Book V. KEEPING ACCOUNTS. 789 



4875. There are nowhere to be met iv.ith more active^ respectable, and co?iscie7itious servants than those 

 who are kept according to this systetn. There is hardly an instance of their soliciting relief from the 

 public. They rear numerous families, who are trained to industry and knowledge in the operations of 

 agriculture, and whose assistance in weeding the crops, &c. is of considerable service to the farmer. 

 They become attached to the farm, take an interest in its prosperity, and seldom think of removing from 

 it Under this system every great farm is a species of little colony, of which the farmer is the resident 

 governor. Nor, on the whole, can there be a more gratifying spectacle than to see a large estate under the 

 direction of an intelligent landlord, or of an agent competent to the task of managing it to advantage ; 

 where the farms are of a proper size ; where they are occupied by industrious and skilful tenants, anxious 

 %p promote, in consequence of the leases they enjoy, the improvement of the land in their possession ; and 

 where the cultivation is carried on by a number of married servants enjoying a fair competence and rear- 

 ing large families, sufficient not only to replace themselves, but also, from their surplus population, to 

 supply the demand and even the waste of the other industrious classes of the community. Such a system, 

 there is reason to believe, is brought to a higher degree of perfection and carried to a greater extent in 

 tlie more improved districts of Scotland than perhaps in any other country in Europe. {Code, ^c.) 



4876. A shepherd is of course only requisite on sheep farms ; and no description of 

 farm servant is required to be so steady and attentive. At the lambing season much of 

 the farmer's property is in his hands, and depends on his unwearied exertions early and 

 late. Such servants should be well paid and comfortably treated. 



4877. The labourers required on a farm are few ; in general, one for field operations, 

 as hedge and ditch work, roads, the garden, cleaning out furrows, &c. ; and another for 

 attending to the cattle, pigs, and straw-yard, killing sheep and pigs when required, &c. 

 will be sufficient. Both will assist in harvest, liay-time, threshing, filling dung, &c. 

 These men are much better servants when married and hired by the year, than when 

 accidental day labourers. 



4878. The female servants required in a farmery are casual, as haymakers, turnip 

 hoers, &c. ; or yearly, as house, dairy, and poultry maids. Much depends on the steadi- 

 ness of the first class ; and it is in general better to select them from the families of the 

 married servants, by whicJi means their conduct and conversation is observable by their 

 parents and relations. A skilful dairy-maid is a most valuable servant, and it is well 

 when the cattle-keeper is her husband ; both may live in the fanner's house (provided 

 they have no children), and the man may act as groom to the master's horse and chaise, 

 and assist in brewing, butchery, &c. In the cheese districts, men often milk the cows, 

 and manage the whole process of the dairy ; but females are surely much better calcu- 

 lated for a business of so domestic a nature, and where so much depends on cleanliness. 



4879. Farmers apprentices are not common, but parish boys are so disposed of in 

 some parts of the west of England, and might be so generally. They are said to make 

 the best and steadiest servants ; and indeed the remaining in one situation, and under 

 one good master for a fixed period, say not less than three years, must have a great 

 tendency to fix the character and morals of youth in every line or condition of life. 



4880. Apprentices intended for farmers are generally young men who have received a tolerable education 

 beforehand, and have attained to manhood or nearly so. These pay a premium, and are regularly in- 

 structed in the operations of farming. We have already alluded to the example of Walker, who considers 

 such apprentices, notwithstanding the care required to instruct them, rather useful than otherwise. 

 {Ilusb. of Scot. vol. ii. p. 106.) 



4881. To train ploughmen to habits of activity and diligence is of great importance. In 

 some districts they are proverbial for the slowness of their step, which they teach their 

 horses ; whereas these animals, if accustomed to it, would move with as much ease to 

 themselves in a quick as in a slow pace. Hence their ploughs seldom go above two 

 miles in an hour, and sometimes even less ; whereas, where the soil is light and sandy, 

 they might go at the rate of three miles and a half. Farmers are greater sufferers than 

 they imagine by this habitual indolence of their workmen, which extends from the plough 

 to all their other employments, for it makes a very important difference in the expense of 

 labour. {Code.) 



Chap. IV. 

 General Management of a Farm. 



4882. The importance of an orderly systematic mode of inanaging every concern is suf- 

 ficiently obvious. The points which chiefly demand a farmer's attention are the accounts 

 of money transactions, the management of servants, and the regulation of labours. 



Sect. I. Keeping Accounts. 



4883. It is a maxim of the Dutch, that " no one is ever ruined ivho keeps good ac- 

 counts," which are said in The Code of Agricidture to be not so common among farmers 

 as they ought to be ; persons employed in other professions being generally much more 

 attentive and correct. Among gentlemen farmers there is often a systematic regularity 

 in all their proceedings, and their pages of debtor and creditor, of expense and profit, are 

 as strictly kept as those of any banking-house in the metropolis. But with the gene- 

 rality of farmers the case is widely different. It rarely happens that books arp kept by 



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