ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 



and comfort of these, who are now by far 

 the most numerous class in society, can be 

 best promoted. It would be here misplaced 

 to examine how the system of poor laws has 

 served in various ways to debase and depress 

 them ; our present object must be to consider 

 how the allotment system may Be the best 

 made to promote contrary effects. 



This system, we have noticed, suggested it- 

 self to the legislature in the reign of Elizabeth, 

 but it was of very limited operation. 



On the Continent, a system of larger allot- 

 ments was partially adopted in the year 1707, 

 in the Duchy of Cleves, but we are not aware 

 that the example was followed, till, after the 

 lapse of more than a century, the Dutch go- 

 vernment, in 1818, divided tracts of poor soil 

 at Frederick's Oord, and other places, into al- 

 lotments of seven acres. The government 

 provided overseers to notice the moral con- 

 duct and industry of the tenants; advanced 

 capital when needed, which w;is to be repaid; 

 and an annual rent was to be returned. Manual 

 labour was exclusively adopted. The expense 

 of establishing each individual was 22/. 6*. 4rf. ; 

 and the annual excess of produce over the 

 subsistence of the family, alter deducting the 

 rent, twelve shillings per acre, was 8/. 2s. 

 A<f. (M. de Kirchoff. Jacob on the Com Trudt, 

 Ac.) 



About the year 1800, Dr. Law, Bishop of 

 Bath and Wells, commenced the allotment 

 system ; Sir H. Vavasour communicated to 

 the Hoard of Agriculture, about the same pe- 

 riod, some experiments demonstrating the great 

 ben. -lit of "the Flemish," or "field-gardening 

 husbandry," and, in 1802, Charles Howard, 

 Esq. followed the example. 



" On Pulley Common, in Shropshire," says 

 Sir W. Pulteney, " there is, at least there was, 

 a cottager's tenement of about 512 square 

 yards, somewhat more than one-ninth of an 

 acre. The spade and the hoe are the only 

 implements used, and those chiefly by his 

 wife, that he may follow his daily labour for 

 hire. The plot of land is divided into two 

 parcels, whereon she grows wheat and pota- 

 toes alternately. In the month of October, 

 when the potatoes are ripe, she takes off the 

 stalks of the plants, which she secures to pro- 

 duce manure by littering her pig. She then 

 goes over the whole with a rake, to collect the 

 weeds for the dunghill. She next sows the 

 wheat, and then takes up the potatoes with a 

 three-pronged fork ; and by this operation the 

 wheat seed is covered deep. She leaves it 

 quite rough, and the winter frost mellows the 

 earth ; and by its falling down in the spring it 

 adds vigour to the wheat plants. She has pur- 

 sued this alternate system of cropping for 

 several years without any diminution of pro- 

 duce. The potato crop only has manure. In 

 1804, a year very noted for mildew, she had 

 fifteen Winchester bushels of wheat from 272 

 square yards, being four times the general 

 averaging crop of the neighbouring farmers. 

 It is to be wished such instances of cottage 

 industry were more frequent; and more fre- 

 quent they would be, were proper means made 

 use of to invigorate the spirit of exertion in 

 the laboul ing class." 



ALLUVIUM. 



Since that period the patrons of the system 

 have been very numerous. The clergy have 

 been especially promoters of this system. 



Where this system, well regulated, has 'been 

 tried, and the experience is now very exten- 

 sive, the results have been most happy. The 

 condition of the poor has been ameliorated ; by 

 rendering them more independent, they have 

 become more contented and more careful ; bet- 

 ter as citizens, and better as individuals. 



If the allotments much exceed a quarter of 

 an acre, or in any \vay approach to the nature 

 of cotter farms, a proportionate blow is made 

 at that employment of capital and talent in 

 agriculture which has raised it to its present 

 improved state. 



" The advantages attending this system," 

 says a clerical writer in the Christian Ob- 

 server for 1832, "besides the comfort of the 

 poor man, are the diminution of the poor's 

 rate, and the moral improvement of the la- 

 bourer. Since this plan has been in opera- 

 tion, the poor-rate has been steadily declining 

 from about 320/. to about 180/. per annum, 

 with the prospect of still further diminution. 

 When the farmer's work is scarce, the poor 

 man finds profitable employment on his patch 

 of ground, which if he had not to occupy him, 

 he would be sent to idle upon the roads at the 

 expense of the parish. The system has the 

 further and very important effec-t of improving 

 his character. When the labourer has his 

 little plot of ground, from which he feels he 

 shall not be ejected as long as he conducts 

 himself with propriety, he has an object on 

 which his heart is fixed ; he has something at 

 stake in society ; he will not hang loose on the 

 community, ready to join those who would dis- 

 turb it; so much so, that in the late riots, no 

 man in the parish showed any disposition to 

 join them." 



From the year 1828 to the present time, mi* 

 merous pamphlets upon this subject have ap- 

 peared, and for further information readers are 

 referred to those of Dr. Law, and of Messrs. 

 Scobell, Scrope, Banfill, Denson, Blackistcn, 

 Withers, &c. 



ALLOWANCES TO TENANTS. Such as 

 are agreed to be made to them on their quitting 

 farms, or under any other circumstances. See 

 Customs of Counties and Appraisement. 



ALLUVIUM, or ALLUVION (from the La- 

 tin Alluvio, " an inundation"), is a term which, 

 in the English language, has no very defined 

 meaning. Some authors use it to designate all 

 those rocks which have been formed by causes 

 now acting on the surface of the earth, includ- 

 ing those of volcanic origin ; while others, ad- 

 hering to the literal- meaning of the original 

 term, confine its application to deposits, what- 

 ever be their character, that have resulted 

 from inundations. Neither of these definitions 

 convey the same meaning as is usually at- 

 tached to the word, the one including toe 

 much, the other too little. The term has been 

 badly selected, but is used in its proper appli- 

 cation to designate all those deposits recently 

 formed, or now forming, by the agency oi wa- 

 ter, whether from an uninterrupted and con- 

 slant stream, or from casual inundation. 



All streams, lakes, rivers, seas, and the 



67 



