Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/194

 82 G..*. KEATIN'GE is effected in snch a way as to secnre an proportion of good and bad land in each plot, often leads to a division into long narrow strips. the ings made out of tle original nine acre holding would consist each of three separate plots of one acre each. Nor does the inconvenience epd there, for the par,ition equl and In case of rice fields consisting of a terraced slope this fragmentation is 'ery marked, for each heir will im st getting s share on each terrace, and sometimes there is an arrangement for the heirs to take each share, tnrn and tnrn abont, so that the property owned by each man in any plot of land amonnts to the right of temporary cnltivation rather than the ownership of the land. This cnstom of fragmentation bears to the Hindu law of inheritance ranch the sme relation that the English cnstom of primogenitnre bears to the English law of entail, and together the Hindn law and cnstom hare into an enormous reshired in splitting np the land nnmber of plots in which a large proportion of the popnlation hare some share, howerer small, jnst as in England the law and custom taken together have reshired in the concentration of cempact estates in the hands of a very few persons. This cnstom of fragmentation is not pecnliar to India, but occurs lso in France, the cormtry where the law of inheritance most closely with the resnit that in resembles the Hindu lw, some localities in France the has been reduced to a of lucerne grass. In Germany the' evils of size of an individual share single vine or a single tuft Switzerland also and parts of fragmentation were a matter of common experience. In calling attention to the excessre suo-wson and may be stated, once intention of opening fragmentation of the and the economic advantages of large and small farming. land in this Presidency it for all, that there is no discussion of the relative The