MR GLADSTONE ON COTTAGE FARMING.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 6067, 28 September 1894, Page 4

MR GLADSTONE ON COTTAGE FARMING.

I _- «, I Mr Gladstone made his first public speech { since his retirement from pobtioU lif ', at the distribution of prizes at thfl Buck ey and Hawarden Society's flower show, st whioh there wsr* 917 exhibitors and Ifi.COO visitors. Mr Gladstone epoke as follows on the importance of cottage farming :— The French have long beeo given ia a much greater dej res than we are to what they call la petite culture - the small culture— that is,the culture of minor and secondary objects conneoted wi'h agricultural pursuits. It may appear as if these were m themselves unimportant. The transactions m a little garden oannot be upon a very larrfe soale, but when the aggregate of these branob.es of the small oulture comes to be made up it is a vast aggregate—and you may depend upon it that even the oommflrce of this country may derive serious and impor tant extension from the extension of ihege branches of the smaller cultivations, and tbat nothing is more likely to bring about the extension that the multiplication of institutions suoh as that of the eooiety whioh is responsible for the present flower show. I do believe that tha example of Hawarden, which began to be eet about 20 years ago, has been useful m this respect ; and these are timeß when those whose business it is to draw forth the resources of the eßrth for the service of man have been severely visited, and cannot afford to negleotany rational and probable means of adding to their own comforts and advantages by increasing the comforts and advantages of others, beoause whatever ia produced from the earth m excess of what we have previously had i confers a double benefit both upon producer and upon thosa for whose use tbe particular commodity is brought into existence. I do hope that "many of you will deem this subject as not unworthy of serious consideration. It certainly is my belief that muoh may be done ( m many branohes of cultivation outside what hare hitherto been considered the prinoipal pursuits of the farmer j much may t a done for bettering the position of the agricultural classes, and for enabling the community at large to profit more abundantly by the ample powers with irhioh God has endowed the earth for ministering to tbe means of our subsistence and our enjoyment. (Cheers.)