422 European Agricidtiire and 



ricultural School: XXIV. Dublin Botanical Garden. A 

 fine engraving of the first prize short-horned Durham Bull, 

 accompanies this number. 



The Allotment System is continued in this number. As 

 the subject is perhaps scarcely understood by our own 

 farmers, Mr. Colman proceeds to explain : — 



" The agricultural laborers, or, as they are here termed, the farm-servants, 

 are seldom or never owners of land. They receive their wages in money 

 or produce, as I have already described ; and some of them, living in 

 compact villages, have not even a small piece of ground for a garden, 

 though, in many parts of the country, the cottages have small gardens 

 attached to them. The unmarried laborers sometimes live in the houses 

 of their employers ; but this is not now a general nor a frequent practice. 

 The married laborers live in cottages on the estate, or in a neighboring 

 village. 



It is obvious how great advantages a poor family in the country may 

 derive from a small piece of land, and how much produce may be ob- 

 tained from it for their support and comfort by the application of even a 

 small amount of labor, which otherwise, without such opportunity of ap- 

 plying it, Avould be lost, or rather would not be exerted. Many persons, 

 therefore, have leased to their laborers small portions of land, varying in 

 size from a quarter of an acre, or even less, to an acre, and in some cases 

 more than this, to be cultivated in such crops as the laborer may select, 

 or as may be prescribed by the proprietor. One condition is usually 

 made absolute in these cases, — that the land should be cultivated with a 

 spade, and not with a plough. The results, tlierefore, become the more 

 interesting." 



The author concludes the discussion of the Allotment 

 System, after giving examples of the many instances of 

 domestic economy which have resulted from it, as fol- 

 lows : — 



" I submit these facts to my American friends as exceedingly curious. 

 With us the land is not locked up by patents, entail, or mortmain. With 

 us land is every where attainable, and at prices which bring it within the 

 reach of every industrious and frugal man. But it will, I tliink, be inter- 

 esting to look at these humble instances of domestic economy ; and tJiey 

 must stimulate the most useful inquiry into the productive capacities of 

 the land, which seem as yet to bo very imperfectly developed. We are, 

 likewise, not without our poor in the United States ; and the vast influx 

 of destitute emigrants is constantly augmenting the number. For idle- 

 ness and profligacy there is no just claim upon public compassion: but I 

 am convinced that a considerable portion of the poor would be glad to 

 earn their own living if they could be put in the way of doing it. What- 

 ever contributes to this object confers a public benefit. 



It would be wrong for me to quit this topic without adding, that, since 

 my First Report, I have visited portions of die country where, on the es- 

 tates of some very large proprietors, (to one of whom the United States 

 and Great Britain are under the highest obligations for adjusting their 



