Size of Farms. 43 



there is no branch in agriculture, where such constant and 

 unremitting attention is required. This necessary attention 

 is not to be expected from hired servants ; but the whole 

 concern may in a great measure be managed, or at least 

 superintended, by the farmer's wife and daughters, by whose 

 aid it may be rendered productive. Nor is attention within 

 doors sufficient; if cows are fed out of doors, they must not 

 be compelled to travel to their pasture, far from the place 

 where they are milked ( l53 ). Moderate-sized farms, there- 

 fore, are in this respect advantageous; and are still more 

 likely to answer, when the farmer considers his cows as his 

 pride ; when he takes delight in shewing his stock to his 

 friends; in detailing their birth and progress; in dwell- 

 ing on the condition to which he has brought them ; and 

 in pointing out the beauties of their progeny, and the excel- 

 lence of their produce ( IS4 ). 



2. In the neighbourhood of towns, moderate-sized farms 

 are general. This necessarily results from the high rents 

 paid in such situations ; the shortness of the leases usually 

 granted ; and the necessity the farmer is under, of selling, 

 in small quantities, the articles produced on his farm. Hence 

 it is, that in Flanders, which is full of large towns and vil- 

 lages, the farms are moderate in size. This is likewise of 

 advantage to the towns, for where there is a great number 

 of farmers, there is more competition, lesser objects are at- 

 tended to, and the markets are, at least with the smaller ar- 

 ticles, more regularly and better supplied. 



On this subject it has been remarked, that farmers in the 

 vicinity of large towns, resemble retail shopkeepers, whose 

 attention must be directed to small objects, by which a 

 great deal of money is got, the greater part of which would 

 be lost, without the most unremitting attention. The 

 farmer at a distance from markets, who cultivates land on a 

 great scale, may, on the other hand, be compared to a whole- 

 sale trader, who, as his profits are less, requires a greater ex- 

 tent of land, for the purpose both of engaging his attention, 

 and of enabling him to support that station of life in which he 

 is placed. There is this difference also, between farmers in 

 the neighbourhood of towns, a'nd those who reside at a dis- 

 tance from them, that the former find it more profitable, to 

 sell their produce, even such bulky articles as turnips, po- 

 tatoes, clover, hay, and straw, than to fatten cattle for the 

 butcher; and they are enabled to do so, without injury to 

 their farms, as they can procure dung in return. Indeed 



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