HOMECROFT SETTLEMENT FUND
[To the Editor of the SrEcrxroit.]
rejoice to report that the week just elapsed has been the fullest of solid encouragement of any since the Spectator Homecroft Fund began. Far short as even the sum of 2573 14s. still is of the total capital required to cover twenty acres of land with forty homecrofts, the spiritual encourage- ment (if I may so speak) which has always been flowing in has risen this week to such a tide that it would almost be a sin to let oneself doubt any more that now, .for good or evil, the first Homecroft Settlement in England is actually going to arise at Cheltenham. It would be invidious to name indi- viduals among the many new friends the movement has gained ; but your readers will be interested to know that, among others, Sir James Agg-Gardner, the influential local member of Parliament, who was waited on in the House last week, has given the scheme his countenance.
But I would like everyone to see just what the experiment is which those who have invested in this enterprise arc sup- porting. Properly speaking, it is an experiment in nothing less than the driving of hunger out of the labouring homes of this land. In the sober language of the business world, we want to see how far it would pay to devote capital so as to house the working man beside his food ; that is to say, to house him, beside the tools and facilities by which he could make his own food out of the earth with his own hands, so that come rain or shine, he and his children should not need to go hungry. The Spectator prizes are to be for those who come nearest to actually feeding their own families. " The complete food garden and how to run it " is a potential science and art. We are not at the end of human knowledge yet of this potential science and art. But at Cheltenham we are beginning with the knowledge which already exists. Every man whom we place in one of our houses will be carefully selected from among Cheltenham's eight or nine hundred allotment cultivators. He will be a man who can already produce at least some part of his family's food, and who likes doing it. What he grows he will not need to buy, and the money he thus saves will help him out with the weekly or monthly purehase-rent ; a purchase-rent fixed at a sum which will enable him gradually to make his little croft his own, and at the same time yield some small return to those who have put up the capital. This is the principle of our enterprise. It will take both courage and care to carry it out to the end. But not the least of the indications which point to eventual success is the marked business ability of some of the men who have recently begun to be attracted by the scheme.
But our option on the land we have in view at Cheltenham for the experiment expires on August 22nd ; and I wish that all who are thinking of supporting us would write soon, saying the amount they are prepared to put up. Promises should be sent to The Editor, the Spectator, 13 York Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. 2. Cheques should be crossed " Spectator Homecroft Fund, Barclays Bank, Goslings
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