On the Size of Farms. 5 



a priori, that they are not to be even better cultivated than those that 

 are large. 6. If it is meant, that a farm of 1000 acres raises more pro* 

 duce than one of 200 acres, the remark must be correct. But if the 

 1000 acres were divided into four or five farms, the produce, instead 

 of being diminished, would probably be increased. 7. The live stock 

 upon large farms is not in general of superior quality, nor are the im- 

 plements of husbandry more improved, than they are on smaller farms, 

 but rather, in both cases, the reverse ; at least they are in general bet- 

 ter taken care of on small farms, where every thing is more under the 

 eye of the farmer and his family. 8. If a greater number of people can 

 be brought to assist at any particular job, in cases of emergency, on large 

 farms, than can be collected on small possessions, the work to which 

 they are called must be great in proportion, unless we suppose, that 

 those who farm on a large scale keep a greater proportion of people, 

 than are kept by small farmers. 9. No farmer can himself oversee all 

 his servants and labourers, when scattered over 1000 acres of land. 

 He must employ several overseers, to prevent his servants from being 

 " either idle or ill directed." But one who farms 300 acres or so, 

 can, by going at the head of his men, not only direct their operations, 

 and save the expense of a bailiff, but by working along with them him- 

 self, has a good chance of getting more work performed, than if he 

 were not present. 10. It is contrary to almost uniform experience, to 

 maintain that a large capital gives more enlarged ideas, than can 

 be enjoyed by the holder of a more limited stock. On the contrary, 

 there is probably not a farmer in a thousand, who employs ten ser- 

 vants, but some of them, though they may be deficient in the punc- 

 tilios of good breeding, yet may have acquired as correct ideas on 

 the theory and practice of husbandry as their masters. 1 1. Every 

 variety of practice, such as pasturing part of the lands, and every ex- 

 periment a farmer could wish to try, may be introduced on a farm 

 of "200 or 300 acres, as well as upon one of 1000 acres, and with 

 still less risk of disappointment. 12. Large farms are not nearly 

 so favourable to the improvement of waste land, or soils of inferior qua- 

 lity, as farms of small or very moderate dimensions. 13. Farmers who 

 act on a moderate scale of operation, will as readily try experiments, 

 and with still less risk, than can be done by those who farm 1000 acres. 

 14. One shepherd and a dog may tend all the sheep that can be grazed 

 on the farm of 1000 acres ; but it is not to sheep, but to arable farms, 

 that these remarks refer. 1 5. So far from large farms bringing a high- 

 er rent, in proportion to their extent, than those that are small, the re- 

 verse is the case. 100 acres of arable land will almost always give a 

 higher rent, when let in two, or even in three possessions, than when 

 let in one. The farms in the western arable districts in Scotland, are 

 generally of small dimensions, from 50 to 150 acres, and scarcely one 

 in a thousand larger than 300 acres of arable land ; and yet with all the 

 disadvantages of a worse climate, which compel them to keep much of 

 the land in pasture, these farmers pay higher rents per acre, than are 

 paid for land of similar quality in the Lothians. The farm of Draf- 

 fen, on the estate of the Duke of Hamilton, extending to 600 acres 

 arable, was, till lately, let in one farm, to a farmer bred in Lothian. 

 But when his lease terminated, the farm was divided into five farms, 



