Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/132

 villages; and when married men live in towns, they soon give up working on a farm by the term. Mr. Lleufer Thomas, commenting upon the disappearance of country cottages, notes that in Lleyn married men often work on farms at a distance of from 5 to 15 miles from home, and they only come home occasionally to their families, according to the distance, once a fortnight, or a month, or twice in six months. I ought to add that these small holdings were reclamations from the waste, made by peasants during generations, as the population increased. It was brought out in evidence the other day before the Welsh Land Commission that in the four parishes of Gwytherin, Llanfairtalhaiarn, Llansannan and Llanefydd there had been 1,238 such holdings. Fortunately the freeholds of these holdings were secured by the successors of the actual tillers. But as a rule, the majority of these small holdings have been merged in large farms. This was brought about partly by the settled policy of landowners who refused to keep the cottages in repair, and partly by the decay of domestic and village industries. The