SUCCESSFUL SMALL HOLDINGS IN ENGLAND.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.'']
Sra,—The public is constantly reminded by Sir J. B. Lewes and other authorities that the average yield per acre of wheat is vastly greater in England, where large holdings prevail, than it is abroad, where small farms are the rule. Would not fairer conclusions be arrived at if comparisons were drawn between the yield of small holdings and large farms all situate in Eng- land P The parish of Sturton, in Lincolnshire, furnishes a striking illustration of this kind. The area of the parish is 2,032 acres, of which 879 acres are divided amongst occupiers of 100 acres and upwards. The remainder of the land is held as follows :-83 holdings of 1 acre and under, 29 holdings of 1 acre to 5 acres, 24 holdings between 5 and 13 acres, 17 holdings of 12 to 30 acres, 14 holdings of 30 to 100 acres ; in all, 167 holdings of less than 100 acres. A further noteworthy fact is that 76 occupiers, out of a total of 189, are also owners of the land they till. The state of this parish, probably almost unique in this country, will be judged by impartial men to be some guide in forming an opinion of the effects of an extension of such a state of things throughout the country. The land is light and of fair quality. The crops are ordinary farm produce ; market- gardening being almost unknown. The inhabitants cannot claim any special intelligence beyond the training inseparable from the successful carrying on of a small farm. The occupiers of one acre and under are usually labourers employed on farms. Holdings above this area are mostly farmed by men whose sole occupation is their land. I have systematically inspected a large number of the small farms of all sizes, and have gleaned many interesting facts. The particulars kindly given me respecting his farm by Thomas Bush are a fair sample of the experience of a man who lives on a five-acre farm. T. B. is 65 years old, and 30 years ago there was not enough for men to do, which made him wish for land of his own. His wages were 12s. per week. He was married and had seven children. He was a thrifty man who, helped by his wife, managed to save about £10 per year, and when it reached £100 of ready money, he bought a property of 5 acres for £355, he let 3 acres and worked acres, and having by this time got work on the railway, where wages were better and savings consequently greater, be was, after a while, able to take to all the land and build a house for £130. The 5 acres are worked as three fields, and the sales from it in 1884—a year of prices 20 per cent. under former averages—were 5 quarters wheat, 7 quarters barley; pigs made £19, straw over £4, and potatoes £5. The total of sales was £47. For home use was kept pork, wheat, potatoes, and poultry worth £14 at least. The only outlay for the farm of any account was that for pigs and their food of about £'i0. T.. B. told me, as the best proof of the return from his farm, that he had saved enough by farming to pay off all his mortgage if he had not preferred to buy more land. It would be easy to argue that this man would be better off as a labourer with his savings invested at 4 per cent. ; but he and others at Sturton say that it was the prospect of having a place of their own which made them save and (like another man whose house I saw, and who had quaintly inscribed " Ebenezer " upon it, in token of his joy at the fact) live in a home of their own. T. Bush said 9 quarters of wheat per acre was the most he ever grew, and 5 quarters the least. His average crop of beans was 6 quarters per acre. The average farmers' yield of beans in the parish was —as I was told by one of them, who himself occupies his own land and is an upholder of the labourers' holdings-4 quarters per acre, and of wheat 3 to 4 quarters per acre. This gentleman stated that the small holdings yielded at least half as much again per acre as the large farms. The reason was found in another field, where I found the owner going up the rows of potatoes with a bucket; having hoed out every weed, he was picking them up singly. I asked him whether he did not think it would be much wiser for him to have his money in an invest- ment and for himself to be a labourer. He thought it " would be neither wise nor pleasant," adding if he was hard at work that day he could be away on the next without asking leave. Wages in the parish are 13s. 6d. per week, and one small farmer of 16 acres said he could pay 15s. because he worked alongside his hired man. There are, I am told, not half-a-dozen people in the parish on the rates. Another proof of economic strength is the fact of there being 27 various tradesmen out of a popula- tion of 600, whose prosperity arises from the money which the small occupiers expend on their families and homesteads. Numbers of other interesting particulars could be added, but enough has been said to show that we who are working to extend such a system as this throughout the country, can find abundant proof of the blessings and comfort which it brings to the family
of the labourer.—I am, Sir, &c., FREDERIC IMPEY, Hon. Sec., Allotments and Small Holdings Association, Birmingham.
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