AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 68, 19 March 1908, Page 4

AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT.

The reappearance of the Small Holdings Bill in the House of Commons, and the second reading of Lord Carrington's Agricultural Holdings Bill in the House of Xiords, may remind us that the "land hunger" in England is now a very important factor in the political situation. In connection with the widespread and persistent clamour for opportunities to "go on the land," an interesting experiment has just been begun by the "Daily Mail." With the object of testing the genuinenoee of this demand, and the prospects of success in store for the small farmer in England, the proprietors of the paper have purchased a holding of 14 acres near Granthaxn, on the Great North-road. This little farm has been supplied with a cottage and stables, and it is to be stocked to the amount of £100, the total capital provided being about £400 in all. On tSIs Solding is to be placed a carefully selected tenant —a townsman who has had sufficient experience of country life to be familiar with the work of a small farm. Preferably he will be a married man with a wife who also knows something of farm life; and he is to be installed on the allotment for three years with the object of discovering whether such a tenant can make a success of farming on a small scale.

The whole experiment is to be carried out on a strictly business footing. The capital supplied will be charged in the balance-sheet exactly as if it had been advanced by a co-operative bank. The tenant will be required to keep careful accounts which, will be published in the " Daily Mail" columns every month. These will show exactly what burdens the average small holding nas to bear and what profit it may reasonably be expected to give in practical hands, if the tenant succeeds, or at the end of three years is in a fair way to succeed, he is assured that he may continue permanently in possession. Of course the tenant will start under very exceptional advantages, with all hi" stock and buildings provided, and having no anxiety about capital. As the farm begins to pay, a rent of not more than £ 1 per acre will be charged. For the cottage and buildings about 6/6 a week will be required; and these items will of course be included in the accounts. But the

" Daily Mail" believes that by making allowance for these initial advantages it will be possible to learn from this experiment whether farming on a small scale can be made to pay at Home by comparatively inexperienced men and women. "We do not know yet if a normal man can leave a town occupation to settle on a normal piece of land." Everything about the farm—soil, products, working facilities—will be as nearly as possible typical of the average small holding; and from the results secured it is believed that something like a fair estimate of the possibilities of this kind of farming can be drawn. So far the experiment has been an immense success to the extent of proving that the "land hunger" is not a political fiction, but a very impressive reality. Applications for this highly desirable tenancy have poured into the "Daily Mail" office literally in thousands, and we may fairly expect that the results of such a test will throw an immense amount of light upon the practical side of the great Land problem which every country in the world to-day is striving to solve.