856 
BARRACK GARDENS. 
the removal of tlie men, would perhaps prove 
more formidable than lias been imagined. 
Nothing, however, could be more simple than 
making the garden and all its contents as 
much Government property as the barracks 
themselves; there would then be no difficulty; 
and by allowing none but useful crops to be 
grown, and confining them as much as pos- 
sible to things of a permanent nature, in the 
same way as we should the crops for cottagers, I 
the advantage to the men would be great. 
We do not see why the garden should not be 
a necessary appendage to the barracks ; no- 
body will dispute that vegetable food is 
w^holesome and nutritious, and whether it 
were actually attached to the establishment, 
or a mile or two off, healthful and profitable 
employment at times when industrious men 
would be, under the present system, unem- 
ployed, must effect a change for the better. 
Idleness is the parent of vice ; men will be 
doing something, and if not led to something 
good, they will be soon engaged in something- 
bad. However lightly, therefore, we may have 
touched upon this matter, we regard it as a 
most important measure as regards the health, 
comfort, and morals of the British soldier. 
The site of the garden being chosen, and 
supposed, for our purpose, to be without any 
fencing, the deficiency must be supplied in the 
way most easily accomplished according to 
the facilities afforded in the neighbourhood. 
If wood be attainable for cutting, a rough 
fence may be constructed by the men them- 
selves ; but supposing there be none, and the 
, soil itself has to be used, let there be a ditch 
three feet wide and deep dug all round, and 
the soil taken out will form a bank three 
feet wide and somewhat higher inside. This 
is mere labour. There is, however, nothing 
new in soldiers working in trenches. All the 
slopes of the bank, within the garden, may be 
planted. It would not be lost ground, and 
especially on the south and west sides it would 
be warm and valuable. In removing the soil 
from the ditch or trench it may be found 
that the top soil is the best ; this, therefore, 
should be thrown within the bounds as far as 
possible, it being valuable for the top spit 
of soil. When the whole is done, the poorer 
soil must be placed bank-fashion on the inner 
edge of the ditch ; and when all tlie stuff that 
comes out of the ditch is formed into a bank 
of the angle of 45 degrees, and straight with 
the side of the ditch, the inner slope may be 
regulated, and all the top spit laid on the 
inner slope, so that it would form available 
space for crops. Briers may or may not be 
planted on the outer slope, a foot from -the top 
of the bank, six inches apart, all the way 
round, and for two years cut close down, and 
ail future years be regularly trimmed to a 
compact hedge that would, if kept clear from 
weeds, be impenetrable ; and there is no good 
reason why the " quick" should not be reared 
in the garden itself, because the bank and 
ditch will be sufficient fence or boundary 
while the quick is growing ; and as this would 
be an easy task, let a piece of ground be dug, 
or trenched if necessary, and well dunged, 
make drills six inches apart, and having pro- 
cured good seed sow it in these drills very 
thin, nothing nearer than an inch apart ; 
cover about half an inch, and from that time 
keep the ground clear of weeds. Autumn is 
the best period for sowing; and when they 
have had one year's growth you may plant or 
bed them out, about two inches apart, in rows, 
and the rows six inches apart, in well-dressed 
ground ; or if the bed they come out of be dug 
well, and the lumps bruised, the same ground 
will do, as far as it goes, with a little fresh 
dressing. When they have had another year's 
growth you may plant your hedge with them, 
or give them a third year's growth before 
you use them. They will be good thick stuff, 
and two or three feet long, at the end of the 
second year, and large enough for anything 
if they have grown well. When you plant 
them out on the bank, let them be placed 
at right angles with the slope of the bank, 
which will be, of course, pointing outwards ; 
shorten every one to three inches out of 
ground, and when they have had a year's 
growth on the bank, cut them down again 
pretty close to the old place ; in other words, 
cut away all but an inch or two of the 
new growth, and from that time trim in and 
down, so that the hedge becomes solid at the 
bottom, and would hardly let a mouse through. 
It is of the highest importance that the 
bank, ditch, and hedge be thoroughly cleared 
of weeds, and kept clear, for nothing sooner 
destroys a young hedge than choking it with 
weeds. The place once enclosed, we turn to 
look to the laying it out, path or road making, 
and cropping it ; but this will come under 
another head ; we are not entering upon 
details at present. If the garden be culti- 
vated by regimental labour, and its produce 
shared by the military in barracks, there will 
be in all respects a quid pro quo for the Go- 
vernment, to say nothing of the improved 
morals of the soldier, which is no small con- 
sideration ; and the keeping up of a garden 
under such circumstances is no more than 
keeping the barracks clean. There may be 
fifty regulations adopted for the production 
of the necessary labour, without trenching 
upon what may be called the implied rights of 
the soldier. Those at work in the garden 
might be excused from particular duties, in 
the same way that officers' servants selected 
from the ranks are ; and there is certain to be 
