553 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



porary advantage is reaped, by an increased price of market produce, the foundation of 

 a permanent disadvantage is laid ; and whenever the manufactory declines, the lands 

 of its neighborhood have not only its vices and extravagancies entailed upon them ; but 

 have the vicious, extravagant, helpless manufacturers themselves to maintain. This accu- 

 mulation of evils, however, belongs particularly to that description of manufacture which 

 draws numbers together in one place ; where diseases of the body and the mind are jointly 

 propagated; and where no other means of support is taught than that of some particular 

 branch or branchlet of manufacture. 



3569. Cottages. Wherever cottages for any class of men are built, whether singly or 

 congregated, they ought never to be without an eighth or a tenth of an acre of garden 

 ground. It is observed in The Code of Agriculture, that "where a laborer or country 

 tradesman has only a cottage to protect him from the inclemency of the weather, he can- 

 not have the same attachment to his dwelling, as if he had some land annexed to it; 

 nor is such a state of the laborer so beneficial to the community, When a laborer 

 has a garden, his children learn to dig and weed, and in that manner some of their 

 time is employed in useful industry. If he is possessed of a cow, they are taught 

 early in life, the necessity of taking care of cattle, and acquire some knowledge of 

 their treatment. But where there is neither a garden to cultivate, nor any cows kept, 

 they are not likely to acquire either industrious or honest habits. So strongly were 

 these ideas formerly prevalent, that by the 43d of Elizabeth, no cottage could be built on 

 any waste, without having four acres attached to it. This is now by far too much. If 

 the quantity were reduced to half an acre for a garden, and if no person could gain a set- 

 tlement who was not a native, or, if a stranger, who did not fairly rent in the same parish, 

 a house and land worth twenty, instead of ten pounds per annum, both the poor and the 

 public would thence derive very essential benefit. 



3570. Cottagers in England have often no land or garden, but a right of common. 

 This is of little or no real benefit to them, unless to obtain fuel, the advantage of which 

 is great, and not easily compensated. With a common-right for a cow, or a few sheep, 

 cottagers get an idea of visionary independence, which renders them unfit for the duties 

 of their station. A laborer of this description is entirely spoiled for industry, and the 

 generality of experienced persons in country matters must have seen many cases in point. 

 Forest-side cottages in particular, are nurseries of idleness, and seminaries of mischief. 

 In some cases, the cottager has good summer pasture, or can hire it in the neighl)orhood, 

 and can raise, on arable land in his occupation, turnips and other winter food for a cow. 

 This plan is adapted to countries, where there is a mixture of arable and grazing land ; 

 but it is objected to, in the more cultivated districts, as taking up too much of the time 

 of the laborer. 



3571. The most advantageous system for keeping a cottage cow is that adopted in grazing 

 districts, where a cottager has a sufficient quantity of enclosed land in grass, to enable 

 him to keep one or two cows both summer and winter, grazing the one half, and mowing 

 the other, alternately. Nothing tends more materially to teach the poor honesty, than al- 

 lowing them to have property which they can call their own. Feeling how intensely they 

 would deprecate all infringement upon it, they are less likely to make depredations upon 

 the property of others ; and this will produce more honesty among them than the best 

 delivered precepts can instil. By the cultivation of a small spot of land, a cottager not 

 only acquires ideas of property, but is enabled to supply himself with that variety of food, 

 as fresh vegetables in summer, and roots in winter, which comfort and health require. If 

 he should fortunately be able to keep bees in his garden, and if its surplus produce should 

 also enable him to rear, and still more to fatten a hog, his situation would be much ame- 

 liorated. But if, in addition to all these advantages, he can keep a cow, the industrious 

 cottager cannot be placed in a more comfortable situation. 



3572. Cottages and villages necessarily result from manufactories, as well as from ex- 

 tensive mines, quarries, or harbours. A ievf cottages will necessarily be scattered over 

 every estate, to supply day laborers and some descriptions of country tradesmen. Villages 

 are seldom, in modern times, created by an agricultural population; it being found so 

 much more convenient for every farm to have a certain number of cottages attached to it. 



3573. A village may be created any where, by giving extraordinary encouragement to 

 the first settlers ; but unless there be a local demand for their labor, or they can engage 

 in some manufacture, the want of comfortable subsistence will soon throw the whole into 

 a state of decay. Fishing villages, and such as are established at coal and lime works, 

 are perhaps the most thriving and permanent in the kingdom. Some fine examples of 

 fishing villages, recently established, occur on the marquess of Stafford's estates in 

 Sutherland. 



3574. Informing the plan of a town or village, the first thing, if there is a river or other 

 means of communication by water, is to fix on a proper situation for a quay or harbour ; 

 and next, at no great distance from it, an open space as a market. Round the latter 

 ought to be arranged the public buildings, as the post-office, excise or custom-house, 



