Book II. ARRANGEMENT OF FARMERIES. 6U 



interest should be endangered by the enlargement of farms. Accordingly, in most of piy 

 counties, a few tenants, of superior knowledge and capital, have been seen to hold con- 

 siderable tracts of land, which, after a few years, were divided into a number of separate 

 farms. The practice of these men is a lesson to their neighbors ; and their success never 

 fails to bring forward, at the expiration of their leases, a number of competitors. 

 Whenever skill and capital come to be generally diffused, there can be few instances of 

 very large farms, if a fair competition be permitted. No individual, whatever may be 

 his fortune and abilities, can then pay so high a rent for several farms, each of them of 

 such a size as to give full room for the use of machinery, and other economical arrange- 

 ments, as can be got from separate tenants. The impossibility of exercising that vigilant 

 superintendence, which is so indispensable in agricultural concerns, cannot long be com- 

 pensated by any advantages which a great farmer may possess. His operations cannot be 

 brought together to one spot, like those of the manufacturer ; the materials on which he , 

 works are seldom in the same state for a few days, and his instruments, animated and 

 mechanical, are exposed to a great many accidents, which his judgment and experience 

 must be called forth instantly to repair. 



3847. It has been said, indeed, that a great jfarmer may pay a higher rent, because he 

 saves the family expenses of a number of small tenants. But from what fund do these 

 tenants maintain their families? It ought to be either from the profits of their capital, or 

 the wages of their labor, or from both combined, and certainly not from the landlord's 

 just share, in the shape of an abatement of rent. If they cannot pay so high a rent, 

 it must be because their capital and labor are less productive to the public than those of 

 the large farmer. Such men might, in most cases, be employed with more advantage, 

 even to themselves, in some other profession. 



3848. The various other reasons assigned for the great enlargement of farms are equally 

 nugatory. There is generally no saving to the landlord in buildings and fences ; and a 

 very small difference of rent will pay for the trouble of keeping accounts, and settling 

 with twenty tenants instead of one. The fact certainly is, that the principal, if not the 

 only reason why farms have been enlarged, is, the higher rent paid by their occupiers. 

 To pay this rent, they must bring to market more produce, and this they are enabled to 

 do, by the distribution of their crops and live stock to suitable soils and pastures ; by an 

 economical arrangement and regular succession of labor throughout the year; by the 

 use of machinery ; and, still more than all, perhaps, by the investment of capital in 

 those permanent improvements, which augment both the quantity and value of their 

 products. Rent, in fact, is an almost unerring measure of the amount of the free 

 produce ; and there is no better criterion for determining whether a tract of country be 

 laid out ^in farms of a proper size, than the amount of the rent paid to its proprietors. 

 Their interest is, in this instance, completely identified with that of the great body of 

 the people. 



3849. If we examine the various sizes of farms in those districts where the most perfect 

 freedom exists, and the best management prevails, we shall find them determined, with 



few exceptions, by the degree of superintendence which they require. Hence, pastoral 

 farms are the largest ; next, such as are composed both of grazing and tillage lands ; 

 then such rich soils as carry cultivated crops every year ; and, finally, the farnis near 

 large towns, where the grower of corn gradually gives way to the market-gardener, cul- 

 tivating his little spot by manual labor. The hills of the south of Scotland are distributed 

 into farms of the first class ; the counties of Berwick and Roxburgh into those of the 

 second ; and the smaller farms of the Lothians and of the Carse of Gowrie, where there 

 seems to be no want of capital for the management of large farms, are a sufficient proof 

 of the general principle which determines the size of farms. (Su]).Encyc. Brit. art. Agr.) 



Sect. II. Of laying out Farms and Farmeries. 



3850. The arrangement of farms naturally divides itself into whatever relates to the farm- 

 ery or home stall, and what relates to the arrangement of the fields, roads, fences, and water- 

 courses. In a country like Britain, long under cultivation, it is but seldom that these 

 can be brought completely under the control of the improver ; but cases occur where 

 this may be done without restraint, as in the enclosure of large commons; and in Ireland 

 and the highlands of Scotland, the opportunities are frequent. 



SuBSECT. 1. Of the Situation and Arrangement of the Farmery. 



3851. The general principles of designing farmeries and cottages haMing been already 

 treated of: we have in this place chiefly to apply them to particular cases. Though 

 the majority of farms may be described as of mixed culture, yet there are a num- 

 ber which are almost exclusively devoted to pasture, as mountain farms ; to meadow 

 culture, as irrigated or overflown lands; lands in particular situations, as in fenny dis- 

 tricts, and those situated on the borders of some description of rivers : there are others 

 in which peculiar crops are chiefly raised, as in the case of the hop and seed farms of 



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