12 JANUARY 1940, Page 22

Wealth in Allotments A scheme, a woman's scheme, is in

being for assuring the increase of vegetable production from allotments. It is to be hoped that it will be pushed forward with all celerity. " March is the month that blooms " the allotment, as well as " the whins." The gist of the idea is the formation of village co-operative production clubs, which would be in some sort local, its executive working under the Ministry of Agriculture. An allotment association, of which many do very efficient service, would serve the purpose if its committee included also members whose sole job it would be to increase the membership and multiply the allotments as well as the indi- vidual allotment holders. In one village of my acquaintance there are no fewer than 15o or so allotments which are either derelict or, in Goldsmith's phrase, mocked by half a tillage. This means that the only work remaining to be done is to find means for making a seed-bed and sowing the seeds. The Women's Institutes have already obtained the offer of any number of half-crown packets of the very best vegetables, each packet sufficient to populate a pole of ground. In many cases the land has been well " done " in the past and a store of fertility remains, but the club or association would be able to procure cheap fertilisers.