THE COTTAGE GARDE NEE. 
247 
j December 30, 
the kettle on, and does what he can, hut sometimes I feel 
i as if I could not live through it.” There was a vein of 
religious trust and faith in tliis poor suti'erers mind. She 
knew and spoke of God’s promises, and she said they 
upheld her; but for them she should be utterly cast down ; 
and she said she knew that nothing could overwhelm one 
who acted fully on them. She leaned against the wall, 
weeping, as she spoke, and said it did lier good, and seemed 
to relieve her, when she could open her heart to one who 
felt for her; she thought much of lier depression arose from 
weakness of body, for her heart seemed strong, though her 
limbs trembled, and tears flowed from her eyes. i 
Poverty like this, perhaps not so meekly borne, but poverty ' 
like this meets us at every turn. AVhere the purse is full, 
there is plenty for the hand to do ; even a word of sympathy ^ 
and consolation is as balm to the bruised reed, and that can | 
always be given. Where there is only moderate means, ' 
much might be spared, cut down, or made the most of, to i 
help the suffering, if they were only sought out and cared 
for. A Christmas, a New Year’s dinner, would not do us 
the less good if it was shared and doled out to the poor, 
instead of being spread for the aflluent. ” They cannot re¬ 
compense thee,” saith our Lord, “ for thou shalt he recom¬ 
pensed at the resurrection of the just;” will not f/iri satisfy 
us ; can we not “ call the poor, the lame, the maimed, the 
blind,”/or Jesus Christ's sake !■ 
The old year is ready to depart, and I would say one 
word to my readers, for it is a “ time to speak.” Are we all 
“considering our latter end?” “An end,” '■'the end” is 
coming upon us all. AVho can say he will live to see the 
close of another year? Are we watching ! for “ the Lord is 
at hand.” Let us keep a solemn fast; not “ to bow down 
the head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes 
imder” us; “wiltthou call this a fast and an acceptable day 
to the Lord?” No. Let us listen to God’s directions how 
we shall humble ourselves before Him. “ Is not this the 
fast that I have chosen ? to loose the bands of wickedness, 
to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, 
' and that ye break every yoke ? Is it not to deal thy bread 
to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast 
out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou 
cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own 
flesh ? ” “ Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; 
j thou shalt cry, and He shall say, here I am.” I\Iy dear 
! cottage readers, and all my readers, my pen will never stop 
I if I transcribe these blessings. Let me refer you to the 
j “table of stone,” written with the finger of God. Turn, 
amidst your worldly hurry, to the .fOth chapter of Isaiah, 
j read it, study it well. Let it be your old year’s chapter and 
your new year’s chapter. You are all gardeners; be your¬ 
selves “ watered gardens ;” “draw out thy soul to the hungry, 
and satisfy the afflicted soul;” be ye followers of Christ, 
“ the Lord is at hand.” Every one of us has, I will engage 
to say, a “ poor brother,” a needy, or a suffering neighbour; 
however small our means may be, we may put a “ cup of 
cold water” to the lips of one poorer and sicklier still. Let 
us remember the poor tailor, his weakly wife, and the cradle 
with a little head Ijlng at each end. This will quicken our 
search after other objects of quiet, patient suffering; and we 
shall relish om’ own loaf a hundred times more, when we 
have popped one in at a poor man’s door. “ Then shalt 
I tliou call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he 
; shall say, here. I am.” Can we wish each other a richer 
I heritage for the coming year ? 
i --—^—-— 
1 
j ALLOTMENT FAEMING.—January. 
! A UAi’i’Y new year to our allotment friends, and our small 
farmers arrd cottage gardeners, and let us hope it will be a 
: prosperous one to its very close; that it may prove so, let 
them enter the field determined to conquer, for there is a 
j bravery in industry, although not precisely that of the battle- 
‘ field. 
I Our industrious readers, those who were quite in earnest 
I through the past year in matters of high culture, will 
; now be enjoying their stores, and will occasionally find 
j such things as carrots, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, 
I savoys, Ac., excellent companions to a lump of boiled 
bacon; boiled, of course, in the same pot. And here rve 
stop, to recommend every poor man who possesses a family 
of children to purchase a bushel of whole boiling peas 
every November, and to make a point of using them twice- 
a-week. Nothing is more economical in a house, nothing 
more nutritious. IVe have reared a family of eleven child¬ 
ren, a particularly healthy family, thanks to Almighty God, 
and they have been thus dieted during the last twenty-fom' 
years, so that we at least claim some experience in the use 
of peas. We generally boil them in a bag, in the same 
kettle where reposes a lump of fat bacon, or sometimes a 
piece of the “ bed” of beef, and in the same kettle may be 
found parsnips, carrots, artichokes, turnips, Ac. A bushel 
of good boilers costs about .Is. or (is., but they must be good; 
as for split peas, we never thivde of them. Children, in 
general, are excessively fond of peas, we have seldom known 
them refused. And then the liquor; we always keep a 
bunch of mint in the kitchen, and this being powdered 
liberally into the pot-liquor makes capital pea-soup. Whilst 
on this part of our subject, let us point to boiled leeks as 
another nice necessary to the poor man’s table. Now the 
leeks must be good, grown specially; our’s are as thick as a 
rolling-yun, and perfectly white; in length from about eight 
to ten inches, that is to say, the blanched part; these, well 
boiled, require a little butter and plenty of salt, and then 
greatly resemble first-rate sea-kale, the blanching process 
reducing all rankness of flavour. 
And, now, let us reflect for a moment on the late extraor¬ 
dinary weather, and the probable consequences. Rain ! 
Rain ! and an unusually high temperature ever since the 
early part of November, and that, too, nearly all over our 
island. It would scarcely be too bold to challenge a well- 
bleached old gentleman of some four-score years to produce 
its eipial. It is not a matter of wet alone, but of warmth, 
or, if you will, mildness combined, that gives a special cha¬ 
racter to the period we have just passed. And now it is 
that those who possibly may have thought the advice about 
thorough drainage, Ac., in our autumn allotment papers, too 
particular, will be convinced that England has not yet half 
done its duty in this respect. It is of no use looking cross at 
such pressing advices ; the truth ought to be told, and will 
be told, and the pressure of the times we live in will shortly 
enforce it. 
Some other consequences may be expected to follow also; 
vegetables, of whatever kind, 'will be so tender as to become 
a mass of putrefaction on the frosty trial which may aw'ait 
them; and store-roots, too; we fear the unusual tempera¬ 
ture may have the effect of causing much sprouting, and 
sprouting is a wasting of the stored up virtues of the 
roots. To be sure, they may increase in size after cutting 
their heads off, at least so they say now-a-days; but really, 
this looks too specious to be sound. 
Let, therefore, a jealous eye be kept on the roots in store ; 
let them be examined at times in order to be sure that 
“ all’s well.” These things set in order, the state of the soil 
should be well looked to as preparatory to the cropping of 
the next year. Doubtless, portions wilt have become stag¬ 
nant through continued wet weather, and means should be 
taken to enable the waters to pass and the frost to enter. 
Now, we by no means advise the working of the soil by dig¬ 
ging or trenching in a wet state, but lodgments of water may 
be getaway by heaving up stagnant soils here and there, and 
this we have accomplished lately by using an iron crow-bar, 
“prising” up the soil, and sometimes by the potato fork. 
Through the extraordinary wet weather, and the compara¬ 
tive absence of frosts, botlr fanners and gardeners will be 
in arrears as to carting and wheeling out manm es, and what 
is worse, many thousands of pounds worth of property in 
the liquid state will have passed down ditches. These ex¬ 
treme cases will tend to teach people a better economy in 
manure heaps than to suffer them to lay abroad with large 
surfaces exposed to drenching rains. 
■\\bvLKS, RocnDjURIes, Ac. —-The allotment cultivator re¬ 
quires but few walks, but what he has should be kept in 
sound repair. It is annoying to think how much time is 
lost by rotten wMks and alleys; they are, in fact, a hindrance 
to business at all times and in every sense. We find nothing 
e(pial to coal-ashes for the purpose, and have made some 
of the best walks imaginable by applying the quantity in¬ 
tended for a given time, in two coats, one-half laid on and 
dug in, and the other added without digging, as a casing at 
