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Small Owners Limited - Descriptions of Fairby

Small Owners Limited was incorporated on 6 February 1911 by brothers George Harold Humphrey and Leonard John Humphrey.  On 30 April 1912 George was on the board as managing director, the other board members were Sir John F L Rolleston MP (Chairman), D M Milner (Solicitor) and Bevil Tollemache (Secretary).  While Leonard was the company's technical advisor.

The Directors and others often wrote about how their company's scheme worked at Fairby.


The Automatic Landowner - The Mecca of the Small Owner
Evening News 24 October 1911
This advertisement, apparently under a pseudonym, relates the sales pitch   from Mr Humphrey of Small Owners Limited to a prospective buyer at   Hartley.

It was an English day.  A day of autumn compromise.

There was a blunt softness in the air, because across the Kentish downs the   wind met no resistance, and was good-tempered accordingly.

The Darracq hummed smoothly along.

We could of course, have trained it straight to Fawkham Station, but we wanted to see what our neighbours were like.

The 1.37 from London Bridge had run us to Dartford in 30 minutes with only one stop.

The 'Bull' - memorable to lovers of Pickwick - was having its front   elevation repaired, and was of no interest to us at the moment.  We were faring for Fairby Farm, and could do no more justice to the splendid   open road than to skim over it, noting the presence of good breaking up   gravel in the soil of the fields and ignoring the romance of a ruined   Roman Villa to our right.  Because after all, we were concerned with the present - with its beneficent alloy which we term promise for the   future.

A short cut through Fawkham Station   over a stile, and we were tramping the good brown loam, over the   protesting heads of young turnips (at this time of year!) up a slope   crowned with woodland.

Here a hard, dry path revealed itself, carpeted with acorns.

Mr H pointed to a curly monarch on our left with scarse a leaft unmoored from its anchorage yet.

"What would you give for that oak in your garden? £5? £10?"

"Yes, and be glad of it."

The Valley Road

Leaving the wood we stood before long on a shelving slope with a wide view in   front of us: undulating land leaning gently to a valley road, with   flaming beeches in the middle distance, and away off in a hazy dip, more trees in diminishing masses.

"There is Fawkham Church just below, and a little to this side of it is the site of   Fawkham Castle - an ancient keep now belonging to the legends.  Here   where we stand would be a fine take off for your aeroplane: plenty of   room, no chance of dangerous currents, and open to the west and south.   A few acres would serve your turn - "

"The last aeroplane I had was a ____ "

"____ But this land", went on Mr H, "is almost too good for a mere jumping on and off place.  It is meant for a permanent alighting ground, with   kisses at the front door, and tennis on a lawn and pottering about with a dibber and pruning hook and watching goldfish in a pond - just here,   say."

"Well the friend I told you about has   lately been married, and is thinking of coming to the country in order   to be free from noise and the least suggestion of business.  This place   is not far from the City, as the train flies it is as near as Hampstead   or Brixton.  I know you told me so, but I came along to see for myself.   What my friend wants is my report of the best 2 acre plot you have got, and it's your turn now."

We located this plot, but I shall not indicate it.  I will just mention that it included a   bit of woodland, whether for appearance in the front or quiet enjoyment   in the rear pleasance, I decline to say - and a delightful uninterrupted view.

I took out a chart.  Some people might   call it a meaningless scrawl, but if you had drawn it yourself you also   would refer to it as a chart.  Then I came to grips with Mr H.

"These are my friend's instructions.  First, as to the a house, he doesn't   want anything reminiscent of the City; it must be, er, redolent of the   soil __"

"In other words, a cottage.  We will make him a plan, free, to any style he desires__"
"With a billiard room?"
"Yes"
"And a motor shed?"
"Yes"
"And, let me see, a poultry run?"
"Yes.  We have an expert - that rare thing, a scientific farm manager - who   will both provide the poultry and given him three weeks' lessons in the   art of keeping them for both

Pleasure and Profit

"And the eggs, I suppose there will be eggs?"

"If he will put himself in the hands of our manager and is willing to take   poultry seriously, he could pay for his two acres in two years, out of   the poultry and what he takes out of the land."

"Oh! Will he have to work?"

"No need to.  But 10 to 1 this Fairby air will seduce him into doing it.   And you can't worry about business while you are gardening."

"Most true.  Personally, I confine myself to looking on at the gardening, and I know I don't think about business then.  I can only think what a   silly way the other chap has of doing things."

"Your friend can choose just how he will have his land laid out.  A well   known firm of designers will make him a plan free, flowers here, for   instance, vegetables there, fruit trees over yonder, or he can keep the   garden for flowers and vegetables and take a portion of an orchard.  One of hte orchards we have is full of 5 year old trees and the price of   the land would include the trees in their present perfection."

"Can you advise as to suitable furniture?"

"We will not only advise but suppy, if your friend wishes - and at   practically wholesale prices - the kind of furniture that seems to me   eminently countrylike and homely.  The sort of thing you pay dear for,   as a rule, simply because it is both artistic and appropriate, but of   course you friend will choose what pleases him."

"In a sentence - your friend simply tells us what he wants and we supply   it.  Land, house, plotted garden, poultry, furniture; and if he buys now the best can easily be ready for him by the summer - the ideal time, of course, for a country life."

"And for health.  By the way, the water ____"
"Is company's water."
"The roads___"
"Council road frontage wherever he selects."
"Access to town easy enough"
"There is a splendid service of trains.  You can get to the city in 37 or 50   minutes, according to your choice of train, both morning and evening.   There are even theatre trains from Victoria, Holborn Viaduct and St   Paul's at midnight, reaching Fawkham about 12.50."

"Tell him that, in order to make the first year at his cottage more   memorable, we will present your friend with a season ticket to town   which will hold good to the end of June 1913.  We do not offer free   trips to prospective buyers; this free season ticket is only for   householders on the residential section of Fairby Farm.  We make the   offer as one menas of settling the land quickly."

"It is possible he ay come down and check my report."

"He can do it this way; occupy all the morning with business, take the 1.37 from London Bridge to Dartford, and motor from there.  He could have an hour on the estate, 315 acres you know, get the 4.15 from Fawkham, and   be back in the office to wind up business.  Or he could devote midday to the matter; take the 11.20 and return by the 2.46."

"How do your plots work out in shape?"

"We give, to an acre plot, at least 100 feet of frontage and about 400 feet of depth, for £120 to £130 the acre.  If you work out the latest offer I know of anywhere else you find the 20 feet frontage and 100 feet depth   ome ou at £2,500 per acre - and more than that.  Our local rates, again, are very low, about 4 shillings in the pound."

"And suppose my friend, as we rather think he has, has got rid of most of   his immediately available cash over his recent celebration___"

" We are providing for any such case.  We will take 25 per cent down, and the rest can be paid next year or in 5 years or in 12 years, with a   modest 5 per cent on the balances.  As you need hardly be told, all the   money he pays is so much to the good, nor lost forever as in the case of rent; in fact, if he chose to avail himself of the 12 year period he   would be paying less than rent and making hte place his own all the   time.

Aladdin's Lamp

Really, seeing how easy it all is, he could hardly do better if he had   Aladdin's Lamp!  We are the slaves of the ring and lamp.  Utter your   wish - tell us what you want  - and you become automatically a   landlord!"

This majestic wind up dazed me for a time, and we next drove slowly round the farm, Mr H pointing out   everything with a modest, no not exactly a modest pride; merely the   statistical kind of pride of the man who knows that what he is talking   about is a good thing without the possibility of question.

We now took in the features of the land appropriated for small holdings -   land into which, I was told, thousands of pounds have been put in   fertilisers.  Certainly the look of it was decidedly promising; rich,   dark land with a sufficiency of gravel for aeration.  As a sample of   fertility, Mr Hu pointed to a field of standing brussels sprouts.  There was £600 worth in view, he said.

I saw a dozen or so of labourers' cottages on the estate; Fairby Grange, which did   not pass with the land; orchards mature, and one lovely stretch of 5   year old beauties, trees so regular that one might expect see them   labelled 'With care! From Noah's Ark Limited.'  This particular orchard   is to go at £100 the acre.

The farm buildings,   apart from the cottaage, cost some £2,000 and it is here that lessons   will be given in dairying and agriculture.

"We   will take the small holder's milk and separate it and make the cream   into butter for him, if he likes.  If his produce, in fruit, vegetables, poultry, and the rest, is good enough, we will introduce him to a   connection with hotels or institutions who must have the best, and with   our methods and organisation we can always supply the best.

We ar ein the midst of

A Specially Fertile District

as you can see for yourself.  As for poultry, Orpington is not for all, to give an example.  Let the smallholder send us his produce; our manager   will see to the rest.  Freedom from trouble again, you see our very   object, one of the leading features which make our proposition different from any other.  That is the idea of the season ticket and of making   you a home complete."

"And the price for this agricultural land?"

"From £32 per acre, and you can buy from 1 to 50, every acre with a hard road frontage.  We have 218 acres set apart for the smallholders; the   residential sites account for 97.  That is a council school we are   passing.  Grammar schools you can get at Rochester or Chatham, not far."

"Grammar schools remind me of golf.  I don't know why."

"There are links at Gravesend, 4 miles away.  At Rochester is the Royal Medway Club."

"Golf suggests church - naturally."

"There are three within a few minutes: Longfield, Hartley and Fawkham."

"Coming once more to the agricultural land, I notice that most of it is turned."

"Yes, cultivated right up to the date we transfer it".

"You have certainly thought the matter out very thoroughly.  I see no flaw in the proposition."

"My dear sir, we knew from the first what we were looking for.  It is the   bare fact that we examined or considered hundreds of estates before we   pitched upon Fairby Farm."

"Well you have   partly verified our claim that your friend can do the business in half a day.  We shall catch the 4.15 badk to Town (we could have taken an   earlier train at Fawkham), and a short talk in our office in our office   over cottage plans, garden plotting and selection of furniture would   relieve him of all trouble.  He would simply await our note to the   effect that his cottage was ready, furnished and aired, the garden laid   out, and the hens clucking out there are eggs, fresh eggs, for   tomorrow's breakfast.  Let him ask for me at the offices of Small Owners Limited, in Temple Chambers, Temple Avenue, London EC.  I shall be   pleased to see him, whether he is quite ready to proceed or not.  Let   him ring up 13183 Central or he can call upon our surveyors, Messrs   Leopold Farmer and Sons, 46 Gresham Street, EC."

I am asking my friend accordingly to meet Mr H.  I believe he will thank me next summer at 'Woodland Cottage' Fairby Farm.

John Dalma


Organising Small Holders – Aids to Solution of the Land Problem – Farm Centres
Daily Express 26 June 1913

Mr Hamilton Edwards, the chairman and Mr G H Humphrey, the managing director of Small Owners, Limited, write to the editor of the Express –

Sir, We have been much interested in reading in your today’s issue Lord Lansdowne’s remarks on small ownership at Matlock Bath, on Saturday.

As a result of our experience in the past few years in facilitating the establishement of small holdings on English land on a basis of small ownership, we are heartily in agreement with his suggestion to apply the principle of the Irish Land Purchase act to the English small holdings movement.  We feel, however, there is one important point to which sufficient prominence is very rarely given by speakers on agricultural subjects, and this is the provision in small holding districts of organised farm centres where agricultural instruction, farm implements, horses, and casual labour are at the disposal of the small holder.   In our opinion, such facilities are absolutely essential if the small holder is to be successful.

Lord Lansdowne referred in his speech to the success of small ownership on the continent.  This success has been largely due to the willingness of the continental peasant proprietors to combine by means of a custom of credit banks and cooperative societies for the purpose of working the land and disposing of produce.  In spite of the considerable attention which has been directed by the English authorities to the establishment of credit banks in this country, little or no progress has been made.  Agricultural students, when questioned, have come to the conclusion that the Englishman is too essentially indivualistic to merge his private business in the somewhat altruistic relationship which membership of a credit bank or cooperative society must involve.

The security for a credit bank loan in this country necessitates the personal guarantee of two fellow members of the borrower.  Very few Englishmen would care to make the necessary disclosure of their private affairs, and some other system must therefore be designed to take the place of the facilities which a continental small owner enjoys.  We have found that this want is filled by our system of organised farm centres, and we write to suggest that the new Unionist (Conservative) land policy should include the provision of such centres as an integral part of their new land scheme.

On our Fairby Farm estate we have now completed the establishment of the various departments which go to make an ideal central depot.  Established in the centre of an estate, worked by a colony of small owners, it comprises stabling for the horse which are hired out to them, and a farm office, equipped with a telephone, by means of which produce is sold either in our associated retail shops in London or to distant markets where good prices may be ruling.

There is also a jam factory, to which fruit is sold at a price fixed at the beginning of the season.  This, for example, obviates the risk of sending strawberries to an overcrowded market, with its resultant loss to the producer.  There are also on hire full sets of farm implements, appliances, baskets and measures.  There are stables, cow sheds and pigsties for temporary accommodation for small owners who desire to keep stock and prefer not to invest in buildings until they have placed their small holding on a profit earning basis.  In addition to these facilities, there is also a club room, serving as a village hall, and containing a reference library of books suitable and useful to the small holder, maps, a barometer, weather forecasts, and a supply of agricultural periodicals.

There is also a general store, from which anything can be bought, worked on a mutual profit sharing basis between the company and the customers.

Last of all, there will be established on July 1 the final link in our scheme of agricultural small holding organisation – the credit bank.

This credit bank will lend to small holders on the security of their interest in their holdings and subject to a report by the farm manager that their holdings are in good order and under profitable cultivation.  These loans will be granted without any sureties, and in dealing with this bank a small holder will be able to rely on the privacy which any customer of a joint stock bank expects as a matter of course.  No-one except the bank manager and the directors of the company need know from whom he gets the money to buy anything he needs.

Nobody but the farm superintendent will have any right to advise him on the way to manage his holding and produce profits.

It is by the provision of such centres as these that the small holder movement will be place on a really sound successful basis.  As far as we ourselves are concerned, we are quite prepared to place all our experience and the whole perfected organisation of the company at the disposal of either one or other of the great parties.

In addition to the advantage to the small holder which our system gives, a Government department would be able to place at the disposal of the centre the services of its experts and the valuable records which are always at the disposal of the Board of Agriculture.

Hamilton Edwards, Chairman
GH Humphrey, Managing Director, Small Owners Limited
June 23


Bevil Tollemache - The Occupying Ownership of Land
He was one of the directors of Small Owners Limited but had left by the time he wrote this book in 1913.  He had left Small Owners by then and the company wrote to say his contribution was minimal and he had left by then (see below).
Chapter VI
The Fairby Farm Estate

The above village farm was created by a company registered as Small Owners, Limited.  The present writer occupied the positions of a director and secretary at the time of the development of the Fairby Farm Estate.  The business of the Company is to acquire, sell, and organise estates at a profit to the shareholders.  The proposition originated and is conducted as a money-making business, it being deemed that agricultural organisation on commercial principles could be made a profitable investment.  It was also realised that a company of this description could only attain permanent prosperity by ensuring that small owners were satisfied with their purchases.  The continued success of the Company depends on complete satisfaction being given to its customers.

The profits declared are an ample justification of the experiment as a remunerative investment.  The following copy of a report, drafted at the time the writer was associated with the Company, will indicate the outlines of the organisation which, although on a strictly commercial basis, successfully enables the small cultivator to overcome the difficulties of buying and selling, credit and expert advice:

“A Practical Development of Small Ownership in England, combined with a system of co-operation adapted to the English temperament.

The proposition originated by reason of the large demand for small holdings in this country.  It was designed to enable small holders to overcome those difficulties which experience shows most generally confront their operations.

The Fairby Farm estate was previously occupied by fruit orchards, pasture, and arable land.  The whole farm was in a high state of cultivation, having been successfully farmed at a profit for many years.   The holdings were so planned that easch small owner had, as far as possible, fruit orchard and arable land.  The pasture land was allotted to poultry keepers.

Suitable men were attracted by means of advertisement, and 50 small owners took up holdings of 5 to 12 acres in area.  Each man possessed some capital, as the land was only sold on payment of a deposit equal to 25% of its value; but before purchase was made advice was given as to the size of the holding, cottage (if desired), amount of capital to be outlayed on purchase of stock and manures, according to the status of the individual applicants.  Experience was not, however, insisted on, as the depot, or central organisation, largely obviates the necessity for this – provided the man possesses energy and character.

The office of the farm and farm buildings were adapted for the central depot of the estate.  All the farm staff were retained, including a competent foreman; a poultry experet was appointed, and sufficient implements purchased to cultivate the whole of the area.

The chief functions of the depot are:

1. To cultivate undeveloped land.
2.
3. To supply small owners with help when necessary, and advice.
4.
Horses, implements, and labour are hired out to small owners at a price which shows a profit to the organisation.  The advantage of which is taken of these services can be gathered from the fact that of the 50 small owners now resident on the estate, not one of them has found it necessary to purchase a horse or build a stable.

Briefly, this depot is the social and business centre of the estate.  The small owner hire ther his implements or labour, buys at lowest market prices foodstuffs and implements, and sells his produce direct to the markets throughout England.  The staff, in the charge of a competent manager, are instructed to assist small owners in every possible way, and a great feeling of loyalty to the depot has arisen, although it is very plainly stated that there is no philanthropic motive in the work undertaken.

A feature of the scheme is the marketing operations through the depot whereby produce is sold thorugh salesmen in any part of the country.  Investigations as to demand are made in all the principal markets, and enquiries invited from salesmen.  This year (1912), for example, produce has been sent to Belfast, Wigan, the North of England markets, as well as to London.

The farm manager superintends the carting and packing of fruit, and the preparation of poultry for sale.  Consignments are bulked, saving rail carriage, and lessening the difficulty of the salesmen in dealing with small quantities, it being found tghat salesmen deal more readily with, and return better prices to, a central organisation which can control considerable quantities of produce.

The land and buildings are sold on a 12 years’ purchase system, 25% being paid down on taking possession, and the balance spread over 12 years in annual instalments, which are inclusive of interest at 5%.

These deposits on land and buildings make a considerable call on the small owners’ capital, but it has been found n practice that when a smaller deposit is asked for the tendency of the small holder is to lay out almost all the rest of his capital in appliances, stock, etc, before he is really acquainted with the needs of his holding.  The result is that his capital is soon expended, and he has no security upon which he can fall back should the need arise.  On the other hand, under this system, if after the payment of the deposit and one or two instalments he finds a difficulty in obtaining the additional capital he may then require, the Company – still retaining the land – are able to return him some of the mony on loan he has paid in purchase of his land, always provided that the holding has been improved by his cultivation.

It is particularly noticeable that, as in other land purchase schemes, instalments are paid with the greatest promptitude, frequently in advance, while other accounts are allowed to wait.

In practice, therefore, the Company provides all the facilities of a credit bank.  The scheme works somewhat as follows:-

Early in the season the small owners informs the Company that he wishes to have certain work carried out on his holding, but that he has not sufficient money in hand to pay for it immediately.  He asks that the account may be allowed to stand over until his first crop is gathered.  The holding is then inspected, and the record of the man looked up.  If satisfactory evidence is produced on these two points, the Company agreed to allow the account to stand over until the crop is harvested.  In this way the small owner can get the advantage of the cash prices of seeds, manures, etc, and hire whatever labour is necessary without crippling himself early in the season.

The depot’s close connection with the small owners enables them to see just how far credit can be profitably and satisfactorily given, and just how the money thus advanced is spent by the small owner.  The system provides that close and intimate personal contact with the cultivator which local committees on other credit bank systems usually provide, but with this distinction, that the borrower is not compeedded to reveal his financial position to his neibghbours.

In many instances small owners have succeeded in getting their own Friendly Societies to advance them on mortgage sufficient money at interest of 4 and 4½% to build their houses.  Before these mortgages are carried through the Society naturally investigates very thoroughly the position of the owner, and the fact that they are thus able to financially assist the small owners is evidence of the soundness of their position.

The development of the Fairby Farm has resulted even more satisfactorily than was anticipated.  There has been no upheaval through the sudden transfer of the land from one large owner to a number of small owners, and no-one has been thrown out of employments.  The 16 cottages on the estate have gradually been either purchased or hired by small owners, the previous occupiers finding accommodation as cottages became vacant in the vicinity, but there have been no wholesale evictions as would have occurred under the usual conditions.

The whole staff of the farm was taken over by the Company, and after a year’s working it is found that whereas there were previously many vacant cottages in the district, these are now all let; and whereas there was a surplus of labour, there is now a shortage.  It is calculated that, including small owners and local labourers employed, there are at least three times as many men engaged in cultivation of the land as were employed on the farm before the village farm was installed.

An organisation on these lines can only be satisfactorily undertaken where a village farm is composed of occupying owners.  The administration could not be so efficient or elastic if the holdings were cultivated by tenants.  Credit to any great extent would be unsound if granted on this principle to a group of small holders under tenancy agreements.  The security necessary for the successful operation of the depot would entirely disappear.  But at Fairby a loss is rarely, if ever, incurred.  Credit can at most times be safely given.  If a bad debt as to be sustaqined in a particular instance, the loss could harly be attributable to a flaw in the system, but to the overgenerous application of it.

The creation of the Fairby village farm brought the same prosperity and expansion to the neighbourhood as has been ezperienced under other experiments.  The trade of the local village doubled.  The station lies on the estate, and the railway service was shortly improved.  The demand for labour overtook the supply as the output from the land increased.  Larger trade and better prospects are anticipated by everyone in the district.

A notable difference between the purchasers of properties on the Fairby Farm estate and the purchasers of holdings under other schemes, lies in the fact that experience was not expected or insisted upon.  Thus soldiers, railway servants, a carpenter, a blacksmith, gardeners, and a variety of trades, applied for and occupy the holdings.  The expert advice to be obtained from the depot assists a man at all times, and experience is easily gained.  Each small owner possessed a certain amount of capital.  But a man was selected for his energy and character, not for his technical knowledge.  The wisdom of this procedure has been more than justified.  The scheme endeavours to fulfil the demands of the small capitalist, both in the country and in the town, who wishes to acquire land to occupy and cultivate for a remunerative and healthy employment.


Small Owners object to Bevil Tollemache's comments
Pall Mall Gazette 8 July 1913

Sir, In this evening's issue of your journal, under the heading of "Small Owners" your special parliamentary representative publishes an interview with Mr Bevil Tollemache.

Unfortunately the statements made by Mr Bevil Tollemache, so far as they relate to what he calls "The Fairby Scheme," are far from correct, and are calculated to do the work of this company serious harm.  I therefore ask your courtesy for the publication of this letter.

The first mis-statement about Fairby is that Small Owners Limited acquired a farm of 200 acres.  Mr Tollemache must have known, since he was then a servant of the company, that this colony was over 300 acres in extent.  So successful was our work that some time age we enalosed this colony by another 600 acress, all of which is being developed upon the system we created.  In addition, another colony of 200 acres has been established at Basingstoke.

Our system is a complete one; starting with the installation of agriculturalists upon the land, advising or instructing them where necessary in the cultivation of their holdings, handling their produce, and completing the essential circle by marketing it in retail shops so that they shall receive the full benefit of their labours.

Mr Tollemache is reported as saying that "a feature of the Fairby colony is that nearly all the tenant owners are townsmen with considerable capital."  This is a gross mis-statement of fact, calculated to do considerable harm to Small Owners Limited, which has already spent over £50,000 in proving that under its system a man can take up 5 acres of land and make a comfortable living thereon.  Not 15% of the small owners working under our system can be properly defined as townsmen, and certainly not 5% of them possess, as Mr Tollemache airily suggests, "considerable capital."  Our scheme is most emphatically not one for rich men.

It is quite true that we provide everything necessary for all departments of farming and vegetable culture, as well as poultry keeping, also for teaching those who seek our help the value of packing and grading for market.  We do a great deal mroe than this; we place the men on the land and we say to them: "Grow according to our system, and you may be assured of permanently satisfactory and profitable results."

The small owners' system which has been worked out by this company, and in which, it is true, for some months Mr Tollemache played a minor part, is a complete scheme of agricultural orgainisation, and there is no link the chain either wanting or weak.

Yours faithfully, Hamilton Edwards, Chairman, Small Owners Limited, 34-35 Norfolk Street, Strand, London WC, July 7.


Rural Development: A Settlement Of Small Owners
The Outlook, 10 January 1914

Rural Development. A Settlement Of Small Owners
By Patrick Perterras.

Some weeks ago Mr. Tollemache's book, The Occupying Ownership of Land, was reviewed in The Outlook. Exception was taken to some of the author's views with regard to agricultural cooperation, and it was argued that the extremely well-organised group of small holdings at Fairby, to which he refers, though a great advance on the unorganised groups of the past, must in turn be surpassed by groups organised on genuinely cooperative lines. I believe that contention to be incontrovertible. It elms not follow however that the Fairby group is not destined to be entirely successful. There is no reason why it should not become cooperative. Its success indeed seems to be already assured, and it is with sincere satisfaction that I see it tending more and more towards cooperative methods. If, as I believe will be the case, the plan adopted at Fairby proves merely an approach to cooperation through the temporary employment of outside capital on joint-stock lines, co-operators need not object to it. The example may well be one which in similar conditions they might follow. It is said in support of the Fairby plan that when it is proposed to settle men on the land who have little or no experience of either agriculture or cooperation, some kind of paternal administration is essential to begin with, and that cooperation, if later considered desirable by the settlers themselves, will follow. I am not prepared to assert that in the circumstances indicated the Fairby plan may not be the best.   

Some account of the Fairby settlement, and the means by which it was brought into being, may be interesting. At the is outset it may be said that the admirable work accomplished at Fairby has been done by Mr. George Humphrey, the present managing director, and his brother, Mr. Leonard Humphrey, the chief agricultural expert and formerly an official of the fa Irish Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.

The estate has recently been added to considerably, and the original number of fifty small holdings will probably be more than doubled within the next few months. When the land was purchased it consisted of fruit-orchards, pasture, and the arable land, all in very good order. The scheme of the syndicate which bought it was to cut it up into small holdings, building a house on each in accordance with the requirements of the occupier. Each accepted applicant was advised as to the class and size of holding most suitable to him and as to the employment of his capital. As a rule a cash payment, but equal to 25 per cent, of the price of the house and land, was, demanded on taking possession, the balance being payable in instalments spread over twelve years. An arrangement has since been made with a building society by which the payments may, if desired, be spread over twenty years. All the sale occupiers must become purchasers either for cash or on the then instalment system. There are no permanent tenancies.
 
In a central position there is a depot, which is at once the social and business centre of the group. Each small holder over can hire labour, implements, or horses at reasonable rates. Through the depot he can market his produce and buy his requirements. There is a store where domestic necessaries may be purchased; and a credit bank is being established to supply capital, if required, to those who, having invested in the estate, have a sound security to offer. There is also a well-equipped jam factory and fruit-bottling establishment. Skilled technical advice is provided, so that the least experienced men can hardly go wrong and will gradually gain knowledge in a practical school which is always up to date. The deptot also serves the purpose of a dub, possessing a library and common reading-room. Social and business meetings take place frequently. The settlers' wives have formed themselves into a ladies' guild and are already organising a supplementary industry, which will probably take form of carpet-weaving, to be carried on in their homes.
 
It will be seen that the system makes it especially easy for those who are not adepts in agriculture to set up on the land.
 
Experience is not insisted on as a qualification. In selecting from the many applicants energy and character are considered far more than technical knowledge, and the wisdom of this course has been completely vindicated. If the settlement had done nothing else, it would have served a most useful purpose in establishing beyond a doubt that, with sound advice and expert guidance at command, the intelligent but uninstructed man who will work may confidently set up as a small farmer and at once become successful.
 
Fruit and vegetables form the bulk of the output from Fairby. Most of the small holders also keep poultry, though poultry-keeping is not generally recommended to the inexperienced man except as an auxiliary industry. Some pigs are kept and there is a range of pigsties at the depot, where those who have no accommodation for pigs on their holdings may house them for 6d. a week apiece. The only dairying : is done by one settler, who supplies the others with milk, and in doing so finds a sufficient business. The holdings vary in size from two to twelve acres.

I must record, as an example of the manner in which smallholders settled in a group and working together can obtain advantages which individually would be quite out of their reach, the way in which the important strawberry-crop is said dealt with at Fairby. The fruit is gathered soon after 4am, and a motor immediately conveys it to London, where it is on sale by 8am the same day. In the evening any fruit which may remain unsold is brought back to Fairby by the same motor and at once made into jam or " pulped " for winter jam-making. Similar methods are applied to other kinds of produce; and when difficulties arise about the disposal of anything produced on the estate, the matter is carefully thought out by good business brains, and if a solution the is possible it is sure to be arrived at.
 
So far all the settlers have cultivated almost exclusively in the open, and there is little glass to be seen on the holdings. But the management have just erected a long range of glass for experimental purposes. It is proposed to test various kinds of hothouse crops; and when it has been proved beyond a doubt that any particular form of produce can be raised profitably, the syndicate will be prepared to advance money to settlers to put up the necessary glass for themselves. It may perhaps surprise some readers to know that without any glass a good worker can extract a reasonable living from two acres of ground. It is found that the net is income from that area at Fairby comes to about £70 a year.
 
It will be seen that the Fairby system provides not merely to the economic advantage of buying or selling in common, but some of the social amenities which co-operation affords. And it is clear that ultimately the settlement can become entirely co-operative. Already it has been decided is to offer the store to a co-operative society consisting of the settlers. I understand that another co-operative society for sale and purchase is contemplated by some of the settlers themselves. And when the original syndicate has sold and been paid for all its land it will have fulfilled its function, and all the central institutions created by it can then be taken over by the settlers.
 
I may add that a portion of the Fairby estate has been set aside for what are residential rather than agricultural small holdings. Houses costing £800 or £1,000 or more, with two or three acres of land attached, are obviously not intended to be supported from such small landed estates. But it seems very sound policy to associate with the community at Fairby a certain number who do not rely on agriculture for their living. It takes all classes to make up a complete community.
 
The Fairby system is simplicity itself, and for that very reason its originators deserve the highest credit. Like Columbus with the egg, they have shown how easy of solution a baffling problem may be when approached intelligently. What they have done may be done again, and their system may be applied to many forms of agricultural enterprise. They have rendered a great service to the cause of rural development. They do not profess to be philanthropists, but nevertheless they have brightened the lives and added to the happiness of those who have taken advantage of their scheme.


The Fairby Village Farm
Ormskirk Advertiser,19 March 1914
A very detailed description of the Small Owners Limited Scheme at Hartley, by director George Harold Humphrey.

Successful Small Holdings Experiment
An article which must be of great interest at the present time, when Small Holdings and their creation are so much in the public mind, appears in the March Official Circular of the Central Land Association, from the pen of Mr G H Humphrey.  The scheme, which is here outlined, and with which Mr Humphrey is so clearly associated, is claimed to be the most successful experiment of the kind in this country.

At the outset the writer of the article says it is gernerally admitted that agriculture should employ a larger number of the population of this country than it does at present.  Compared with other European countries, the area under agriculture in the United Kingdom employs barely one third of the number which aa similar area employs in other countries.  It was after investigation of small holdings and small holding societies in this country that the organisation under which Fairby Farm is developing was formed in 1911, Mr Humphreys continues:

"We found that small holdings suffered from lack of capital, and the failure and limited success which are generally associated with the movement is due to this fact.  I came to this conclusion that unless it could be proved that small holdings were sufficiently commercially successful to attract capital just in the same way as in any other industrial enterprise, all the propaganda work which was being done by the societies was to no purpose.

Investigating the price of land, it was found that under the Small Holdings Act 1907, many small holders were paying 50 shillings and some even more per acre, or a rent in many cases 50, 60 and 100 per cent more than the rental farmer had paid for the land as a large farm  But enquiry from some of the large estate agents showed that there were many estates in this country which were as suitable for small holdings as any which were being let for 50 shillings per acre, to be purchased at from £18 to £30 per acre.  Land which would be bought for £20 per acre was as good as that which was being let under the 1907 Act at 40 shillings and 50 shillings per acre.  Here then was an opportunity to prepare a scheme of land settlemen which should prove a sound commercial investment.

A scheme of small holding purchase by instalments was prepared and put into operation with such success that a small farm was secured in Essex, divided up into small holding and rapidly disposed of.  This land was sold to th esmall holders at £27 per acre.  As evidence of its suitability for the purpose, one of the small holders told me at the end of the second year that he had made a return of £50 per acre, and that he expected in a year or two's time to make £70 and £80 per acre nett profit from his holding.  I should mention here that I believe him to abe an exceptionally capable small holder, and therefore his figures are above the average return which may be expected.  But his fact also emphasises that a small holder who knew his beuness chose land which could be sold at £27 per acre, and has done extraordinarily well on it. He has told me that he considers this land equal to much of the land which is offered in Cambridgeshire at £80 and £100 per acre, where the demand for small holdings alone has sent up the price of land.  As had been expected, the success of this samll farm had the result of securing outside coercial capital, enabling the organisation, which had been started by my brother and myself, to purchase Fairby, a property sufficiently large for the development of those ideas of organisation and administration which we deemed essential in any large scheme for the creation of small holdings.

Fairby Farm in 1911 was 315 acres in extent and is situated 23 miles from London on the main Chatham line.  From the agricultural point of view it is a fair type of many farms to be found in this country.  It had been cultivated as an average Kentish farm.  50 acres were under fruit, about 40 acres under market garden crops, 60 acres under pasture, and the rest was farmed with straw and root crops.  The fruit plantations were 5 and 6 years old, and gave us admirable data as to what an established small fruit holding woudl produce.  The farm generally was suitable for almost every form of intensive agriculture.  This area was offered for sale in small holdings in the autum of 1911, and was very rapidly taken up. There are altogether some 60 small holders on the farm, and most of them go in for a mixed semi-intensive form of cultuvation.  With regard to the selection of applicants, as a commercial concern it is not possible to influence these very directly, but our policy has been to encourage rather the better type of agriculturalist and the small businessman than the ordinary agricultural labourer.  Although agricultural experience is of course invaluable in farming, it is not so necessary, and has proved indeed sometimes a hindrance when a man takes up a small holding.

The distinction between small holdings and farming has not been sufficiently defined in the past.  A small holder is not a little farmer, and to be successful has very little indeed to learn from a large farmer.  Niether have we found that the men who win the prizes at the local flower shows and grow the largest cabbages and the finest rhubarb become the best small holders. The important thing fo a small holder to learn is to grow what he can sell profitably, and in this way many men who have had something of a ound business trianing, bu tno agricultural experience, become excellent small holders.  A man who came to use 2 years ago with no experience and took up a 5 acre holding (??? fruit)  last year made £180 nett profit after paying all expenses.  I am persuaded in my own mind that there should be no difficulty in creating hundreds of similarly successful small holders in other parts of the United Kingdom.

In dividing Fairby a basis of ownership was decided upon for two reasons. Firstly that ownership would be more attractive to the commerial poeple we desired to interest, as it would offer a better return on their capital.  Secondly, we found that ownership had much greater attraction for the best small holders than any system of tenancy.  With the Fairby system which is now fairly well know as the 'depot system' of agricultural organisation, we carry on the farm staff, buildings, horses, implements, just as they were conducted under the later owner and farmer.  Most small holders in other districts have a stable, a horse or pony, a cart, a plough [.......................................................................] labour is used to cultvate the farm and to keep all the unsold land in at least as high a state of cultiviation as it was when we took it over.  Similarly, the requirements of small holders wiht regard to seeds, implements, netting, fencing etc are met through the Buying Department. The farm staff is in charge of a foreman who is chosen for his experience of market garden and fruit crops.  In additiona to the use of the buildings as a Depot, ertain portions of them have been adapted to provide the other departments which the scheme includes.  In the Machinery Building there is an efficient oil engine and shafting runs to the chaff cutting machine, root pulpers and oat crushers, also to the Joinery Shop where the window frames and other joinery used in the Building Department for the erection of houses and temporary buildings are made.  Teh power is also used in connection with some of the machinery in the Jam Factory.  With the Jam Factory on the spot the small holder at Fairby is sure of anett market price on his holding which is nearly always better than the nett price that he could expect on an exceptionally good day at Covent Garden.  In connection with the Depot there is also a 5 acre market garden, including a long glass and mushroom house whih is being developed to provide experimental data for the small holders.  It is hoped during the coming year to instal several similar glass houses on the small holdings.  Many small holders would go in for glass were it not for the captial involved.  It is proposed at Fariby to build  glass  houses for the small holders and sell them to them on a deferred payment system over a term of years.

Another development which is also under consideration is a plant for the dessication of vegetables.  This it is considered will deal wiht the surplus of vegetables just the same as the Jam Factory deals with the surplus of fruit.  We have always considered that a small holding colony should not only produce successful small holders, but should promote the prosperity of the district in which they are situated.  That this has been the case at Fairby is very evident.  Under the old system of farming, Fairby in 1910 employed only about 7 men per 100 acres.  Under present conditions the estate is employing 25 men for each 100 acres. The local tradesmen testify to the increased prosperity which they have experienced as a result of the settlement at Fairby.  Even the Railway Company last year considered it advisable to open a new stateion in the district.  With these facts in mind we welcomed the opportunity which arose last year to purchase an adjoining 600 acres, being the Hartley Manor Estate, which in its turn is developing as satisfactorily as Fairby has done.

In conclusion, I consider that we have abundantly proved at Fairby the economic soundness of small holdings and the suitability of the Englishman for intensive cultivation.  Further we have showen that the United Kingdom can offer better opportunities than any of our Colonies to any man who wishes for an agricultural life and is willing to work hard.  Several of the returned Colonials who have settled down at Fairby have made similar remarks to me.  One in particular who approached us 2 years ago would not believe, afeter 22 years' experience in Canada that a living could be made off less than 100 acres of land.  After being assured that 5 acres under our system was sufficient to provide a good income, and with the additional proisse that if he could not make a living from it, we would take his house and 5 acres of land back at the price he paid for them, he decided to settle at Fairby.  Last year he tells me he made £164 nett profit off his 5 acres.  Comment is needless.  What has been done at Fairby can be done in many other parts of the country.  Fairby is the first serious attempt to bring sound finane, business organisation and suitable applicants together, for the extension of small holdings in this country.

With regard to the question of cooperation, I feel sure that ultimately Fairby will become entire cooperative.  Our system of organisation takes the place of cooperation for the time, as the capital it represents provides the implements and organisation for combined working  When, however the small holders have put their individual undertakings on a osund comercial basis, they will know aht they require and jut how far cooperative management will benefit them."


Leonard John Humprey - Technical Instruction for Small Holders
This is a printed up copy of a paper delivered by Leonard John Humphrey (1884 - 1961) at the 13th annual congress of the Irish Technical Institution Association, held at Manchester 31 May - 1 June 1914.

A paper read before the 13th annual congress of the Irish Technical Instruction Association by L J Humphrey, Department’s Organiser in Rural Science, including School Gardening)

In England there are many men who are making a comfortable living by the growing of fruit, of flowers, by seed growing, and by other methods, on from 3 to 10 acres.  In the district around Evesham, in Cambridgeshire, and in Essex, there is abundant evidence that the amount smallholdings produce is amply sufficient to keep a smallholder and his family in comfort, and to admit of his making some provision for the future.

From time to time reasons are given for the increase of smallholdings in each of these districts.  Sometimes nearness to markets, sometimes the character of the soil, and at other times the thrifty habits of the people are given as the reasons for their success as cultivators of a few acres.

But none of these reasons are quite sufficient explanation for every case, and there is good reason for thinking that the force of a successful example has been a potent, if not actually the principal cause of the remarkable increase in smallholdings in certain districts.

A Successful Experiment

Recognising this potent force, not only in connection with smallholdings, but also in connection with other industries, my brother and I devised a scheme, just over 3 years ago, to establish smallholdings in districts which had previously been given over entirely to large farms.  The first farm selected was one of 70 acres in Essex.  Those of you who are interested in English agricultural matters will know that Essex soil is not too highly thought of by farmers, and in fact, there is in many cases a distinct prejudice against the county.  The farm was 3½ miles from the station, and there were no special qualities possessed by the settlers who took up the holdings, except that they had the enterprise and courage to plant fruit trees, flowers and asparagus in a district where fruit trees were never planted, flowers never sold, and asparagus never seen.  The project was successful to such an extent that we desired to work out a more complete scheme on a larger area, and with a larger number of holdings.  This we were enabled to do by obtaining capital for the purchase of a farm of 315 acres in Kent.  This farm is situated about 23 miles from London, and at the time we took it over, it consisted of some 50 acres planted with fruit trees and bushes, about 60 acres of pasture, and 27 acres of woods, the remainder being arable land.  The offer of the land in small areas attracted applicants of almost every class, some 40 of whom took up holdings of from 3 to 10 acres.  All these holders agreed to purchase their holdings, to become small owners, in fact, either by an immediate cash payment, or by means of deferred payments on the annuity system.  Ownership is preferred for a number of reasons, but principally in the case of the smallholder because of the value which his own labour, and the natural growth of his fruit trees, adds to the property, a value which is with difficulty realised under a tenancy system.

Some of the holders proposed to obtain their livings entirely from the holdings, one or two were in receipt of pensions, while others were in commercial offices.  These latter regard the holdings as a source of supplementary income, which in a few years will enable them to give up their office work and devote their energies entirely to the holdings.  The prospect of a permanent source of income, freed from the risks attendant on the pursuit of a commercial career, made an appeal to business men which they found hard to resist.  Several of the holders were practical gardeners, but almost without exception those who took up land on the farm would have been rejected by the Council Committees who have the selection of suitable applicants for smallholdings under the Smallholdings Act.

Instruction for Smallholders

It will be obvious that to allow such people to take up smallholdings without some means of guidng and assisting them would be greatly to delay, if it did not actually prevent, success.  But in devising a method of as far as possible ensuring success, several points had to be considered.  In the first place, the smallholders were men approaching middle age, to whom any form of compulsion under any guise would be repugnant.  No compulsory courses of lectures or preliminary weeks of training could therefore be insisted upon.  Secondly, no system of spoon feeding could be adopted, it being a cardinal principle that nothing must be done which could not be justified as being in agreement with commercial methods, as it was argued, that if smallholdings can only succeed by non-commercial aid, then there is something wrong with smallholdings, and businessmen should not be asked to finance such undertakings.  The recognition of these  conditions did not prevent us from realising that it was commercially possible to assist the smallholder by the use of capital and by means of advice and instruction.  The opinion was held that the presence of successful smallholders in a community would benefit all members of the community, including the organisation providing the capital.  And proposal which would enable the smallholders to become permanently successful was therefore permissible.

The Central Depot

The first step taken, after the purchase of the farm, was the establishment of a central depot which might become the organisation centre of all the holdings.  For this purpose the existing farm buildings were utilised, and they now form what is generally and familiarly known as the Depot.  The depot was equipped with farm implements of almost every useful kind, including ploughs, harrows, carts, wagons, sprayers for fruit trees, weighing machines and fruit baskets.  An oil engine in one of the barns was employed for the grinding of corn, root cutting, oat crushing and chaff cutting.  The depot was placed in charge of a farm manager, in whose office was installed the telephone.  The manager was instructed to do all in his power to enable the holders to become successful.  The farm staff, implements and horses under his control were to be hired out to the smallholders at fixed rates, and he was also to cultivate the land which was not taken up by smallholders.  Advice of all kinds was free, but assistance had to be paid for.  The farm manager was also to undertake the disposal of all kinds of produce, and to advise on the best markets for the purpose.

All these facilities were immediately taken advantage of to an extraordinary extent, day after day the office was visited by smallholders who either wanted work done on their holdings or advice on some question of cultivation.  A full staff is now continually employed.  The depot frequently acts a labour exchange, one smallholder being employed to work on his neighbour’s holding whenever slackness of work or shortness of money makes such arrangements necessary or desirable.  No smallholder has ever been unable to obtain work through this agency.  The result of the establishment of this well equipped depot is that no smallholder owns a farm horse, a plough or any of the heavier or more expensive farm implements, and he has had no need to build a stable or implement shed.  It is estimated that the total saving of capital to the smallowner is at least £50 per holding.  There is no loss of cultivating power.  There is even a gain, as the implements at the central depot are well maintained, frequently renewed, and consequently more efficient than those in the possession of a holder of a few acres could possibly be.

The smallholder who requires work carried out on his holding by the depot staff calls at the office at the farm, and discusses with the foreman or farm manager the work to be done.  Between them they thrash out the matter very thoroughly, and all the pros and cons, including the cost of the work, are fully discussed before instructions are given to proceed.  The implements are being added to from time to time, and the equipment now includes a motor tractor, using paraffin, which one day ploughs a holding and the next is engaged bringing goods or manure from the station.  At one period there was such a quantity of ploughing to be done with this tractor that an acetylene head light was fitter, and ploughing was continued each evening until long after darkness had set in.

Machinery

It is too early to say whether machinery and such appliances will effect any revolution in our methods – we do not anticipate that they will, but we do regard enterprise of this character as being of great educational value, and at the moment land can be ploughed to a greater depth and at a lower cost with the tractor than by means of horses.  We feel, too, that the organisation must be ready to make experiments with up to date implements in order that, should such appliances prove of advantage, the smallholders may be in a position to compete in every way with other users of modern appliances.  For similar reasons, during last year a 200 foot greenhouse and a mushroom house were erected, in which crops are being grown to test their profit earning capabilities.  If the results prove satisfactory, it is the intention to supply greenhouses on easy terms to those of the smallholder who are ready to take advantage of the results of the experiment.

Sprayers are of course available for the prevention of injury by insect and fungoid attacks; and skilled workmen, including pruners, poultrymen, woodmen – who carry out the work of fencing with poles cut from the woods – can be hired for any length of time, the aim of the central depot being to anticipate and to meet every material need of the smallholder.  There is a certain amount of specialisation among the workmen, and a smallholder can engage an expert pruner one day, and a man accustomed to poultry on another day.  He is never at the mercy of the rural counterpart of that mishandler of tools known as the jobbing gardener.  The time of the men employed on the depot staff is accurately checked.  The responsible foreman must show that his men have not been given jobs just to keep them occupied.  Most of the employees are paid by the day, but work is often accepted at piece-work rates – so much an acre for hoeing, so much an acre for ploughing, and so on.  An unsatisfactory workman is soon discovered, but if there is any doubt the man is engaged at piece-work rates until his value is proved.  By this system, the actual cost of the various operations is easily ascertainable, and there is an approach to the system of the workshop in which working costs are closely investigated.

By the provision of this central depot, equipped with a full set of modern farm implements, useful horses and a thoroughly competent staff, the proper cultivation of the holdings can be practically ensured.  There is no compulsion about any of the work.  If a smallholder chooses, he can make all the old, and as many new mistakes as he likes, without interference from the depot, but in practice it is found that advice and assistance are readily sought, and what is perhaps of greater importance, the advice is generally followed.  The men of the farm staff who are engaged by smallholders to work on their holdings are not sent as teachers, bu they are good workmen, and an intelligent smallholder working beside the experienced farm labourer an soon learn the best ways of carrying out the operations connected with the holding.  But in addition, it is the foreman’s dut to see that any of his men engaged by smallholders do an adequate amount of good work.  He visits the holding as though it were a part of his workshop, and the work is usually well done, for on the one hand the smallholder takes care that the time he pays for is fully utilised, and on the other the foreman sees that no mistakes in cultivation are made.

Marketing

In dealing with the question of marketing, the depot acts as a bureau of information.  Before the season commences selected salesmen are written to, their status investigated, and particulars of what they are able to dispose of are tabulated and recorded.  During the season telegrams are frequently received, giving information regarding the character of the demand and the prices realised in the various markets.  This information is passed on to the smallholders, and for example, when the green gooseberries, which form the first fruit crop, are ready, the smallholder will call at the office with a query as to the day’s price on the market.  Having obtained this information he can decide whether to pick that day for the next day’s market, or to wait for a day or so.  The depot staff will, if necessary, undertake to harvest the crop, to grade and pack it and to send it for sale to a chosen salesman.  If the smallholder prefers, he can sell the crop early in the season at a fixed price to the jam factory, when he is relieved of all trouble and anxiety as to gluts and market conditions.  This jam factory has been fitted up in a portion of the farm buildings, and the oil engine which is used to drive the chaff cutter and other farm machinery also serves to drive the machinery in the jam factory.  An experienced jam boiler from Evesham is in charge of the factory which has already proved its usefulness.

Some curious facts have come to our knowledge regarding this question of marketing.  Last year, for example, a Hampshire smallholder told us that he had found the best market for strawberries that year had been Dublin.  In the previous year strawberries were sent from the Kent farm to Belfast, where they realised 2¼d more per pound than similar strawberries realised on the same day in London.  We had offers to purchase strawberries from a town in the south of Ireland at very satisfactory prices, the buyer paying carriage.  The blackcurrants all went to Wigan, a 14 hour journey; cherries, although wanted at Cardiff, also went to Wigan.  Just now, among flowers, marguerites are selling well in the north of England; last year an experimental plot of these flowers produced £29, whilst one of the Essex smallholders made £80 from one acre under this crop.  The flowers are packed in boxes, travel 3½ miles by road, and then another 200 or 300 miles by train from Essex to Newcastle, Nottingham, Manchester and other north of England towns.  A little earlier double arabis was saleable, and later in the season pyrethrum, statiec and asters follow.

Crops and Prices

This flower growing is highly profitable; as a smallholder puts it, the carriage on a box of flowers is a good deal less than on a sack of potatoes, and it is seldom the potatoes fetch more than the flowers.  To put it another way, a horse can take to the station £9 or £10 worth of flowers, when it could only convey £3 or £4 worth of potatoes, and it will have taken about an equal area to grow them.  The marketing problem is to some extent solving itself, several of the smallholders now having private connections, but the jam factory established last year has been of very great assistance in dealing with perishable and surplus fruit.  The districts around Tiptree in Essex and Histon in Cambridgeshire have shown the influence these factories have in the successful development of fruit growing.  Apples can always be sold at good prices.  One smallholder makes an average price of 8s 6d per 40 pounds for Allington Pippins packed in boxes, and for his best specimens he asks and obtains 20 shillings per case.  He has in 3 years built up a connection which can take all the apples he can produce or buy.  It is a tribute to the system that this man, now so successful, previously gave up a house and holding in another district, after spending several years and a good deal of money in planting fruit trees.

Packing

A very great deal, of course, depends on the packing.  Last year Allingtons were sent to Covent Garden in half bushel baskets, and realised 6 shillings per bushel of 40 pounds, a day or two later precisely similar apples were packed in boxes (provided by the salesmen) in single layers, when they realised 2 shillings per box of 2 dozen, a difference of approximately 4 shillings per bushel.

Fruit is so generally saleable that most of the smallholder devote a considerable proportion of their holdings to fruit trees and bushes.  Apples, pears, plums, cherries, blackcurrants, raspberries, and strawberries are grown, there are some redcurrants and loganberries are increasing in favour.  Asparagus is being grown on several holdings, and most of the smallholders, encouraged by the successful examples, have taken up flower growing.  The growth of a variety of crops not only lessens the risk of total failure in unfavourable seasons, but the income of the holder is spread more evenly over the year.  The smallholder’s income under such conditions begins early in May with the sale of the double arabis, closely followed by asparagus, and then in quick succession come the pyrethrums, green gooseberries, strawberries, marguerites, raspberries, plums, red and black currants, asters, apples, pears and potatoes, these last three being placed on the market gradually as favourable opportunities occur.

The holdings are neatly kept, and free from weeds, in this case example being very much better than precept.  There are few unsightly huts or other buildings, as plans of every building must by approved by the surveyor before their erections can be commenced.

The Ladies' League

The wives of the smallholders are keenly interested, and there is a ladies league – entirely democratic, notwithstanding its undemocratic title – which is devoting itself to the raising of funds for purchasing hand looms for rug weaving or cloth making, the final decision depending on the result of investigation which are still in progress.  The league has organised a number of successful social functions, and by the time the fruit season is over the committee expect to be in possession of sufficient funds to start the industry on a satisfactory basis.  One of the most successful of the league’s undertakings was a cake competition, for which, among a total population of 350, there were over 30 entries.

There is an elementary school in the centre of the estate, but so far the education authorities have not seen fit to establish a school garden, although land has been offered for this purpose.

This paper is already of considerable length, or I would give full some details of the houses which have been designed and erected by the Building Department, of the Stores, which claim to supply everything for the smallholder and his household, of the system of credit loans, and of that latest institution – the Fairby Post Office – a convenience rendered necessary solely by the growth of the smallholdings industry.

How the Depot Helps

So far, only the methods by which more or less direct assistance and guidance are given to the smallholder have been referred to.  These methods principally resolve themselves into arrangements for securing the proper cultivation of the holdings, and the profitable marketing of the produce, and it will have been noticed that the smallholder is able, through the agency of what is called the depot –

1.  At any time to command skilled assistance at its actual labour value.
2.  To obtain advice on cultivation, marketing or account keeping from the foreman or manager, or should this fail from the office, which is an information bureau in close touch with cultivators of wider experience.
3.  Whether the smallholder has much or little land to cultivate, his expenses can be in exact proportion to his requirements, as he need maintain no animal or implement for which he has only occasional use.
4.  Whether he had much or little produce to market, his expense is proportionate to the quantity consigned.  The depot bulks the consignments and so effects considerable savings.
5.  He need not leave his holding to market his crops.

Technical Institution

Such an organisation has created a community intensely interested in making smallholdings pay, and one in which discussions on smallholding topics are supremely popular.  It would not do however to rest at this point, there must be provision for continued progress, and it is because of this because of this that the necessity for further instruction becomes apparent.  The smallholders, under what one might describe as intensive instruction on their holdings, rapidly become proficient in all ordinary work.  What they fail to learn from the depot staff and workmen they learn from one another in frequent discussions among themselves.  We want them to continue their education.  A cursory survey of the history of lighter branches of agriculture shows that some of the most profitable crops become less profitable as fashion, or the character of the demand, changes, and the successful smallholder must be ready to grow new crops and to adopt new methods when these are shown to be profitable.  Like the manufacturer of textiles, he must sometimes discard old favourites, even at a sacrifice, if he is to maintain his position.

With the object of continuing the educational process and encouraging the adoption of new crops and new methods, a lecture and club room has been provided, and periodical lectures are given on subjects closely allied to the work of the smallholding.   The County Horticultural Instructors have lectured on one or two occasions, but these lectures do not quite meet the need.  The best weay to grow plants is not always the most economical way.  The information smallholder are anxious to obtain consists of facts regarding their fruit, flower and vegetable crops, such as are provided by the agricultural experiments carried out by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction and by their instructors regarding farm crops, the results being given in terms of profit.  Two instances occur to me of the kind of thing I mean, one was the investigation of the cost of producing store cattle, and the other on the profit to be derived from winter dairying.  Very valuable lectures are occasionally given by friends who are interested in meeting smallholders on poultry, on manures and similar subjects.

The local Technical Instruction Committee have classes in a neighbouring district in lace-making, basket making and ambulance work.  In the basket making classes the baskets made are those used for the conveyance of fruit to the markets, and as each year these returnable baskets, which spread disease and reduce the value of fruit consigned in them, are being more and more replaced by non-returnable packages and boxes, the instruction is of little use to smallholders.  Instruction in ambulance work is valuable, but it would be better, we are inclined to think, if lessons were given on foods and nutritive values, and the principles of hygiene, ventilation, temperatures, and the necessity for cleanliness.  Such instruction would be of value to the smallholders and their families not only because of its effect on their personal health, but as illustrating the causes of healthy and unhealthy conditions in the growth of livestock.  At present none of the smallholders attend the classes held under the local technical Instruction Committee’s auspices, but they meet frequently to discuss their own and other problems, they appoint committees to obtain information on special points, and they make use of a library of technical books which has been provided in the lecture room.  There are no formal classes of instruction for them as it is difficult to find teachers sufficiently practical to be of real assistance.  The instructors who would be useful would be teachers who could do for the smallholders what the instructresses of domestic economy, who go into the households in Irish villages, do for the household.  But such teachers are not easy to find, and the workmen who actually work on the holdings with the assistance of the smallholders and under the general direction of a skilled and experienced foreman provide a substitute.

A great need of the smallholders is some understanding of the principles of organisation and business management, and instruction on such lines would be much appreciated.  The grower of crops for sale int eh markets needs much business acumen, and a carefully designed course in the methods of organisation, commerce, and market methods, would be of great assistance in developing this faculty.  That this is a view very generally held is evidenced by a paragraph in the latest report of the Board of Agriculture Smallholdings Branch in which the writer says:-

“The only certain means of increasing the prosperity of the smallholder is to increase the yield and profits from the land, and this can only be done by education and organisation.  Smallholders are still far too apt to copy slavishly the methods of cultivation adopted by the large farmers, and so long as they are content with doing that they cannot hope to make a satisfactory living.  It cannot be too often repeated that the only sure hope of success of cultivation and for this purpose constant advice and guidance is needed, not only as to the best crops to grow, but also as to the best means of marketing them so that fair prices for his produce may be secured.”

This necessity for business knowledge applies particularly to smallholders who grow crops for sale and not for feeding to stock.  Under the conditions to which I have referred little stock is kept, - a few pigs, a good number of hens – but it is not forgotten that the main business of the smallholder is the cultivation of the soil, and anything, such as the tending of cattle, the feeding of poultry and pigs, which diverts attention from the main object, is a source of possible danger.  It is less laborious, it is even more pleasant, to give a bucketful of food to obviously grateful pigs or poultry, than to dig or manure apparently unresponsive fruit trees.  With livestock, and especially with pigs, there is always a large element of risk, and the experience of these smallholders indicates that poultry and pigs are excellent and profitable adjuncts to the smallholding, but by themselves they are very uncertain in their yield or profit in any but the most skilful hands.

From the descriptions which have been given, no doubt it will be noticed that the work is a development of much that has been done in other places.  The belief that formal instruction is almost impossible with men approaching middle age was due to experience with gardeners at Kingstown Technical School.  Gardeners would not attend classes in gardening or botany, but they came enthusiastically to listen to lectures on gardening, and many of them took part in discussions.  They were equally enthusiastic in supporting the flower show, and the amount of concentrated thought expended on the periodical meetings for discussion and on the flower show was of real educational value.  This applies with equal truth to the somewhat unsystematic work of these established smallholders.  I refer only to men engaged in these occupations.

It is almost surprising that business ability is of such great importance.  We used to be anxious to get expert gardeners on to the holdings, but our experience has been that expert gardeners are not always successful smallholders.  On the other hand men who have had some business training are most successful as smallholders, they are quick to grasp the reasons for operations, and they will experiment until they find the most economical way of working – in short, they organise their holding as they would their offices.  Another very successful group consists of those who have returned from abroad.  There is one such man in particular, who returned to take up 5 acres after farming successfully 100 acres in Canada.  He now confesses that when he commenced he had doubts as to the possibility of making a living on the smaller area.  Last year he obtained, as a result of his own labour, £164 from his 5 acres, after providing his household with all the vegetables and fruit that were needed.

Under the old system of farming, fruit, potatoes, corn, the Fairby Farm employed some 7 men for each 100 acres, today the farm is employing 25 men per 100 acres, and they live under better conditions than the 7 did.

It will be recognised that the system is a very simple one - manufacturers are solving much more difficult problems than the organisation of a community of smallholder – and when one hears of the efforts being made to attract capital for this and that industrial project for the rural community one wishes that the capitalists would realise that the best industrial project for any rural district is the better cultivation of the soil.

The Lure of the Land
Kentish Small Holdings Scheme in Operation – The Rural Development Company at Hartley – Poultry Boom Conference.
Kent Messenger 6 February 1915

One of the most promising schemes of rural development which we had personally investigated is that at Hartley, Longfield, which was brought before the notice of a select number of visitors on Saturday last by means of a conference and other proceedings.

This scheme is that promoted by the Rural Development Company Ltd whose centre is Fairby Farm, Hartley, Longfield.  The proprietors of this company are Mr Cuthbert A Lambton of Hartley Court, and Mr George H Humphrey of Steephill, Fawkham, who on joint stock lines, act as financiers and guides to the budding farmers who are constantly throwing in their lot with the scheme.  The nuceus of the company’s property was the Hartley Court Estate.  This was soon snapped up, by men who are now doing well as small holders – especially with their fruit and poultry – and an adjoining estate was purchased which brought the area under the company’s control to nearly a thousand acres.

Two or three hundred of these are still to be obtained, on the easy terms prevailing on the estate, but judging by the history of the company, and the present prospects, these will not for long go abegging.  Meanwhile, in the hands of the company, they are being capably farmed.  In looking over the estate as it stands at present, the visitor must be prepared to shut the aesthetic eye, to some extent, and be content with the utilitarian aspect.  One hopes, however, that the opportunity will not be permanently lost of making Hartley a model villages in its appearance as well as in its resources.  What is bing done now will be the inheritance of succeeding generations, and it would ill become the enterprising and enlightened people connected with the estate to hand down to posterity something which would give it an indifferent opinion as to the taste of the present generation.  Granted that some of the defects of design are a legacy from its predecessors, yet the present company has the chance to correct any failings of the past before they become irremediable.  From an agricultural point of view, however, Hartley seems very well favoured.  To anyone not himself owning the critical eye, information is plentifully at hand as to the capabilities of this locality.  Men fresh to the land are, after one or two years’ experience here, drawing incomes which gratify them, and enjoying an elysian existence, which they would not surrender for gold.  The lure of the land has laid hold of them and the land has responded to their love and care.  From time to time conferences are to be held on subjects of practical interest to the settlers – who, by the way, now number nearly a hundred – and the question of the production of eggs and poultry being now a pressing one, the proceedings on Saturday were entitled “The Poultry Boom Conference”.  The company believes in poultry as a valuable adjunct to the small holder, and it shows the way to success by itself demonstrating on poultry culture.  At the moment it has an American House in being, and another in course of erection which is a modification – and possibly an improvement – of the original.  Opinions my differas to whether these elaborate American houses – which are as minutely and carefully planned as to every hygienic details as a sanatorium – are best fitted for this country.  But their use is not compulsory.  There they stand as a demonstration, and one can easily see that whatever else may be said for them, they achieve one great object – that of labour saving – which is aconsideration oto a man who has to make the utmost use of his own time and that of those around him.  These house were on Saturday duly inspected by the visitors – some of whom had come a considerable distance – and afterwards the principles and prospects of poultry farming were discussed in the excellent Village Hall which the company has provided and which is the social and educational centre of the community.  Mr Will Hooley, a well known authority on the subject, was the principal speaker, but the chairman, Mr Lambton also took the opportunity of saying a few words on the topic as well as on the policy of the company with reference to the small holders.  There was no doubt, he said, that now was the proper time to start a poultry farm or to increase the stocks already held.  Before the war 8¼ million pounds worth of eggs were imported to this country annually from the continent.  The war had stopped these supplies and also destroyed the breeding stocks; therefore that 8¼ million pounds’ worth of eggs would not be forthcoming either during the war or for a considerable time after.  The question we had to decide was therefore: Have we the energy and the enterprise to secure this market?  Apart from the financial aspect, it was up to us a a nation to put ourselves in the position of being able, at the end of the war, to help rehabilitate the devasted homes of our Allies.  Now was the time to act.  As a company they have (the Rural Development Company) were firm believers in the value of poultry to the small holder as well as in the value of the small holder to the nation.  That value was dependent on the fact that the poultry must be profitable to their owner.  They must be profitable as a business proposition, without any aid from government or financiers or charity of any sort.  Success and a good income could be obtained from poultry.  They could be obtained by industry, attention to detail, and common sense, combined with knowledge.  Common sense, industry and attention to detail were all points which must be provided by the individual himself.  Knowledge could be offered to him from the outside, and it was here that his partner and himself considered that the funds of a joint stock company could be most usefully applied.  Therefore they were sparing neither money nor pains so that no settler on that estate at all events should fail for want of experience or advice.



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