THE HOMECROFTING SCHEME • [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—If I could be sure of not conveying a false impression to them, and setting them all thinking we are further on than
we are, I wish I might at this stage circulate a few inquiries among your readers, that having given so generously of their means to the support of a Homecroft experiment, they may also, if they will, give of their experience to help us in setting out things in the best possible order. Although more of the following information is yet wanted, it will be wanted all of a rush very shortly, if the Gods are propitious. And we want, in an experimental venture, as nearly as possible, to know. everything about everything, so that decisions and choices May be the wisest possible at as many points as possible. So, would anyone with intimate experience or technical knowledge, and who is disposed to help, kindly either write me the follow.. ing information, or put me on the track of finding the best known to them on the subject ?
(1) The merits and demerits of the rotatory cultivator as a substitute for the plough. We have been attracted by some makes of these, especially as we may shortly want to break up a whole large grass field into a fine tilth, as nearly as possible in a moment of time.
(2) Has anyone tried whether a pair of milk-goats can be really happy exclusively stall-fed ?
(3) Can anyone design me the cheapest possible combined fowl-coop (size to supply the family eggs, intensive method), goat stable (two goats), rabbit hutch and small tool shed, that men could erect themselves ? Either a single set for one Homecroft, or a double set which could be-straddle the march- fence and serve two.
(4) I should be grateful for really good, brief pamphlets or booklets (Board of Agriculture or other), for distribution among our Homecrofters on any of the following eight points ;
(a) Fruit-bottling and preserving ; (b) on how to work an allotment ; (c) on goats ; (d) on rabbits ; (e) on fowls ; (f) on
how to keep a family pig on really sanitary lines, and on the law of the subject ; (g) something really brief and practical on pests which would be applicable to Gloucestershire ; and, lastly, (h) if there be such a thing, some printed words on sanitation' that will tell men—simple, uneducated men—just how, without offence, to obey Heaven's law and return to the soil that which came out of it.—I am, Sir, &c., University College, Cardiff.
J. W. Scorr.
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