FOOD AND CLOTHING. 61 



prices in the various districts. On the other hand, if pigs, 

 poultry, and eggs are sold, or the produce of gardens, 

 allotments, or potato ground, the labourers' incomes are 

 increased, but the earnings given in the table are those 

 derived from farm labour only. Further, the wives may 

 earn something at farm work at busy seasons, particularly 

 in the fruit-, flower-, and hop-growing districts, or by doing 

 a little charing, or by taking in a little washing. In certain 

 districts the wives and daughters of farm labourers have 

 opportunities of earning money by taking work from 

 clothing, glove, or other factories. Married women, how- 

 ever, particularly those with very young children at home, 

 are often prevented from earning money, owing to their 

 domestic duties. The children may also earn a little 

 occasionally, and when they leave school and begin to earn 

 regularly the family is in a better position ; though of 

 course the older the children grow, the more they cost to 

 feed and clothe. Many men have gardens, allotments, or 

 potato ground. The gross annual value of the produce of 

 a garden or allotment up to a quarter of an acre may, 

 perhaps, be put at from 253. to ^5. Gardens or allotments 

 of a quarter-acre are thought to be rather larger than a man 

 in regular employment can manage, but they are not usually 

 so extensive. It, however, makes a good deal of difference 

 if they are close to the cottages and the men are saved the 

 time and fatigue of walking some distance to them. If a 

 quarter-acre garden has some well-established fruit trees, the 

 gross value of the fruit might be worth from i to 2 a year. 

 In a number of districts the practice is to consume the 

 home-grown vegetables and to sell the fruit. The principal 

 vegetables grown in gardens or allotments are potatoes and 

 cabbages, but other vegetables would be onions, peas, 

 beans, turnips, carrots, beet, broccoli, lettuce, and celery. 

 If a man keeps a pig, he will often grow some barley, if he 

 has an allotment of sufficient size. On a garden or allot- 

 ment of a quarter of an acre, a man might have to work 

 between two hundred and three hundred hours in the year. 

 Apart from his own labour his other outgoings would be 

 the cost of seed and of manure, but if a man has manure 

 from a pig, and also gets road scrapings, etc., he probably 

 will not buy any. The rent of a garden can hardly be 

 separated from that of the house to which it is attached. 

 In many cases a house with a large garden is let for the 

 same sum as a house with a small garden. In cases where 

 men hire allotments, the rent in purely rural districts is 

 frequently at the rate of about i to 2 an acre, but nearer 

 towns it may range from 4. to as much as 8 an acre. 

 Encouragement is often given to the cultivation of gardens 

 or allotments by the holding of local shows, at which prizes 

 are offered for fruit and vegetables grown upon them. 

 Though the keeping of pigs and poultry by farm labourers 

 is a common practice in many districts, it is not so general 



