THE GARDEN ALBUM AND REVIEW. 
59 
MAKING AN ALLOTMENT PAY. 
As the soil is the source of all wealth, it may 
be accepted as a fact that an allotment garden, 
large or small, may be made to yield a result 
that would compensate for the time, labour, 
and money spent upon it. While it is true 
that alb wealth is produced by labour, it is, 
unfortunately, not equally true that all labour 
produces wealth. Hence, it is possible, that 
an allotment garden upon which a good deal 
of labour has been spent, proves to be far from 
a success. It may, indeed, be an utter failure. 
In such a case, the fault lies not with the 
garden, but with the way in which the latter 
has been employed. 
Taking an allotment of ordinary size, say 
ten square poles or 300 square yards, it is 
possible to make it yield in the course of twelve 
months, produce that may be worth from £8 to 
£i'i. To do this necessitates not only a good 
knowledge of the soil and how to prepare it, 
but also a fairly intimate knowledge of the 
crops which are to be grown at different 
seasons of the year. The cottager or allotment 
holder must look ahead for several months so 
that as soon as one crop is finished he shall 
have another ready to take its place immediately. 
In this way the garden will always have its sur¬ 
face covered with a crop of some sort or another. 
The Soil. One of the first steps towards 
being successful with an allotment, or indeed 
any other garden, is the proper preparation of 
the soil. This varies from cold heavy clay in 
some places, to light sandy and even gravelly 
soil in others, and happy indeed is the allot¬ 
ment-holder or cottager whose soil consists of 
a rich and friable loam—that is, a soil that 
contains a fair blend of clayey and sandy 
particles, as well as a certain amount of lime 
and a fair quantity of decayed vegetable or animal 
refuse, now known under the title of humus. 
It may be taken as a sound general principle 
that all soils should be trenched to a depth of 
two or three feet, especially when one is com¬ 
mencing an allotment. The greatest argument 
used against the performance of this hard work 
is that there is not sufficient security of tenure ; 
and very few indeed care to turn up the soil to 
a depth of three feet one year, for the benefit, 
maybe, of some one else the following year. 
Every cubic yard of soil that is turned over 
weighs a ton, more or less according as it 
happens to be sandy or clayey, so that a man 
who trenches a io-pole allotment to a depth of 
3 feet, has lifted with his hands something over 
300 tons in weight. 
If at the time of trenching, plenty of manure 
has been placed in the trenches—the greenest 
and rankest manure being placed at the very 
bottom—the soil will be wonderfully improved, 
not only in texture, but in fertility, warmth, 
drainage, and capillary attraction of moisture. 
This applies to both light and heavy soils. 
Light soils however, are notoriously “ hungry,” 
and require vast quantities of manure, unless, 
indeed, one incorporates with them a certain 
amount of heavy soil, in the form of clay, 
marl, or heavy loam. Wet heavy soils on the 
other hand require not only deep cultivation to 
bring them into a better state of tilth, but also 
the addition of quick lime, and plenty of road 
grit or sand as well as ordinary manure. It is 
at first hard work bringing such a soil into a 
fertile condition, but once the food it contains 
can be rendered soluble, almost any vegetable 
crop can be grown on it to perfection. 
Cropping .—Perhaps one of the reasons why 
allotments are often a failure is owing to the 
fact that they are cropped in a more or less 
haphazard fashion. Frequently no attempt is 
made at an estimate as to the kinds of vegetables 
required and the quantity of each. I have seen 
nearly half an allotment devoted to Broad 
Beans, when the owner of it could have done 
with one row. Again, one frequently sees Cab¬ 
bage crops occupying the greater part of the 
space, so that other important crops like 
Potatos, Carrots, Onions, Parsnips, Peas, 
Beans, Shallots, &c., have only a row or two 
at the most. Such haphazard methods, of 
course, can only result in great waste and loss. 
W here one has a family to support, an 
allotment garden may be made an excellent 
substitute for the greengrocer. To do this 
effectually, however, it is necessary to decide 
beforehand upon what are to be the most 
important crops, and also upon the quantities of 
each that are likely to be consumed by the family. 
Assuming an allotment to be 10 poles long 
and one pole wide (that is 163ft. by i6fft.), it 
may be cropped in spring somewhat as follows 
in rows, each 16ft. long. 
4 rows Broccoli, plants 2ft. apart. 
4 ,, Brussels Sprouts, plants 2ft. apart. 
4 ,, Cauliflowers, plants 2ft. apart. 
4 ,, Cabbages, plants 1 A-ft. apart. 
4 „ Potatos, early, 3ft. apart, sets i8in. 
apart. 
4 „ Potatos, midseason, 3ft. apart, sets 
i8in. apart. 
6 ,’, Potatos, maincrop, 3ft. apart, sets i8in. 
apart. 
3 ,, Parsnips, 15ms. apart. 
6 ,, Carrots, 12ms. apart. 
4 ,, Turnips, 12ms. apart. 
3 ,, Beetroot, 12ms. apart. 
6 ,, Onions, 12ms. apart. 
3 ,, Shallots, i2ins. apart. 
2 ,, Broad Beans, 181ns. apart. 
3 ,, Dwarf Beans, i8ins. apart. 
2 ,, Runner Beans, 3ft. apart. 
6 ,, Peas, 3ft. to 4ft. apart. 
3 ,, Spinach, gins, apart. 
3 ,, Lettuce, gins, apart. 
2 ,, Rhubarb plants, 3ft. apart. 
1 ,, Celery. 
These crops v\ ill occupy about nine poles 
out of the ten. It is well, however, to have a 
spare patch left either for growing marrows, 
or for raising seeds of other plants to follow on 
in the autumn. For example, when the early 
Potatos and Peas are finished, the ground 
