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7. Small holdings, fields and parcels of land under 20 acres.—
This group forms numerically a very substantial portion of the
returns received by the Ministry, although in point of fact the
160,000 separate occupations (excluding fruit and vegetable
farms and poultry farms) only account for 1,340,000 acres, or
5 per cent. of the total. It is moreover an exceedingly diverse
group because, as already explained, it includes not only small
holdings farmed for business, but also accommodation fields and
summer grazings, land exceeding 1 acre attached to residential
properties and other miscellaneous land separately returned.
In order to get some idea of the extent of these holdings, the
crop reporters were asked to separate as far as possible these
returns, and although this division can obviously only be of a
very approximate nature the result is of value as helping to some
extent to indicate the true nature of these small holdings. From
this, it appeared that out of 59,000 holdings of 1 to 5 acres,
excluding fruit, vegetable and poultry farms, some 26,000 were
classed as miscellaneous and not purely agricultural holdings.
In the same way out of the 100,000 holdings between 5 and 20
acres 19,000 were also put into that category.
These 45,000 miscellaneous holdings are mostly pasture and
carry less stock than the average holding of the same size, but
at the same time it is evident that they are used for agricultural
purposes, although they are not agricultural holdings in the
proper sense of the word.
In this connection, it may be mentioned that about 5,000
holdings scattered about in the larger groups (chiefly 20-50 acres)
were also classified by the crop reporters as being only partly or
incidentally used for agriculture. In some cases, these included
recreation grounds and parks used for grazing, but they were
neither sufficient in number nor sufficiently definite in type to
make it possible to separate them from the other holdings of the
Jame size.
Accommodation fields and summer grazings are naturally
found largely in the dairying and grazing districts, though they
occur pretty regularly throughout the country. Land attached
to residential properties occurs to an appreciable extent in the
south and south-east of the country. This is very largely due to
the residential holdings of Berkshire and Surrey, which have
22 per cent. of their total number of holdings in this category.
while Kent, Sussex and the Isle of Wight each have over 10 per
cent. Over 20 per cent. of the holdings in Hertford and Middlesex
and over 10 per cent. of those in Buckingham, Gloucester, Warwick
and Cheshire are in this category.
The presence of this type of land makes the average figures
of the distribution of crops and live stock on holdings under
20 acres less likely to be typical or characteristic of a purely
agricultural holding. Nevertheless they compare fairly well with
the larger holdings.