concise and
accurate instructions. The council could depute one or more members
to receive the rent-money and to keep the books, and if any labour
were required, there are always bailiffs and trustworthy men who
could be employed to do it. At a small expense the field should be
properly drained before being opened, and even though let at a very
low charge per perch, there would still remain an overplus above the
rent paid by the council for the field, sufficient in a short time
to clear off the debt incurred in draining.

[2] See 'Toilers of the Field,' by Richard Jefferies.--ED.

It is very rarely that allotment gardens are sufficiently manured,
and this is a subject that would come very properly under the
jurisdiction of the allotment committee of our village council. Some
labourers keep a pig or two, but all do not; and many living at a
considerable distance would find, and do find, a difficulty in
conveying any manure they may possess to the spot. So it often
happens that gardens are cropped year after year without any
substances being restored to the soil, which gradually becomes less
productive. Means should be devised of supplying this deficiency.
Manure is valuable to the farmer, but still he could spare a
little--quite sufficient for this purpose. Suppose the allotment
gardens consisted of twelve acres, then let one-fourth, or three
acres, be properly manured every year. This would be no strain upon
the product of manure in the vicinity, and in four years--four
years' system--the whole of the field would receive a proper
amount, in addition to the small quantities the labourer's pig
produced. Every tenant, in his agreement, could be caused to pay, in
addition to his rent, once every four years, a small sum in
part-payment for this manuring, and also for the hauling of the
material to the field. This payment would not represent the actual
value of the manure, but it would maintain the principle of
self-help; and, as far as possible, the allotments should be
self-supporting. In cases of dispute, the committee would simply
have to refer the matter to the council, and the thing would be
definitely settled; but under a regular system of this kind, as it
were mapped down and written out, no obstinate disputes could arise.
In this one matter of allotment-gardens alone there is plenty of
scope for the exertions of a village council, and incalculable good
might be attained. The very order and systematic working of