, &c. There is no
doubt, too, that an allotment helps both the town artisan and the
country labourer to tide over slack times. Whether it will succeed in
planting a rural population on English soil is another matter. It is a
consummation devoutly to be wished, for a country without a sound
reserve of healthy country-people is bound to deteriorate. The small
holder, pure and simple, without any by-industry, has hitherto only
been able to keep his head above water by a life which without
exaggeration may be called one of incessant toil and frequent
privation, such a life as the great mass of our 'febrile factory
element' could not endure. And if there is one tendency more marked
than another in the history of English agriculture, it is the
disappearance of the small holding. In the Middle Ages it is probable
that the average size of a man's farm was 30 acres, with its attendant
waste and wood; since then amalgamation has been almost constant.

It is true that the occupier of a few acres often brings to bear on it
an amount of industry which is greater in proportion than that
bestowed on a large farm; but the large farmer has, as Young pointed
out long ago, very great advantages. He is nearly always a man of
superior intelligence and training. He has more capital, and can buy
and sell in the best markets; he can purchase better stock, and save
labour and the cost of production by using the best machinery. By
buying in large quantities he gets manures, cakes, seeds, &c., better
and cheaper than the small holder.

Besides the small holders who have outside industries to fall back
upon, those who are aided by some exceptionally favourable element in
the soil or climate, or proximity to good markets, should do well. Yet
in the Isle of Axholme, the paradise of small holders, we have seen
that the Commission of 1894 reported that distress was severe. This,
however, seems to have been largely due to the exaggerated land-hunger
in the good times, which induced the tenants to buy lands at too high
a price; and under normal conditions, such as they are now returning
to, the tenants seem to thrive. In this district the preference for
ownership as opposed to tenancy is, in spite of recent experiences,
unqualified, though it is admitted that the best way is to begin by
renting and save enough to buy.[704] The soil is peculiarly favourable
to the production of celery and early potatoes; and large tracts of
land are divided into unfenc