260 Field Gardening and Cottage Gardens. 



farther than the cultivation of the soil, and the management 

 of the crops that are produced upon it; and I am almost 

 convinced that were that recommendation adopted, the majority 

 of your readers would be highly gratified. 



As the pen is in my hand, allow me to say a few words con- 

 cerning the gardens of farm servants in the low country dis- 

 tricts of Scotland, because some advantage might likely arise 

 were that system imitated in every part of England. You 

 know, quite well, that married servants are usually employed 

 in Scotland, who have a house upon the farm contiguous to the 

 homestead, to which a small garden is connected, and whose 

 wages are chiefly paid in kind, that is, in corn, with maintenance 

 for a cow all the year round, and a certain portion of ground in, 

 the fields for potatoes, which ground is ploughed, manured, and 

 horse-hoed by the master, the servant having no more to do 

 than to provide seed for planting the space allotted to him, 

 to clean the ground so far as hand labour is required, and to 

 dig up the crop afterwards. The weight of the crop, in general 

 cases, may be about one and a quarter ton, often more, and 

 that quantity is sufficient to supply the consumption of a family 

 through the winter, and sometimes, with the aid of skimmed 

 milk, to feed a pig, if the female is a good housewife. In 

 short, servants paid in this manner are much better off than 

 those paid in money, and are even more comfortably situated 

 than the great body of artisans and manufacturers, as may 

 probably be more amply explained on some future occasion. 

 But to come to the object particularly in view, each servant 

 has a garden immediately behind his dwelling-house, of suffi- 

 cient size for producing early potatoes and pot-herbs for the 

 family. This garden is generally enclosed by a stone wall, or, 

 to speak correctly, the whole gardens of the servants are 

 included in one inclosure, each being separated from the other 

 by a footpath. Dung for manuring the garden is always 

 allowed by the farmer, and the labour of digging, planting, 

 and cleaning, is executed by the servant at bye-hours, or in 

 the evenings after the labour of the day is finished. Here you 

 will observe, that married servants being engaged for a year, 

 the digging of a garden cannot commence sooner than the 

 beginning of March, or when hiring time is over, which to a 

 certain extent is detrimental, though, in point of fact, it cannot 

 be avoided. The first object is to plant cabbages, an article 

 never neglected, as farm servants in Scotland live much more 

 upon barley-broth, cooked with vegetables, than their brethren 

 in England. The next step is to plant early potatoes, and of 

 these a sufficient quantity is generally raised to serve their 

 families from the middle of July till the field potatoes are 



