hosen to occupy these holdings by a Selection Committee of
Salvation Army Officers, are for the most part married people who were
born in the country, but had migrated to the towns. Most of them have
more or less kept themselves in touch with country life by cultivating
allotments during their period of urban residence, and precedence has
been given to those who have shown a real desire to return to the
land. Other essentials are a good character, both personal and as a
worker, bodily and mental health, and total abstention from any form
of alcohol. No creed test is required, and there are men of various
religious faiths upon the Settlement, only a proportion of them being
Salvationists.

I interviewed two of these settlers at hazard upon their holdings,
and, although the year had been adverse, found them happy and hopeful.
No. 1, who had been a mechanic, proposed to increase his earnings by
mending bicycles. No. 2 was an agriculturist pure and simple, and
showed me his fowls and pigs with pride. Here, however, I found a
little rift within the rural lute, for on asking him how his wife
liked the life he replied after a little hesitation, 'Not very well,
sir: you see, she has been accustomed to a town.'

If she continues not to like it 'very well,' there will, I think, be
an end to that man's prospects as a small holder.

I had the pleasure of bring present in July, 1910, at the formal
opening of the Boxted Settlement, when the Salvation Army entertained
several hundred guests to luncheon, many of them very well-known
people. The day for a wonder was fine, General Booth spoke for over an
hour in his most characteristic and interesting way; the Chairman,
Earl Carrington, President of the Board of Agriculture, blessed the
undertaking officially and privately; everybody seemed pleased with
the holdings, and, in short, all went merrily as a marriage bell.

As I sat and listened, however, the query that arose in my mind
was--What would be the state of these holdings and of the tenants or
of their descendants on, say, that day thirty years? I trust and hope
that it will be a good state in both instances; but I must confess to
certain doubts and fears.

In this parish of Ditchingham, where I live, there is a man with a few
acres of land, an orchard, a greenhouse, etc. That man works his
little tenancy, deals in the surplus produce of large gardens, which
he peddles out in the neighbouring town, and, on an average, takes
p