ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 97 



consumed all his potatoes, and his turnips, mangel-wurzel, and 

 carrots, were given to his cows. He fatted one hundred and 

 twenty stone, or nine hundred and sixty pounds of pork, which 

 he sold to the butcher. He sold six shotes, at three months old, 

 for stores, and one pig for roasting ; and he sold also one sow in 

 pig, for 2 12s. He kept no account of the produce of his 

 cows. 



Several things are remarkable in regard to these allotments 

 and modes of management. In the first place, they are all culti 

 vated by the spade. Where labor is abundant, as in England, 

 and the great difficulty is to know how to employ it with advan 

 tage, this might be attempted even upon a large scale. The 

 expense of horses upon a farm is always a great consideration : 

 and especially upon small farms, the expense of horses, compared 

 with the amount of product, is very great, and absorbs a large 

 proportion of the income. It is estimated by many intelligent 

 farmers in England, that the horse-teams require for their main 

 tenance full one fourth of the produce of the soil. I propose 

 presently to discuss this whole subject of brute labor upon a 

 farm, and shall therefore go no farther at present than to add my 

 conviction, that the expense of their horse-teams in England, the 

 cost of their horses, which, after a certain age, is always a de 

 teriorating capital, the expense of their maintenance, shoeing, 

 harness, &c. &c., constitute a most serious drawback to the pros 

 perity of English farmers, and that some little of this may be 

 charged to the vanity of display, and the ambition of extraordi 

 nary size. Whatever it may be, on these allotments it is all 

 saved ; the labor, with the exception of the working of the cow 

 on one allotment, is all human. 



The second observation, which occurred to me, was the extra 

 ordinary pains taken in saving the manure. Nothing was wasted. 

 The animals were stall-fed, and kept constantly in the stable, and 

 a small brick or stone tank, well cemented with lime, was sunk 

 near the cow stable, and near the pigstye, which received all the 

 liquid manure ; and the contents of these tanks, on their becom 

 ing full, were pumped into a small cart, with a sprinkling-box 

 attached to it, like that used for the watering of streets in cities, 

 and distributed over the crops, always with the greatest advan 

 tage, and with effects immediately perceptible. The tanks in 

 this case were quite small, because the stock was small, and 

 9 



