12 POSITION OF THE FARM-HOUSE AND OFFICES. 



cupy, (more especially if it were of considerable extent, 

 namely, from 300 to 500, or 1000 acres) would be, whether 

 the farm-house and offices were properly situated, and erect- 

 ed as nearly as possible in the centre of the farm. In many 

 cases this would make a difference in point of rent, of from 

 Is. to even 5s. per acre, according to the size of the farm, 

 and various local circumstances therewith connected. The 

 difference is calculated, by some intelligent farmers, at the 

 expence of a plough, or L.I 00, and on very extensive farms 

 at nearly L.200 per annum.* If the house and offices are 

 placed in the corner of a large farm, a part of the land will 

 often be neglected by the farmer ; less manure will be sent 

 to it; the expence of cultivation is materially increased; the 

 strength of the horses uselessly wasted in going backwards 

 and forwards, instead of being employed in profitable labour* 

 whilst the remote part of the farm is left, in what in Scotland 

 is called an outfield or aftenoaU state, that is to say, in mise- 

 rable pasturage occasionally broken up. 



In the improved districts of Scotland, this is a point as 

 much attended to as the circumstances of the case admit of, 

 more especially when any new buildings are constructed.-^ 



* Mr Walker of Mellendean states, that the old farm-buildings on his 

 farm of Rutherford, before he got possession of it, were placed on the 

 very extremities of the ground, and the acclivity from them being consi- 

 derable, the upper part of the iand of course got a very small share (if any) 

 of the manure. The principal buildings are now nearly central, for 800 

 acres, and another set of offices equally so for the remainder; by which 

 means the corn is carried a much shorter distance to the barn-yard, and 

 the dung to the fields at much less expence. These, and other conveni- 

 ences, he calculates are equal tea saving of nearly L.i'00/>cr <mnum. 



t It is remarked by an intelligent correspondent, that the farm-build- 

 ings in the more improved districts of Scotland, are in general much more 

 convenient than those to be met in almost any other country ; and that 



