less than one acre 703,289 151,171 1 acre and under 10 121,983 478,679 10 " 50 72,640 1,750,079 50 " 100 25,839 1,791,605 100 " 500 32,317 6,827,346 The great majority of the first class here enumerated, those owning less than one acre, do not concern us, as they were evidently merely houses and gardens not of an agricultural character, but a large number of the second class and most of the other three must have been agricultural, though unfortunately no distinction is made. It will be seen, therefore, that there were a considerable number of small owners in England in 1872, and their numbers have probably increased since. Many of them, however, are of the new class mentioned above, and there appears to be no doubt that the number of the peasant proprietors and of the yeomen of the old sort has much diminished, especially in proportion to the growth of population. FOOTNOTES: [562] Cf. supra, p. 163. [563] R. Marshall, _Rural Economy of Yorkshire_, p. 17 et seq. [564] Slater, _English Peasantry and Enclosure_, p. 7. [565] It was stated in the _Report of the Committee on Enclosures_ (1844), p. 31, that the ordinary expense of obtaining an Enclosure Act was from L1,000 to L1,500. In 1814 the enclosure of three farms, amounting to 570 acres, including subdivision fences and money paid to a tenant for relinquishing his agreement, cost the landlord nearly L4,000.--_Agricultural State of the Kingdom_ (1816), p. 116. [566] _Enquiry into the Propriety of Supplying Wastes to the better Support of the Poor_, p. 42. [567] The usual clause in Enclosure Acts stated that the land should be 'allotted according to the several and respective rights of _all_ who had rights and interests' in the enclosed property, and expenses were to be borne 'in proportion to the respective shares of the people interested'. [568] pp. 8 et seq. Slater, _op. cit._ p. 113. [569] Cf. Marshall's account of the common-field townships in Hampshire at the end of the eighteenth century. Each occupier of land in the common fields contributed to the town flock a number of sheep in proportion to his holding, which were placed under a shepherd who fed them and folded them on all parts of the township. A similar practice was observed with the common herd of cows, which were placed under one cowherd who tended them by day and brought them back at night to be milked, distributing them among their respective owners, and in the morning they were collected by the sound of the horn.--_Rural Economy of Southern Counties_, ii. 351.