392 



JOUENAIi OF HOETIGULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ November 28, 1871. 



compensate the landowner for the extra expenditure which 

 would be required in buildingg. 



In addition to this, I think that the country in general has 

 loft a great deal by the destruction of this class of small 

 holders. People are always complaining about their servants ; 

 they say they are not what they used to be, they are so help- 

 less that they have no idea of putting their hands to anything 

 outside their common routine of work ; and there is some 

 truth in these and similar complaints, but I think that the 

 explanation of the change is to be found in the fact that the 

 class from which the most useful servants — aye, and our best 

 soldiers — used to come has disappeared. If anyone will take 

 the trouble to inquire into the parentage of those " treasures " 

 whose loss he is now deploring, he will find that they were the 

 children of small farmers or freeholders, who were brought np 

 at home in habits of industry, hardiness, and thrift from the 

 time they were able to walk, and taught to put their hands to 

 anything that was required, and to turn everything to the 

 best advantage. They lived hard too, and thought the now- 

 despised "fatbaoon" a luxury. But the children of the pre- 

 sent class of agricultural labourers have none of these advan- 

 tages of training — at any rate not in the same degree. There is 

 no little farm to work on, with something to fill np every spare 

 minute; no stock about the cottage to tend, no cow to milk, 

 no chickens to feed, no grafting in the spring, no budding in 

 the summer, no haymaking in the little croft, no binding-up 

 after their father as he reaped the little patch of Wheat which 

 was to keep them all the year round in sweet brown bread — only, 

 perhaps, the pig to look to, if this savings' bank is not pro- 

 hibited ; and as for the children of the workers in tovms, 

 there is nothing to teach them habits of thrift or handiness, 

 and consequently they have no idea of either. Whatever their 

 wages are they spend them, and if they are out of work for a 

 week they apply to the parish for relief. They have none of 

 that real independence which makes it a point of honour not 

 to be "beholden" to others for support; and I am afraid a 

 man may travel some way without being told, as I was not 

 long since, by an old woman of seventy- five — "I never had a 

 farthing from the parish in any way in my life, and I would 

 rather die than have it." 



If I am right in the estimate I have formed of this class, 

 their destruction has been a loss, not only to their own district, 

 but to the country at large ; and if so, it would be a great 

 advantage if they could be reinstated. But how is this to be 

 done? I am quite aware that small farms do not pay — i e., 

 they will not enable the 'tenant to live, if they are farmed on 

 the same system as large ones. If the man with five acres 

 tries to grow the same crops as the man with five hundred, he 

 must be beaten in the competition, and go to the wall. But a 

 small farm managed on a difierent system will afford a very 

 good living to its occupier. It must be planted with fruit, not 

 with Wheat ; with vegetables for man, and not with roots for 

 cattle. I can speak to this point from my own experience (the 

 results of which I am about to give) over a period of seven 

 years ; and though I have always sold my produce at something 

 below the market price, I think the returns would show a very 

 fair profit to an agricultural labourer, after paying a compara- 

 tively high rent. Of this, however, the reader must judge for 

 himself, and to enable him to do so, I must, at the risk of 

 appearing egotistical, give an account of my own experiment. 



In 1864 I bought three acres of land, and having long had a 

 hobby of my own in favour of small farms, I commenced to 

 ride it at once, with a view of seeing how far such farms might 

 be made to pay if planted with fruit. One portion I devoted to 

 specimen trees of various kinds — Apples, Peajjs, Plums, Goose- 

 berries — with a view of ascertaining the sorts which would 

 make the best return if planted in quantities. On another 

 portion I experimented with vegetables, and on a third portion 

 I made a plantation of Gooseberries, Black Currants, and 

 Plums, and sold the produce. It is of this third portion, as 

 nearly as possible one acre in extent, that I purpose to give an 

 account. I first cleaned and double-dug the land, made a broad 

 walk up the middle, and then planted it with bushes 6 feet 

 apart, in rows 6 feet from each other. Among these I planted 

 Plums, some 2i, others only 12 feet apart. My stock consisted 

 of 800 Gooseberries, 320 Black Currants, and 110 Plums— 1280 

 in all ; the exact number to an acre, planting at 6 feet apart, 

 is 1225. For the first three years I had room for three lines of 

 Potatoes or other vegetables between the rows ; then, as the 

 bushes increased in size, for two, and in the last and seventh 

 year for one line only. In three or four years more the bushes 

 will have entirely covered the ground, and there will be no 



more room for vegetables, but by that time I expect that the 

 trees alone will produce a very good return ; but to enable my 

 readers to judge what profit may be expected during the first 

 seven years, I subjoin an account of the fruit sold from this 

 acre of ground. The crop produced 



£ s. d. 



In 1869 21 17 



1870 28 6 2 



1871 32 12 9 



In 1865 1 13 



1866 3 6 



1867 10 15 



1868 10 16 



In addition to the fruit, this last year one line of Potatoes or 

 Onions was planted between each row. The produce was 

 thirteen bags of early Potatoes at 10s. per bag, and five pots of 

 C:nions at 4s. per pot of 90 lbs. — £7 10s. in all, which, with the 

 fruit, gives a gross return of £40 2s. 9d. for the acre. 



It may be interesting, perhaps, to go still further into detail, 

 and to give the prices of each kind of fruit, and the amount 

 for which the produce sold in each of the seven years, bearing 

 in mind that the acre was planted with 800 Gooseberries, 

 320 Black Currants, and 110 Plums, and that a pot of Goose- 

 berries is expected to weigh 90 lbs., a pot of Plums the same, 

 and a pot of Black Currants 63 lbs., the pots — i.e., the baskets 

 in which they are packed — included. I should also mention 

 that some sixty of the Black Currants when planted were large 

 bushes. 



1865. £ s. d. 



The crop of Gooseberries, at 5s. 6d. per pot, produced 11 

 Black Carrants, at 10s. ,, 17 6 



Plums Os. „ 



£1 IS 6 



1866. 



Gooseberries, at 8s. per pot 18 



Black Carrants, at 12s. 6fZ 2 S 



Plnms 



£3 6 6 



1867. 



£ s. d. 



Gooseberries, at 7s. per pot 8 8 8 



Black Currants, at 10s , 2 7 



Plums 0- 



£10 15 8 



1S68. £ s. i. 



Gooseberries, at 5s. per pot 7 10 



Blaet Currants, at 10s 2 i 



Plums, at 73. 6d 1 2 9 



£10 16 9 



1S69. £ s. d. 



Gooseberries, at 6s. per pot 12 18 



Black Currants, at 10s. Qd 4 12 6 



Plums, at is. •. 4 6 6 



£21 17 



1870. £ s. d. 



Gooseberries, at 8s. 4(f. per pot 17 2 



Black Currants, at 9s -1 12 



Plums, vfhite, at 3s. ; red, at 6s 6 12 



1871. 



Gooseberries, at lOs. per pot . . . 



Black Currants, at 15s 



Plums, white, at 5s. ; red, at 10s. 



£28 



£ 



.. 13 

 ,. 9 

 . 9 



£32 12 6 



It will be seen from this account that the price of fruit 

 varies according to the season. During the last seven years 

 Gooseberries have been as high as 10s., and as low as 5s. per 

 pot; Black Currants have been as high as 15s,, and as- low as 

 9s. ; Plums in like manner have varied in the same proportion ; 

 but' the price of Gooseberries depends upon another condition 

 besides the quantity of the crop. The time at which tha gather- 

 ing begins is animportantitem. If the gathering does not begin 

 till June, Cs. per pot will be as remunerative a price to the 

 grower as 10s. would be if the gathering were commenced in 

 the middle of May. But I ^ill say nothing more of the Goose- 

 berry now, as I shall devote the next paper to this most 

 popular fruit. 



The teliperaiuee is seldom known to be so low so early in 

 the winter. The minimum of the thermometer here, taken at 

 9 A,ii., as registered during the night for the last nine days, is 



