Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/129

 towns. For general as the tendency in all countries is to migrate to the towns, it has, in Wales, been emphasised by a deliberate policy of consolidating holdings and of letting cottages go to ruin. Mr. Lleufer Thomas, in his report on Glamorganshire, says that the best and most skilled labourers are undoubtedly those who have little holdings of their own, some 10 or 20 acres, and he quotes Councillor Howell, of Pencoed "There are none so comfortable as those who have 10 or 12 acres, and who work a farm as well; these show no tendency to emigrate." He also cites the authority of a Narberth tenant farmer to the effect that holders of 7 or 10 acres always do well. "At an old farm," he said, with which I have been associated all my life, there were six or seven such little places, and the people who occupied them were always well off, well clothed, well dressed, and their children were well educated. The ideal object was thus attained. The youthful mind when feeding its father's cows and pigs will cultivate a taste for agricultural pursuits which through life it will never forget, and however