The Allotment System. 
95 
prizes which they received, it was fair that they should them- 
selves award them ; ami, accordingly, this was annually done by 
their own vote, and always done, so far as I could judge, with 
perfect justice. 
There have been one or two cases in which, without this com- 
petition, and superintendence by men in the class immediately 
above them, labourers have lost interest in the cultivation of their 
allotments, and the system has been abandoned. There have 
probably been other causes in operation in such cases to produce 
this result, but there can be no doubt that, whether necessary or 
not, an interest taken by the landowner and tenant-farmers of the 
district in the success of the allotment-field tends greatly to 
ensure success ; and if shown in such a manner as, by the offer of 
prizes, to encourage wholesome rivalry among the allottees, it will 
be still more beneficial. 
Since I left the neighbourhood of Whitfield, seven years ago, 
the allotment system has been greatly extended in the neigh- 
bouring parishes, and the present Earl of Ducie has now, I 
believe, several hundred tenants of this class. The competition, 
which is so important an element in the successful management 
of the system, is now carried out on a greatly extended scale, 
and no day in the year is anticipated with greater interest in that 
neighbourhood than that on which the annual exhibition of allot- 
ment produce is held in Tortworth Park, when the gentry of the 
neighbourhood, as well as many from a distance, assemble as 
Lord Ducie's guests, to meet all of every class who can give 
themselves a holiday, and witness the award of premiums, both 
for good cultivation, and for those interesting proofs of it which 
are exhibited on long tables under tents and trees within his 
Lordship's park. Lord Ducie has been Idnd enough to send 
me a statement of his experience on the subject of these allot- 
ment exhibitions, and his judgment of their influence on the 
character of allotment cultivation on his estate, from which the 
following is an extract : — 
" These Exhibitions of Vegetables and Fruit were first commenced in Sep- 
tember, 1854; they are confined to my own tenants, whom I divide into 
two classes, viz., farmers and allotment tenants. Of the first class, as yoiar 
object is to treat of allotments only, I need not \mte, and shall confine myself 
to the allotment tenants, whom I find it convenient to define as those persons 
holding not more than one acre of land. The majority of them hold about 
one-third of an acre, though a good many hold even less than this. 
The following are some of the statistics of the Exhibitions : — 
1854. 
1855. 
1856. 
1857. 
1858. 
Number of Articles Exhibited 
750 
987 " 
1126 
1242 
1015 
266 
295 
311 
266 
223 
Number of Prizes given 
72 
73 
76 
88 
81 
