94 
Tlie Allotment System. 
dition for receiving wheat ; and the other half in grass was ready 
to be at once dug up for potatoes, beans, or other vegetables, 
during the ensuing spring. The new rent demanded was deter- 
mined by charging, in addition to the former agricultural rent, 
five per cent upon all that had been expended by the landlord in 
carrying out the scheme. The drainage of the land, the plotting 
and digging it, the loss of rent of the land half dug, — all these 
added together, constituted a principal sum, on which five per 
cent, was charged in addition to the former rent. To this was added 
the estimated rates and taxes, and the cost of keeping fences 
in repair, together with I5. from each of the allotments (about 3^. 
an acre on an average) ; this last to constitute a prize fund in 
furtherance of good cultivation. The whole rent thus ascertained 
was allotted over the several plots in proportion to their size and 
tlie quality of the soil. 
The only conditions imposed upon the tenant, beyond the 
regular payment of his half-yearly rent, were that he should 
cultivate the land by manual labour, that he should not crop 
more than half his land with wheat or potatoes, and should 
give up the whole at the end of a year if required to do so. 
There can be no doubt that this eleven acre field has been a great 
addition to the comforts of the village of Whitfield ; and any one 
who sees the whole village population, young and old, at work 
upon it during those evening and even moonlit hours of spring 
and autumn, which would otherwise by many of them have been 
worse than wasted in the beer-house, must feel that the good 
influence of these field-gardens extends, beyond the mere material 
condition, to the character as well. The latter consideration is 
less capable of definite estimate or proof — it is incapable of 
reference with certainty to its causes ; but, in valuation of the 
former, I know that many a half-acre in the Whitfield allotment- 
field, which formerly contributed perhaps one-sixth to the annual 
keep of a cow, now provides one-fourth the bread-corn needed by 
a family, with more than that proportion of the potatoes they 
consume. Thirteen or fourteen bushels of wheat, and more 
than two tons of potatoes, are thus obtained from many a half- 
acre of land. " I would ratlier have my plot and pay a heavy 
rent for it, than have a 5/. note for nothing once a year," is the 
common testimony. The rent does not exceed 3/. an acre, and 
the land was probably worth 50*. as a pasture-field. It is 
punctually paid, and there never was a defaulter during my 
connection with it. 
The Michaelmas rent-day was signalised by the award of 
prizes, namely, 1/. to the best cultivated allotment, and a return 
of the half-year's rent to the second best ; and for tliis funds 
were provided by the allottees themselves, in the additional rent 
taken from them for this purpose. As they thus provided tiie 
