So long as the labourer can obtain fair wages, he can obtain the chief necessaries of life, yet it happens that in most parts of the country he would be unable to procure any other description of vegetables, except potatoes, unless he had a garden attached to his cottage. The cottager's garden should be large enough to enable him to grow sufficient vegetables of all kinds for his own con sumption ; though if potatoes for win ter storing can be purchased from his employer, or grown under the usual con ditions on a patch of his employer's land, it will be as profitable as growing them himself, that is, if he is in full employ ment and obtains piece-work at good wages. The necessity for cultivating the land on his own account, further than for the purpose of raising sufficient vegetables for his own consumption, and of resorting to what is understood by the allotment system, is, in proportion to its urgency, an indication of the low position of the agri cultural labourer, and proves either that he has not constant employment or that his wages are very low. If he has sunk to this inferior state, and there are no other means of increasing his resources, the allotment system is then an expedient deserving of attention ; but it should be understood that, in an economical sense, it is a more satisfaetory state of things when the improvement in the condition of the labourer arises from the prosperity of the farmer and his ability to give higher wages. The profits of the farmer and the wages of the labourer are derived from the same source, and if the latter are reduced to a very low point, wages must be low also. When improvement iu the condition of the labourer springs from the allotment system, and not from the wages which he receives, it may gr nerally be assumed either that the re sources of the farmer are impaired, or that the labourers are so numerous that they cannot all obtain as much work as they are capable of performing.
The question of the advantages of the allotment system may be reduced within narrow limits. If it be understood in the sense of the definition given of it at the head of this article, the object is rather moral than economical But the allot ment system may also be intended, not tc change the labourer into an in dependent cultivator, but to supply him with a means of making a living in those places where his ordinary wages are not sufficient. But, as already ob served, this implies and admits that his condition is not so good as it ought to be for his own and the general benefit. There is a superabundance of agricultural labour, or a want of sufficient capital in vested in agriculture, in the place of the labourers' residence, or both causes com bine to depress his condition. Now it is possible that the allotment system, if car ried to any great extent, might contri bute to increase the superabundance of labour, by inviting to a district more labourers than are wanted, or by giving them an inducement to marry too soon, and so ultimately to depress the condition of the labourer still further. It is no answer to this, that plots of ground have been and are cultivated by the labourer advantageously to himself and profitably to the owner. It may be admitted that circumstances in anT given place may be such, that the distribution of allotments among labourers who are not fully em ployed, may be a great temporary ad vantage to themselves and to the neigh bourhood. But a continual extension of
such allotments in the same neighbour hood, though it might be called for by the wants of the labourers, would be no benefit to that neighbourhood, nor ultimately to the labourers themselves; for the end would be, that many of them would be reduced to get their entire means of subsistence out of a small plot of ground. The allotment system then, if carried to this extent, involves the ques tion of the advantage of very small farms as compared with large ones ; a question that cannot be discussed satisfactorily without a consideration of the general economic condition of each particular country. But it may be laid down as a sure principle that in a country where a large part of the population are em ployed in other pursuits than those of agriculture, the necessary supply of food and other agricultural produce, for those who are not agriculturists, cannot be raised so profitably in any way as by the well instructed farmer, who has a suffi cient capital to cultivate a large farm ; and if the whole country were divided into small farms, the necessary supply of produce for the wants of the non-agri culturists would ultimately fail alto gether. For if the small-farm system were gradually extended in proportion to the demand, the result would be that each man must, in the course of the dis tribution, have just as much as would raise produce enough for himself and his family ; and ultimately, he must be con tent with less than is sufficient, and he would be reduced to the condition of the Irishman who lives on his small plot of land.
There is a difference between small farms of a few acres which are let on lease, and small farms which are a man's property. If all farms were divided into small holdings, there could be little accu mulation and little improvement. There is the same disadvantage in small farms compared with great, that there is in small manufacturing establishments com pared with large ones. Profitable pro duction is carried on better on a large farm when proper capital is employed (and indeed a large farm without proper capital would ruin any man), than if it were divided into a number of small farina and the same amount of capital were employed; for it is obvious that the amount of fixed capital in buildings, agri cultural Instruments, and animals must be greater on the small farms than on the large one. There are many other considerations also which show that, as a matter of public economy, the large farina are best for the public, and consequently for the holders of such farms. The small farms, if stocked sufficiently, would pay the farmer, not equally well with large farms, but still they might pay him sufficiently well to make his invest ment profitable. But such farms are ge nerally understocked. In fact it is only in those cases where the cultivation is with the spade, and the land is managed like a garden, that such small holdings can be made profitable: the holder cannot, as a general rule, enter into competition with the large producer as a supplier of the market.