KITCHEN-GARDENS 215 



The success that has attended all recent efforts at 

 reviving fruit-bottling and preserving, together with 

 jam-making, has taught the householder that the 

 kitchen-garden has to be even more considered in its 

 workable and practical lay-out than the ornamental 

 flower-garden. 



It is with some surprise that we notice what small 

 progress has been made in this direction since the days of 

 the old monks that have been referred to. They were 

 almost entirely dependent upon manual labour, and 

 doubtless found relaxation from their many forms of 

 serious reading and earnest prayer by wielding the 

 spade. They had leisure in which to prepare the ground 

 and plenty of young monks to fetch and carry for them. It 

 is very probable, however, that in years to come many 

 large gardens will remain shorthanded, for the rise in the 

 price of labour must necessarily affect all classes. Then, 

 too, the shorter working days and the extra holidays that 

 are being instituted will mean a decided decrease in 

 production, unless steps are taken to counteract the effect 

 that these new regulations are bound to have upon 

 agricultural and horticultural work. 



The best solution for these troubles, in the working of 

 a large kitchen-garden, would seem to be a recourse to 

 machinery. By working the land with a small plough and 

 horse-power far more could be quickly accomplished, and 

 a piece of ground that it would take a man several days 

 to dig could be ploughed by a man and a stout cob in one 

 morning. He might, perhaps, require the assistance of 

 another to guide the pony, but this light job could well fall 

 to the lot of a crippled soldier, or if women were included 

 in the staff one of these could undertake it. Those of us 

 who are, in these days of reconstruction, watching over 

 the progress of vegetable production worked in combina- 

 tion with live stock such as goats, rabbits, and poultry, 



