

London to John O Groat's. 201 



I saw also here in perfection that garden allotment 

 system which is now coming widely into vogue in 

 England, not only adjoining large towns like Bir- 

 mingham, but around small villages in the rural 

 districts. It is well worthy of being introduced in 

 New England and other states, where it would work 

 equally well in various lines of influence. A land- 

 owner divides up a field into allotments, each generally 

 containing a rood, and lets them to the mechanics, 

 tradespeople and agricultural laborers of the town or 

 village, who have no gardens of their own for the 

 growth of vegetables. Each of these is better than a 

 savings'-bank to the occupant. He not only deposits 

 his odd pennies but his odd hours in it ; keeping both 

 away from the public-house, or from places and habits 

 of idleness and dissipation. The days of Spring and 

 Summer here are very long, and a man can see to work 

 in the field as early as three o'clock in the morning, 

 and as late as nine at night. So every journeyman 

 blacksmith, baker or shoemaker may easily find four or 

 five hours in the twenty-four for work on his allotment, 

 after having completed the task or time due to his em- 

 ployer. He generally keeps a pig, and is on the qui rive 

 to make and collect all the manure he can for his little 

 farm. A field of several acres, thus divided and culti- 

 vated in allotments, presents as striking a combination 



