State of Agriculture in Northumberland. 



191 



porous character, and the steeper pitch which they require. 

 During- that period a larg^e proportion of the farm-offices in the 

 districts treated of have been rebuilt, the old, insufficient, and 

 patchwork accommodation of the former age having been replaced 

 by buildings at once substantial and commodious, suited to the 

 mcreased produce in corn and to the equally great increase in 

 both the number and quahty of live stock consequent upon an 

 improved system of husbandry. The custom of letting farms on 

 long leases has tended much to the improvement and perfection 

 of farm-offices. A tenant for a short or uncertain term puts up 

 with such accommodation as the place affords, or as he can obtain 

 at the smallest cost and inconvenience for the present time ; but 

 the tenant who is entering upon a lease for twenty-one or nineteen 

 years calculates the advantage which he would derive, and the 

 labour he would save during that term, by having a set of offices 

 more snug and more commodious for his cattle ; more compact in 

 form or more central in situation; in consideration of Avhich he 

 undertakes to convey (or lead, as the term is) all the materials for 

 a new building, the landlord being at the cost of it in other 

 respects ; and in this way old and incongruous buildings are de- 

 molished and new ones erected convenient in arrangement and 

 situation. 



In selecting the site of farm-offices it is desirable to combine, 

 in the greatest degree which circumstances admit of, the follow- 

 ing objects: — proximity and easy access to a public road; a 

 situation central, as regards the tillage-land, and so as to com- 

 municate with all parts of it by the levellest roads possible, as the 

 intervention of a single hill that could be avoided may make the 

 difference between two horses in a cart and one. A southerly 

 aspect ; as cattle are found to thrive better and to fatten sooner in 

 folds open to the sun than in those from which his rays are ex- 

 cluded. A command of water; so that a supply may be con- 

 veyed through the different parts of the buildings, and if the 

 grounds afford it in sufficient quantity, where it can be brought 

 and collected to work the threshing-machine, and thence conveyed 

 away, with little expense and without injury, or, it may be, with 

 benefit to the adjoining lands ; where a sufficient supply of water 

 cannot be had, the cheapest and -best power is steam, if coals be 

 within a moderate distance ; water enough for that purpose may 

 be collected, if a spring is not at hand, from the roofs of the 

 offices, if preserved in a tank made in a shady situation and lined 

 Vvitli clay or bricks. If the economy of labour is to be studied 

 in fixing the site of farm-buildings, it is not less to be attended to 

 in their construction and arrangement : they commonly form three 

 sides of a square open to the south ; the highest buildings being 

 on the north side, and those of a lower description filling up the 



