608 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



Chap. XI. 

 Of the Laying Out of Farm and other Culturable Lands. 



3835. The farming lands of an estate are in general the grand source of its annual 

 rental. The demesne lands are chiefly for enjoyment ; the roads afford no direct in- 

 come ; the villages, manufactories, commonly the mines and fisheries, and often also the 

 woods, yield no income of consequence ; but there remains the lands to be let out to the 

 professional farmer, market gardener, nurseryman, and cottagers; from these the land- 

 lord generally derives his principal return for the capital laid out on the estate. Having 

 therefore disposed of all the other parts of the territory, it remains only to arrange the farm- 

 ing or culturable lands in farms of different characters and sizes, in cottage lands, gardens, 

 or orchard grounds : these may be considered in regard to their extent and arrangement. 



Sect. I. Of the Extent or Size of Farm and Cottage Lands. 



3836. The proper size of farms, or of land to be let in any way, must necessarily be 

 that which best suits the markets : not altogether the market of the moment, for there 

 may be a run for large or for small farms ; but the market on an average of years, 

 times, and circumstances. If small farms and cottages, with minute portions of land 

 attached, will bring higher rents than larger possessions, then unquestionably the land- 

 lord does well to arrange his territory in this way ; unless it can be proved that a dealer 

 in land has not the same right over his own property as a dealer in any other commodity. 

 But it has been said by some that small, and by others that large farms are injurious to 

 the country. Admitting for a moment that either was the case, will any man assert that 

 an individual is to forego his own just advantage, for the sake of the public ? Such a 

 doctrine would be absurd, and lead to the most ruinous consequences to society, as might 

 easily be proved by supposing a general extension of the principle of preferring the 

 public benefit to one's own private advantage. On this subject we submit the senti- 

 ments of the able author of the article Agriculture, in the Supp. to the Encyc. Brit., 

 already often quoted. 



3837. The various objections to large farms, which were urged by Dr. Price, Lord 

 Kaimes, and most of the economical writers of the last century, we have not here room 

 to examine. Much stronger reasons, certainly, than any that have been hitherto ad- 

 vanced, must be required to justify the interference of the legislature with the rights of 

 the agricultural classes with that of a landliolder to draw the greatest revenue from 

 his property, and with that of a farmer to extend his concerns as far as his capital and 

 abilities will permit. Even though it should be conceded to Dr. Price, that a given 

 extent of land yields a greater produce in the hands of several small farmers than of 

 one great farmer, it still remains to inquire, what part of that produce can be spared for 

 the general consumption? and whether the labor of these people might not be em- 

 ployed with more advantage than on such minute portions of land, as yield, even in the 

 best seasons, little more than food for their own subsistence ? In Britain, of which the 

 families employed in agriculture are to those of the whole population only as one to 

 2-84, and in which the proportion of lands cultivated, or that may be cultivated, is not 

 four acres to every individual, the great object ought certainly to be, to increase the 

 dvijwsable produce of the country for the supply of the general population. 



3838. The grand objection to large farms, that they depopulate the country, is not 

 supported by facts. The population of the country has not only greatly increased since 

 the enlargement of farms, but, in the ten years from 1801 to 1811, this increase ap- 

 pears to have been only two per cent, less than that of the town population. The fact 

 is, that the increase of the rural population has been in a greater ratio than that of the 

 town population, in those counties, such as Northumberland, where very large farms 

 abound ; and where, indeed, as is usually the case, this state of things is combined with 

 a spirited and productive system of agriculture. Even in Lancashire, the ratio of in- 

 crease is only two per cent, in favour of the towns ; but no one will ascribe this to the 

 enlargement of farms. The truth seems to be, that, wherever agriculture has made the 

 greatest progress, whatever may be the size of thq farms, the increase of employment 

 has been attended with a corresponding increase of population ; and that the ratio of 

 increase has been kept down below that of towns, by no other causes than the stationary 

 condition or slow progress of agriculture in some parts, and the superior allurements of 

 manufactures and commerce in others. It is further to be remarked, that, throughout the 

 whole of the arable districts of Scotland, the number of people is proportionably greater 

 on large than on small farms. The number of hands required on the former is too great 

 to be lodged in the farmer's own house; and, therefore, on all such farms, cottages are built 

 for their residence. These cottages are generally inhabited by married men, whose 

 families find employment in hoeing green crops, and other easy work, from a very early 

 age. In the less improved counties, on the other hand, where small farms still prevail. 



