430 
FIELD-GARDENING FOR 
the places of idleness and crime ; and I have 
the testimony of those who should be the best 
judges, to show that a devoutness of feeling, 
hitherto unknown, is shown by several 
of the holders. Quietness, I know, is not 
religion, no more is orderly conduct ; yet no 
one will deny that a person whose mind is at 
ease, and who feels that he reaps some advan- 
tage from his labour, is more likely to be 
thankful to the Disposer of all things, and to 
cherish good-will towards his fellow-men, than 
lie who is constantly harassed with the thought 
of how he shall provide for his dependent 
family. The Rev. Henry Fardell, vicar of 
Wisbeach, thus addresses the writer of this 
paper, on the effects the system has had in 
Cambridgeshire, — " I have the honour to 
acknowledge the receipt of your letter, re- 
questing me to furnish you with the real 
effects produced on the agricultural labourers 
by allotments let by me, at Waterbeach, near 
Cambridge. It was in the year 1822 when I 
first induced the overseers of the parish to 
become the responsible tenants of twenty 
acres, but at the expiration of the first year 
they evinced a disinclination to be so any 
longer, and I then made a selection of cot- 
tagers, and among them some of the most 
unruly of my parishioners. The result was, 
that every one became a steady good labourer, 
and his home, which before was nothing but 
wretchedness, became the abode of much hap- 
piness and comfort ; and instead of the 
occupier spending his evenings at the ale- 
house, he found the great advantage resulting 
from honest exertions. During the number 
of years which have now elapsed since I first 
tried the experiment, I have no recollection of 
any one individual who has been chargeable 
with any indictable offence, and it is my firm 
conviction, that there is nothing so well calcu- 
lated to raise the character of the English 
labourer, as that of making him feel that he is 
independent of parochial relief, and is placed 
in such a position as to be able to support 
himself and his family by his own honest 
exertions." I add one other testimony on the 
moral effects of the system on the labouring 
classes : — " Since I have resided in this part 
of the country," says the Rev. E. J. Howman, 
Bexwell, Norfolk, " I have not been brought 
so immediately in contact with the system as 
I was before, but you will see that my opinion 
in its favour has not diminished, when I tell 
you that I hope after Michaelmas next, to 
have twenty allotment tenants of my own : at 
the same time, I must say, that the more I see 
and understand of it, the more firmly is the 
opinion which I have held from the first of my 
turning my attention to it, rooted in my mind 
— that in order to be of any utility, it must be 
purely and entirely voluntary— that it must 
form a connecting link of kindness between 
the landowner, the clergyman, and the la- 
bourer ; and that if any attempt is made to 
render it compulsory, to meddle with it by 
legislative enactment, or to mix up with it, in 
any shape, poor-law or parish officials, or 
management, the result will be utter and 
irretrievable failure. With regard to the 
system in general, I believe it to be a most 
valuable means of bettering the condition of 
the poor ; every instance of its adoption 
which has come within my observation, with 
one single exception, has been in every way 
productive of good. The holders of allot- 
ments, I have observed, are always better 
conditioned, arising, no doubt, from their 
having employment and amusement for their 
leisure hours, which, leading their minds to 
better things, keeps them from the ale-house. 
The possession of a little property of their 
own makes them more careful of that of others. 
Indeed, I do not recollect an instance of a 
holder of an allotment having been brought to 
trial for any crime." 
Fourthly. Its rises to the labourer pecuni- 
arily considered. In this respect the allotment 
system displays itself to the highest advan- 
tage. It affords him relief according to his 
industry, whilst it is to be feared that the 
popular method of relief is too often in pro- 
portion to his idleness and vice. I have no 
hesitation in stating that, in every case where 
the best mode of the allotment system has 
been adopted, many instances might be found 
of labourers emerging from a state of want 
and dependence to that of comfort and con- 
tentment. " I mention one remarkable change," 
says the Rev. H. Fardell, of Wisbeach, " with 
peculiar pleasure. The labourer had for some 
years been receiving twelve shillings a neck 
relief from the parish. I accepted him as a 
tenant to half an acre ; and soon after the 
second year's occupancy, I saw twelve pigs in 
his yard, four of which were fit for the 
butcher. He had besides upwards of eighty 
bushels of potatoes, and between eight and 
nine bushels of wheat, and was no longer in 
receipt of relief from the parish." " My 
allotment," says Edward Nice, a Walsham 
allottee, " does me a great deal of good. I 
should not like to give it up ; if I did, I 
should be starved. I would not lose my land 
for 20/. I got four coombs of white wheat 
off a quarter of an acre ; and four and a half 
coombs Windsor beans off the same quantity 
of land. I and my sons work the land. When 
we have nothing else to do, we go and work 
upon it ; and, as I manage to keep my wheat, 
I have always bread in the house, when we 
can neither find work, nor work upon the 
allotment." But isolated instances, it may be 
remarked, are not a fair criterion of the work- 
I 
