A short history of allotments: part 2

A short history of allotments: part 2

Grow-Your-Own Charity on a 19th century allotment

 In my last allotment blog, I made the point that while most people thought allotments were a force for good, John Stuart Mill believed they were little more than a grow-your-own charity (http://www.newsgrape.com/a/a-short-history-of-allotments-part-1/). 

In order to understand why Mill felt the way he did, we need to consider the difficulties inherent in cultivating allotments during the nineteenth century.  Many of these difficulties arose because land used for allotments was land which simply ‘did not find a more profitable use’[i] because it had little horticultural potential or was badly situated, for example. One account describes how a site was ‘in a high, cold, bleak situation, and lying at such an inclination that it could not be ploughed at all.’[ii]  (Ploughing was a euphemism for digging with a spade because it was invariably a requirement that land was dug over by hand.[iii])

Prior to any planting, debris had to be removed from the site, drainage ditches installed, paths laid and fences erected. However, and not infrequently, this commitment proved too much and the site was abandoned.  Once a site was up and running, the fences, gates, paths and drainage systems needed to be maintained.  Maintenance of the infrastructure was usually the responsibility of the tenant, though sometimes landlords undertook the work but ensured plot holders were charged for the extra service.[iv]   This extra was on top of the ‘fair rent’ a tenant was charged.  A fair rent was considered, at least, the same rent as a farmer would be charged for the land, which was not cheap (bearing in mind it was not good land).  Charging high rents was seen as a way of upholding the self-respect of the labourer.  In other words, the plot holder was seen to be paying his way and not accepting charity.[v]

To yield good crops, the ground needed to be heavily and continuously fertilised.  Manure was the product of choice, although composted waste and night soil also had their supporters.  Because of the need for so much manure, allotment holders were usually closely associated with pig-keeping.  Allotments had large amounts of vegetable waste, as well as barley and potatoes, on which to feed the pigs.[vi]  The pigs in return provided manure.  Mud tanks lined with plaster and filled with liquid manure from the cow-house, piggery and privy was also used as a liquid fertilizer.[vii] 

Gardening advice was abundant, if not always sound.  One manual instructed ‘the less stable dung you put on your ground, the better.  It makes all vegetables rank.’[viii]  Another writer thought that by growing parsnips in poor soil  ‘they lose much of the rank taste which they acquire in richer ground.’  Cobbett’s (1823) advice was more practical.  He advised:

If you find the ground dry at top during the winter, hoe it, and particularly near the plants, and rout out all slugs and insects.  And, when March comes, and the ground is dry, hoe deep, and well, and earth the plants up close to the lower leaves.  As soon as the plants begin to grow, dig the ground with a spade clean and well, and let the spade go as near to the plants as you can without actually displacing the plants.  Give them another digging in a month; and, if weeds come in the mean-while, hoe, and let not one live a week. “Oh! What a deal of work!”

Allotment cultivation was very much a family-based activity.  Large families were likely to fare better, as indeed were those whose plots were on older sites, which were more productive due to the previous intense husbandry. Usually, the men carried out the heavier work, such as digging and manure spreading, while during the summer, the women and children undertook the weeding, watering and picking.[ix]

Potatoes and ‘green-stuff’ were the crops most universally grown, although wheat, carrots, turnips, mangel-wurzel (yellow beet), barley, peas, oats, rye and cabbages[x] were also popular.  Potatoes were an important crop because a few seed potatoes, well cultivated, could provide a good yield,[xi] which could be stored to provide a nutritious food source, especially during the winter. Furthermore, as a food source, they were easy to prepare and, unlike bread, needed no further processing (such as milling).  Potatoes were not widely available for sale in the early nineteenth century, so if you wanted to eat them, you had to grow them. 

As the vegetables grew, so did the social side of allotmenteering.[xii]  Sometimes, an annual rent supper was held, with the landlord laying-on roast beef and plum pudding.  Prizes were presented at these events, including tools, money and fruit trees.  Not only were prizes given for well-tended allotments but also for the good conduct of the plot holder.  The early allotmenteers had many restrictions placed upon their allotment keeping, not least of which were that should they apply for poor relief, or not go to church every Sunday, or not dig the allotment by hand then they would forfeit their plot.[xiii] 

Landowners saw allotments as a way of controlling the labourer and reconciling him to his situation in life ‘and the cheerful fulfilment of the duties of his station.’[xiv]  Ultimately, by placing such strictures on the labourers, making them work hard, often on land which had little horticultural potential and charging high rents, the landlords put themselves in a win-win situation.  They reduced their Poor Law taxes, kept the revolting peasants in order and, accordingly, maintained the status quo.  Perhaps John Stuart Mill had a point.

References

Ashby, A., 1917 Allotments and Small Holdings in Oxfordshire: Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Burchardt, J., 2002. The allotment movement in England 1793-1873. London: Royal Historical Society.

Cobbett, W., 1823. Cottage Economy. London: J.M. Cobbett.

Crouch, D., and Colin W., 1997. The allotment: its landscape and culture. Nottingham: Mushroom.

'G'. 1844. Garden allotments: Letter to James Wood, Esq., London: A Varnham.

Nicolls, G., 1846. On the condition of the agricultural labourer: London: William Clowes & Son.

Nowell, J., 1844.  An essay on farms of industry, and an essay on cottage allotments: Huddersfield: T Kemp

Sturt, G., 1978. A memoir of a Surrey labourer: Firle: Caliban Books.

Trusler, J., 1819 Trusler's Domestic Management, Bath: T. Smith

Verdon, N., 2002. Rural women workers in nineteenth-century England: Boydell Press.

[i] Crouch and Ward 1997, 1

[ii] Nowell 1844, 8

[iii] Ashby 1917, 54

[iv] Burchardt 2002, 117

[v] 'G' 1844, 6

[vi] Ashby 1917, 43

[vii] Nowell 1844, 8

[viii] Trusler 1819, 171

[ix] Verdon 2002, 189

[x] Ashby 1917, 65

[xi] Sturt 1978, 15

[xii] Burchardt 2002, 119

[xiii] Crouch and Ward 1997, 53

[xiv] Nicholls 1846, 22

last time modified: Nov. 29, 2011, 2:12 p.m.