396 On Spade Husbandry. 



heavy rents are exacted for it. They are much better sup- 

 Nplied with milk for their families, if they are able, by culti- 

 vating a piece of land, to keep a cow, and to raise vege- 

 tables, than where they are obliged to go to market for every 

 necessary of life. Their health also, is thus improved; they be- 

 come more industrious, and are less in danger of devoting their 

 leisure hours to improper objects, when they have every in- 

 ducement, in the intervals of their labour, to direct their at- 

 tention, to the little offices and duties connected with their 

 small possessions. As their rent is generally high, that com- 

 pels them to be industrious, and in particular to pay great 

 attention to the collecting of manure, so that every corner 

 of their little portion of land, is improved in the highest de- 

 gree. 



Spade husbandry may likewise be adopted, where the sys- 

 tem of " Field-gardening" is practised, by which small lots of 

 land are applied to garden purposes. A cottager on the 

 estate of the late Sir Henry Vavasour in Yorkshire, drew 

 up the following account of a cottage farm, containing three 

 statute acres, cultivated by the spade : 



PRODUCE. VALUE. A. R. P. 



2*0 bushels of potatoes, .24 00 020 



60 ditto of carrots, 600 010 



5 quarters of oats, at 44s. per quarter,... 11 3 20 

 4 loads of clover, part in hay, part cut 



green, 12 1 10 



Turnips 100 20 



In garden-stuffs for the family, viz. beans, 



pease, cabbages leeks, &c 000 30 



Deduct .54 00 300 



Rent, including house, .9 



Seeds, &c 300 



Value of labour 1Q 10 



.22 10 

 ProEt, L.31, 10s. at market, exclusive of butter, if sold (*). 



Under such a system, spade cultivation has its advantages, 

 and the vegetable gardeners in the vale of Evesham, or in 

 the neighbourhood of Biggleswade, would not perhaps sub- 

 stitute the plough for the spade, with profit. But these ad- 

 vantages are owing to'peculiar circumstances, and would by 

 no means be applicable to a poor soil, and a scanty produce. 



By some it is contended, that all farms under fifty acres 

 of land, should be cultivated by the spade, as such farms 

 cannot afford the expense of keeping a pair of horses ; and 

 Mr Warden is of opinion, that where six horses are requir- 

 ed, two might be saved by employing labourers to cultivate 



