the expense, but does not reap the fruits, of his outlay, whether in labour or in money. He is apt to say, for instance, when order and neatness are recommended to him, All this looks well, and is very suitable for a gentleman, but what does it signify to a poor man like myself?" The real answer to such doubts, the offspring of indolence, is, that neatness and order are economy: and is it nothing for a poor man to avoid waste? in other words, to practise economy? Is it nothing to a labouring man to be able to make his tools last longer by a little care, than they would without that care? to make his clothes serve him and his family better for being put out of harm's way when they are no longer wanted? Is it nothing to a poor man that the furniture of his house should supply his wants for as long a time as possible? and thus that he should be saved from the expense of having to replace it? Yet the only means of ensuring these objects are, order and neatness, or, as it may be explained in short, by having a place and a time for everything, and by letting everything be kept to its time and place. I have often seen, from a want of attention to this rule, children, and men too, laboriously collecting a scanty supply of manure from what they can pick up on the roads, when they allow the offscourings of their own houses to run not only to waste, but to become a nuisance to themselves and others; whereas, had they but taken the trouble to collect these in a hole, through a drain, which any man might make to his house, at the expense of a little labour, he would possess at hand more manure than the utmost labour of himself and his family would enable him to draw together from other sources, more probably than his garden would require, -and he would have the advantage of a clean, pleasant, and healthy dwelling. These are advantages springing directly from care, industry, and forethought; but there are many incidental benefits to be derived from these sources, which will never be guessed at till the time comes when they may be enjoyed. There are, also,

many incidental losses and inconveniences not, perhaps, to be foreseen, that may be avoided in this way." Cottage Gardening,” Saturday Magazine.

ON AFFLICTION.

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LET us speak of afflictions. A Christian stands in need of afflictions to separate him from his corruptions; let him, therefore, under the painful dispensation of his heavenly Father, ever remember that he is not like men of the world; and that, however trees in the wilderness may grow without culture, trees in the garden must be pruned to be made fruitful, and corn fields must be broken up when barren heaths are left untouched.

AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS.

Ir appears desirable that agricultural labourers should learn to do various kinds of work, as thatching, hedging, ditching, &c., instead of confining themselves to any particular employment. It is found that if a farmer has not the work which each labourer can do, he is obliged to discharge those whom he could otherwise employ, and look out for a hedger, a ditcher, or whatever the work to be done on his farm requires, instead of setting those now in his service to various employments.

CHEAP AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Labourers' Friend Magazine mentions a school of practical agriculture for poor chil dren recently established in France, where the sale of less than one-half of the produce is found sufficient to cover the expenses, a portion being given to the most industrious pupils, and recommends the plan for adoption in England.

"Might not the salaries of masters be saved in coun try parishes, at least in part, by their being allowed to rent from one to five acres of land, on condition of teaching reading, &c., till noon, and having their

scholars' services in digging, dibbling, weeding, and stall-feeding, in the after part of the day?

"As this mode of payment would depend on their diligent cultivation of the soil, are not the children likely to be skilled as soon as their strength permits, to earn their own living in a way that would add greatly to individual and national prosperity? By dibbling wheat alone, as long practised in Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincoln, and Hertfordshire, as compared with broadcasting, which requires three bushels the acre, half the seed may be saved, that is, one bushel and a half, and the grain in the crop being admitted to be four bushels, makes five bushels and a-half, which at 80s. the quarter, is 55s.; this after paying 7s. for dibbling, leaves a clear gain to the farmer of 48s. per acre; and even if the price sunk to 5s. a bushel, would still give 20s. per acre for the trouble of superintending the work, and it would be so much lessened by children being practised in it at school. Though high prices may benefit a few, it can be only a few, for prices can never be generally high but when crops are deficient, and high prices are not remunerating prices to those who have nothing to sell, whereas if corn was cheap, from being in excess, it could be stored, used to feed cattle, or exported; and twelve months since, both the American and Egyptian governments invited importation of grain.

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"If schoolmasters were directed to keep daily accounts of work and produce, which might be copied as writing lessons by their scholars, authentic documents in each parish might be obtained.

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Competition between neighbouring schoolmasters would be promoted by prizes being awarded by the resident clergy: and thus, without cost, experimental farms would be established throughout England, by which the capabilities of its soil might be ascertained; for all the capital needed is for the purchase of forks, hoes, rakes, and dibbles, with a cask to hold them when out of use; flails and thrashing-floors would also be saved by the

children taking the straw up by handfuls, and dashing the ears over a cask, which quickly removes the grain, and in Cornwall is termed making reed; the straw not being bruised, a small quantity is sufficient for thatching, when bound on with straw bands. No barn is needed for housing corn, because corn keeps freer from vermin and mildew by being stacked like the ridge of a house, when as many sheaves as can be cleared before night might be taken from one end daily into the school-room, and when a sack is filled, the boys could draw it in a hand-cart to the mill, which hand-cart would be useful for taking out solid manure, and liquid manure too, if slung under it in a barrel, duly diluted, as in Belgium, Holland, &c., and given to growing potato, turnip, and mangel-wurzel plants. Cows, if milked three times a day, might be as profitable here as on those parts of the Continent which furnish us with butter, and the wellknown Dutch cheese.

"And girls taught to milk, &c., might tempt farmers to increase their dairies. For glebe land, increased rent might be had from schoolmasters; for at East Dean, J. P. has given 37. more than the last tenant for a house, cow-stall, and four acres of land, on condition of teaching the boys of the neighbourhood at one penny a week, reading, writing, and accounts from nine till twelve, and tilling the ground from two till five o'clock; and E. C. has given 60s. per acre, for five acres, in the adjoining parish of Willingdon, Sussex, on the same conditions.

THE ALLOTMENT SYSTEM.

AN ENCOURAGING EXAMPLE. Eastbourne, November 14th, 1838.-I, Thomas Pierce, hired of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert forty rods of land: twenty rods I sowed with the white chaff red wheat, and twenty rods I planted with potatoes. The produce of wheat from the twenty rods was six bushels and ten trusses of straw; and the pro

duce of the potatoes from the twenty rods, forty-nine bushels *.

We are very thankful for this land, without which I believe my mother and I must have gone into the workhouse. THOMAS PIERCE.

FRUITFULNESS OF ALLOTMENTS.--At the meeting of the Battel Horticultural Society, held the 11th of July, 1839, prizes were given to the following cottagers for eight roots of wheat, with from forty-six to one hundred and fifteen ears each; viz:

At the same meeting it was reported that another allotment tenant, Benjamin King, has now growing on his ground eleven fine plants of wheat from eleven grains; one with ninety-four ears and one with one hundred and seven, and some of the straw upwards of five feet and a-half high.

One of the tenants at Hadlow, who occupies only thirteen rods of land, for which he pays a rent of three shillings and threepence per annum, has this year grown one thousand fine cabbages of the red kind for pickling. Between the rows of cabbages he had a most abundant crop of peas, which he has reaped, and sown the same space with turnips, which are now growing, and promise to be a fair crop. The whole of the produce of this three and threepenny rental is estimated at nearly six pounds.

The average produce of England is not 30 bushels; and this is at the rate of 48,-that is, half as much more than farmers usually obtain. 49 bushels, multiplied by 8, is at the rate of 392 bushels per acre.