LECT. x ENCOURAGEMENT AND ENDEAVOUR 141 



them with the greatest care, as they are much more 

 easily spoiled than eggs are by tumbling them about 

 roughly. 



Not in fruit alone but in vegetable culture is great 

 progress apparent, and some cottagers grow and show 

 vegetables in very high-class condition, in many cases 

 nearly if not quite equal to the produce exhibited by 

 professional gardeners. 



Thin sowing, thin growing, deep digging, rich 

 moist soil ; neatly trimming vegetables and washing 

 roots, then arranging the whole tastefully on plates, 

 in flat hampers, or on beds of parsley in trays is the 

 way to win prizes for vegetables. 



Another important method of affording encourage- 

 ment to workers is to create wholesome pleasant 

 rivalry amongst them by offering prizes for the best- 

 kept and best-cropped gardens or allotments in 

 parishes or districts. 



Few engagements can be more interesting than 

 those in which a number of busy workers strive each 

 to excel the other in the management of plots of 

 ground, and than neat, well- tilled, well-cropped 

 gardens, it is not easy to conceive of anything more 

 commendable, pleasurable and useful. 



Where the custom has been in operation for a few 

 years of granting awards for superior culture, there 

 is not the slightest doubt that the productiveness of 

 many gardens has been increased three-fold ; indeed, 

 viewed in comparison with others to which little 

 thought has been devoted, or labour invested, the 

 increase is relatively much more than that. 



The Beddington and Carshalton Society, which 

 Mr. A. H. Smee, C.C., supports so well, commenced 

 giving prizes for gardens and plots ; in two years the 

 effect was seen all over the district in the far greater 

 number of better managed plots and fuller and 



