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XV. — Oil  the  Construction  of  Farm- Buildings.  By  John 
Ewart. 
Preliminary  Observations. — Few  subjects  can  better  merit  the 
encouragement,  or  more  truly  fulfil  the  leading  object,  of  the 
Royal  Agricultural  Society  of  England  than  that  of  the  present 
essay  ; for  scarcely  any  circumstance  dependent  on  human  voli- 
tion has  a more  direct  and  important  tendency  to  the  increase  of 
the  productive  power  of  the  soil  than  sufficiency  of  accommoda- 
tion and  proper  arrangement  of  farm-buildings. 
By  the  sufficiency  and  proper  construction  of  his  barn,  the 
husbandman  is  enabled  to  prepare  his  grain-crop  for  market  in 
the  best  order ; by  due  shelter  of  the  stables,  to  preserve  the 
health  and  strength  of  his  labouring  beasts ; from  the  warmth  of 
lairs  and  folds,  to  obtain  the  largest  returns  in  flesh  at  the  least 
consumption  of  provender  in  the  winter  fattening  of  stock ; and 
last,  though  not  of  least  importance  in  the  list  of  advantages  to 
be  derived  from  sufficient  farm  offices,  is  raising  a plentiful  sup- 
ply of  the  best,  the  cheapest,  and  most  generally  applicable  of 
all  manures  —farm- yard  muck — to  recruit  fertility  exhausted  in 
the  production  of  grain,  or  to  meliorate  natural  poverty  of  soil. 
And  by  the  proper  arrangement  of  the  buildings,  as  to  the  rela- 
tive dependence  of  their  uses,  one  to  another,  the  farmer  may  be 
enabled  to  obtain  the  above-mentioned  advantages  at  the  least 
expense  of  time  and  labour. 
If,  in  order  to  incite  the  proprietors  of  landed  estates  to  an 
attention  to  their  private  interests  only,  apart  from  the  importance 
of  the  improvement  of  agriculture  to  the  community  at  large,  it 
were  necessary  to  illustrate  the  extent  of  advantage  to  be  derived 
from  a judicious  application  of  capital  to  the  erection  of  farm- 
buildings,  numerous  instances  might  be  adduced  of  farms  without 
adequate  accommodation  in  buildings  having  been  losing  con- 
cerns to  the  occupiers,  but  on  the  deficiency  of  buildings  being 
supplied,  having  proved  profitable  undertakings  at  an  advance 
of  rent  equal  to  7^  per  cent.,  or  indeed  10  per  cent.,  and  some- 
times even  more  than  the  latter-named  rate,  on  the  cost  of  new 
buildings.  The  advantage  of  adequate  offices  to  the  beneficial 
cultivation  of  land  must,  however,  be  too  palpable,  to  every  one 
having  occasion  to  bestow  any  reflection  on  the  subject,  to  re- 
quire any  argument  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  such  a proposition. 
Notwithstanding  the  importance  of  sufficient  and  well-arranged 
buildings  to  successful  cultivation  of  the  soil,  how  frequently,  in 
all  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom,  are  homesteads  to  be  met  with 
of  badly  contrived  construction,  and  the  various  offices  arranged 
in  relative  positions  ill  suited  to  their  intended  purposes — with- 
out any  appearance  of  design — dropped,  as  it  were,  by  mere 
