675 
The Farm Labourers of England and Wales. 
equal to the demand at the price. Men do not object to 
paying for allotments 1 0s\ an acre more than the rent of 
adjoining farm land, but do complain bitterly when they have 
to pay twice or three times as much. They do not make 
sufficient allowance for the extra value of land near a village 
or for the common payment of rates by the landlords ; but I 
have met with cases in which the rent of allotments was 61. or 
even 91. an acre, and the lack of demand in districts where 
such high rents prevail is not surprising. At the same time it 
must be pointed out that men frequently complain of the in- 
sufficiency of allotments, and, when asked if they have applied 
to the landowners of their parish for more, admit that they have 
not made any such application. Generally, nowadays, land- 
owners are willing to supply land for allotments when convinced 
that there is a genuine demand for them. In not a few 
instances they have gone to the trouble and expense of cutting 
land up into allotments, only to find that they were not appre- 
ciated. 
In Wales, according to Mr. Thomas, gardens are common, 
and allotments are not popular. One reason is that potato 
land is usually supplied by the farmers to all their regular 
men. In a great many English counties this custom of sup- 
plying land for potatoes, especially to hired servants who have 
no time to cultivate allotments, is common. The farmers 
usually plough the land and provide the manure, while the men 
find only the seed, and set it in their employers’ time. Or 
sometimes a few rows of potatoes in the farmer’s crop are given 
to a man. The remark concerning hired servants reminds me 
of the fact that allotments are least in demand where the yearly 
or half-yearly system is common, for the very good reason that 
where most of the men are boarded they do not need to grow 
vegetables. Even the married labourers, if employed with 
horses or cattle, often have no time to cultivate any land outside 
a small garden. 
Cow plots or common cow pastures are not numerous, except 
in the cheese-making or other dairy districts, and not in all of 
these, as in Somersetshire, for example. They are highly advan- 
tageous to labourers and their families as sources of health as 
well as of profit, and it would be well if they could be more 
generally provided. Wherever they are brought into use a 
cow club should be formed in order that the occupiers may 
insure their cows, so as to be independent of charity in the event 
of the loss of an animal. Such insurance is common where 
cow plots are most numerous, and it is generally agreed that, 
whereas small arable holdings are frequently disadvantageous to 
