174 Life of Count Rumford. 



fection at that time, yet it was very backward in Ba- 

 varia, very many improvements not having been intro- 

 duced, many profitable plants being unknown, the 

 potato, clover, and turnip being scarcely to be seen, 

 and the rotation of crops neglected. 



Thompson planned a military garden in connection 

 with each garrison for the special purpose of intro- 

 ducing the culture of potatoes. These were exclusively 

 appropriated to the non-commissioned officers and pri- 

 vates, each one having a bed of three hundred and 

 sixty-five square feet, which was his, and the produce 

 of which he could dispose of, so long as he would till it. 

 Neatly gravelled alleys between these cultivated plots 

 made them pleasant places of resort. The agreeable 

 and beneficent results of these arrangements were realized 

 sooner, and even more widely, than the planner of them 

 could have hoped. Indolent soldiers became model 

 laborers, proud of their task and its fruits. They were 

 seen collecting manure in the streets, besides using what 

 was furnished them. Little gardens fashioned by the 

 soldiers on their furloughs sprang up all over the 

 country, as .each one carried home with him garden- 

 seeds and potatoes. The use of the latter, as of many 

 other vegetables for food, became universal. The 

 officers, meanwhile, were ordered to give the soldiers 

 every facility, and never to exact any emolument from 

 them. 



Besides the direct objects of improving the condi- 

 tion and raising the character of the soldiers which 

 were effected by the measures thus described, Sir Benja- 

 min had in view a further purpose, in securing a very 

 potent agency for advancing the most difficult and com- 

 prehensive of all his benevolent schemes. He intended 



