EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



SECOND REPORT. 



XIII. ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. (Continued.) 



MY First Report was concluded with the important subject of 

 allotments of land to laborers. This subject, without an explana 

 tion, would scarcely be understood by a majority of the farmers 

 in the United States. The agricultural laborers, or, as they are 

 here termed, the farm-servants, are seldom or never owners of 

 land. They receive their wages in money or produce, as I have 

 already described ; and some of them, living in compact villages, 

 have not even a small piece of ground for a garden, though, in 

 many parts of the country, the cottages have small gardens at 

 tached to them. The unmarried laborers sometimes live in the 

 houses of their employers ; but this is not now a general nor a 

 frequent practice. The married laborers live in cottages on the 

 estate, or in a neighboring village. 



It is obvious how great advantages a poor family in the 

 country may derive from a small piece of land, and how much 

 produce may be obtained from it for their support and comfort 

 by the application of even a small amount of labor, which other 

 wise, without such opportunity of applying it, would be lost, or 

 rather would not be exerted. Many persons, therefore, have 

 leased to their laborers small portions of land, varying in size 

 from a quarter of an acre, or even less, to an acre, and in some 

 cases more than this, to be cultivated in such crops as the laborer 

 may select, or as may be prescribed by the proprietor. One 



