removed. The introduction of soldiers' gardens, trades, and workshops, which was begun in India a number of years since, has seen its happy results. The men have begun to find out that it is better to work than to sleep and to drink, even during the heat of the day.
One regiment marching into a station, where cholera had been raging for two years, were "chaffed" by the regiments marching out, and told they would never come out of it alive. The men of the entering battalion answered, they would see; we won't have cholera, they think. And they made gardens with such good effect that they had the pleasure, not only of eating their own vegetables, but of being paid for them too by the Commissariat. And this in a soil which no regiment had been able to cultivate before. And not a man had cholera. These good soldiers fought against disease, too, by workshops and gymnasia.
At a few hill stations the men have covered the whole hill-sides with their gardens.
Government gives prizes to the best gardeners. And means of employment and occupation for the troops are being everywhere extended.
As for trades, I have seen the balance-sheets of 32 battalions of infantry, and of five regiments of cavalry in Bengal, for six months ending June, 1863; and these brave fellows are actually making money. The wages paid to men for working in the half-year were £28,237.
| The balance from preceding half-year | £3,203 |
| Amount realised for work last six months | 55,426 |
| Value of stock on hand | 17,216 |
| £75,845 |
