purpose. This was followed next year by an act relating to
fuel, and in 1834 the Poor Law Commissioners reported favourably
on the principle of granting allotments. In 1843 an important
inquiry into the subject was made by a committee of the House of
Commons, which produced a number of valuable suggestions. One
consequence was the bill of 1845, brought into parliament by Mr
Cowper. It passed the House of Commons; and there Mr Bright
made a remark that probably summarized a general opinion, since
it never came to a third reading in the House of Lords. He
said that ``the voluntary system of arrangement would do all the
good that was expected to accrue from the allotment system.''
At this point in the history of the movement it may be as
well to cause and ask what was the net result of so much
legislation and benevolent action. Messrs Tremenheere and
Tufnall, who prefixed an admirable epitome of what had been
done to the report of the commission ``appointed to inquire
into the employment of women, young persons and children in
agriculture'' (1867), expressed considerable disappointment.
Between 1710 and 1867, 7,660,413 statute acres were added to
the cultivated area of England and Wales, or about one-third of
the area in cultivation at the latter date; and of this total,
484,893 acres were enclosed between 1845 and 1867. Of the
latter, only 2119 acres were assigned as public allotments for
gardens to the labouring poor. It was found to be the case,
as it is now, that land was taken up more readily when offered
privately and voluntarily than when it came through offcial
sources. Meanwhile competent and thoughtful men saw well that
the sullen discontent of the peasantry continued, in Lord Bacon's
phrase, to threaten ``the might and manhood of the kingdom.''
It had existed since the beginning of the Napoleonic wars,
and had become more articulate with the spread of education.
We shall see a consciousness of its presence rehected in the
minds of statesmen and politicians as we briefly examine the
later phase of the movement. This found expression in the
clauses against enclosure introduced by Lord Beaconsheld in
1876, and gave force to the three-acres-and-a-cow agitation,
of which the more prominent leaders were Joseph Arch and Jesse
Collings. In 1882 the Allotments Extension Act was passed,
the object of which was to let the parishioners have charity
land in allotments, provided it or the revenue from it was
not used for apprenticeshio, ecclesiastical or educational
purposes. A committee of the House of Commons, appointed
in 1885 to inquire into the housing of the working classes,
reported strongly in favour of allotments, and this was followed
in 1887 by the Allotments Act---the first measure in which the
principle of compulsory acquisition was admitted in regard to
other than charity lands. Its administration was first given
to the sanitary authority, but passed to the district councils
when these bodies were established in 1894. the local body
is empowered to hire or purchase suitable land, and if they
do not find any in the market they are to petition the county
council, which after due inquiry may issue a provisional
order compeihng owners to sell land, and the Local Government
Board may introduce a bill into parliament to confirm the
order. It was found that the sanitary authority did not
carry out the scheme, and in 1890 another act was passed
for the purpose of allowing applicants for allotments, when
the sanitary authority failed to provide land, to appeal to
the county council. Judging from the evidence laid before
the commission on agricultural depression (1894), the act of
1887 was not a conspicuous success. Most of the witnesses
reported in such terms as these---``the Allotments Act has
been quite inoperative in Cornwall''; ``the act has been a
dead letter in the district (Wigtownshire)''; ``the Allotments
Act has not been in operation in Flintshire''; ``nothing has
been done in the district of Pembrokeshire under the act.''
No evidence whatever was adduced to show that in a single
district a different state of things had to be recorded.
From a return presented by the Local Government Board to
parliament in 1896 we learn that eighty-three rural sanitary
authorities had acquired land for allotment prior to the 28th
of December 1894, the date at which these authorities ceased
to exist under the provisions of the Local Government Act
1894. Land was acquired by compulsory purchase in only one
parish; by purchase or agreement in eighteen parishes; by hire
by agreement in 132 parishes. The total acreage dealt with
was 1836 acres 1 rood 34 poles, and the total number of tenants
4711. The number of county councils that up to the same
date had acquired land was twelve, and they had done so by
compulsory purchase in one parish, by purchase or agreement
in five parishes, by hire by agreement in twenty-four
parishes. The total area dealt with was only 413 acres 1 rood 5
poles, and the total number of tenants 825.The complete totals
affected at the date of the return (August 21, 1895) by the
acts, therefore, were 2249 acres 2 roods 29 poles, and 5536
tenants. A considerable extension has taken place since.
The Small Holdings Act introduced by Mr Henry Chaplin, and
passed by parliament in 1892 was an attempt to appease the rural
discontent that had been seething for some time past and was
silently but most eloquently expressed in a steady migration
from the villages. The object of this measure was to help the
deserving labouring man to acquire a small holding, that is to
say, a portion of land not less than one acre or more than
fifty acres in extent and of an annual value not exceeding
L. 50. It is not necessary here to describe the legal steps
by which this was to be accomplished. The essence of the
bargain was that a fifth of the purchase money should be paid
down, and the remainder in half-yearly instalments spread
over a period not exceeding fifty years. But if the local
authority thought fit a portion of the purchase money, not
exceeding one-fourth. might remain unpaid, and be secured by
a perpetual rent charge upon the holding. It cannot be said
that this act has attained the object for which it was drawn
up. From a return made to the House of Commons in 1895 it
was shown that eight county councils had acquired land under
the Small Holdings Act, which amounted in the aggregate to 483
acres. A further return was made in 1903, which showed that
the total quantity of land acquired from the commencement
of the act up to the end of 1902 was only 652 acres.
It is, however, an English characteristic to prefer private
to public arrangements, and probably a very great majority
of the allotments and small holdings cultivated in 1907 were
due to individual initiative. There are no means of arriving
at the exact figures, but data exist whereby it is at least
possible to form some rough idea of them. It is not the custom
to give in the annual agricultural returns any statement of
the manner in which land is held, and the information is to
be found in the returns presented to parliament from time to
time. From the following table, which includes both the
holdings owned and tenanted, it will be seen that between
1895 and 1904 the tendency was for the holdings to decrease
in number; while the holdings of from 50 to 300 acres slightly
increased, those from 5 to 50 acres were almost stationary,
and there was a decrease in those between 1 and 5 acres.
1895. 1904.
Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
1 to 5 acres 117,968 22.68 110,974 21.69
5 to 50 '' 235,481 45.28 232,470 45.44
50 to 300 '' 147,870 28.43 150,050 29.33
Above 300 '' 18,787 3.61 18,084 3.54
These figures become doubly instructive when considered in
connexion with the decline of the strictly rural population.
It will, therefore, be useful to place beside them a summary
published in a report on the decline of rural population in Great
Britain issued by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1906.
Class. 1881. 1891. 1901. Increase (+) or Decrease (-)
1881-1891. 1891-1901.
No. No. No. No. No.
Farmers and
Graziers 279,126 277,943 277,694 -1,183 -249
Farm Bailiffs
and Foremen 22,895 21,453 27,317 -1,442 +5,864
Shepherds 33,125 31,686 35,022 -1,439 +3,336
Agricultural
Labourers 983,919 866,543 689,292 -117,376 -177,251
These figures must of course be approximate. The effect of
recent development in methods of travelling and the growing custom
for townsmen either to live wholly in the country or to take
week-end cottages, has made it impossible to draw a strict line
of demarcation between rural and urban populations. Still they
are near enough for practical purposes, and they amply justify
the efforts of those who are trying to stay the rural exodus.
While legislation had not, up to 1908, achieved any noteworthy
result in the creation of small holdings, and still left doubts
as to the practicability of re-creating the English yeoman by
act of parliament, many successful efforts have been made by
individuals. One of the most interesting is that of the earl of
Carrington at Sleaford in Lincolnshire. In this case the most
noteworthy feature is that between the landlord and the tenants
there is a body called the South Lincolnshire Small Holdings
Association, which took 650 acres from Lord Carrington on a
twenty years' lease. These acres used to be let to four or five
tenants. They were in 1905 divided among one hundred and
seventy tenants. The Small Holders' Association guaranteed
the rent, which works out at about 33s. per acre, to Lord
Carrington. They let the men on yearly tenancy have it at about
40s. an acre, the difference being used to meet the expenses
of dividing the lands into small holdings, maintaining drains,
fences and roads connected with them, and other unavoidable
outlays. In this way the landlord is assured of his rent,
and the association has lost nothing, as the men were very
punctual in their payments. But very great care was bestowed
in choosing the men for the holdings. They were in a sense
picked men, but men must be picked to work the business
satisfactorily. Lincolnshire is pre-eminently a county of
small holdings, and the labouring residents in it have been
accustomed to the management of them from their infancy
onwards. Here as elsewhere the provision of suitable houses
formed a difficulty, some of the tenants having to walk several
miles to their holdings. Lord Carrington availed himself as
much as possible of the buildings that existed, dividing the
old farm houses so as to make them suitable for the small
tenants. At Cowbit farm, many of the ordinary labourers'
cottages, which were put up at a cost of about L. 300 a pair,
have by the addition of little dairies and other alterations
been made suitable for the tenants. From facts collected
on the spot we have come to the conclusion that on the small
holdings a good tenant makes an average profit of about L. 4 an
acre, but on an allotment cultivated by means of the spade
it would probably be at the rate of over L. 6 an acre. Lord
Carrington was also successful in establishing small holdings
