198 Cottage Gardens, live Stock of the Cottager, 



for relief in sickness, infirmities, and old age; or, as they were originally 

 intended, when first enacted in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, for the impo- 

 tent, blind, and those who were not able to work. 



I have now answered all your three questions, in as clear and compre- 

 hensive a manner as I am able, and am ready to attest the truth of what 

 I have written ; for I have given the cultivation of each individual crop 

 which I have practised and found to answer. The different items of 

 expenditure I have been furnished with by labourers chiefly on my em- 

 ployer's estate, whom I can depend upon, as being as economical a calcula- 

 tion as it is possible for a family to be supported with. But, for a cottager, 

 I would always recommend the land to be of a good quality. It is of no 

 use putting a cottager upon a common, where the produce will not pay for 

 the labour. The experiment has frequently been tried, but has always failed 

 of the anticipated results ; and such experiments have deterred improve- 

 ment in the lower classes. But give them land that will reward their labours ; 

 it will stimulate their industry, check their immorality, and ultimately tend 

 to link each class of society in inseparable bonds for the preservation of 

 national order and tranquillity throughout our favoured isle. 



As the cottagers may not be able to purchase the implements of hus- 

 bandry, nor the second and third classes their cows, I should say, let the 

 landlord or parish lend them the money, and each class will be able in three 

 years to pay off the debt. 



I entirely agree with your plan of national education, but it will not be 

 accomplished in the present age ; but the sooner it is begun the better, as 

 it will have many difficulties to encounter, before it can be permanently 

 fixed. 



January 22. 1830. J. P 



Art. V. An Essay on Cottage Gardens, with reference to the Prize 

 Question in the Gardeners Magazine. By the Cottarman's 

 Friend. 



To contribute in any way to the real comforts of the labouring classes, 

 or to the improvement of their condition, must always afford pleasure to 

 the benevolent and philanthropic mind, and at the present time, when the 

 " poor's rates" are making such fearful inroads upon property, any thing 

 that may better their condition, and render them less dependent on public 

 support, must appear agreeable to the wealthy, and doubly so to him who 

 is wealthy and avaricious. These facts, I presume, are incontrovertible ; 

 and yet a system which has for its sole object to enable the poor man to 

 do something for himself, by occupying a small piece of garden ground, has 

 already met with some opposition. I have always observed, in the vege- 

 table kingdom, that when a plant, a flower stem, or a shoot of a fruit tree 

 was tied to a pole, or nailed to a wall, it in a short time became so feeble 

 as to render future support absolutely necessary, while its fellows, that 

 were left to balance themselves when shaken by the blast, acquired a vigour 

 which fitted them for their exposed situation : exactly such takes place in 

 the animal kingdom ; and such is the case with man. It may not, therefore, 

 be out of place here to notice some of the objections brought against that 

 system, which seems so well calculated to encourage the labourer to depend 

 on his own exertions. One of the most formidable, and the only one to 

 which I will at present reply has appeared in a late Number of the Farmer's 

 Journal by a correspondent who signs " A Yeoman," who doubts that cot- 

 tagers would keep such lots of pigs and poultry as would induce them to 

 steal for their support. Absolute want may induce a man to put forth his 

 hands to his neighbour's goods, but a moderate competence cannot contri- 



