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THE FARMER»S MAGAZINE. 



building a group of four cottages, requested that he 

 might have but two bed-rooms instead of three. He 

 had been accustomed to crowd a numerous little family 

 into one room, so that two bed-rooms seemed to him 

 a perfect luxury, and to go beyond that quite an un - 

 necessary expenditure on my part, and far ahead of his 

 ideas of decency and comfort on the other ; and this 

 from a man quite an average of his class. In fact, he 

 seemed to think I had wonderfully strict notions of pro- 

 priety, when I told him that 1 should make provision 

 for the separation of his boys and girls into different 

 bed-rooms, and I should expect them to occupy them. 

 So I will take this man's case as an average instance. 

 He conducts his family well, his children are all growing 

 up, two of his boys are apprenticed out by our charity 

 trustees, and his daughters conduct themselves respect- 

 ably. Now, this family for many years only occupied 

 a single room about 14 feet square. No wonder that his 

 notions of propriety are so circumscribed. It was only 

 from the manifest unhealthiness of his home that led 

 him to wish for a larger dwelling. He removed a very 

 few years since, and it is remarkable how much more 

 vigorous and healthy his whole family now are, than 

 when they were huddled together in their little low 

 room. In the main, poor men care but little for 

 family comforts ; their great aim being to obtain food 

 and clothing, with which they are tolerably content. 



The construction of cottages is the business of the 

 architect and builder ; but it is very gratifying to know 

 the great interest which is now taken by our leading 

 agricultural societies to promote improvements in cot- 



tage architecture, prizes for the best plans, &c., &c., 

 being now general. I have not much experience in 

 cottage building, but I have some. Model cottages are 

 all very well, and it seems commendable to build them 

 after some approved fashion ; but I have never seeu any 

 which have not been too expensive — so costly, that no 

 poor labourer could afford to rent them. It is to no 

 purpose to charge a poor man from 2s. to 3s. per week 

 for his cottage. How can he pay it, and live ? How- 

 ever incongruous it may appear, yet it is true. A poor 

 man's cottage must be an inexpensive one, or it must 

 be an attachment to the farm, and be rented with it; 

 the farmer deriving the advantage from the close re- 

 sidence of his men, and their unimpaired vigour for 

 each daily task. To secure any degree of comfort, the 

 cottage should contain a living rcom, and cooking 

 room, beside the three bed-rooms. The cheapest way 

 of building them is in groups of four, six, or eight; the 

 fewer ends and chimney jambs the better. One pump 

 and one privy might suffice ; and the piggeries could 

 form a little row, or bo built in pairs. The cottage 

 gardens should not be less than half a rood each, and 

 as nearly adjoining the cottages as possible. The num- 

 ber of cottages on the farm should be regulated partly 

 by the extent of the farm, and partly by the kind of 

 produce raised ; stock farms requiring the fewest, and 

 corn and root farms the most. It would form a new 

 era in our farming, if a cottage could be appropriated for 

 every fifty acres of occupation. On farms greatly under 

 potato culture, even this great number would not be 

 sufficient. We have no fear of building too many. 



ADVANTAGES OF GOOD FARMING, AND HOW TO DO IT. 



BY MR. ^YILLIA.JI TROTTER. 



[Paper read at a monthly meeting of the Hexham Farmers' Club, February 12, 18G1.] 



John Grey, Esq., Dilston, in the Chair. 



Mr. C'nAiEMAN, — "When looking over the Mark-Lane Ex- 

 jjress a few weeks ago, I came upon the following para- 

 gi-aph: — " A great deal has been written and said about 

 the science and art of agriculture, but for practical guid- 

 ance the whole tiling is in a nut-shell. It consists of 

 these two rules — make the land rich, and keep the weeds 

 down. If any person who tries to raise any plant will fol- 

 low these two rules he will succeed, and if he does not 

 follow them ha will not succeed," This paragraph, so much 

 to the point of our subject, gave me hopes that I might 

 get clear of writing a paper, but on a little reflection I 

 concluded that farmers have other things to do in addition 

 to making the land rich and clean, to enable them to farm 

 advantageously. T, therefore, have no other alternative 

 than to endeavour to grapple with my subject, however 

 tmequal I find myself to it ; and I would add, that I never 

 undertook to write on any subject with more reluctance, 

 well knowing that it requires a more experienced head 

 than mine to do it justice. But having undertaken it I 

 must proceed ; and in order to give us a better view of our 

 work it is necessary to attempt to cut away the under- 

 growth that surrounds it. We shall then "be able to dis- 



tinguish more clearly the farmers' interests from the land* 

 lords.' Farming, to be advantageous, must be profitable 

 either to the tenant or to the landlord. A farm may be 

 well managed in eveiy way; but the rent may be so high 

 as to leave no profit to the tenant, or the time of his occu- 

 pation of the farm may be so short as not to permit him to 

 realize the advantage of capital lie may have invested. 

 In each of these cases the landlord will be the gainer, and 

 the tenant and the commuiaity will have no right to com- 

 plain, inasmuch as the farm is well managed. But if, on 

 the other hand, a tenant enters a farm in high cultivation, 

 and enriches himseKby impoverishing it, or should he, by 

 paying too high a rent, be unable to procure sufiicient 

 labour or manure, the landlord's purse would be aug- 

 mented at the expense of tl\e farm. But such farming, 

 although profitable to the one or the other, is not advan- 

 tageous. For if a balance were struck it would almost to 

 a certainty be found that the amount so abstracted from 

 the farm would not be sufficient to bring it up to its for^ 

 mer state of cultivation. It, therefore, follows that farm- 

 ing, to bo advantageous, must not only be profitable to the 

 landlord or the tenant, but the productiveness of the soil 

 must be kept up and partake of that continually progres- 



