POSSIBLE STEPPING-STONES 275 



him to tell me what amount of land he thought would 

 be sufficient for anyone having his own experience of 

 market-gardening, as derived from an allotment, to live 

 upon. The answer was prompt and precise : ' Two 

 acres. But he would want some help in the summer,' 

 Mr. Jeffs added, * and he would be likely to get 

 much better results if he formed one of a number 

 of two-acre holders who joined together so as to have 

 horses, carts, and implements in common, and so as 

 to buy their necessaries, if not, also, to sell their 

 produce, in common '; and the eyes of a worker who 

 had grown gray in the toils of factory life positively 

 sparkled at the idea of such a prospect being opened 

 out to him. 



Meanwhile, the holders of allotments through the 

 Aylestone Society are, at least, being prepared to avail 

 themselves of wider possibilities in the future, and, it 

 factory-work fails them, only the opportunity will be 

 necessary for enabling them to start afresh somewhat 

 further out from Leicester, where land is cheaper as a 

 little colony of market-gardeners. Meanwhile, also, 

 they add the equivalent of from 35. to 45. a week to 

 their wages, their families are better nourished, they 

 themselves are in more vigorous health, while, since 

 they have learnt to find relaxation in gardening, they 

 have saved the money they once spent in pursuits much 

 less remunerative and beneficial. 



This story of what has been done at Aylestone may, 

 I think, well be commended to public attention. It 

 shows what a body of clear-sighted and energetic work- 

 ing men can do for themselves, with the scantiest of 

 means, but acting on the principle of ' self-help ' rather 

 than of * State-aid '; and what Aylestone has done ought 

 to be quite capable of accomplishment elsewhere. In the 

 suburbs of most large towns or cities there is land 



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