Small Holdings. 
93 
come to the ground. From the resume of facts affecting the 
small arable holdings of the Stratton estate, it will be seen that 
no single example has been found of a labourer having been 
able to retain his holding for any great length of time, and 
certainly not one ever seemed likely to earn the 400Z. required 
to make him a purchaser of thirty acres, as contemplated by the 
Act of 1892. There were exceptional conditions of tenure, the 
land is close to the village of Stratton, the rent does not 
exceed 19s. 6d. per acre, the quality of the soil is above the 
average of Hampshire, which is a typical English farming 
county, and there was every facility for the disposal of produce. 
In spite of all these advantages, the Stratton small holdings, at 
least where the labourers have been concerned, have proved 
lamentable failures. Would not this important experience, 
extending over a period of forty-four years, seem to argue that 
the Small Agricultural Holdings Act of 1892, praiseworthy and 
comprehensive as it is, must remain useless towards the re-crea- 
tion of the small-proprietary system with all its social, economic 
and political advantages? And yet, perhaps, it may not be 
entirely useless. When the population of the New World shall 
have so increased that exports of food produce shall be limited, 
the Act will probably be the useful instrument for which it was 
designed. 
The most successful of the small tenancies on the Stratton 
Estate have been the grass lands, which have always maintained 
a fair standard of rent, and for which there is an increasing 
demand. It has never been found difficult to let by agreement 
any small pasture holdings of three to five acres, and to appor- 
tion these in the immediate neighbourhood of the villages. A 
minimum of labour is necessary to them, and their produce finds 
ready purchasers close at hand. Experience has shown that a 
pasture holding of fifteen to twenty acres is sufficient to furnish the 
entire means of livelihood to one family, and the present pasture 
holdings on the Stratton Estate do no more than supply the 
adjacent villages with milk and butter ; but, if the number 
were extended, it is doubtful if the competition would tend to 
benefit the additional tenants. The inevitable surplus produce 
would scarcely pay them to send into the more distant centres of 
population, as the railway charges are so very high. Therefore, 
it would appear that only a favoured few can find profit and hope 
of bettering their position by means of pasture holdings of any 
extent; while the tenants of three to five acres may supply 
family wants, but will have no surplus considerable enough to 
help them to positions of ownership and complete inde- 
pendence. 
