Half Three Acres and a Cow.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1823, 21 April 1886, Page 3

Half Three Acres and a Cow.

A correspondent who writes to the Pall Hell Qezette from Cheshire sends the following account of whet may be done with half three acres and a cow :

(n the near vicinity of a thriving manufacturing townio Sooth.nd. with a copulation of about 18,000 inhabitant, many of whom hare small gardens, there li\e a worthy couple and their six chilnreu, who have not ao much land as three acres, but only one half of this quantity and no more. They" have got the " cow, ’ however, and a pig or two, and they raise a good deal of market produce, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, lettuce, cabbage, Ac., in their season. Husband and wife, and the children as they grow up, work upon that bit of ground industriously ; they are never idle ; they till the land, manure it, plant it, and keep it in perfection. Not a foot of it is encumbered ia weeds, or is it allowed to lie waste. From early morning till evening some orcther are bravely engaged on it at the proper season, and in consequence the soil is lovely grateful to them for it, and repays them well, as it always generously d°** for the care and attention bestowed upon it. It may be mentioned that the small but well built dwelling-house which stands in a corner of the laud, and also the cow house, *c., have been bought and paid for out of their savings, and now all that they have to pay for their anng little place ia an annual ground rent of about £4 or so. Of course, had there been a score or two of such families aa this living near this small town, vegetables and fruits would have been cheapened ; but there is ample room ia the outskirts of all our large eitiee and towns for thousands of families to make a comfortable and pleasant living if they have the mind and the determination to try it. Meantime, we must go now to France and Belgium for much of the vegetables we use, and for the aged and inferior eggs now produced at our breakfast tables.