648 "Hi7itsfor the effective Cultivation 



of the labouring classes are aware that their knowledge of 

 gardening is very much confined, and that, generally speaking, 

 they have no taste for any thing beyond the common kinds of 

 vegetables. In this parish I seldom observe any thing in a 

 cottage garden but potatoes, cabbages, beans, and French 

 beans ; in a few instances onions and parsneps, and very sel- 

 dom a few peas. Cabbages are the favourite vegetable, and 

 the prevailing crop in our cottage gardens ; and, for winter 

 greens, I generally find a plot of rape, which they transplant 

 from the fields, and it is said to be very productive, and to 

 make excellent greens. Bacon is the meat they use, and they 

 cultivate the sorts of vegetables which eat best with it. To 

 show how little taste the labouring classes have for the better 

 sorts of vegetables, I will mention, that having, on one occasion, 

 more red beet than I could use, I gave a quantity to a man 

 who works for me, desiring him to have it boiled, and to eat 

 it with vinegar with his bread and cheese. As he did not men- 

 tion it for some time afterwards, I concluded it was not liked ; 

 and upon enquiry I found that all the family tasted it, and all 

 disliked it, on account of its sweetness. I said, " Then, of 

 course, you gave it to the pig?" " Oh no," was the reply, 

 " I did not give it to the pig ; I was afraid it might do it 

 harm." And although I assured him that I had seen pigs kept 

 in very good condition upon the same sort of thing (mangold 

 wurzel), I could not prevail with him even to give the pig a 

 taste. I have found the same dislike for spinach, which Cob' 

 bett praises and recommends so highly, and for many other 

 vegetables which are considered as luxuries by the upper 

 classes. 



Supposing, then, that a labourer had half an acre of ground, 

 one fourth of that quantity would be sufficient to produce 

 his vegetables, except potatoes, as they always crop close, 

 and seldom leave any part vacant ; the next question is, how 

 is he to crop the remainder? Some would say, with pota- 

 toes. I should say, with potatoes and grain, either wheat 

 or barley ; and for this reason, because the straw of the grain 

 would litter the pig, and be returned in manure upon the land. 

 Besides, I think that the chief use of allotments of land is to 

 enable the labourers to keep pigs, and eat more meat and 

 fewer potatoes ; and a labouring family, to live as they ought 

 to live, should kill two pigs in the year. Let us suppose, then, 

 that the remaining three fourths of the half acre of ground be 

 divided into two parts, and cropped alternately with grain and 

 potatoes, manuring always for potatoes. There would, in this 

 case, be generally plenty of potatoes for the use of the family, 

 leaving some also for the pigs : the grain, if it were barley, 



