4 On tlie Size of Farms. 



a profitable state of cultivation, more especially when situated at a 

 distance from manure, and markets. A flock of sheep however, can- 

 not possibly be kept with advantage on a small farm. The greatest 

 storehouse in the kingdom, (the county of Norfolk,) depends for its 

 fertility on this mode of consuming turnips. Though good land there- 

 fore, situated near large towns, and tenacious soils, in other situations, 

 may be cultivated in moderate-sized occupations, yet, in the great corn 

 growing districts in the southern parts of the kingdom, the farms must 

 be large, for the purpose of raising a great surplus produce, otherwise 

 the inhabitants of the metropolis, and of other large towns, cannot 

 procure food raised by British skill and industry, but must trust to 

 the precarious supplies of foreign countries for their subsistence, a 

 state of dependence, to which any nation, who can produce in its own 

 territories, the indispensable necessaries of life, ought not to submit. 



Arguments in favour of Small farms. 



Such are the arguments advanced in favour of large farms. They 

 are controverted by those who argue, in favour of farms of small or 

 moderate dimensions, on the following grounds : 



In answer to the first of these conclusions, they contend, that the 

 saving of expense in building three or four farm-steads of moderate di- 

 mensions, instead of one on a large scale, is in some measure imagi- 

 nary : That the accommodation for cattle must be nearly the same, 

 whether 100 cattle are kept in one cow-house, or in four or five. A 

 tenant occupying 1000 acres, would expect a better dwelling-house 

 than one renting only 200 acres. But though four or five inferior 

 houses would cost more than a single house for a large farm, yet the 

 expense of erecting additional houses for servants, would go far to 

 make up the difference ; and the additional roads on the large farm, 

 above what would be needed in four or five small farms, would exhaust 

 the superior expense of the dwelling-houses. 2. The additional 

 fences on small farms occupy more ground, and shelter vermin. But 

 surely the shelter of thorn fences will enhance the value of a farm, by 

 screening it and the cattle from the severity of the storms, so usual in 

 these northern latitudes. 3. If farmers were all to live in the style of 

 gentlemen, five families on 1000 acres would expend more money 

 than one family. But if farmers live as they ought to do, only in a small 

 or moderate degree better than their own servants, and labour like them, 

 the expense on that score would only be small, and would be much 

 more than compensated by the labour they perform. 4. One large 

 threshing-mill would not cost so much as four or five mills on even a 

 smaller scale ; but in regard to horses, ploughs, harrows, carts, and all 

 ordinary implements of husbandry, the expenses must be nearly the 

 same, whether the 1000 acres are farmed by one or by five tenants. 

 5. It is not true that land is better cultivated on large than it is on 

 small farms ; but in many cases the reverse. Neither is there any 

 circumstance connected with small farms, that can warrant an opinion 



pastures, upon the arable land in the vale, which is highly exceptionable, as it 

 impoverishes large tracts, for enabling smaller portions of land to produce grain. 



