and landlord will 
have a dreary time of it in Wales. Judging from what has 
recently appeared in the Society's 'Journal,' numerous small 
farms in South Wales have been added to the larger ones, and, 
when so amalgamated, thev have been better farmed, and have 
produced more corn and cattle. Latterly, the tendency to put 
down land to grass has greatly increased, and the cultivation 
of wheat is much diminished. Very little improvement in the 
tillage of small farms seems to have taken place of late, and 
what I wrote in the prize essay of the " Farming of South 
Wales " * nearly forty years ago of the small farmers of the 
Principality, is, I am told, almost as correct now as it was 
then. After stating the exceedingly small profits that accrued 
from the scourging agriculture of those days, 1 wrote : — 
" But it will be naturally asked, how do the farmers live ? They depend 
■ chiefly on the young stock to pay the rent, and rely on the dairy, which 
continually brings in ready money, to meet other cuinut expenses. In 
.addition to this, the small farmer and his sons do the principal work and 
repairs of the farm. They have thus hardly any outgoings for labour or 
tradesmeu'.s wages, and live in a style of patriarchal simplicity almost entirely 
on the produce of their own land." 
The poor encouragement which " The Small Farm and 
Labourers' Land Company " has received, shows that, however 
some philanthropists may believe in the advantages of peasant 
ownership, the general public has no great faith in the financial 
success of the small farmer. Here is a bond fide honest attempt 
to demonstrate as a matter of business, and not of philanthropy, 
that estates can be bought and sold or let piece-meal, and pay a 
reasonable dividend upon the money so employed. The Board 
* ' Journal ' E. A. S. E., 1S49, vol. x., first series, p. 122 et aeq. 
