Size of Farms. 45 



implements, modes of labour, &c. are considered, it explains 

 at once, how large farms were originally introduced, and 

 have since been so generally established. 



In regard to the general question, it cannot be doubted, 

 that in an extensive tract of country, there must always be, 

 owing to a variety of circumstances, a considerable diversi- 

 ty in the size of farms; but at the same time, that there is a 

 regular progress, tending, first, to augment, and afterwards 

 to diminish their general extent. 



At first, when the art of agriculture is in its infancy, 

 farms must be small, because there is neither sufficient capi- 

 tal for the cultivation, nor skill for the management of large 

 occupations ; nor are large farms necessary in that period of 

 society, because it is seldom that great numbers of inhabitants 

 are collected in towns, who must be provided with food. Be- 

 sides, a feudal chieftain is desirous of increasing the number 

 of his followers ; and for want of other sources of employ- 

 ment, a father has no other means of providing for his sons, 

 when they remain at home, than by giving them a share of his 

 farm. In the course of a few generations, therefore, a farm 

 of even a considerable extent, is thus frittered down into very 

 trifling possessions. Hence there is a strong tendency, in the 

 first stages of agriculture, to have farms of a small size, and to 

 have a number of these united together, under what may be 

 called the village system. 



In process of time however, as population advances, 

 as capital increases, and as skill improves, farms are en- 

 larged ; and it is found by experience, that one man can 

 cultivate any given extent of country, (say from 300 to 500 

 acres and upwards), at less expense, can raise a greater pro- 

 duce, and can afford a higher rent, than a number of small 

 occupiers. During this stage of the progress, farms are con- 

 joined, and the farmer of skill and capital, not only rents tracts 

 of country in his own immediate neighbourhood, but is also 

 tempted to speculate even in remote occupations. Farms 

 thus increase to a very large extent, and indeed attain a size, 

 which, at first sight, appears calculated, (unless where it is the 

 practice to have married servants, or the culture is of a very 

 superior description), materially to diminish the number of 

 persons, deriving their subsistence from the cultivation of 

 the soil. 



Two circumstances, however, afterwards take place, which 

 have a strong tendency again to diminish the size of farms. 



1. As the great inducement of any individual to enlarge, 

 as far as he can, his concerns in agriculture, is owing to 



