Book IV. FARMERIES. 425 



which may be intersected by walks, so as to divide it into four or six other parallelograms, 

 with a surrounding border as broad as the enclosure fence is high. 



2755. An orchard may either be regularly formed on an allotted space ; or fruit trees 

 may be scattered over a lawn or piece of grass ground which may surround the house. 

 In a convenient part of this orchard, posts should be fixed as a drying ground, unless 

 that operation is performed by heated air or steam in the house. 



2756. The gardens appended to the laborer s cottages may contain from one-eighth to 

 one-sixth of an acre. Their situation should always adjoin the house, but whether they 

 should surround it or enclose it on one or more sides, must depend on the position of the 

 cow-house belonging to each cottage. In some cases, and perhaps it is the best plan, 

 these cow-houses form a range by themselves in a small field devoted to their use, and 

 placed behind the row of cottages. 



Sect. VI. Of the Union of the different Farm Buildings and Enclosures in a Farmery, 



2757. Infixing the arrangement of a set of farm buildings, the first thing, according to 

 Beatson, to be taken into consideration, after choosing the situation, is the nature and pro- 

 duce of the farm. From these may be judged the different kinds of accommodation 

 that will be necessary. For example, every farm must have, first, a dwelling-house ; 

 secondly, a barn suitable to the extent of arable land in the farm, either with or without 

 a threshing mill, but always with one, if possible ; and it should be endeavored to 

 place it so that it may go by water, if a supply can be had ; thirdly, stables, the dimen. 

 sions of which must be determined according to the number of horses necessary for the 

 farm ; fourthly, cow-houses, or feeding-houses, or both, according to the number of 

 cows and cattle, and so on, till the whole accommodations, and their dimensions, are 

 fixed upon. Having ascertained these, and the situation for building on being also settled, 

 the ground must be carefully and attentively viewed ; and if not very even, the different 

 levels must be observed, and the best way of conducting all the necessary drains, 

 and carrying off all superfluous moisture. Also the best situation for dung and 

 urine-pits, or reservoirs, Avhich will, in a great degree, ascertain at once where the cattle- 

 houses and stables should be. These being fixed on, the barn should be as near them 

 as possible, for the convenience of carrying straw to the cattle ; and the barn-yard 

 should l)e contiguous to the barn . These main points being determined on, the others 

 will easily be found ; always observing this rule, to consider what is the nature of the 

 work to be done about each office, and then the easiest and least laborious way to per- 

 form that work, so far as it is connected with other offices. In case this should not be 

 sufficiently explicit, suppose, by way of illustration, the situation of a feeding-house is 

 to be considered of. The nature of the work to be performed here is, bringing food and 

 litter to the cattle, and taking' away their dung. The place from whence the greatest 

 part perhaps of their food and all their litter comes, is the barn ; therefore the feeding- 

 house should be as near the barn as possible. If turnips or other roots, or cabbages, 

 make a part of their food, the most commodious way of giving these must be determined 

 on ; whether by having a root-house adjoining the cattle-house, and that filled occasionally, 

 or by having a place to lay them down in, near the heads of the stall, from whence they are 

 thrown in at holes left in the walls for that purpose. The easiest method of clearing away 

 the dung must also be considered, and the distance'from the main dung-pit and urine 

 reservoir. The same general rule being observed in determining on the site of all the 

 other offices or accommodations, together with a careful examination of the ground to 

 be occupied (upon which the arrangement of the offices in a great measure should de- 

 pend), any person conversant in rural affairs, who attends to these particulars, and can 

 lay down his ideas in a drawing, may easily direct the planning and building Of a very 

 commodious set of offices. "With respect to the site of the dwelling-house, it may be 

 remarked, that, although a house being situate in the middle of a regular front, is in 

 some points of view the most pleasing way, and in many situations perhaps the best, 

 yet, unless the ground and other circumstances in every respect favor such a disposition, 

 it should not invariably be adhered to ; for it may often happen, that a much better 

 situation for the dwelling-house may be obtained at a little distance from the offices, a 

 pleasing uniformity be observed in them at the same time, and the house be more healthy 

 and agreeable. In some cases, and for some kinds of farms, it may be particularly ne- 

 cessary to have the house so placed, in respect to the offices and farm-yard, as to admit 

 of their being constantly inspected, and the labor that is to be performed in them attended 

 to and overlooked. 



2758. The particular requisites of a farmstead, Marshall observes, " are as various as 

 the intentions of farms. A sheep-farm, a grazing-farm, a hay-farm, a dairy-farm, and 

 one under mixed cultivation, may require different situations, and different arrange- 

 ments of yards and buildings. On a farm of the last species, which may be considered 



