COUNTRY LIFE
100,000 Allotments
The allotment holders in England, who greatly outnumber our farmers, have been increased by some tens of thousands within the last three years. Chiefly through the energy of the Society of Friends 118,000 " unemployed" are now employed in the cultivation of allotments ; and there is every sign that the number will go on increasing at a good pace. No one has ever adequately estimated the amount of food produced by urban allotment holders—if they may be considered separ- ately from the rural—but such an estimate now becomes possible under the Friends' scheme. The men buy and are given only the very best seed, obtained at moderate price, and exact records of every ounce are kept. The unemployed men themselves spent last year over £20,000 on seed potatoes alone. We are only at the beginning of this development, which is more than twice blest. It gives healthy food and it gives occupation, it gives interest and it gives the rural bias to both young and old.
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