[TO THE EDFFOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.1 SIR,—In his valuable
letter on land tenure in Ireland (Spectator, March 31), Mr. Bence Jones has alluded to the successful occupa- tion of small holdings in France and Belgium. It would add much to the value of his letter if any of your readers could tell us whether, even in these countries, large farming is not infinitely more successful than small farming. I once asked the son of a French proprietor whether there was good farming in his neighbourhood. " No," he replied, "there is not. The holdings are all small. In France we have good farming, but it is only where the holdings. are large." But in most parts of the world it is probable that high farming and large holdings must go together, for as your correspondent has so clearly pointed out, high farming means mainly a more extensive outlay in manure, and here the large has a clear advantage over the small holder. As a cultivator both in Scotland and India, I have come to precisely the same conclusion as Mr. Bence Jones. There is, perhaps, only one exception to this, and that is where Nature regularly supplies the farmer, as it does in Egypt, with supplies of alluvial deposit.—I am, Sir, &c., P.S.—I am afraid of asking more space than you are likely to be able to spare, or I should make a few remarks on the applicability of your correspondent's observations to Indian agriculture. The fact is that both the Indians and the Irish have for centuries not been living on the interest, but on the capital of their land. The land in Ireland, your correspondent says, " is exhausted to the utmost by over-cropping for centuries, with little manuring." That is exactly true of India, excepting the lands near towns, and these would receive thorough irrigation and natural supplies of alluvial deposit. And as the land is subdivided, and the popu- lation increases, the condition of things must become worse, for as more land is taken up, you encroach on the cattle-grazing area.
and the result is that with an increased area under plough, you have diminished means of keeping stock, so that the already scanty manurial resources are becoming less and less. And this state of things cannot be remedied. If the planters in India, with all their skill and capital, have the greatest difficulty in keeping their land up to the mark, what chance has a poor peasant of doing justice to his holding? And yet he is being tempted into growing heavy crops of all kinds for exportation, and people point to the export of oil-seeds, jute, &c., as a sign that the resources of India are at last being developed.—R. II. E.
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