Have you had an opportunity of observing experiments in what is termed spade husbandry?—I have never seen spade husbandry; but I should wish to see it universally adopted, if the adoption of it would add wealth to the farmer, for in that case it could not fail to benefit the labourer.
It is said that farmers ought to take the single agricultural labourers into their houses, and preside at the labourers’ tables as formerly; what is your opinion as to the practicability of recurring to the old system?—Those who say so are very ill formed upon the subject. Farmers, who were (in manners, wealth, and education) but very little better than their own labourers, might formerly, with comfort to themselves and advantage to their men, receive their carters into their family, and dine at their table with them; but the habits of those times are gone for ever.
Do you think the enclosures of such parishes as Cookham beneficial to the poor?—Yes I do, inasmuch as they extend the demand for the poor man’s only marketable commodity—his labour.
[Every position stated in this examination with relation to the practical operation of the theory of small farm allotments, and of the pig and cow theories, was corroborated by a large mass of evidence from every part of the country, where they had been, for any length of time, in operation.—E. C.]
13.—Arrangement of Public Walks in Towns; Plan of the Arboretum at Derby, laid out by J. C. Loudon, Esq.
When it appeared that a general botanic garden would be too expensive, both to create and to keep up; that a mere composition of trees and shrubs with turf, in the manner of a common pleasure-ground, would become insipid after being seen two or three times; and, in short, that the most suitable kind of public garden, for all the circumstances included in the above data, was an arboretum, or collection of trees and shrubs, foreign and indigenous, which would endure the open air in the climate of Derby, with the names placed to each. Such a collection will have all the ordinary beauties of a pleasure-ground viewed as a whole; and yet, from no tree or shrub occurring twice in the whole collection, and from the name of every tree and shrub being placed against it, an inducement is held out for those who walk in the garden to take an interest in the name and history of each species, its uses in this country or in other countries, its appearance at different seasons of the year, and the various associations connected with it.
A similar interest might no doubt have been created by a collection of herbaceous plants; but this collection, to be effective in such a space of ground, must have amounted to at least 5000 species; and to form such a collection, and keep it up, would have been much more expensive than forming the most complete collection of trees and shrubs that can at present be made in Britain. It is further to be observed respecting a collection of herbaceous plants, that it would have presented no beauty or interest whatever during the winter season; whereas, among trees and shrubs, there are all the evergreen kinds, which are more beautiful in winter than in summer; while the deciduous kinds, at that season, show an endless variety in the ramification of their branches and spray, the colour of their bark, and the colour and form of their buds. Add also, that trees and shrubs, and especially evergreens, give shelter and encouragement to singing-birds, to which herbaceous plants offer little or no shelter or food.
There are yet other arguments in favour of trees and shrubs for a garden of recreation, which are worth notice. Herbaceous plants are low, small, and to have any effect must be numerous; while to acquire their names, and look into their beauties, persons walking in the garden must stand still, and stoop down, which, when repeated several times, would soon, instead of a recreation, become very fatiguing. Now trees and shrubs are large objects, and there is scarcely one of them the beauty of which may not be seen and enjoyed by the spectator while he is walking past it, and without standing still at all.