26 HORTICULTURE LECT. i 



A. Yes ; many, and many who have two acres managed 

 well, but the men are not in full employment as wage earners, 

 and are always ready and glad to work when wanted by the 

 farmers of the district. 



Q. Do the farmers object to the man having so much land ? 



A. Not in the least in the district where it has been the 

 custom for many years, because they know they can get men 

 to do their work when the work needs doing. 



Q. Are you of opinion that small plots of about 20 rods can 

 be of any real service to working men and give them satis- 

 faction ? 



A, Decidedly. There are at least 5,000 of such plots around 

 Nottingham alone, and so greatly are they valued that if such 

 an impossible thing were to happen as a movement for dis- 

 possession it would lead to a provincial revolution. 



Q. Can you say what crops are chiefly grown on these plots ? 



A. It may fairly be said that in one or the other of them 

 everything may be seen in its season that is pleasant to the eye 

 and good for food flowers of various kinds, fruit trees and 

 bushes in thousands, and vegetables of the best varieties and 

 the highest quality. The gardens are much cherished, and so 

 are thousands of others still smaller in various parts of the 

 country. 



Q. What is a fair price to pay for land in allotments ? 



A. You may as well ask me what is a fair price to pay for a 

 watch. I have one I would rather sell for 10s. than another 

 for 10Z. ; and I would much sooner pay at the rate of 5Z. an 

 acre for the best land than 10s. for the poverty-stricken and 

 inferior. 



Q. Do you think that increasing the number of small culti- 

 vators will increase the wage-rate of workers on the land ? 



A. I do not ; because it has not done so in parishes where 

 the land has been largely tilled by small cultivators for genera- 

 tions. Where men are content to remain by earning a little 

 in addition to their wages the numbers are apt to increase ; 

 where they are not they diminish, and scarcity in anything 

 raises its value, abundance having a contrary tendency. It 

 is not, however, within my province to answer questions of a 

 controversial nature connected with the acquirement and value 

 of land, and I ask that they may be limited to points of cultiva- 

 tion and management during our course of lectures. 



