SMALL HOLDINGS IN INDIA AND THEIR REMEDIES 469
much deliberation the system of field assessment was finally adopted is known to many. But as the reasons that led to its adoption are known only to a few the following explanatory parts from the Joint report will be found to be both interesting and instructive:
“Para 6. That one manifest advantage of breaking up the assessment of a village into portions so minute [as indicated by a survey number] is the facility it affords to the cultivators of contracting or enlarging his farm from year to year, according to the fluctuating amount of agricultural capital at their disposal which is of incalculable importance to farmers possessed of so limited resources as those of the cultivating classes throughout India.
“Para 7. The loss of a few bullocks by disease or other causes may quite incapacitate a ryot from cultivating profitably the extent of land he had previously in village and, without the privilege of contracting his farm, and consequent liabilities on occassion of such loss, his ruin would be very shortly consummated.” [19]
Judging in the light of this conclusion the proposal to regulate the size of holdings appears ill-considered and futile. For as Prof. Richard T. Ely observes [20] :
“Obviously no simple answer can be given to the question [as to what should be the size of a farm]. The value of land or the rent it will bring is perhaps the most important factor…………………In addition to the factor of rent the amount of capital that he can command, the kind of fanning in which he is most skilled, the character of the labour he can secure, the proximity of markets, and the adequacy of transportation facilities, all must be taken into account by the farmer in determining how large a farm he will attempt to manage and how intensively he will farm it.
“ This question is primarily one of private profit which the individual must decide for himself, but the legislator and the scientific student can be of some assistance in helping to develope that most difficult branch of commercial science—farm accounting—and in keeping the farmer alive to those charges in prices, wages, and transportation charges to which the farm organization must adjust itself.”
To those who have the temerity to fix the size of a holding Prof. Ely’s well-considered opinion will bring home that in spite of good intentions their vicarious mission will end in disaster; for none but the cultivator can decide what should be the size of his holding. They would do well to remember that the size of his holdings will vary in time. Consequent to
Survey Settlement Manual Bombay Presidency, 1882. p. 3.
Outlines of Economics, pp. 531-32 (Italics ours).