On the Allotment System. 
393 
certain return of profit, is of the greatest value. There are also 
in every village some men, such as thatchers, bricklayers, pig- 
jobbers, &c., who have much leisure time at their command, and 
can manage from half an acre to an acre with great advantage. 
But, on the whole, I consider half an acre to be the best average; 
and I believe that the labourer's net profit on this quantity of 
land may be rated at from 3/. 10s. to 5/. a-year. But as one of 
them said to me, " I cannot tell you, sir, what my land is worth 
to me in money : it helps us in so many ways ; a bit here and a 
bit there. It helps the children, and it feeds the pigs and the 
fowls. It is the best thing that ever was done for a poor man." 
I may add to his calculation of benefits the moral good resulting 
from its keeping his children employed, instead of their idling 
about the parish, and acquiring vicious habits. They are brought 
up in industry, and learn its advantages in their early days. 
The soil of most of my allotments in this parish is a strong 
clay, with a marly subsoil. The spade is used on all ; but I do 
not insist on its being used exclusively, because I wish to leave 
an opening for a farmer to do an act of kindness occasionally to a 
good labourer, by ploughing his land for him, and thus to gene- 
rate or improve kindly feelings towards his employers. 
At first the allotment-men thought of nothing but wheat and 
potatoes. But they came to find that the potato-crop, and con- 
stant diggins: and rich manure, loosened the soil too much for 
their wheat. It was apt to become root-fallen. They now grow 
various things ; and particularly a proportion of beans, which they 
find to answer well for their pigs, and to render the ground firmer 
for their wheat. The produce of the latter per rood is very great : 
I have seen their crops in many instances yield at the rate of 6, 
and, in one instance, at the rate of 7 quarters an acre. 
The number of pigs kept in the parish is now very great ; and 
in consequence most of the families use some animal food. 
Many of the inferior hands, when not required by the farmers, 
obtain occasional employment in digging on the larger allotments. 
The rents which I charge for these cottage-lands may be ave- 
raged at nearly 2d. a rod, tithe-free. I pay the parish-rates if the 
allotment does not exceed an acre. In three instances I have let 
as much as 4 acres each to labourers who had saved money. 
These men work no longer on farms ; but they maintain their 
families comfortably, and their lands are kept in a very good con- 
dition. I may mention, by the bye, a remarkable fact, that the 
population of this parish increased rapidly in the twenty years pre- 
ceding my residence here ; while in the last twenty it has advanced 
very little ; nay, in the last ten it has actually decreased. I am 
willing to attribute this singular circumstance partly to the opera- 
tion of " the prudential check." 
