Allotments and Small Holdings. 
443 
by labourers who would thus be rendered independent of weekly 
wages, or by others who would thus acquire an interest in the 
land, and so have an inducement to remain upon it. Such a 
subject is obviously one of great national importance, and it 
certainly is desirable that it should be freely and fairly discussed 
on its merits, without reference to party politics. 
Number and Acreage of Small Holdings in 
Great Britain. 
It is well known that within the present century there has 
been a great reduction in the number both of owners and of 
occupiers of farms not exceeding 50 acres in area, such as it 
seems to be the object of the promoters of the Small Holdings 
Act of 1892 greatly to increase. We are not able to adduce 
comparative statistics for different periods, showing the decline 
in the number and acreage of such holdings. Such evidence as 
is at command seems to indicate that the greatest decline was 
early in the century, and that it gradually lessened towards the 
middle. It would appear, however, that there has been a slight 
tendency to increase from about the commencement of the 
fourth quarter of the century up to the present time. Thus, in 
Major Craigie’s Report on the Return of Allotments and Small 
Holdings in Great Britain obtained for the Board of Agriculture 
by the Inland Revenue Department — and issued in 1890 (0. — 
6144) — he gives the following comparative statement of the total 
number of holdings in Great Britain, not exceeding 50 acres, 
in 1875, 1880, 1885, and 1889 : 
Year 
Small holdings 
1875 
889,941 
1880 
391,429 
1886 
392,203 
1889 
409,422 
It is admitted that, as a rule, the later returns are more 
correct than the earlier ; and the increase shown from 1875 to 
1880, and that from 1880 to 1885, are so small, that they might 
well be explained by greater exactitude in the returns. But 
the increase from 1885 to 1889 amounts to 17,219, or to more 
than 4 per cent., and this seems too much to attribute to error 
in the earlier record. If, however, we exclude the holdings of 
less area than 1 acre, some of which it is supposed are also 
included in the Returns of Allotments, the increase in the 
number from 1 acre to 50 acres would only be about 12^000; 
