88 



Farming of Northamptonshire. 



my interests and the care bestowed on both my live and dead 

 stock." Similar remarks to these were made at an agricultural 

 meeting in this county by A. Pell, Esq., of Hasselbeech, who 

 stated the inconvenience he daily experienced in the cultivation 

 of a farm he had lately taken in this county from the want of a 

 supply of labourers. The roads throughout the county are 

 generally good, owing to the liberal supply of stone and gravel 

 for repairing them ; but some occupations are very inconvenient 

 from the want of a good road, and a considerable wear and tear 

 is incurred in the drawing of the produce from the farm to an 

 adjoining road. Great improvements might speedily be effected 

 by the co-operation of the landlord and tenant, good materials 

 often being at hand, if not upon the farm. The wet clay and 

 back woodland farms suffer the most from the want of good 

 roads, and in wet weather, during the v. inter, owing to the tread- 

 ing of cattle, their dwellings are hardly approachable. I am 

 glad to be able to record that a spirit of improvement has 

 commenced in many parts of the county with regard to farm- 

 buildings. Landlords who have been contented with letting their 

 property without suitable accomm.odation, have commenced a 

 better system ; and I am willing to hope that those proprietors 

 who have neglected this part of their property will imitate those 

 who are carrying on a steady and visible annual improvement. 

 Very few counties possess within their own limits so many 

 facilities for the erection of buildings as this ; on many estates 

 will be found good beds of clay suitable for brick-making ; lime- 

 stone may be dug for the erection of walls, and for a supply of 

 lime. Sand is also abundant, timber is at hand, and throughout 

 the length and breadth of the county will be found great natural 

 resources of the raw material, only requiring the skill of the 

 workman and the capital of the proprietor to convert the same 

 into good accommodation for man and beast. 



Labourers and Cottage Allotments, 



No class of the community has shared so much in public 

 sympathy as the agricultural labourer. Societies have been 

 formed for his aid, and many encouragements given by landed 

 proprietors, and others, to promote his advancement in the scale 

 of society, but he still is not placed in a very fortunate position, 

 and is often called upon to suffer many privations from the 

 want of employment. A life of patient toil, with the prospect 

 of ending his days on parish relief, seems to be the common lot of 

 the farm labourer. 



In the central part of the county, where the villages are small 

 and the land good and well cultivated, the labourers may be con- 



