Hints for Prize Questions. 713 



In the mean time, whether any thing be done by government in the way of 

 estabhshing a national system of education or not, landlords of every descrip- 

 tion cannot err in increasing the comforts of their hired servants and day 

 labourers; by rendering their cottages morehealthy, commodious, and neat, 

 and by adding to them a large garden, in no case less than a fourth of an 

 acre. We shall, in our next Number, discuss the subject of improving rural 

 dwellings, commence a series of plans for improved labourers' cottages and 

 gardens, and show how such gardens ought to be cultivated, and what they 

 are calculated to produce. 



Art. XIII. Hints for Prize Questions, submitted to Provincial 

 Horticultural Societies. 



The report of the committee of the Newcastle Botanical and Horticul- 

 tural Society has been sent us by the secretaries, with a request that we 

 would furnish them with some hints for prizes. We are much gratified to 

 observe that an excellent garden-library has been established by the Society, 

 and more especially to learn from the report, that " the taste for readino-, 

 already engendered by it, has exceeded their most ardent expectations, and 

 they can with confidence state, that the books in it are in constant and 

 active circulation among those of the members for whose use they were 

 more especially intended, the practical gardeners." Most of the books, it is 

 gratifying to observe, are presentations; and one gentleman, Mr. Charnley, 

 has nobly given fifty volumes of standard works. Mr. Falla, jun., one of the 

 secretaries, and one of the most enlightened of the nursery gardeners of the 

 north, seems to have vied with Mr. Charnley in the liberality of his dona- 

 tions. 



As to prizes, the following is a copy of the rough sketch which we sent, 

 and to which we would wish to direct the attention of other countrj' so- 

 cieties : — 



" What quantity of garden ground does it require to supply all requisite 

 culinary vegetables, including potatoes, to a labourer's family, and to his live 

 stock ; the former consisting of two grown persons and four children, and 

 the latter at an average of one pig, three rabbits, three hens, and three 

 ducks? Name all the articles, and give a calendarial treatise on their 

 culture, and on the management of the whole garden throughout the year, 

 specifying the number of hours' labour of one man for every week in 

 the year. Include the mode of cooking the vegetables, so as to make the 

 most of them ; how far the potatoes may be mixed with flour to make 

 bread; where and how the manure is to be procured and managed, &c. 



" All the above circumstances being the same, but two goats for milk 

 being added to the live stock, what additional ground, and what arrange- 

 ments and management would be requisite ? 



" All the above circumstances, &c., as at first, but a cow added, what 

 addition of ground and what arrangements, &c. 



" All the circumstances, &c., but a cow, horse, and cart added, what, &c. 



" Take each of these cases separately, and consider what additional 

 quantity of ground, and what arrangement, management, implements, hand- 

 mills, or machines, &c., would be requisite to supply the family with bread- 

 corn; what are the best corns to cultivate for this purpose, and what 

 proportion of each ; and whether Indian corn might be included ? Describe 

 the mills, and mode of grinding and preparing the corn as flour, &c. 



" Handsome premiums should be given for the first, second, and third 

 answers to the above questions. 



" We are far behind the French, as to the use of the kidneybean, and 

 especially the dried seeds of certain climbing varieties ; and much inferior to 



