JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( Jamiai7 25, 1872. 



to four acres of rich land to nine or ten of inferior land will 

 be required. The wife will manage the dairy, and after 

 making a good profit by the sale of butter and milk, will have 

 plenty of this last produce left for her own children, who will 

 grow'on this diet to stalwart lads, able to do good service on 

 the farm long before they are old enough to leave school. I 

 have an idea that this milk question is an important one. It did 

 not requii'e the sad experience of the siege of Paris to^ prove 

 how essential milk is for young children. Formerly it was 

 readily obtained from the farm houses in country parishes, but 

 now, i am told, there are but few at which it can be purchased ; 

 and where there is a difficulty on this score, I believe one of 

 the most useful kinds of charity w-hich any person could adopt, 

 would be to keep cows for the purpose of selling milk to his 

 poor neighbours. It would do far more good than any amount 

 of money distributed in gifts or doles, which, as far as I can 

 see, only tend to pauperise and destroy that spirit of self- 

 respect and self-reliance which is so essential to the upward 

 progress of a people. In addition to cows a few head of sheep 

 should be kept on such a fann as I have described. They 

 will eat the herbage which the cows have passed over. But 

 cows and sheep can only be kept where there are some acres 

 of grass, and as this will not always be the case, we will 

 inquire what stock can be advantageously kept where the fruit 

 farm is only tillage laud from three to five acres in extent, 

 and what buildings will be required to house it. 



But before we house the stock we must consider how the 

 owner of it should be housed. This is a very important 

 matter; the character of the house has no inconsiderable in- 

 fluence upon that of its inhabitants, and where a whole family 

 — parents, sons, and daughters — are huddled together in one 

 sleeping-room, as is too frequently the case, all feelings of 

 decency and self-respect are destroyed, and with them the 

 fulcrum on which the lever for the upheaving of the family 

 must rest. It is true that the cottager hunself is often satis- 

 tied with his present accommodation, and in many cases if he 

 were supplied with three bedrooms, would only see in this pro- 

 vision a reason for " taldng in a lodger;" but we may hope 

 that in a few years the Education Act will have produced a 

 change of feeling in this as in many other respects, and that 

 the labourer will not be contented with the wretched hovel in 

 which he is now often obliged to live, but will demand, as a 

 condition of his labour, a cottage in which the decencies of 

 life can be observed, and a good-sized garden to counteract the 

 attractions of the beershop, aiKl to give employment for the 

 spare time of the f amOy. 



In building a cottage certam well-known prmciples must be 

 home in mind ; good drainage and proper ventilation are 

 necessities, so is the provision of a certain number of cubic 

 feet of ail- in proportion to the number of inhabitants. This 

 last point is, I thuik, sometimes exaggerated, when it is main- 

 tained that the country cottage should contain the same 

 number of cubic feet as the town dwelling or the prison cell, 

 forgetting that the countryman and his family pass much of 

 their time in the open air, and use the cottage principally as a 

 sleeping-place. The point which I should consider as the most 

 essential is, that there should be three separate bedrooms, or, 

 at any rate, the means of providing them when required by 

 the increase of the family — one for the parents, a second for 

 the girls, a third for the boys. They may be small and rough, 

 if you please, but they should he separate if any feelings of 

 modesty are to be retained. My idea of a cottage for a fruit 

 farm of from three to five acres would be this : — On the ground 

 floor one hving-room, about 18 by 1.8 feet (including the stair- 

 case), with a wash-house and back kitchen in one, 18 by 9, 

 containing furnace, oven, &c ; and on the upper floor tliree 

 separate bedrooms. I think two good rooms below ai-e better 

 than tlu-ee smaller ones, as I find that where there is a parlour, 

 as it is called, it is seldom, it ever, used. If grass laud is 

 attached, a somewiiat better description of house will be re- 

 quired ; a small parlour may be added on, and a dairy of a 

 similar size. I do not say tliat such cottages can be buUt to 

 pay a high per-centage in the way of rent, but the extra money 

 spent upon them will do far more good than if it had been 

 given in doles. 



So much for the cottage itself ; the building to which the 

 next point of honour should be given is the pigstye. The pig, 

 as in Ireland, will be a material help in paying the rent ; more 

 than this, he will consume all the refuse vegetables, and tread 

 the weeds and Potato haulm into manure, which is essential 

 for_ the success of the farm. On such a take as I have de- 

 scribed, one or even two breeding sows might be kept, and the 



young pigs which are not wanted for stores for the next winter 

 sold off as soon as they are able to leave the mother. Let us 

 see what buildings will he required for this purpose. There 

 should be two or three styes under one roof, either of wood or 

 brick, each of them 7 by 6 feet, and 4 feet liigh to the wall- 

 plate; a good-sized pound, 7 by 12 or 1-1 feet in length should 

 be attached to each. The fence of the pound should not be 

 made of brick but of slabs of wood placed sufficiently near 

 together to prevent the little pigs creeping between them ; the 

 building should face the south, and the bed should be raised 

 6 mches above the pound, and slope giaduaUy towards it. 

 Close at hand should be a cistern for wash, sufficiently large to 

 hold at least a truckload of grains of 150 bushels, as it will 

 sometimes happen that it will be necessary to keep the young 

 pigs on hand longer than is recommended, or, it may be 

 desired to feed them off as porkers. 



As to the sort of pig which is most profitable, I mcline after 

 several experiments to a half-bred Berks. High-bred pigs, 

 though they feed on less than others, are apt to be deUcate in 

 constitution, and are not such good or prolific mothers as the 

 half-bred sorts. What a poor man wants is a sow which will 

 bring on the average ten pigs at a Utter, and this twice in the 

 year, and bring them up herself in good condition without the 

 assistance of the cow ; and as far as I have been able to see, a 

 half-bred Berks will answer this description better than any 

 other. In some parts there is a prejudice in favour of white 

 pigs. Wherever this is the case a half-bred Yorkshire may be 

 preferred ; but the point I wish to iiisist on is, that a high-bred 

 pig is not a poor man's pig, uuless he can buy one at six or 

 eight months old as a store — in that case it will answer his 

 purpose better than any other, especially if he likes his bacon 

 fat, with a very slight admixture of lean. It is astonishing what 

 a large bury of manure may be produced by a small number of 

 pigs, if only care be taken to put by everything fur the pound. 

 Potato-haujm when dry, weecfs of every kind, dead leaves, or 

 grass, fern, or heather where it can be had — all should be care- 

 fully collected, and, after being well trodden by the pigs, moved 

 to the heap, and in due course passed on to the ground. 

 There is no doubt about the profit of this part of pig-keeping, 

 though some authorities have questioned whether a pig is ever 

 fed by a cottager to a profit ; but to say nothing of other con- 

 siderations, I am of opinion that this may be done. If all 

 money paid out of pocket for the purchase of the pig, for 

 grains, flour, and food of every kind is calculated, I think a 

 pig may be fed for Ss. a-score ; and this, when the pig is killed 

 and salted, will give a cottager his bacon at less than Grf. per 

 pound — no slight advantage, be it remembered, when he cannot 

 buy butchers' meat under 8(1., and when it is also remembered 

 that one pound of bacon will go as far as two of fresh meat. 

 Then there are all the incidentals to be taken into account — 

 the pig's company, the refuse he consumes wirieh would other- 

 wise be wasted, the manure he makes, last and not least the 

 air of comfort and contentment which he gives to the cottage 

 when he is suspended from the ceiling in the shape of flitches. 

 ^Vhen all these points are duly weighed, I think I shall not be 

 far off right in saying that every cottager ought to feed a pig, 

 or two if he can, for pigs are sociable animals and thrive best 

 in company; and if two are not required for the use of the 

 family, one of them can be readily sold. 



Next to the pig comes poultry, another very useful adjunct 

 to the kind of farm we are describing. At some seasons they 

 will require to be kept away from the fruit trees, but it is 

 astonishing how soon they learn what they may do, and how 

 far they are permitted to go. With regard to their dwelling- 

 place, if the pigstye is ceiled with boards about 4 feet from 

 the gi-ound, the vacant space above will make a very good 

 roostmg-place, and the warmth from the lower storey will make 

 the hens begin to lay earlier than they otherwise would. 



Here again, as with pigs, I believe the most profitable sorts 

 will be found to be half-bred. The cross between the Dorldng 

 and the Cochin, or the Dorking and the Brahma w ill be ready 

 for the table at three months old, and as they will begin to lay 

 in January, and the chickens are remarkably hardy, there will 

 be two or tlu'ee hatches ready to send to market at the end of 

 May or beginning of June, when they ought to be worth Gs. 

 a-couple. If these half-breds are allowed to grow to theu' fuU 

 size they will weigh 7 or 8 lljs. each. But the best cross for the 

 table I have ever meet with is between these half-bred hens and 

 a Game cock ; so much so, that I should recommend it for that 

 purpose in preference to any other cross, or even to pure-bred 

 bu'ds, for the pure Cochm is an ugly bird for the table, and is 

 also too fond of sitting. The Brahma is much the same in 



