Allotments and Small Holdings. 459 
suited to the production and sale of some or all of the smaller 
articles which have been enumerated, that the small cultivator 
could hope to compete with those who now supply us with so 
much of them. 
It follows, from the facts adduced, that there is little hope 
that a system of small holdings can ever be carried out in this 
country to anything like the extent whicli experience has shown 
to be practicable in the countries that are so frequently held up 
to us as models by those unacquainted with the conditions 
essential to success, or even with practical agriculture at all. 
Indeed, no one who looks carefully into the facts of the subject, 
which is pre-eminently a practical one, can entertain any 
hope that the system of small holdings can be carried out to 
any such extent as to counteract at all materially the flow of 
the rising rural populations into the towns. 
General Considerations and Conclusions. 
There can be no doubt that free trade in corn and other 
necessaries of life has contributed immensely to the prosperity 
of the country at large, and of the urban populations especially ; 
though the rural populations have also benefited much from the 
cheapening of their staple foods. But one of the inevitable 
consequences of greatly increased imports, and reduction in 
price, has been to reduce the area under grain crops, and there- 
fore the area under the plough, in our own country ; a necessaiy 
result of which is, to reduce the labour required to a given area, 
and so naturally to reduce the rural population. Nor is it 
very reasonable for the urban populations to complain, if an 
unavoidable result of the competition with foreign grain pro- 
ducers, and the consequent reduction in price, chiefly in their 
interest, has been a less requirement for rural labour, which, 
together with a rapidly increasing population, has led many 
to leave the country, and either to go into the towns or to 
emigrate. 
It seems, however, to be assumed, in the arguments laid 
before the non-agricultural public, that we should produce at 
home not only all the smaller articles of higher value which 
have been referred to, but even all the grain required, if not 
even the meat also. Such an argument is too absurd to deserve 
serious refutation ; but it may be well to state some of the 
results which such a supposition would involve. 
Briefly stated, the facts are,^^that notwithstanding all the 
emigration that has so far taken place, the population of the 
