SPADE-HUSBANDRY, COTTAQE-FATIySISG, and FIELD-GARDENING, are phrases of synonymous meaning, and denote the cultivation of farm-crops on a small scale by means of the spade. This system has long been in operation in Belgium and Flanders, where the holdings average little amore than live, though a few are as large as forty acres; and by steady industry and economy, even the smallest of them is capable of maintaining it family in comfort. In this country, cottage-farming is chiefly practiced among the miners in Cornwall, who at first received leases of their coarse unreel:limed land at 2s.Gd. --5s. per acre, the lease to last for three lives. These patcheal of from three to five acres number over 6.000, and have increased greatly in value. In Orkney and Shetland, some of Sutherlandshire, and much of the Western isles of Inverness mid Argyleshire, spade culture is quite common. mind when properly done is a thorough means of cultivation. In Lincolnshire, especially on the isle of Axhohne, the same system exists. The suc cess of small-farming depends on two causes—the inexpensiveness of the stocking and implements, and the superior fertility of the soil when dug. The implements required are—spades and digging-forks of different sizes, hoes, rakes, scythe, reapiug-hooks, flail, bay-fork, wheel-narrow, and a few other implements equally inexpensive; the steadiug consists of the cottage, a cow-shed (for one or two cows), and a pig-sty; the stock, of cows, pigs, and poultry, besides household furniture. The superiority of the spade over the plow rests on its deeper cultivation; on its not forming a hard imper meable crust on the ant Nee of the subsoil, as the plow does; on its more thorough subdivision of.the soil; and on its more effective burying of weeds. Besides the tread
ing of the land by the horses' feet is avoided. As a conclusive instance of this, may he given a sketch of the system pursued by the rev. Mr. Smith of Lois-Weedon, North amptonshire, with its results. Mr. Smith drilled wheat in the usual manner, dug the intervals two spits deep, so as gradually, year by year, to bring up more and more of the subsoil, and by careful keeping down of weeds, repeated stirring of the soil, and• sowing the next crop in the intervals between the rows of the former, he succeeded, at a total expense of ,4,:t1 14s. per acre, in obtaining a profit of £8 per acre. Mr. Smith also sowed wheat in strips of three rows, with twelve inches between the rows, and intervais of three feet between the strips; and by dint of thorough digging and trenching between the rows with the spade, he succeeded for 14 successive years in producing 36 bushels of wheat annually, without the application of a particle of manure. Similar experiments have been made with success at Rothamstead in Herts, by Mr. Lawes, who found, how ever, that proper and sufficient manuring almost.doubled the crop. The subject of cot tage-farming deserves serious attention in connection with the movement for ameliorat ing the condition, and preventing the decrease, of the rural population of the country. It is receiving such; there is a growing feeling among landlords in favor of increasing the number of crofts, and thereby inducing the best laborers to remain in their native country, instead, as has been toe much the case, of emigrating.