Cottage Husbandry and Architecture. 147 



rnon native copse, where the 6oil has never been touched ; it would continue 

 improving for many years, and, when it began to be less productive, might 

 be trenched over at the rate of one division a year, and replanted with trees 

 of a different natural order. The locust, the ash *, or the bird cherry might 

 succeed the poplar or willow families, or the site of the copse might be 

 changed, and the ground cropped for another series of years with culinary 

 vegetables and potatoes. The rooting up and replanting would of course 

 not take place with the whole quantity at once, but only with a fifth part 

 at a time, which would equalise the labour, and enable the cottager to effect 

 it with ease at his leisure hours. The cutting over should be done in the 

 autumn, or beginning of winter, and the carrying home and faggoting, or 

 otherwise preparing for the fire-place and oven, may take place in dry wea- 

 ther during winter as opportunity offers. In thin barren soils, a larger 

 quantity of ground than an acre may be required, and it may be advisable 

 to plant the Scotch pine or larch, or birch, or possibly even furze or elder ; 

 but we do not believe there is either a soil or a situation in Britain where 

 2 acres, properly planted and managed, would not produce all the fuel which 

 a cottage would require, if it were economised in the manner we have 

 described. 



An acre of land of average quality being thus estimated as sufficient to 

 produce the whole of the fuel required by a common cottager, we think that 

 in all those parts of the country where the fuel a cottager requires would 

 cost a sum equal to the rent of such acre, it would be his interest to pay 

 that sum for the use of an acre. As he could receive nothing from this 

 acre for four or five years, and must bestow a great deal of labour in 

 trenching it, and procuring and planting the sets or trees, he ought to have 

 it for at least ten years without rent. But, in consideration of this, he 

 ought to be held bound to trench and plant it in a proper manner, to cut it 

 down in regular portions, and to leave it in 6 proper state, and fit for the 

 immediate use of his successors 



Malt. — To grow his own malt would perhaps be of no great advantage 

 to a cottager in this country, and at the present time ; but, where an oppor- 

 tunity offers, it may be well for him to know how easily it can be done. 

 The average produce of a rood of barley may be taken at 20 bushels, 

 which properly malted will produce 25 bushels of malt, and this brewed 

 will produce, according to Cobbett, 450 gallons of good beer. But, as Cob- 

 bett only allows a labourer's family 274 gallons a year ; viz. 2 quarts every 

 day from the 1st of October to the 1st of March inclusive, 3 quarts a day 

 during the months of April and May, 4 quarts a day during the months of 

 June and September, and 5 quarts a day during the months of July and 

 August; and as this quantity of 274 gallons can be produced by 15 bushels 

 of malt, or 1 2 bushels of raw barley ; a rood of a fair crop will give the beer 

 requisite, and 8 bushels of barley more for the pigs and poultry, for distilling 

 a little whisky, or for husking as pot-barley. 



* According to Marcus Bull the ash is one of the most valuable of 

 woods as fuel ; the birch is also very valuable ; the wild cherry (Cerasus 

 virginiana) is to the ash as 55 is to 77 ; the Lombardy poplar as 40 to 77. 

 (Experiments to determine the comparative Value of Fuel, fyc., Philadelphia, 

 8vo, 1827.) The comparative quantity of these and other woods produced 

 on an acre in a given time, say from three to seven years, would be valu- 

 able data with a view to cottage economy. Any nurseryman, by devoting 

 a few square j^ards to each sort of tree, could make the experiment with 

 very little trouble, and with no loss ; because the trees might be taken up 

 by the root, weighed, and sold, or, if not sold, replanted. We commend 

 the experiment to Mr. Donald of the Goldworth nursery, who has proved 

 himself a real friend to the cottager. 



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