27 FEBRUARY 1948, Page 11

More Gardens Several pleas for more allotments have been raised

of late, and let no one deny the value of the allotment. But it is to be roundly condemned if badly placed. In my neighbourhood the only field that is waste, though the soil is good, is a field bought by the local council for allotments. Almost all of it is a tangle of weeds that are a handicap to the surrounding farmland. One reason for the neglect is that the request for a water supply was refused, since no one would spend the £10 or so necessary,, for laying it on ; but the chief reason is that it is needlessly remote. Bigger gardens round the cottages would do very much more for the food supply, and for the pleasure and profit of the cottagers than any group of allot- ments in an alien field. Such gardens are also effective in imparting the rural bias to children, who regard a corvie on the allotment as a disagreeable task_