864 . Publications of Interest to Agriculturists. 
athirty-acreholdingof anannual rental value of 30?. The buyer would 
also require at least 6 1 . an acre for farming capital, so that, including 
the 224?. already mentioned, he must be provided with about 400?. 
capital. We sympathise with the effort which has been made to 
increase the number of small holdings in this country ; but we agree 
with Mr. Shaw Lefevre that the terms, when examined, are not 
sufficiently favourable to make it probable that many would-be culti- 
vators will take advantage of the Act, and that as to labourers it 
is altogether out of the question. It must be remembered, too, 
when the creation of small holdings is under consideration, that the 
lot of a cultivator of such a holding is not an altogether happy one, 
for it “ necessitates the most minute attention to details, the most 
laborious devotion to the land, the co-operation of the wife and 
children, and an industry beyond that of ordinary farm labourers 
working for a weekly wage.” 
If proof were wanted of the difficulty — we might almost say, the 
impossibility — of re-creating a class of small peasant propi'ietors in 
this country, it is furnished by the evidence of Lord Wantage as 
Chairman of the Small Farms and Labourers'" Land Company, showing 
the failure of the company to resell their land in small plots, though 
they offered very favourable terms. In the way of the creation of 
small tenancies there do not seem to be so many difficulties. But 
the paramount difficulty of all has to be surmounted — namely, that 
under present circumstances it is extremely difficult to make the 
cultivation of a small holding of land pay, whatever may have been 
the casein former times. Under exceptional circumstances, and in 
exceptional localities, instances will still be found of the profitable 
cultivation of small holdings, as in parts of Worcestershire near 
Evesham and Pershore, where many cultivators make a living 
out of five or six acres of garden ground. The land in this part is, 
however, especially suited to the cultivation of garden vegetables and 
fruit, there is ready and easy access to the railway, and a good 
market to be found in the Midland manufacturing towns. 
Small grass holdings of fifteen to thirty acres in size used for 
dairying may also prove profitable where there is a good local 
demand for dairy produce. Many of such holdings will be found 
scattered throughout the country ; but, obviously, they cannot be 
multiplied to an indefinite extent. Small holdings of arable land 
can, it is submitted, seldom be cultivated profitably. 
The fact is, we believe, that small holdings may perhaps be in- 
creased in number to some extent under favourable conditions, and 
more amongst people of the class of village tradesmen and the like 
than amongst agricultural labourers, but that much of the land of 
this country is totally unsuited for such a mode of cultivation in the 
present day. To expect that any considerable amount of land can 
be artificially forced into the hands of small proprietors or small 
tenants is hopeless in the face of the present economic situation, 
and from the agricultural point of view — that is, that the land 
should be cultivated to the best account — the movement in this 
direction is a step backwards rather than forwards. 
