in Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Part of Cornwall. 247 



excuse for inflicting on the reader two or three additional 

 pages having reference to this county. 



1. We would remove no tenant or labourer from the estate, 

 however deficient he might be as a cultivator or a workman; 

 because their present condition is the result of the circum- 

 stances in which they have been placed by preceding propri- 

 etors, and by the neglect of the local clergy. We would en- 

 gage a man acquainted with the best practices in that kind 

 of husbandry which is most suitable to the soil and climate, 

 and we would let him have a man, a pair of horses, a cart, 

 and a set of suitable agricultural implements at command; 

 and with these, according to the season, he should go from 

 fann to farm over the whole estate, and teach the best jDrac- 

 tices, and give the reasons, as far as they could be understood 

 by the tenants, why one mode was better than another. In 

 the case of a naked fallow, or the culture of turnips, this man 

 would arrange to have a ridge to prepare and cidtivate in his 

 mode in the same field in which the farmer pursued his ordi- 

 nary culture, and so of every other operation and crop. For 

 example, if a field was to be broken up for oats, our loco- 

 motive instructor should have a ridge in it to show the advan- 

 tage of deeper ploughing than is generally practised, and of 

 sowing a better variety. In this way we would continue for 

 years to teach improved modes of culture and management, 

 by degrees introducing improved rotations, breeds of horses or 

 cattle, implements, machines, and even farm buildings ; grant- 

 ing or extending the leases, so that the occupants might always 

 be assiu'ed of continued possession, whether they adopted the 

 improvements immediately or not. 



2. For the imj)rovement of the labourers, we should first have 

 a survey made of every cottage on the property, in which 

 there should be plans, elevations, and perspective views of 

 their present state, including their gardens, with other plans, 

 elevations, and views showing how they might be imj)roved; 

 and such as could not be improved we would take down and 

 rebuild. Before determining what was to be done, we would 

 consider the situation of all the cottages on the estate relative 

 to the farms on which the men were likely to be employed, 

 the mill in which their corn was likely to be ground, the 

 school to which their children should be sent, and the church 

 and burying-ground. We would always, if possible, have the 

 cottages in small villages or in groups, that the occupiers 

 might protect, assist, or communicate with one another more 

 readily; and that they might, in certain cases, have a common 

 washing-house, bakehouse, brewhouse, drying-ground, play- 

 ground for their children, &c. Other ideas which we enter- 

 tain on the subject of cottages need not be repeated, as they 



