The Isle of Axholme has been singularly successful in preserving the spirit of the common field system--social equality, mutual helpfulness, and an industrial aim directed rather towards the maximum gross produce of food than towards the maximum net profit; while at the same time it has discarded those features of the system which would have been obstacles to agricultural progress. The “barbarous omission” to enclose the open arable fields has been abundantly justified. SOHAM. The parish of Soham, in Cambridgeshire, is another example of a great development of small holdings in connection with the persistence of open arable fields. This parish, unlike most Cambridgeshire parishes, has never been enclosed by Act of Parliament, and the tithe map indicates the survival of about 1100 acres of common field and 456 acres of common in a total of 12,706 acres. Since the tithe commutation the area of common has shrunk to about 236 acres, but from the Ordnance map it appears that there is still a very large area of open field land in four large fields, known as North Field, Clipsatt Field, No Ditch Field, and Down Field; and a smaller one, Bancroft Field. Mr. Charles Bidwell gave the Special Committee on Small Holdings (1889) the following account of holdings in this parish:-- Under 1 acre 195 holdings. Over 1 and under 5 acres 77 ″ ″ 5 ″ 10 ″ 34 ″ ″ 10 ″ 20 ″ 43 ″ ″ 20 ″ 50 ″ 57 ″ ″ 50 ″ 100 ″ 32 ″ ″ 100 ″ 200 ″ 6 ″ ″ 200 ″ 500 ″ 8 ″ ″ 500 ″ -- ″ 5 ″ (Appendix, p. 501.) Thus the total area of the parish is held by 457 occupiers, who therefore hold, on an average, 28 acres each. In this case it is stated that the occupiers of the smallest holdings derive considerable benefit from the common. A German enquirer who visited Soham as an example of an unenclosed parish, found it less poverty stricken than the other parishes in the neighbourhood, on account, he was told, of the existence of the common pastures. (W. Hasbach, Die englischen Landarbeiter, 1894.) WESTON ZOYLAND. The idea occurs to one, whether it would not have been possible to secure by an Act of Enclosure for a common field, the abolition of common rights which hindered each farmer or peasant from cultivating his holding to the best of his ability, and the laying together of the scattered strips which formed each holding, without ruining the small proprietors and small farmers, or encouraging the laying down of tilled land under pasture.