I 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
117 
November 21.] 
harvested the land is immediately well manured, again 
trenched into two feet ridges, and at once planted with 
strong cabbage plants, one foot apart, on each side of the 
ridges, up and down both sides of the banks; by which 
means we secure plenty of pretty sized good cabbages from 
the middle of November until March, when the ground is 
again cropped with peas, beans, French beans, &c.; a 
row or two being transplanted and protected pretty early, 
and so managed that the regular autumn and winter 
crops of White brocolis may be in due season planted 
between, so that they may get established by the time 
the above mentioned crops are taken off, when the 
ground is at once forked over; and the crop of brocolis 
have then their full range and a favourable season for 
making a luxuriant growth. The constantly surface¬ 
stirring with the hand scarifier, hoe, or fork, amongst 
all and every successive crop is the masterpiece of good 
cultivation; and this is still more evident where charred 
materials are used as a manure, on account of the loose 
surface thus admitting the full benefit and influence of 
the atmosphere. 
Sow radishes and Horn carrots now, where required, in 
succession; keep those already up well surface-stirred, 
and thinned in due season. Keep also a succession of 
asparagus placed in moderate heat, as well as rhubarb 
and sea-kale. Sow cucumbers ,—keep those plants now 
growing, sturdy, by systematic airing ; and sow a few 
seeds of a good early variety of melon. 
James Baexes. 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
SCALES OF EXPENDITURE. 
By the Authoress of “ My Flowers," Ac, 
Estimate (3th. 
Income —Cs. per day; 36s. per week; about X’94 per annum. 
Provisions, weekly. 
& s. D. 
Bread and flour for five persons, 24 lbs. 0 3 9 
Butter, 1 lb. 0 1 0 
Cheese and milk, 2d. per day. 0 1 2 
Tea, i lb., @ 3s. Gd. 0 0 10§ 
Sugar, 3 lb., @ 4d. 0 1 0 
Grocery, including rice, oatmeal, and condi¬ 
ments . 0 0 10 
Butcher’s meat, fish, &c.—say meat 8 lb., @ 6d. 0 4 0 
Vegetables, including apples, &c., occasionally 
for puddings . 0 1 5 
Beer, a firkin or 9 gallons per month, @ 5s., and 
porter occasionally. 0 2 6 
Coals, &c., (2 chaldron and 6 bushels per year, 
@ 48s.,) and wood, 8s. per year. 0 2 2 
Candles, average all the year round . 0 0 5 
Soap, § lb. per week, 3d. Starch and blue Id... 0 0 4 
Sundries, for cleaning, scouring, &c. 0 0 4 
Total of household expenses.. 0 19 9§ 
Clothes, &e.: man, 2s. 6d.; woman, 2s.; children, 
Is. Gd. 0 G 0 
Rent. 0 4 0 
Extras, including schooling for one child. 0 1 6 
Total expense. 1 11 3J 
Saving (more than l-12th) .. 0 4 8§ 
Amount of income 1 16 0 
The “ observations ” upon this estimate include the fol¬ 
lowing useful calculation :—“ After the rate of this estimate, 
the expense of each child will be 3s. per week: hence it will 
be seen, that if the number of children in a family be more 
or less than three, the mode of living may be governed by 
the estimates preceding or following, in an inverse ratio. 
Thus, with tins income, if there be only two children instead 
of three, the family may live after the rate of the Seventh 
Estimate ; if there be only one child instead of three, they 
may live after the rate of the Eighth Estimate ; and if there 
be only the man and his wife, they may live by the mode 
prescribed in the Ninth Estimate,—or, they may live, if 
they please, by this Estimate, and save an additional 3s. per 
week for each child less than the three. On the contrary, 
if their be four children instead of three, they will require 
3s. per week more for their support, or they must live after 
the rate of the Fifth Estimate; if they have five children, 
then the Fourth Estimate must be their guide ; if they have 
six children they must live according to the Third Estimate ; 
and so on. Thus, without material error, this, and all the 
other estimates may be adapted to many different modes of 
living, such as the varying circumstances may warrant, and 
according as the number of children may be more or less 
than the number given.” 
If steady, resolute attention be paid to these rules, how 
many difficulties might be prevented and overcome. How 
many things we now think necessary, and even essential, 
might be very comfortably left out altogether in our list of 
weekly items, without diminishing in theleast our health, hap¬ 
piness, or respectability. I have never forgotten the remark 
made by a lady,—young, handsome, and rich : “ I never ask 
myself what I want, but what I can do without." From one 
who seemed so little to need the practice of self-denial, the 
observation came with extraordinary point and power; and 
it has been of so much use to myself, for many years, that 
I confidently offer it to the consideration of “my sisters,” 
and request them to adopt the salutary system, for they will 
unavoidably benefit by it. 
We have our little weaknesses and extravagancies as well 
as our fathers, and husbands, and brothers. We must not 
be clear-sighted to their faults and blind to our own; for 
although ours do not take the same bulky, expensive form 
that theirs may do, yet have we not often fancied a dress 
looked shabby, or a bonnet faded, or a cloak old-fashioned, 
when a little neat-liandedness and skill might have made 
each article look almost like new, and saved many shillings, 
if not pounds, at the mercer’s and milliner’s ? Do we not 
see children dressed-up to a height that surpasses folly, and 
becomes sin?—children whose parents we know are poor, 
and who are fostering a yet undeveloped passion in young 
minds, as well as doing that which is not lawful and right 
to do. Do we not hear some of our sisterhood reject a 
suitable house, because it is situated in an unfashionable 
street, where their friends would not like to be seen, and 
would therefore neglect them ? It has been my lot, more 
than once, to hear such a reason assigned, when the income 
was painfully limited; and in one case the objection was 
raised by a lady whose excellence of character and religious 
mindedness might have led us to expect a far different 
feeling on the subject. 
Now, all these fancies and prejudices display weakness, 
and cause extravagance, and have a sensible effect upon 
small incomes, and reaUy strenuous efforts in other things. 
If we give ten or twenty pounds a year more for a house than 
we really ought to give, we shall never make up the de¬ 
ficiency by all the savings in bread, or candles, or meat, 
that we can possibly effect. We may make ourselves un¬ 
necessarily very uncomfortable, and perhaps stint our 
children or ourselves in that which is proper for health, but 
without at all replacing the sum we have unlawfully ex¬ 
pended. So it is with dress, and with everything in which 
