540 
Cow-Keeping hy Farm Labourers. 
the hay-barn, is for pitching hay through. It is fixed high up 
and fitted with a shutter. The outlet to the pigsty is inclosed 
with timber palings. The door-frames, wall-plate, and posts to 
the pigsty outlet are of oak, the door-frames have iron dowels 
at the bottom, which are inserted into stone plinths ; the doors 
are of red deal. The roofing timber is of larch covered with 
16-inch by 10-inch Bangor slates. The bricks and draining 
pipes are made on the estate. 
During a drive with Mr. Haste, agent to Viscount Hill's 
estate at Hawkstone, Shropshire, I was astonished at the 
number of small holdings. Since many of them are in tillage, 
they must not be described here, but I mention them to show 
the good effects of established custom, for Mr. Haste assures me 
that those men who farm from 20 to 50 acres, and cannot all 
keep a plough team, help one another all round, and work on a 
smooth well-ordered system of give and take without disagree- 
ment. In Dorsetshire, on the contrary, Mr. Pope reports 
disputes between farmers and their men on such a miserable 
matter as a little straw for litter, and the cow-keeping broke 
down in consequence of these quarrels. 
At Hawkstone, there are 360 cottages rented direct from the 
proprietor, with gardens of about a quarter of an acre, and 30 
cottages hired of the farm-tenants, and there are in each category 
numerous cow-pastures attached to the cottages. They are all 
held under short notices — one or three months — which have been 
very rarely enforced. These smaller holders are farm labourers ; 
many of the others, holding more land, are tradesmen and 
artisans employed on the estate, or persons of the class of small 
village traders, carriers, and professional labourers, who do 
jobbing work, such as thatching, hedging, and ditching, drain- 
ing, mowing, bark-peeling, and other kinds of task-work, in 
gangs. They are men superior and more handy than the 
ordinary day labourers of the farm, and they find in these small 
occupations the additional sources of income which they require. 
The circumstances here are exceptional, and I should quit my 
subject to explain them in detail ; but I may say that small 
holdings, which would, if they were general, increasQ the 
number of paupers, have, with the cow-pastures, and with 
numerous outlets for the surplus population, almost entirely 
depauperized this estate. The aged are maintained by their 
relations, and, at present, there is not one old person from this 
estate in the union. The poor law is administered leniently. 
Two old persons, each receiving a little relief, sometimes 
occupy the same cottage, with a big garden of ^ or i an acre, 
which they make profitable by means of hired labour, or some- 
times by sub-letting the land ! A proprietor seeking informa- 
