HOMECROFTS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] S111,—B is a great satisfaction to sec experienced housing organizations, such as that over which Mr. J. L. Williams presides, turning their thoughts to Homecroft-building. Is it possibly an index of the times ? I am sure, at any rate, that Land Settlement must be one of the leading parts of the Goverrunent's future policy. And Housing Societies should ask whether their best way of keeping on the crest of public usefulness, is not to make up their minds to try to carry that movement forward. If so, Homeerofting seems their opportunity. It proposes a combination of land cultivation and housing which they are peculiarly fitted to carry out, wherever they become acquainted with the kind of land-cultivation required. Cultivation, of course, is the focus of interest throughout. A Homecroft is a piece of land with a dwelling on it, rather than a house with a garden to it. Similarly the cultivation is for sustenance first and for sales afterwards.
Such a principle is capable of the widest variation. And I would fain express the hope, here, that those interested in seeing it carried out will not confine themselves to the pamphlet Mr. Williams recommends ; in which I have only attempted a description of our own Homecroft Settlement at Cheltenham ; but will examine the proposition independ- ently as it is given in the small shilling booklet Unemployment (A. and C. Black), and take their own line. Neither Liverpool nor Cheltenham wants merely to be imitated in this matter, but varied and improved upon as the needs of different
localities suggest.—I am, Sir, &c., J. W. Scam (Hon. See. National Homecroft Association, Ltd.) 88 Charks Street, Cardiff.
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