228 
Gleanings, Ko. 1. 
11—GLEANINGS, No. 1. 
Gentlemen, 
•Thinking a page or two of your work might be usefully 
(‘mployed as a Repository, for such Extracts from valuable wOrks, as 
are particularly applicable to the subjects of your Register, 1 take the 
liberty of transmitting the following, for your inspection, 
Yours, respectfully, 
Leaser. 
Cottagers’ Gardens. —Every house in the country, should have a spacious 
garden, as the land will thus produce more human sustenance than in any com¬ 
mon course of agriculture. The usual garden plants cultivated, are Potatoes, 
Beans, Peas, Cabbage, French or Kidney Beans, Broccoli, Savoys, Turnips, 
Carrots, Onions, Beets, Spinach, Lettuce, and many sorts of pot-herbs and 
salads. A garden should be well fenced, and sheltered from the north and 
east winds, and the hedge-rows and corners should be planted with useful fruit 
trees. A labourer’s garden should be from a quarter to half an acre. Those 
sorts of Apples and Pears which keep sound for a length of time should be plant¬ 
ed, as well as those for present use; together with Gooseberries, Currants, 
Damsons, and other Plums,—such articles would in pies, be a cheap and whole¬ 
some food for children, and might, at times, turn to good account for sale. 
Suppose a labourer’s garden of half an acre, thrawn into two equal lots, the 
one for garden vegetables, the other for wheat, alternately; let the garden lot 
be again divided into two, the one-half for potatoes, the other half for garden 
vegetables. The whole might be cultivated with the spade and hoe, without 
loss of time, by doing a little every day, morning and evening; and in hoe¬ 
ing and weeding, the wife and children might assist. By this plan there would 
be one eighth of an acre. Potatoes, which might produce forty bushels; one 
quarter of an acre of wheat, might (drilled and hand-hoed) produce eight 
bushels; and a hog might be kept from May to Christmas on the refuse of the 
garden and wash; and fatten after harvest with boiled potatoes and bran, and 
ground barley from gleanings. The straw of the wheat, would furnish the 
hog with litter, and dung for the garden would be produced. From these re¬ 
sources many family comforts might be derived; and it were to be wished 
that gentlemen of landed property would put them in tlie power of industri¬ 
ous labourers on their estates, by letting them land upon average terms ; and 
if some premium, or reward, (as a storc-pig in May,) were given to such as 
managed in the best style, with the least loss of time, it might be a stimulus 
to industry .—Pitfs History of Staffordshire. 
Orchards. —The Orchards of Staffordshire are inconsiderable; but little fruit 
liquor is made, and perhaps the produce is insufficient for its own consump¬ 
tion, even at table. This is certainly a great neglect, as many soils and situ* 
ations are well adapted for fruit, and it appears to have been more attended 
to formerly, many orchards having been suffered to go to decay. In former 
times there was a crab-mill in most villages ; these have gone to decay with 
the orchards, and the cottagers, who might have drank cyder and perry,(had 
such been attended to,) are now obliged to drink water. It would be a lauda* 
ble effort to ontleavour to restore the orchards, and would add to the comforts 
of the labouring people in this country. 
