C7)t?  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
283 
Farming  in  Europe 
Part  VI. 
British  Conditions. — The  agriculture 
of  England  is  different  from  that  of  the 
two  countries  already  considered.  Some 
of  the  most  important  differences  consist 
in  the  per  cent,  of  land  under  the  va¬ 
rious  categories  of  agriculture,  the  size  of 
holdings,  system  of  farming,  etc.  Because 
of  these  striking  dissimilarities  many 
very  interesting  comparisons  can  be  made 
which  in  turn  suggest  several  important 
agricultural  economic  problems.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  the  last  survey,  England  and 
Wales  comprise  37.138,768  acres  of  land, 
884%  of  which  is  divided  into  the  fol- 
lwoing  categories: 
Land  Under  Different  Categories. 
Per  rent,  of 
Arable  land  . . 
Aeres 
.  . .  11.05S.233 
total  area 
20.8 
Grass  land  .... 
.  .  .  10.876,415 
53.5 
Woodlands  . . . . 
...  1.884,068 
5.1 
Total  . 
...  32.818.716 
88.4 
Decreasing  Arable  Land. — It  will 
be  seen  that  53.5%  of  the  productive 
agricultural  land  is  devoted  to  grass 
which  may  be  permanent  or  temporary. 
This  presents  a  striking  contrast  to  16% 
of  the  agricultural  land  devoted  to  the 
same  purpose  in  Germany,  and  4.03%  in 
France.  The  more  interesting  fact  is  that 
the  arable  land  is  constantly  and  grad¬ 
ually  decreasing — and  has  hemi  for  the 
last  40  years,  and  that  the  area  of  the 
grass  land  is  increasing.  There  are  sev¬ 
eral  reasons  which  go  to  account  for  the 
reduction  of  the  arable  hind,  hut  the 
most  important  seems  to  be  11)  un¬ 
checked  foreign  competition,  12)  in¬ 
crease  of  cost  and  growing  scarcity  of 
qualified  labor,  (3)  less  risk  and  outlay 
involved  in  farming  grass  land,  and  (4) 
less  remuneration  of  the  arable  farming 
under  present,  conditions. 
Population  and  Land  Holdings. — 
The  percentage  of  the  total  population 
engaged  in  agriculture  is  small  in  Eng¬ 
land  in  comparison  with  that,  of  the  other 
countries.  For  England  and  Wales  it 
is  only  about  3%  and  for  the  whole 
United  Kingdom  it  is  about  4.5%,  An¬ 
other  interesting  comparison  is  the  size 
of  land  holdings.  It  has  been  seen  that 
in  Germany  and  France  the  small  hold¬ 
ings  predominate  over  the  large.  In  Eng¬ 
land  it  is  just  the  opposite  as  the  fol¬ 
lowing  table  shows : 
Number  and  Size  of  Holdings. 
Per  iviil  Total  Per  cent 
Size-Group. 
No. 
of  total 
average  of 
total 
Over 
1 
and 
not 
ove 
r  5 
acres 
,  ,  , 
92.302 
21.18 
284. 945 
1.05 
Over 
5 
and 
not 
over  20 
aeres. .1 
22,117 
2S.03 
1.373,277 
5.00 
Over 
20 
and 
not 
ove 
r  50 
acre 
K.  . 
78,027 
17.91 
2.023,304 
9.67 
Over 
r.o 
and 
not 
over  100  nor  Cm.  59,287  13.61  4.324.724  15.94 
Over  100  and  not 
over  150 
acres . 
31.838 
7.31 
3,942,165 
14.53 
Over  150  and  not 
over  300 
acTi»«. 
37.593 
8.63 
7,844.200 
28.92 
Over  300 
acres. . 
14,513 
3.33 
6,736,767 
24.83 
Total  . 
. 435,077 
150 
27.129.382 
150 
Large  Farms. — The  above  table  shows 
conclusively  that  large  farms  predomin¬ 
ate  in  England.  It  will  be  seen  that 
53.75%  of  the  agricultural  land  is 
farmed  in  holdings  from  150  to  300  acres 
and  over.  The  holdings  ranging  from 
50  to  150  acres  and  from  20  to  50  acres 
represent  30.47%  and  0.17%  of  the  to¬ 
tal  acreage  respectively.  The  number  of 
holdings  of  from  20  acres  and  over  rep¬ 
resent  49.79%  of  the  total,  while  the 
number  of  holdings  of  from  one  to  20 
acres  constitute  the  remainder  40.21%, 
but  only  6.11%  of  the  total  area.  A 
large  part  of  these  small  holdings  are  iu 
gardens  or  plots  devoted  largely  to  the 
production  of  crops  requiring  an  inten¬ 
sive  management,  A  considerable  part 
is  also  used  as  land  of  accommodation 
held  by  persons  mainly  employed  in  other 
vocations  than  farming.  The  large  farms 
are  in  most  favor.  The  general  opinion 
and  belief  seem  to  be  that  on  ordinary 
land  only  farming  on  large  scale  can  pay. 
It  is  claimed  that  a  large  farmer  with 
big  capital  can  perform  many  farm  opera¬ 
tions  more  economically  than  a  small 
farmer  can,  and  thereby  secure  greater 
net  returns.  Furthermore,  an  intensive 
large  farmer  obtains  bigger  net  profits 
than  a  small  intensive  farmer.  On  the 
other  hand,  where  the  land  is  very  rich, 
and  the  soil  and  other  conditions  are 
suited  to  certain  crops  which  require  very 
intensive  care,  the  small  farms  are  ad¬ 
vocated,  and,  as  a  rule,  prevail. 
Fencing  and  Land  Waste. — The 
general  preference  in  England  for  farm¬ 
ing  large  exploitations  is.  in  the  main, 
contrary  to  that  of  France  and  Germany. 
The  experience  and  results  of  the  latter 
countries  seem  to  indicate  that  farming 
on  small  scale  is  more  profitable.  The 
disagreement,  however,  goes  to  show  that 
the  success  of  these  two  types  of  farm¬ 
ing  depends  upon  many  factors,  w-hich 
may  not  exist  everywhere.  In  contrast 
to  the  division  of  land  and  scattering  of 
the  fields  in  Germany  and  France,  the 
land  of  each  farmer  in  England  is  al¬ 
most  always  together  and  nearly  in  every 
case  fenced.  The  fences  consist  of  stone, 
wood,  wire,  but  largely  of  hedges.  This 
latter  mode  of  fencing  causes  consider¬ 
able  waste  of  land.  The  English  farm¬ 
ers,  however,  do  waste,  in  various  ways, 
an  enormous  amount  of  land,  which  in 
Germany  and  France  is  almost  a  rare 
thing. 
The  Tenant  System. — One  of  the 
most  interesting  things  about  the  British 
agriculture  is  that  it  is  one  of  tenancy. 
More  than  87%  of  the  agricultural  land 
is  held  and  farmed  by  tenants  and  only 
13%  by  the  owners.  This  is,  without 
question,  an  illogical  system,  and  con¬ 
sidering  with  what  distrust  it  is  held  in 
many  countries,  one  would  easily  con¬ 
clude  that  the  British  soil  would  soon 
bo  ruined.  The  significant  truth  about 
the  matter  is,  however,  that  this  system 
has  been  in  operation  for  the  last  cen¬ 
tury  or  more,  and  judging  from  the  re¬ 
sults  it  has  worked  remarkably  well,  and 
has  kept  the  productivity  of  the  land  to 
an  exceptionally  high  degree.  Probably 
the  character  of  the  people  and  the  na¬ 
ture  of  conditions  favor  the  successful 
operation  of  this  system.  In  the  first 
place,  the  largest  part  of  the  land  is 
owned  by  few  rich  people  who  rent  it 
to  selective  farmers  of  ability,  experience 
and  capital,  under  the  supervision  of 
managers  or  agents.  The  terms  of  rent¬ 
ing  are  very  advantageous  to  the  tenants. 
They  rent  the  land  usually  on  yearly 
agreement  at  a  very  reasonable  price — • 
sometimes  even  below  the  competitive 
value.  They  are  allowed  to  follow  now 
any  system  of  farming,  and  if  they  im¬ 
prove  the  productivity  of  the  land  they 
are  compensated  accordingly  when  they 
leave.  Under  these  conditions  the  aver¬ 
age  tenant  calculates  to  stay  on  the  land 
for  a  long  time,  and  tries  to  follow  a 
permanent  system  of  agriculture.  As  a 
result,  nearly  all  the  best,  most  advanced 
and  skillfully  adapted  farming  is  being 
done  by  the  tenants.  This  system  ap¬ 
parently  works  so  satisfactorily  and  ad¬ 
vantageously  for  the  tenants  that  they 
prefer  to  remain  as  such.  When  the  op¬ 
portunity  is  presented  to  them  to  become 
owners  of  the  farms  which  they  work, 
even  sometimes  under  the  most  advan¬ 
tageous  terms  to  themselves,  most  of 
them  refuse  the  opportunity  and  remain 
tenants.  They  argue  that  since  they  are 
satisfied  with  the  system  under  the  pres¬ 
ent  conditions,  they  do  not  wish  to  tie 
up  their  capital,  because  they  need  it  to 
conduct,  their  farming  enterprise  economi¬ 
cally  and  profitably.  Furthermore,  if 
they  buy  the  land  on  mortgage,  the  in¬ 
terest  that  they  have  to  pay  is  almost 
as  great  as  the  rent.  g.  b. 
“Herbert,”  said  a  school  teacher,  turn¬ 
ing  to  a  bright  youngster,  “can  you  tell 
me  what  lightning  is?”  “Yes,  ma’am,” 
was  the  ready  reply  of  the  boy.  "Light¬ 
ning  is  streaks  of  electricity.”  "Well, 
that  may  pass !”  said  the  teacher  encour¬ 
agingly.  “Now  tell  me  why  it  is  that 
lightning  never  strikes  twice  in  the  same 
place?”  “Because,”  answered  Herbert, 
“after  it  hits  once  the  same  place  ain’t 
there  any  more  !” — Australasian. 
SERIES  17 
FOUR 
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7  passenger 
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Touring  Car,  7-paasonger  .  .  $845 
Roadster,  3-passenger  ....  825 
Landau-Roadster,  3-passenger  1145 
Six  Cylinder  Models 
Touring  Car,  7-passenger  .  .  $1050 
Roadster.  3-passenger  ...  1025 
Landau-Roadster,  3-passenger  .  1350 
Coupe,  4-passenger  ....  1600 
Sedan,  7-passenger  .....  1675 
Limousine,  7-passenger  ...  2500 
Half-Ton  Commercial  Cars 
Panel  Delivery  Car  . $875 
Express  Body  .......  850 
Station  and  Baggage  Wagon  .  875 
One-Ton  Commercial  Trucks 
Open  Express,  complete  .  ,  $1200 
Stake  Body,  complete  .  .  ,  1250 
Bus,  16-pass.,  full  equipment  .  1400 
F.  O.  B.  Detroit 
POWER 
that  laughs  at  the  heaviest  roads 
Never  in  the  history  of  the  industry  has  there 
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POWER  at  its  price  as  this  new  SERIES  17 
Studebaker.  Never  has  there  been  offered  to  the 
man  living  in  the  country,  to  the  man  running  a 
farm,  to  the  man  driving  over  the  muddy  roads 
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POWER  with  economy  of  gasoline  has  always  been  a 
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South  Bend,  Ind.  Walkerville,  Ont. 
Address  all  correspondence  to  Detroit— Dept.  F  37 
More  than  214,000  Studebaker 
Cars  now  in  use 
