Small Holdings. 
89 
be either perpetual or redeemable, and the remaining three-filths 
were to bo spread over a period of fifty years, but with power 
to pay all at any time. The holdings so purchased were not to 
exceed fifty acres in extent, nor a value of 50/. par annum ; 
while the holdings to be let were not to exceed an extent of 
fifteen acres, nor an annual value of 15/. The Public Works 
Loan Commissioners were empowered to lend the necessary 
funds to County Councils at interest at the rate of 3 1. 2*'. Gd. 
per cent. General experience teaches that an arable holding, by 
cultivation of which a man may earn his entire livelihood, 
should be from thirty to fifty acres in extent. Under this Act, 
to obtain a holding of such a size, a man must purchase. Its 
cost, with the necessary fann-buildings, has been estimated at 
37/. per acre. Of this sum, under the Act, the labourer must 
find one-fifth, or, for a thirty-acre holding, over 200/. In 
addition, he must provide money for implements, stock, the 
growing crops, and manure, and for living expenses until his 
holding begins to bring him return for the expenditure of his 
capital and labour. For these the estimate is another sum of 
200/., or a total of 400/. 
The Local Government (England and Wales) Act, 1894, 
extends the principle of the Allotments and Small Holdings 
Acts by permitting Parish Councils to let to one person an 
allotment or allotments exceeding one acre, but, if the land is 
hired compulsorily, not exceeding in the whole four acres of 
pasture, or one acre of arable land and three acres of pasture, 
instead of one acre of arable, as permitted by the Act 
of 1887. 
The deterrent effects of the foregoing legislation upon the 
immigration of the labourers into the towns will not, it is very 
probable, be great, unless the stress of foreign competition should 
slacken, railway charges be diminished, and newer systems of 
cultivation more generally prevail. Better prices and decrease 
of expenses must increase the wages of the labourer, and his 
means to avail himself of the advantages of the Acts. But it 
certainly appears improbable that the purchase clause of the Act 
of 1892 will be useful in raising a man to the position of owner 
from that of labourer. How many English farm labourers are 
likely to be possessed of the 400/. necessitated by the Act? 
Again, under the letting powers of the Act, the local authority 
may lease small holdings not to exceed fifteen acres ; but while 
a man remains a labourer it is impossible that he will be able 
to stock or cultivate more than three acres of pasture, or half 
an acre of arable land, at the most ; and experience proves that 
he could not support himself entirely out of fifteen acres of arable 
