THE AMATEUR SMALLHOLDER.*
Mueu is being said and written about small-holdings to keep people on the land who are already there. It is obvious, how- ever, that there is a considerable demand for small-holdings on the part of people who have never been on the land at all. It is quite unnecessary for these folk to follow the example of the present Lord Chamberlain and explain that they are not agricultural labourers. No one in the country is at all likely to mistake them for such. Hodge, Mr. Giles, his master, and "the Reverend" know the townsman turned countryman very well. So do the land companies who sell them pieces of sticky clay and couch-grass, five miles from any- where, at thirty pounds an acre. So do the country-town auctioneers, who think any tumbledown cottage and non- descript few acres behind it, if they happen to be freehold, well worth special bills at the railway stations. Urban men and women apply themselves to the study of many problems ; but there is none which more keenly interests a large number of them than the problem of making an investment in a cottage and a piece of land return a dividend. It is such an engaging problem that even old hands in the country find themselves attracted by it. What is the utmost that can be made of from two to half-a-dozen acres of English land ? Clergymen intent on turning their glebe to the best advantage that they may keep a heavy insurance policy going and give their children as good an education as possible, and rural residents who for one reason or other would increase their income from stocks or an annuity, examine with the closest attention all the accounts that come their way of cultural experiments on a small acreage. It is no surprise, therefore, to find Mr. Fifield being able to issue within a few months quite a series of brochures dealing very practically with the profitable handling of small patches of land. Starting with Harriet Martineau's famous My Farm. of Two Acres, followed by the equally • (1) My Farm of Two Acre& By Harriet Martinean.—(2) Fork and Spada' Husbandry. By John Billett.—(3) How I Work My Smelt Farm. By F. E. Green.—(4) The Simple Life on Four Acres. By F. A. Morton.—(5) Siz Acres by Hand Labour. By H. E. Moore. London : A. C. Fifield. L1. each.] original Fork and Spads Husbandry of John Sillett, "The Suffolk Draper," there have been published How I Work My Small Farm—hi this case a holding of sixteen acres—The Simple Life on Four Acres, and Six Acres by Hand Labour. We do not know where any one who honestly seeks enlighten- ment on the question of what is possible and not possible on a limited acreage is to get better value for five shillings than in these books. If the recently written pamphlet by a Brighton waiter on the results of his spare-time gardening be added, we have a particularly comprehensive collection of data.
The position of Miss Martineau was that in which a large number of men and women find themselves. Living in the country, she desired to put two acres of land to the best use. She states that the result of her experiment was successful enough to pay the interest on the capital sunk in the stock she bought and on the buildings she erected in order that they might be managed to the beat advantage, to meet the wages of her man as well, and considerably to reduce her household expenses. As the stone "model cottage," cowhouse, and manure-tank cost only £130—Miss Martineau put up other buildings later on—it is clear that the distinguished writer enjoyed a financial advantage over experimenters who follow in her footsteps to-day. She was also extremely fortunate in the quality of the service she obtained from the man and his wife whom she employed. They had never more than 14s. a week in cash, but they were hard and intelligent workers. It is possible, perhaps, to pick holes here and there in Miss Martineau's farming practice, but we have no reason what- ever to believe that she was under any misapprehension as to the financial results of her well-planned and well-ordered venture. It should be carefully noted, however, that in order to obtain the return she did, her own clear head and all the wits of an industrious lady companion, who looked after the poultry, were constantly placed at its service. When we pro- ceed to John Sillett's account of his doings, we have the story of an attempt to make a living by spade-work on the same area of land as Miss Martineau had at her disposal. The experiment lasted seven years, but we have the figures for one only. "The Suffolk Draper" claims to have made 251 is. 10d. in 1847, besides 5 per cent. interest on the 2250 he sunk in his enterprise, and ten guineas which he puts down as rent for house, rates, taxes, Ste. One of his chapters is entitled "How to Produce Four Crops off the Same Piece of Ground within the year : Consisting of Cabbages, Wheat, Potatoes and Swede Turnips" ; and it is not difficult to believe that by methods of cultivation much in advance of his neighbours' practice, by unremitting labour of the most arduous kind, and by a frugality such as a French peasant might display in the management of his stock, his land, and his household, he managed to pay his way. The author of How I Work My Small Farm, who has laid out as much as £865 on his sixteen acres, cottage, buildings, stock, imple- ments, fruit-trees, &c., shows a profit on the year of only £47 against Sillett's £51. Some 234, we notice, is down for the wages of a man. Next to cows, Mr. Green places the greatest value on bees as the most profitable stock for the small occupier, but one day he hopes to find his two thousand fruit. trees his chief source of income. For success in vegetable production, for private customers or the trade, it is necessary that there should be, he finds, as others have found before him, a regularity and uniformity, as well as a bulk of produce, only attainable by the co-operative association of small-holders. Mr. Morton, after throwing up clerking, is trying "the simple life on four acres." As he had a capital of £117 108. only, it is hardly suprising to learn that his life in Essex has been "rude, hard, and solitary." He is described as "the possessor of great strength, magnificent health, and high spirits, of about two hundred fine fowls with numerous fowlhouses, &c., seventeen stocks of bees, &c., over an acre of dug land, two and a half acres of greatly improved grass land under the fowls ; one cabin, a greenhouse and frames." He draws "a net profit of about £48 a year from fowls, bees, and garden produce, less £3 108. rates and tithes." The fifth little book before us, Six Acres by Hand Labour, is not a record of actual experience, but an attempt by a well-known authority on small-holdings, Mr. H. E. Moore, to show that "six acres cultivated by hand labour can be made t9 pay as much as one of fifty under horse cultivation with less capital, labour and worry." The theoretical balance-sheet shows a profit of £49.
Looking back on the achievements of our various authors, it
is found that none of them has made a clear pound a week, or a North Country farm-hand's wage. On the other hand, their evidence goes to show that intelligence, experience, adapta- bility, perseverance, hard work, and unremitting attention, when brought to bear on a small piece of laud, even of inferior quality, by people with a genuine love of gardening or petty agriculture, can bring forth returns which, added to a small income, may be well worth having. But it is also plain that the wide range of qualities needed by those who seek such returns is not common. All four writers must be regarded as quite exceptional people. And very many of those who seek to emulate their achievements are not at all exceptional people. For success in rural pursuits, as in urban occupations, character and ability are called for, and the smaller the field of operations the more conspicuous is their effect. But character and ability are not enough without experience and laborious effort, and there is continual evidence that few of those who wish to know "how to make this big garden pay," or desire to exchange London existence for life on a small- holding, begin to realise with what labour and anxious care success can alone be bought. Money is never made easily in the country by old hands. It is amazing that novices from the town should imagine that it will flow into their unpractised hands with no more effort than is agreeable.
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