IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME V. 

 No. 48 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



FEBRUARY 



1910 



The Labourers (Ireland) Act: 



ITS ADMINISTRATION WITH RESPECT TO GARDENS 



WITH respect to the application of 

 portion of the Ireland Development 

 Grant to providing labourers' cottages 

 and land for gardening purposes, it is to be 

 greatly feared that, so far as the land is con- 

 cerned, a great opportunity is being lost through 

 apathy or want of knowledge on the part of the 

 occupiers. We are inclined to believe that the 

 present condition of the land attached to the 

 vast majority of cottages erected throughout 

 the country is mainly due to the latter cause — 

 namely, the inability of the labourer to appreciate 

 the real capabilities of even such a small piece 

 of ground as half an acre. It is indeed a great 

 boon to the labourer to have a sanitary dwelling 

 for himself and family, and to be provided with 

 the opportunity of raising sufficient vegetables, 

 and even fruit, to supply his table all the year 

 round, not to mention the possibilities of 

 surrounding his home with a setting of beautiful 

 flowers that would be a joy not only to himself 

 but to all passers-by. The material advantage 

 of a well-stocked garden is too obvious to dwell 

 upon, while the effort to keep it so and the 

 interest in and appreciation of the results have 

 a mental and moral influence that cannot be over- 

 looked in reckoning up the possible total good 

 obtainable by the present-day labourer in Ireland. 

 Governments, however, may pass beneficent 

 Acts of Parliament and county councils may 

 build cottages and bestow land, but unless the 

 labourer himself utilises the opportunity and 

 extracts from the land the wealth that is there 

 for the finding, it seems to be a case of much 

 cry and little wool so far as the real welfare of 

 the rural population is concerned. 



But is the labourer to blame in this matter? 

 We hardly think so. A labourer is not a 

 gardener. He ma) know how to grow potatoes 



in lazy beds and to plant a few cabbages, but 

 he does not know, and cannot in the present 

 state of horticulture in Ireland, be expected to 

 know, the intricacies of rotation and all the 

 rich possibilities of intensive cultivation of the 

 land. This he must learn before he can reap 

 the advantages that may be secured by the 

 possession of a garden. But is the labourer 

 given an opportunity to learn ? If not, the 

 Labourers (Ireland) Act is by just so much a 

 barren and worthless measure. Fortunately, 

 however, this important link is not missing 

 in the chain of rural development in Ireland, 

 as there is established in each of our 32 counties 

 a public body (the Technical Instruction Com- 

 mittee of the County Councils) charged, amongst 

 other things, with this very duty, the education of 

 the labourer in matters dealing with the culti- 

 vation of the land, and especially in cottage and 

 allotment gardening. W'hen county councils 

 spend public money in building labourers' 

 cottages and buying land to provide allot- 

 ments, it is surely their plain duty not to stop 

 there and to smugly lay the flattering unction 

 to their souls that they have done their duty. 

 Let us see, for example, what our council in 

 the metropolitan county of Dublin is doing in 

 this connection. They are covering the county 

 with groups of labourers' cottages with attached 

 allotments of half an acre of ground or more. 

 How are these allotments cultivated ? Let any 

 one interested in the matter cycle or drive 

 round and see. The sight is a truly pathetic 

 one, and is a standing disgrace to the adminis- 

 Lralion of the Act. It is almost unbelievable 

 that the premier county council of Ireland so 

 far fails the labourer that it persistently refuses 

 to spend a penny piece towards instruction in 

 gardening in any part oC the county. Is there 



