s.*--Closely connected with the extension of
allotments is the movement for the creation of "small holdings," or
the reintroduction of small farming. One form of this is that by which
the local authorities in 1892 were empowered to buy land for the
purpose of renting it out in small holdings of not more than fifteen
acres each to persons who would themselves cultivate it.

A still further and much more important development in the same
direction is the effort to introduce "peasant proprietorship," or the
ownership of small amounts of farming land by persons who would
otherwise necessarily be mere laborers on other men's land. There has
been an old dispute as to the relative advantages of a system of large
farms, rented by men who have some considerable capital, knowledge,
and enterprise, as in England; and of a system of small farms, owned
and worked by men who are mere peasants, as in France. The older
economists generally advocated the former system as better in itself,
and also pointed out that a policy of withdrawal by government from
any regulation was tending to make it universal. Others have been more
impressed with the good effects of the ownership of land on the mental
and moral character of the population, and with the desirability of
the existence of a series of steps by which a thrifty and ambitious
workingman could rise to a higher position, even in the country. There
has, therefore, since the middle of the century, been a widespread
agitation in favor of the creation of smaller farms, of giving
assistance in their purchase, and of thus introducing a more mixed
system of rural land occupancy, and bringing back something of the
earlier English yeoman farming.

This movement obtained recognition by Parliament in the Small Holdings
Act of 1892, already referred to. This law made it the duty of each
county council, when there seemed to be any sufficient demand for
small farms from one to fifty acres in size, to acquire in any way
possible, though not by compulsory purchase, suitable land, to adapt
it for farming purposes by fencing, making roads, and, if necessary,
erecting suitable buildings; and then to dispose of it by sale, or, as
a matter of exception, as before stated, on lease, to such parties as
will themselves cultivate it. The terms of sale were to be
advantageous to the purchaser. He must pay at least as much as a fifth
of the price down, but one quarter of it might be left on perpetual
ground-rent