1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



501 



epace under iheni wiih slraw — you will thus have 

 an ice-house surrounded on all sides witli a thici\- 

 ness of about two feel of straw. When the ice is 

 put away, cover the whole with a suitable thick- 

 ness of straw, which should be removed once or 

 twice in the course ol the summer, as it becomes 

 wet, and replace it with a fresh dry covering. 

 By pursuing these means, you need never be 

 without a plentiful supply of ice at all seasons. 



P. E. T. 



From itie Edinburgh Farmers' Magazine. 

 AN ESSAY ON THE PROPER SIZE OF FARMS. 



This will best appear from observing the effects 

 of the diflerent classes of farms as at present ex- 

 isting, and which may be arranged under the (bl- 

 lovving heads: 



I. Of larms altogether under tillage. 



II. Of farms altogether in pastures. 



III. Of farms partly in tillage, and partly 

 pasture. 



Head I. 



Of farms altogether under tillage, yet includ- 

 ing as much pasture as may serve the milch-cows 

 lor the family use alone. 



These again may be subdivided under the fol- 

 lowing classes: 



Yst, Of small farms in the occupation of me- 

 chanics. 



2d. Of small farms in the occupation of hus- 

 bandmen, having no other profession. 



3d, Of two or more farms contiguous, cultivated 

 by one farmer. 



Ath, Of several farms separated from one ano- 

 ther, but in one man's occupation. First, then, 



Of small farms in the occupation of mechanics. 



These are generally to be met with in the vicin- 

 ity of towns or large villages ; there are some ex- 

 amples of them also in the smaller villages scatter- 

 ed over the country, in which the wright, the smith, 

 the Webster, or the sutor, have their bit ol land. 



The husbandry of all these, without a single 

 exception, is bad ; the more inexcusable, when it 

 happens to be in the immediate vicinity of a po- 

 pulous town, where, from market and manure, 

 they ought to be in the best state: but there is an in- 

 herent vice in this system, which no situation can 

 counterbalance. For agriculture, in such hands, 

 can never be more than a secondary object, or 

 rather a by-job altogether: But, unhappily, this 

 is not all the mischief; for even their primary pro- 

 fession sufi'ers in their unavoidable distraction of 

 attention between the different occupations: And 

 thus, fi-om commencing their agricultural career, as 

 bad husbandmen, they commonly dwindle down, 

 in the end, to be sorry mechanics likewise. 



It would, however, be wrong to prohibit this 

 species of husbandry. Why should a man be 

 liindered from giving vent to his ibily in this line, 

 as well as in any other. His time, to be sure, is 

 very ill bestowed on such a speculation ; but it 

 would be worse spent in the tavern, on the t^rf, 

 or in the cock-pit ; and if there be any truth in the 

 notion, that the health of such people is promoted 

 by rural operations, it may compensate in some 

 degree, to the state, what it thus loses by their 

 wretched cultivation. 



There are, indeed, some examples ol farms on 



a larger scale, that are occupied by townsmen, in 

 which tlie cultivation is by no means bad. Some 

 people, however, are ill-natured enough to remark, 

 that the original profession declines in proportion 

 as the farming advances : but the consideration of 

 this is Ibreign to the present question. 



2. Of small farms in the hands of husband- 

 men having no other profession. 



By a farm of this description, I mean one of a 

 single ploughgate of land, containing from 30 to 50 

 acres. 



In this situation, the farmer cannot afford to lie 

 idle, as it is termed ; he must be a laborer him- 

 self, and is commonly the hardest wrought la- 

 borer on his farm. He is indeed the only able- 

 bodied man about his toivnj his servants consist- 

 ing of a raw lad to assist him in the field-opera- 

 tions, and a boy to take care of the cows. In win- 

 ter, he may have an old man, supernumerary, to 

 assist him four or five months to thrash out his 

 crop ; but, at all seasons, he receives much assist- 

 ance from the female part of the family. The 

 women are ever kept in full employment. They 

 redd the barn to the old roan; they fork the dungy 

 and spread it along with the lad ; they muck 

 the byre, and fother the nolt with the boy ; they 

 carry the seed-corn to the gudeman; and, \n 

 company with the gudewife, they weed the lint, 

 and dress it ; and besides spinning, and the daily 

 operations of the dairy, and making of the por- 

 ridge and kale, they have the occasional drudgery 

 of the washings to perform too. Nothing, indeed, 

 can exceed the industry of this part of the fiimily, 

 but the cheerfulness of their disposition, and their, 

 unafiected simplicity of manners. 



With regard to the agriculture of this ploddino- 

 class of farmers it depends very much on the prac- 

 tice they have been educated in. No improve- 

 ment almost was ever known to originate with them. 

 They have even areluctancy to adopt any that may 

 be suggested to them. This does not arise, howe- 

 ver, from any perversity of disposition or failure of 

 intellect ; but it is the natural consequence of their 

 confined situation, and scarcity of transactions. 

 They cannot afford to mix with the world from 

 curiosity: even their indispensable absence from 

 home, on account of business, is peculiarly in- 

 convenient and expensive, as it lays the full half 

 of their home-operations at a stand, while the lit- 

 tle business they have to transact abroad is not 

 flill employment for the time. 



There are, however, many examples of good 

 cultivation in this class, (in well established modes 

 of good cultivation they are indeed excelled by 

 none); but it will always be found, that the most in- 

 telligent of them or those who have had, from some 

 specialty in their circumstances, an unusual in- 

 tercourse at an early period with society ; or who, 

 living in the vicinity of a great town, have hence 

 acquired, at little expense, a knowledge of man- 

 kind, and of the principles of improvement, which 

 in a remote situation, in their limited sphere, they 

 never could have attained. 



Whenever our country is so completely culti- 

 vated, that there will not remain a single improve- 

 ment that can be made, either by inclosing, drain- 

 ing, watering, &c., or in cattle, implements, or ro- 

 tation, then may it be laid out into such small farms, 

 and consigned into the hands of these little te- 

 nants, who will be able, perhaps, without any great 



