ALKANET. 



phosphorus is thus afforded to the body than it 

 requires, when flesh, bread, fruit, and husks of 

 grain are used for food, and this excess in 

 them is eliminated in the urine and the solid 

 excrements. We may form an idea of the 

 quantity of phosphate of magnesia contained 

 in grain, when we consider that the concre- 

 tions in the coecum of horses consist of phos- 

 phate of magnesia and ammonia, which must 

 have been obtained from the hay and oats con- 

 sumed as food. Twenty-nine of these stones 

 were taken after death from the rectum of a 

 horse belonging to a miller in Eberstadt, the 

 total weight of which amounted to 3 Ibs. ; and 

 Dr. F. Simon has lately described a similar 

 concretion found in the horse of a carrier, 

 which weighed 1 Ib. * 



"It is evident that the seeds of corn could 

 not be formed without phosphate of magnesia, 

 which is one of their invariable constituents ; 

 the plant could not under such circumstances 

 reach maturity." (Organic Chemistry.)] 



ALKANET (Anchusa, Lat.). this plant 

 is a species of bugloss with a red root, brought 

 from the southern parts of France, and used 

 in medicine.. It grows wild in Kent and Corn- 

 wall, but in other counties only in gardens. 

 It flowers in summer, and its root becomes red 

 in Autumn. The root is astringent : the leaves 

 not so much so. [The puccoon (Batschia 

 Canadensis) is called alkanet in the United 

 States. See Flor. Ces. p. 118, obs.] 



ALLIUM. See ONIOX, GARLIC, LEEK, SHA- 

 LOT, CHIVES, &c. 



ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. This designation 

 has been applied in England to a plan for 

 bettering the condition of the poor, by allotting 

 to each family in a parish an extent of ground 

 for the purpose of cultivation with the spade. 



Under the article AGRICULTURE it is noticed, 

 that in England, during the feudal times, an 

 allotment system existed. Its object, however, 

 was different ; the lords of the soil, having an 

 interest in obtaining as many tenants as they 

 could, for their power was proportionate to 

 their number, portioned their estates into as 

 many small allotments as they could obtain 

 family tenants, receiving in return certain 

 days of military or other service. 



When the feudal system was destroyed, the 

 lords let their lands in a similar manner, re- 

 ceiving as rent certain quantities of labour 

 from the tenant, or produce of the land he 

 rented ; although, it not being now an object 

 to maintain the number of their tenants, but 

 rather to acquire an increased return of pro- 

 duce, and to obtain a prosperous tenantry, no 

 obstacle was thrown in the way of increasing 

 the size of farms. Land was left like any 

 other subject of investment, and a man ob- 

 tained as much as his means of cultivating 

 permitted, or as he found to be profitable. 

 These were powerful limitations, for money 

 was scarce, and the agriculturists were chiefly 

 tenants, labourers for hire being few. 



In the fourteenth century occurred the great- 

 est revolution that ever happened to the agri- 

 culture of England. The increased demand 

 for wool in the Netherlands and at home, ren- 

 dered the breeding of sheep much more profit- 

 able than the growing of corn, and conse- 

 66 



ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 



quently the arable lands were converted intc 

 pastures. England had been very closely cul- 

 tivated, and the small or cotter farms were 

 extremely numerous. These were now gene- 

 rally exterminated, and the land proprietor be- 

 coming a great flock-master, converted them 

 all into one breadth of grazing land. " Yoar 

 sheep," says Sir Thomas More in his Utopia, 

 "that were wont to be so meek and tame, and 

 such small eaters, are now become such great 

 devourers, and so wild, that they eat up and 

 swallow down the very men themselves." 

 " One covetous and unsatiable cormorant, and 

 very plague of his native country, compasses 

 about and encloses many thousand acres of 

 ground together within one pale or hedge, the 

 husbandmen are thrust out of their own, or else, 

 either by covin and fraud, or by violent op- 

 pression, they are put beside it, or by wrongs 

 and injuries they be so wearied that they be 

 compelled to sell all; by one means or other, 

 either by hook or by crook, they must needs 

 depart away, poor, silly, wretched souls, men, 

 women, husbands, wives, fatherless children, 

 widows, woful mothers and their young babes, 

 and their whole household, small in substance 

 and much in number, as husbandry requireth 

 many hands. For one shepherd or herdsman 

 is enough to eat up that ground, to the occu- 

 pying whereof about husbandry many hands 

 were required." 



Some few of the cotter farmers were reduced 

 to the grade of hired shepherds ; others became 

 artisans, a still smaller number retained a plot 

 of land, but a large portion (for even monastic 

 support was now abolished) became beggars, 

 who, as all records agree, infested England* 

 This gave birth to the poor laws, and the same 

 reign of Elizabeth was the era of an effort to 

 remedy the evils which had arisen from this 

 destruction of small farms. 



It had been experienced that though the 

 tenants of those small farms had been poor, 

 yet none of them were paupers ; it was there- 

 fore thought that every mode of recurring to 

 such a system must be beneficial ; and in ac- 

 cordance with this opinion an act of parlia- 

 ment was passed, commanding that to every 

 cottage that should be erected, four acres of 

 ground should be allotted. This first sugges- 

 tion of the allotment system failed. The quan- 

 tity of ground allotted was too large, and from 

 its interfering with the just liberties of the 

 landed proprietors, this act was repealed in 

 the last century. 



As the value of all farming produce in- 

 creased from various causes, the profits be- 

 coming commensurately large, cultivators re- 

 quired more extensive forms, consolidation 

 proceeded, and in 1709 the first, enclosure act 

 passed ; and from that time to the present 

 the small occupiers have gradually further 

 diminished, as their right of commonage 

 and the like was taken away by the four thou- 

 sand enclosure bills that have since been 

 enacted. 



When small farmers are deprived of their 

 tenements, they become, if they continue, agri- 

 culturists, farming labourers. It becomes a 

 ! subject of very great political importance, 

 i therefore, to ascertain how the character 



