SECRET FARMING BY SLUMDWELLERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6500, 1 June 1899, Page 3

SECRET FARMING BY SLUMDWELLERS.

«. I (CasaelVs Saturday Journal.) { There is a hoary tradition in a certain slum that, for a peculiar reason, a hawker once left a tenement-house in the deepest disgust. The man occupied two rooms qn the second floor of the dwelling, and becauss the stairs were not strong enough to allojv his "donkey to ascend and take his rest with the other members of the family he removejd elsewhere. Some people certainly have extraordinary ideas as. to the uses to which houses should be put. One of these days a number of cows will be found in a garret rented by a man who supplies " milk dircit ; from the farm." ! "Ah! there is a deal of ' culture ' in the slums," remarked a- sanitary inspector tjo the writer. " I knew a man who, although, mind you, he lived in a densely populated quarter, fattened pigs for years. He kept a small grocer's shop, under which was 'a cellar whose front door and window were boarded up. Access to it could be obtained only at the. back; Well, he used to buy a couple of. young pigs and smuggle them into his cellar at night. He beddeji down his stock on the straw from his egg cases, and removed the litter after dark'; and I can tell you he made a rare good thing out of it. All the youngsters in the neighbourhood broughfhim bread, potatoes, and such like leavings, for which he gayie them only a few sweets; so that his swijl cost him very little.' In fact, he made .ja, lot of money out of his pigs, which ,when fattened, were always bought by the same butcher. I once had to deal with a stranger thing than this : a man ' { KErT PIGS IN A BACK BEDROOM ! j They -talk about learned pigs. Now, tins man ..could always make his get up- and down stairs. Washing them, you know), helps them to put on weight. So the fellow, used to take them out in tlie small back yard for a ' tubbing,' and he could do this quite easily. The animals were trained . tb it. We should never have found him ou). if one of his neighbours hadn't complained about him. j " Poultry is frequently fattened up in the slums, especially just before Christmas. j_ know one little street where nearly every cellar is occupied with fowls, ducks, geese, etc., at that time. Goslings are sometimes kept till they are ready for market. Then, in some cases, birds are bought about a month before Christmas. At other times they will/ be on hand for only about a week. Chickens are hatched in the slums in the most surprising ways. A man once showed me a very ordinary-looking rooster, and boasted that there wasn't another like it in the world. I asked him what he took me for, and then he said that the egg from which it came had been kept warm partlyby a cat that had had its leg broken — it was obliged to, lie still— and for the rest of the. time by ai human body ! But one malt used to 'run' a poultry farm in his house. ; He had an incubator of his own make, and he put lots of chickens out. What is fun-, nier still is that another slum-dwelller had . A BABBIT FARM IN HIS. BACKYARD j and cellar. In the yard he'd a load of soil,: some roots of trees and what not, and the; bunnies actually burrowed among these.! The man said he wanted to get 'as near natur' as may be,' and so he did. There was plenty of artificial shelter for the bunnies, though. I believe the man raised hundreds of rabbits in a year, making a very good profit out of them. Another funny thing that just occurs to me. is that a man— a wretched old fellow. he was— used to breed guinea-pigs, white- mice, and other animals in the room he lived in. He was well known to the rising generation, for he stood in a certain market for years, offering his stock for sale. What his room— he had only one —was like I need not tell you. I should not like my dog to have slept m it. "Some people, though, know what can be done in this way, as the existence of a remarkable market garden that I onoe came aSs proves. Five or six houses being m an insaitary conditiop, were condemned. They were" fearful dens; so they were closed by order of the Corporation. Well, after they'd been empty fcr years and the owner hk-l shown no sign of pulling them down and putting uo new houses, I. heard that n. nice little busines-; was being quietly carried on in them. . Tliere was. too Somebody had rented them from the landlord hfor. an old song for -grcwing mvshrooms.---1 There, were, beds, new anu.. old, in every .house, and the gardener was making a good .thin? of it. To show you that.niushroomgrowing in a cellar may. be profitable, I was once offered a sovereign hot to report a ca-e that I discovered. You would have thought the contents of the whole house \vr-> not v.-m-'h th-°t. ' I "Id no*, •'unn at the bait, and f-hen 'he -"■ccup er nf t„ e -i?ace raised the profiled brib?. to 3Q-. H-iw-ever he had to discontinue farm'ng — at all events, in the slums."