HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [23 



built of wood and plaster, with little design or contrivance for 

 either comfort or convenience. Those of modern construction are 

 better contrived, built with brick, and covered with tile or slate : 

 the barns, cow-houses, stables, and offices, are laid out so as to 

 shelter a compact yard, with some instances of convenient cow- 

 sheds, and feeding-stalls, which are necessary to every respectable 

 farm : most of the old ones are very defective in these particulars. 



In the construction of farm-offices, economy ought doubtless to 

 be kept in view, and the money so laid out as to pay an interest to 

 the proprietor, which will always be the case when real conve- 

 niences are considered, for which the occupier had better pay inter- 

 est than go without them. 



By the introduction of threshing-mills, less barn-room becomes 

 necessary, as one threshing-floor is enough for any farm. A rick- 

 yard should be in an airy situation, and well fenced, and se- 

 cured from trespass. A Dutch or hay-barn, on an economical con- 

 struction, would save much trouble in thatching : the security it 

 gives from showers in hay-harvest, and in preventing the loss which 

 happens from the deteriorated quality of the hay in the tops and 

 bottoms of stacks, would enable an occupier to pay a conside- 

 ration for it. Stables for horses, cow-stalls, and calf-house, hog- 

 styes, and troughs of durable materials, are all necessary : these 

 conveniences in some places have been well attended to, but in 

 many cases are very defective. 



Respecting foddering cribs of brick, the late Sir Edward Little- 

 ton observed of their utility, that they shelter cattle from the winds, 

 and their fodder from the rain, and prevent fowls from injuring the 

 fodder : the large and small beasts can feed at the same time. They 

 should not be covered with hipped roofs, or the wet will run down 

 four sides instead of two, and two troughs should discharge the 

 rain from off the cattle : the apertures should be made so high as 

 that the small beasts can but just reach to eat out of them, other- 

 wise as the dung will constantly be rising round them, the cattle 

 will walk into them before winter is over. An opening may be 

 made at either end for the pigs to lie under it, and when the dung 

 gets deep, a trench may be cut through it to drain off the moisture. 

 The apertures for oxen should be wider : Sir Edward erected these 

 foddering cribs in most of the farm-yards upon his estate. 



Cottages. The same worthy gentleman, with great humanity, 

 turned his thoughts to the comforts of the labourer, by erecting 

 upon his estate warm and comfortable tenements for their use. His 



