Book II. SIZE OF FARMS 677 



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

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

 landlord 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 farming 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. Extent or Size of Farm and Cottage Lauds. 



4151. 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. 



415'2. The enlargement or diminution off arms can proceed only for a time, and to a limited 

 extent. The interest of the landlord, which gave the first impulse, is ever vigilant to check 

 its progress, when it is attempted to carry the measure beyond due bounds. It is in this 

 that the security of the public consists, if it were ever possible that the public interest 

 should be endangered by the enlargement of farms. Accordingly, in most of our coun- 

 ties, a few tenants, of superior knowledge and capital, have been seen to hold consider- 

 able 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 neighbours ; and their success never 

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

 ever 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 arrangements, 

 as can be got from separate tenants. The impossibility of exercising that vigilant super- 

 intendence, which is so indispensable in agricultural concerns, cannot long be compen- 

 sated 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 anil 

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

 must be called forth instantly to repair. 



4153. If ice examine the various sizes of farms in those districts icliere 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 farms near 

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

 tivating his little spot by manual labour. The hills of the south of Scotland are distri- 

 buted 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. (Sup. 

 Encyc. Brit. art. Agr.) 



Sect. II. Laying out Farms and Farmeries. 



4154. The arrangement of farms naturally divides itself into whatever relates to the 

 farmery 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. Situation and Arrangement of the Farmery. 



4155. The general principles of designing farmeries and cottages having been already 

 tieated 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 number 

 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 districts, 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 Kent, Essex, 

 and Surrey. All these require a somewhat different kind and extent of accommodation 

 in the farm buildings. 



4156. The requisites for a farmery common to most characters of farms are. a central 

 situation, neither too high nor too low. shelter, water, exposure to the south or south- 



X x 3 



