lishments, that by promoting cleanliness and regular exercise on the part of the children, they tend greatly to secure the health of the rising generation.

"Those who are accustomed to visit the children of the poor, best know how many cases of disease, deformity, and bodily incapacity, are to be met with, arising from confinement in crowded rooms, with an impure atmosphere, from other dangerous exposures, and particularly from those distressing accidents by fire which are of such frequent occurrence.

"It is no part of the design of this Institution to relieve parents prematurely from the care of their children, or to effect any greater separation between them than even now unavoidably takes place; the hours of attendance at the school being only those in which the parents are at present either entirely absent from their children, or prevented bestowing any care upon them."

In furtherance of these objects, the Infant Schools of Kensington have lately been placed under the superintendence of the Managers of the National School, as a preparatory step for the removal of the children into that school when they shall have attained the age of six years, if found duly qualified.

MR. EDITOR,

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.

IT has been suggested that boys should be taught, and encouraged to take every opportunity of learning various branches of agricultural work, carpentering, &c. &c. Girls, making and mending, and cutting out of wearing apparel; household, dairy, and laundry work, &c. There appears to be a desire of combining Industrial with National Schools. Many are known to be convinced that some alteration or addition to the National Schools is desirable, if not absolutely necessary. Many are willing to help, and have the means, but want guidance. Many wild theories and foreign experiments are carefully and widely spread. The Cottager's Visitor has however a great circulation. Would the Visitor give a few hints on the subject, to which reference might be made by his readers, as occasion offered, in their immediate neigh

1838.]

FEMALE PENNY CLOTHING CLUB.

13

bourhood, and within their individual sphere, whether great or small?

There is a work lately published, "Alfred Societies, by Mr. Smith, of Southam," which gives the plan and regulations of an "Alfred Society" at Harbury, which works well, and suggests various clubs, &c.

Y.

SIR,

FEMALE PENNY CLOTHING CLUB.

THE following is a plan that has been tried with success in one of the south western counties of England, and, thinking that it may afford a hint or two to any benevolent person, I send it for the Visitor.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

S. M.

The parish in which it was tried (and succeeded admirably) was a very large and poor one. The club contained 600 persons.

RULES OF THE PENNY CLUB.

Every person who puts into this Club must pay a penny a week, which at the end of the year will amount to 4s. 4d. Should she wish to save her money, so as to turn it to a useful account, she may bring any sum she pleases in addition, and the amount of her payment will be put down to her name in the account book.

Every person who puts into this Club is desired to keep a strict account of the money she pays in, so that, at the end of the year, she may be able to send in a paper whereon shall be written the sort of clothing she requires, to the amount of her money. It is requested that every person will be exact and careful to pay their money weekly; and should they pass the third week without so doing, their name will be scratched from the book, and the amount of the money already paid will go for the benefit of the club.

About a fortnight before Christmas, the money is reckoned up, and each person writes on a slip of paper the articles she wishes for, to the amount of her subscription. The following are the articles to be bought. (The list is hung up with the rules in the schoolroom.)

The lady who manages the Club goes to the nearest town, and buys the quantities wanted; and, as the quantity is very large, obtains them cheaper than they could be bought by the subscribers. All honorary subscriptions are divided equally amongst the members.

HINTS TO LABOURERS.

It is very true that to be able to do any one thing well, it is necessary to give to that one thing the principal part of your time and thoughts. Thus it is needful to serve an apprenticeship of some years, before any particular art or trade can be thoroughly learned. But there are some sorts of work which may be easily learned, and which almost every labouring man will find the benefit of. We sometimes find a labouring man who can "turn his hand to any thing," as the saying is: and it is surprising how much a cottager may save by being able to do carpentering jobs and such kind of matters for himself, instead of letting his house and furniture and tools go to ruin, or being at the expense of getting another person to mend them. An article in the Labourer's Friend Magazine for August 1837, gives a calculation of 8 parishes in the county of Kent, (the occupation chiefly agricultural) as to the proportion of persons capable of various branches of domestic industry, &c. "Of fathers who can use carpenters' tools so as to mend their own furniture, &c. there are 91; while there are 319 who cannot. When it is considered for how many more purposes cottagers stand

1838.]

HINTS ON DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

15

in need of this description of industry than the inhabitants of towns, the fact is very important. It is surprising how few can use carpenters' tools, or are skilled in any kind of handicraft."

Unquestionably there requires some employment for the children of both sexes in the country, particularly during the winter. From the experience I have had among the poor, coupled with the account which the parents in general give of their younger days, I am convinced that the distress among the generation now rising up must be very great upon coming of age, on account of their not having been taught the means of getting their livelihood. I am daily impressed with the effect which the amendment to the poor-law has had in improving the morals of the poor; and, should schools be founded so as to give the children, besides reading and writing, an insight into some mechanical business which might assist them in getting a livelihood, those who are now poor would soon find a vast improvement in their condition. Y.

HINTS ON DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

Use of Soot as Manure.-When spread on meadow lands, early in winter, its benefits are often visible for three successive seasons. The greatest success is when it is mixed with earth and dung, when a sort of soapy earth is formed, beneficial to almost all sorts of plants, the use of which quickens vegetation. The mixture should be two parts of earth, one part of soot, and one of dung. A layer of earth should be covered with soot, over which a layer of dung should be placed, and thus alternate layers must be arranged on a bed three or four feet high and three wide. Soot, mixed with the earth dug from the ditches, in the proportion of one-fourth, may, in about six months afterwards, be used with success in dressing meadows:-of this latter mixture about thirty bushels should be used to the acre: spread on wet ground it will destroy the moss, and rectify the bad qualities of the soil. Cattle are observed to be fond of grass grown on lands dressed with soot.

Economical Food for Horses.--Nine pounds of bread made of oatmeal and bean flour, will afford more nourishment to horses, than a bushel of oats of good quality, weighing twelve or thirteen pounds.

Potatoes as Food for Horses.-M. Goblet Delahaye, residing at Châtelet in the province of Hainault, feeds his horses in winter with a mixture of boiled potatoes and chopped straw, giving each horse daily, at two feeds, about fourteen pounds of potatoes. This food agrees well, and is much relished.

Thatching. (The following seems a clearer statement than what has already been given-Trans.) The Somersetshire mode, with what is provincially called reed, (unbruised straw, instead of bruised straw) is preferable to all others. It lasts nearly as long again as common straw, and does not offer the same temptation to birds and mice to make holes in the thatch for the sake of the grain left in straw thatched in the usual manner. The mode of preparing the straw, is simply to take a sheaf of wheat, and to place it in a reed press, made of two pieces of timber ten feet long and put on a stool, and having women to lay hold of the ears of corn, who draw out the straw and cut off the caps, and then bind up the sheaf for use. In this process women are usefully employed during wet weather, and the corn is more easily thrashed than when encumbered with the straw. Thatching done with reed will not only last much longer than that with common straw, but as to the appearance, there is no comparison; one is a neat and elegant covering, the other a slovenly ragged one. -Magazine of Domestic Economy.

Housing and Preservation of Potatoes.-The Magazine of Domestic Economy states, that much of the mischief ascribed to disease is caused in digging potatoes, by leaving them wet, and with the soil upon them, exposed to the cutting frosts which often come on at sunset. Each heap should be covered with a mat, or with litter of fern, straw, the haulm, &c. till it can be removed to a shed. The farmer or gardener should make it his object to render his potatoes dry as soon as possible, and then immediately to remove them to a shed, barn, or out-house.