AGRICULTURE 



of the tenant who understands the advantage of making manure under cover, 

 keeping his animals in comfort, and saving labour in stock management. A 

 great many of those on the small farms are built of perishable materials, such 

 as cheap wood fences from top wood off the hedge-row trees, and covered 

 with thatch. Sixty years ago many farm-buildings were made of haulm l 

 walls, with rough timber laid horizontally, and a stack of rotten straw made 

 to serve as the roof. The writer can call to mind many such. They were 

 warm and comfortable, but as straw became of more value the cost of 

 thatching was a serious matter for the tenant, for these make-shifts never 

 came under the landlords' agreements. If they were kept up they were 

 costly, if they were allowed to go to ruin the occupier had no accommodation 

 for cattle. There are still many open yards where the manure is greatly 

 deteriorated by rainfall. In some cases the stable with the door left open 

 did duty for the horse-shed, which has now mostly superseded the old plan. 

 On such premises bullocks were grazed without shedding ; the mangers, 

 or bins as they are called, stood separately about the yard. No premises 

 would now be built without a shed with manger at the back, a pathway 

 leading to the root-house enabling the animals to be fed in half the time 

 required by the old plan. Box feeding is to be found on the more wealthy 

 estates, and is occasionally adopted for cart-horses. 



The large brick barns on the great corn-growing farms are seldom used 

 for the purpose for which they were originally intended. The introduction of 

 the steam threshing-machine rendered them unnecessary. The bays of most 

 of them are now floored with asphalte or cement, on which the corn is 

 deposited as it comes from the threshing-machine. The writer has filled 

 such a barn with barley, both ends and floor, trodden in with horses ; a 

 space ten feet square being cut out for the man with the flail to commence 

 his winter's work in. The floor was gradually cleared and then the bays. 

 The cost of this hand labour will be referred to later. These large barns 

 make the best of grazing sheds, especially for summer use. 



The covered yard is steadily gaining ground ; but the reduced rents 

 prevent the landlord from spending more money on farm buildings than is 

 absolutely necessary to secure a suitable tenant. Unfortunately for the needy 

 owner, as the demand for farms becomes less, the tenant is apt to make his 

 condition of hire include the outlay of money on the premises. Formerly the 

 farmer took the tenancy as the last occupier left it, and so it went on in this 

 county till the premises in Suffolk were probably some of the worst in England. 

 A visit to the best farmed districts in Scotland convinced the writer that 

 Suffolk was immeasurably behind the Lothians and Fifeshire in agricultural 

 buildings. The introduction of the corrugated iron roof has been made use of 

 with great advantage in many cases. This material is far inferior to the 

 best pantiles for cattle-sheds, being hot in summer and cold in winter ; but the 

 Suffolk farmer has of late years become alive to the value of straw, and 

 declines to keep up large quantities of thatched roof. 



The size of farms in Suffolk may be said to range between the small 

 one-horse holding and the single farm of seven hundred acres. Many tenants 

 cultivate much more than this ; but these occupations are the result of adding 



1 The sickle left a stubble nearly 2 ft. high. When harvest was over this was mown close to the ground, 

 and the short earless straw was called haulm. 



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