42 Size of Farms. 



which, unless small possessions are to be had, they would 

 necessarily be excluded ; 2. That young men are enabled 

 to commence farming on a moderate scale ; for though pos- 

 sessed of capital, or regularly bred to the profession, they 

 are so apt to fall into errors, that they ought not at first to 

 undertake the management of too extensive a concern; 

 3. That in districts where the inhabitants possess but small 

 capitals, they are not tempted to take larger farms than 

 they can manage to advantage; for where farmers embark 

 too largely at first, they often go to ruin ; and, 4. That if 

 agriculture should cease to flourish, it is more likely to find 

 persons fit to occupy small farms, than those of larger di- 

 mensions. 



Among small farms may be included, those lots of land, 

 cultivated for health or amusement, by the inhabitants of 

 small towns and villages, who likewise derive other advan- 

 tages from the produce thus raised, more especially when they 

 cultivate potatoes. These lots are generally of so moderate 

 an extent, that they can be managed by spade culture. This, 

 with hoeing and dressing the crop through the summer, and 

 digging it up in autumn, affords a healthful and agreeable 

 out-door exercise to tradesmen, who are necessarily much 

 confined to their houses ; and the crop which they thus 

 raise at a moderate expense, forms a considerable part of 

 their provision, for three or four months, at the end of au- 

 tumn and beginning of winter. After potatoes, it is now be- 

 come a common practice to sow wheat, which usually yields 

 an abundant return. 



It is astonishing that so beneficial a practice, should not 

 have been introduced into England, as it is found to have a 

 most advantageous influence, in regard both to health and 

 morals. Manufacturers and others, by thus dividing their 

 time between the labours of the field, and their occupations 

 within doors, become healthy and vigorous ; their offspring 

 are more robust, and growing up in habits of temperance 

 and industry, are strangers to those courses of dissipation, 

 idleness, and vice, to which youth, in great towns, are so 

 much exposed, and so often fall a sacrifice. The produce 

 raised on these lots also, furnishes some security against any 

 temporary want of employment, when trade is dull. 



2. Moderate-sized Farms. These are well calculated, 1. 

 For the dairy system ; 2. For the neighbourhood of large 

 towns ; and, 3. For persons whose capital is not abundant. 



1. There are few trades, in which a small capital can be 

 employed to greater advantage, than in a dairy farm ( I5a ) ; yet 



