December  14,  1899. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
533 
GARDENERS’  CHARITABLE  AND  PROVIDENT 
INSTITUTIONS 
The  Gardeners’  Royal  Benevolent  Institution.— Secretary, 
Mr.  G.  J.  Ingram,  175,  Victoria  Street,  S.W. 
United  Horticultural  Benefit  and  Provident  Society.— 
Secretary ,  Mr.  IV.  Collins,  9,  Martindale  Road,  Balham,  London,  S.W. 
Royal  Gardeners’  Orphan  Fund. — Secretary,  Mr.  Brian  Wynne, 
8,  Danes  Inn,  Strand,  LondoD,  W.C. 
WHERE  TO  SATISFY  LAND  HUNGER. 
It  is  a  curious  provision  in  man’s  nature  that  he  has  always  more 
or  less  of  a  craving  for  a  hit  of  “  Mother  Earth.”  We  are  of  the 
earth  earthy,  and  nothing  hut  death  will  eradicate  the  craving.  We 
do  not  care  altogether  so  much  about  founding  a  family,  but  we  do 
like  a  bit  of  land  we  can  call  our  own.  This  desire  to  be  landed  pro¬ 
prietors  cuts  many  ways.  It  is  conducive  to  habits  of  frugality  and 
thrift,  and  those  are  good  habits,  provided  they  are  not  exaggerated. 
Our  readers  will  follow  us.  It  is  not  good  to  starve  mind  and  body  ; 
to  stunt  and  make  hard  the  lives  of  our  wives  and  children;  to  beat 
down  our  servants  wages  to  the  lowest  market  value  to  enable  us  to 
add  acre  to  acre  and  field  to  field. 
Happy  is  that  man  who  strikes  the  medium  ;  he  has  not  made  his 
own  life  a  burden,  and  he  has  proved  to  others,  his  relatives  and 
dependants  that  scraping  and  saving  was  not  the  whole  end  or  aim  of 
life.  We  have  seen  much  disastrous  land  buying,  and  the  disaster 
could  not  have  been  foreseen  or  prepared  for.  There  has  always  been 
a  feeling  that  land  was  a  good  investment  for  savings,  inasmuch  as  it 
could  not  run  away,  could  not  break  like  a  bank,  and  did  not  need  as 
house  property  does  constant  and  costly  repairs.  The  saleable  area 
in  England  is  limited.  A  vast  amount  of  land  is  in  the  hands  of 
great  families,  and  never  by  any  chance  in  the  market,  save  in  those 
cases  where  the  noble  owners  have  completely  collapsed ;  and  then, 
as  a  rule,  the  property  is  bought  as  it  stands  by  some  modern 
millionaire.  There  are  a  few  noblemen  who  wisely  “  square  ”  their 
estates  and  make  them  less  unwieldly  by  selling  off  outlying  portions, 
but  these  portions  are  not  often  of  the  best. 
Many  great  men  have  practically  ruined  themselves,  and  laid  fearful 
burdens  on  unborn  generations,  by  buying  up  at  prohibitive  prices  all 
land  adjacent  to  their  own,  without  any  other  thought  than  the 
driving  off  of  tiresome  neighbours.  To  have  an  estate  in  a  “  ring 
fence”  is  all  very  well,  but  that  “  ring  fence  ”  may  be  acquired  far 
too  dearly.  Better  be  content  with  less,  if  that  less  be  clear  from  the 
“monkey,”  and  there  be  a  trifle  in  hand  to  meet  the  exigencies 
that  will  arise  sooner  or  later.  Even  the  best  of  land  during  late  years 
has  been  subjected  to  depreciation  in  value,  and  rents  have  had  to  be 
lowered.  If  this  is  the  case  in  “  the  green  tree,”  what  about  the 
withered  ?  What  about  that  land  that  was  bought  far  too  dearly  and 
then  heavily  burdened  by  mortgage  ?  The  wretched  pseudo-owner  is 
in  the  most  terrible  fix  ;  not  enough  rent  coming  in  to  pay  the  interest, 
and  if  the  property  is  sold  there  will  not  be  money  enough  to  pry 
off  the  mortgagee.  There  are  hundreds  of  men  at  this  moment  just 
struggling  on  from  hand  to  mouth,  hoping  against  hope,  and  trusting 
that  things  may  just  last  out  their  day.  This  land-buying  mania 
has  broken  up  many  an  otherwise  happy  home  and  ruined  many  a 
thrifty  hard-woiking  man.  Bad  land  is  dear  at  a  gift,  and  good  land 
wants  buying  with  the  greatest  judgment  and  acumen. 
Now  as  buying  land  in  England  is  attended  with  much  risk  and 
great  uncertainty ,Jthe  question  is,  Can  the  land  hunger  be  satisfied 
anywhere?  We  are  without  personal  experience  in  the  matter,  but 
we  have  relations  who  have  been  most  successful  land  buyers  in 
S.  Australia — that  is  some  years  ago — and  our  attention  has  been 
directed  of  late  to  New  South  Wales  as  a  likely  district  for  energetic, 
hardworking  farmers. 
There  is  much  to  be  said  for  N.S.W.  as  regards  climate. 
Many  people  would  direct  our  attention  to  Canada  as  a  field  for 
emigration.  We  have  nothing  to  urge  against  that ;  it  is  English 
ground  and  an  English-speaking  people.  The  great  set-off  in  our 
minds  is  the  long  and  severe  winter,  and  the  dangers  of  late  and  early 
(very  early)  frosts.  Of  course,  too,  it  is  a  trifle  nearer,  the  voyage 
across  the  Atlantic — but  we  have  long  thought  that  the  more  equable 
climate  of  N.S.W.  more  than  compensated  lor  the  longer  distance 
from  “  home,”  and  we  should  decidedly  think,  where  stock  farming 
is  preferred,  N.S.W.  would  come  a  long  way  before  Canada  and  the 
N.W.  provinces. 
It  appears  from  information  supplied  that  the  State  holds  a  large 
quantity  of  land,  and  it  is  the  object  of  the  State  to  let  or  sell  that 
land  to  the  best  advantage  to  the  best  customers.  The  State  divides 
its  land  into  pastoral  or  arable  districts,  as  may  be  most  desirable,  and 
allows  no  indiscriminate  mixture  as  formerly.  The  idea  is  to  dis¬ 
courage  the  mere  speculator,  and  to  help  on  in  every  possible  way  the 
man  who  really  means  to  live  on  and  by  the  land.  Certain  conditions 
are  laid  down  by  the  executive,  and  the  land  is  forfeit  if  these 
conditions  are  not  fulSlled.  Extension  of  time  for  payments  is 
allowed  when  circumstances  point  to  the  desirability  of  tempering 
justice  with  mercy. 
During  1898  the  Land  Board  dealt  with  1081  applicants  for  home¬ 
stead  selections,  and  the  demand  continues  steady  and  satisfactory. 
Land  suitable  for  mixed  farming  seems  to  be  most  in  request.  “  The 
conditions  of  lease  or  purchase  are  so  varied  that  the  convenience  of 
almost  every  class  of  settler  becomes  readily  met.  The  main  principle 
underlying  the  system  appears  to  be  the  prevention  of  occupiers 
obtaining  by  lease  or  purchase  more  land  than  they  can  profitably 
turn  to  account.  Care  is  taken  that  the  available  lands  shall  not  be 
thrown  open  if  there  is  no  apparent  demand  for  them.” 
When  we  read  of  786,773  acres  being  let  for  £2040  19s.  2d.,  we 
cannot  say  the  rent  is  high  ;  and  again  378,547  acres  for  £1023  16s. 
does  not  seem  excessive. 
It  is  always  better  to  live  under  a  great  landlord  than  under 
a  small  one,  under  a  corporation  rather  than  an  individual,  and  it 
assuredly  must  be  better  to  live  under  a  wise  and  generous  land 
department  of  a  great  government. 
Australia  has  a  great  future  before  her,  and  possesses  in  esse  and  in 
posse  greater  riches  from  her  fertile  lands  than  ever  her  gold  mines 
yielded.  There  is  not  such  risk  of  life  and  limb  in  the  pursuit  of  this 
wealth.  The  fever  does  not  run  so  high,  neither  can  the  prostration 
be  so  great.  The  former  was  a  wild  mad  race  for  riches.  Enormous 
fortunes  may  uot  be  made  at  the  latter,  but  the  conditions  of  life  will 
be  healthier  and  better. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  EARM. 
The  Martinmas  hirings  are  over  and  many  farmers  in  the  Midlands 
and  North  are  wondering  how  farm  work  is  to  be  carried  on.  The 
scarcity  of  married  men  has  been  intensified  by  the  very  independent 
spirit  of  the  young  fellows  this  Martinmas.  We  have  just  returned  from 
a  Yorkshire  visit,  and  everywhere  heard  the  same  complaint.  The  lads 
either  intend  to  give  up  farm  service  altogether,  or  they  contemplate  a 
good  long  holiday  before  dictating  their  own  terms  to  the  masters. 
No  doubt  there  has  been  more  than  the  usual  amount  of  military 
enlistment,  but  probably  the  ignis  fatuus  of  town  life  is  the  greater 
attracting  power. 
At  one  statute  fair  a  large  farmer  with  vacancies  for  five  men,  could 
only  find  one  youth  who  desired  an  engagement.  A  bargain  was  struck, 
but  the  farmer  received  the  fastenpenny  back  by  next  morning’s  post.  At 
present  on  many  farms  the  labourers  who  should  be  hedging  are 
required  to  work  the  horses.  Thrashing  must  stand  over  until  later, 
which  may  prove  a  blessing  in  disguise,  as  it  may  clear  the  markets  and 
stiffen  prices. 
The  later  sown  Wheats  are  peeping  through,  and  will  soon  be  safe 
from  the  rooks,  but  larks  are,  as  usual,  making  bad  work.  It  is  incredible 
