464 
Altoimenis arid Small Holdings. 
well as tithe rent-charge and rates, at, say, 8s. per acre, making 
together 70Z., would probably have to be placed to capital 
account, which, for the first year, would therefore stand at 
2,411Z.i 
According to the provisions of the Small Holdings Act 
(1892), the money required will not be available at lower 
interest than 3^ per cent. At this rate the interest on the 
above sum would amount to rather over 75Z. per annum. This 
amount would certainly rather heavily handicap the small 
farmer. Nor does the transaction promise to be a very satis- 
factory one for the ratepayers, who will be responsible for the 
money in the last resort. Then, on the assumption that the 
tenant is to become the owner, there will be a further annual 
charge beyond that of mere rent, for a shorter or longer period 
of years, according to the amount which he is able to pay oS 
independently in the meantime. 
Such, then, are some of the difficulties which will have to 
be encountered in any attempt to create a class of tenants, or of 
owners, of small farms. The foregoing calculations have, how- 
ever, reference only to the establishment of small arable, or what 
may be termed rotation, or grain and meat farms ; and when we 
consider that, comparing the first five of the last twenty-five years 
(1867-1891), with the last five, the average price of wheat per 
quarter has gone down from 56s. to 32s. Id., that of barley from 
38s. 8cZ. to 27s. 2d., and that of oats from 25s. 8cZ. to 17s. lOcZ., 
the prospect is not very promising for the small farmer, who will 
have to produce his grain, not only in competition with foreign 
countries, but with the farmers of his own country who hold 
land enough to take full advantage of all labour-saving appli- 
ances. He will also have to compete in his own markets with 
the foreign produce of meat, the imports of which, live and dead, 
have enormously increased in recent years. 
Whilst, then, the outlook for the small grain and meat 
farmer must be considered very discouraging, the question still 
remains, whether small tenancies or small holdings would not 
be of advantage, both to those who cultivate them and to the 
nation at large, if the land were devoted mainly to the produc- 
tion of milk, butter, and cheese, poultry and eggs, vegetables 
and fruit. In favour of such a system it is pointed out how 
' With reference to the above estimate of probable cost, the following 
statement, w'hich was lately published, may be quoted: “A Freehold Farm 
in the parish of Whaplode, belonging to Mr. Robert Coupland, comprising a 
small farmhouse, with barn and bullock hovel and four pieces of excellent 
arable land adjoining, containing altogether 53 acres 0 roods 38 poles (more 
or less), has been sold for 2,390?. to Dr. Cotton, of London.” 
