On Farm- Btti I (lings. 
5 
the straw is delivered from the threshing-machine into the middle 
of it, and is therefrom conveyed to each end to be built up, with 
less labour than if the house stood lengthwise in a line with the 
barn, by which means, too, different kinds of straw may be placed 
in the opposite ends, and got at easily from the open space in the 
centre — that the cattle are all disposed in folds, open to the south, 
but sheltered from the other points with a court and shed, so that 
they can enjoy air and sunshine when the weather is mild, and 
retire under cover when stormy, which privilege they are quick 
to avail themselves of — that no provision is made for tying up 
any cattle but the milch- cows, and as it is not at all a dairy county 
those are only kept for domestic use and the rearing of calves, 
and are few in number* — that the granaries are placed above the 
open sheds, as being the driest (for corn never keeps well in 
granaries where cattle are confined below them), and also as 
being the most convenient from their vicinity to the barn, from 
which the corn is carried without being taken out of doors, or is 
drawn up by tackle attached to the machinery, and from which it 
can be loaded into carts with great ease by trap-doors in the 
floor, corresponding with the arches below. 
I am aware that this arrangement of offices will not be approved 
of in all its parts in those districts of England where it is thought 
necessary to house the corn and to stall-feed the oxen, and where 
the flail is exclusively used in the operation of threshing. I am 
also aware of the difficulty of overcoming long-established habits 
and deep-rooted prejudices, and have had some experience of the 
impolicy of attempting to do so too rashly ; yet, in so serious an 
outlay as the erection of farm -offices involves, it well deserves the 
consideration of landlords, whether they should not attempt to 
find a substitute for the very expensive and very unsightly barns 
which encumber the farms in many of the southern counties, and 
the desire for which fills with astonishment our northern farmers, 
who see in them a source of needless expenditure in building and 
repairs, a harbour for vermin, a great addition to the danger and 
destructiveness of fire, and a periodical robbery from the farm of 
part of its manure for thatching, for the purpose of perpetuating 
the tedious and expensive mode of threshing by hand instead of 
by machinery; It will be seen, by reference to plan No. 4, that 
one barn suffices for a farm of tillage-land on the Tweed, for 
which a rent of 2600/. is paid ; and I am confident that, if the in- 
telligent and energetic tenant of that farm were offered by his 
landlord as many more barns as would be thought requisite upon 
a farm of equal extent in the south of England, he would receive 
* For rearing of calves and fattening of cattle, see the Article on ' North- 
umberland Agriculture,' vol. ii , part 2, in the Journal, under the head 
of ' Cattle.' 
