COMMUNICATIONS IN PART I. On Farm Buildings in general, by ROBERT BEATSON, Efq. Of Farm Houses, Barns, Granaries, Stables, Cow Houfes, Feeding Houfes, Dairies, Sheds, --Straw, Root and Poultry Houfes, Hogfties, &c.—Situation and arrangements neceffary to Farm Buildings. 2. Memoir on the Distribution of Farms, Farm Buildings, &c. by ROWLAND HUNT, Efq. 3. An Effay on Farm Houfes, and their various appendant Offices, accompanied with Plans and Elevations, fubmitted to the confideration of the Board of Agriculture, by A. CROCKER, Land Surveyor, 8. Answers to the Queries refpecting Cottagers renting Land, by Mr. CRUTCHLEY, of Burleigh. 9. On Cottages, by HENRY HOLLAND, Efq. Architect. 10. On Cottages, by ROBERT BEATSON, Efq. 11. On Cottages, by A. Crocker and Son. N. B. The above Communica tions, &c. are enriched and explained by thirty-nine copperplates. To Appendix A. there is alfo a copper-plate Map, or Sketch of Sir John Sinclair's Journey through the Northern Parts of Europe, on Agricultural Refearches, with an engraved Abstract of the Tour. EXTRACT. QUERIES CONCERNING COTTAGES, WITH THEIR ANSWERS. BY LORD BROWNLOW, "Sir, "TO the queries concerning cot. tages, which I had the honour to receive from you, I would fooner have returned an anfwer, if I had gone inChristmas; but, as I continued in to the country during the recefs at town, I was obliged to correspond upon this fubject, together with many other matters, with my fteward in the country. "In the parish of Belton, there has been, for a great length of time, a cottagers pafture, confifting of 159 acres, about half of which is covered with gorfe; and the tenants of almost all the finall houfes have a right, for each houfe, to turn on this common, for the whole year, except from Lady Day to May Day (during which time the common is to be free from stock), two horses, or four cows, or fixteen barren fheep, or twelve ewes and their lambs. No bullock or fleer to be turned on except between Martinmas and Lady Day. A mare and foal equal to three cows, the foals and alfo the lambs to be taken off the 15th of Auguft. Thirteen out of the twenty five five cottagers ftock the common themfelves, but the other twelve let their rights to the farmers, who are very ready to hire them at a price equal at leaft to what they pay for houfe and commons. The cottagers have a right to cut an equal fhare of gorfe, as marked out by a perfon agreed upon for that purpose by the whole number. For the house, which moftly contains an oven, and to which there is always a piece for a garden, and a pig-ftie, together with this right of common, the rent paid is thirty-five fhillings per annum, I doing all repairs but glafs windows; this is the fame rent as has been paid for more than a hundred years; except that I have added five fhillings per annum, for the repairs of thatch, &c. which the cottagers used to do; for without fo doing, I perceived my cottages would come to ruin. But when I fay the rent is the old one, I must also state, that I have added feveral cottages to the old number, who fhare equally in the common. The cottagers in the parish of Belton have, befides this pallure, a power of adjifting their cows in the park there, at eighteen fhillings per head, from old May Day to new Michaelmas Day: and many of them have a close of three or four acres at the leaft, for cutting hay; but no cottager has any ploughed land whatever. "On all my eftates in Lincolnshire I have found a number of fmall tenants and of cottagers; and well knowing and efteeming the following rule of my father's "rather build two conages, than fuffer one to be annihilated;" in new inclofures I have provided for all the little tenants, either by two cottagers paftures, one for hay, the other for pafture alternately (as in the cafe of Welton, about five miles north of Lincoln), or elfe have allotted them a clofe to the cottage. My prefent fteward contrafts thefe different methods in the following words: In cottage paftures, as at Welton, there is no power for the good manager to make the most of his land, the fences become neglected, and the land badly drained; many of the cottagers must lie at a distance from the pasture, they thereby ufe a great deal of time in foddering and milking, which would be • valuable both to the farmers and themselves, especially in hay and 'corn harveft: whereas, if each cot. tager has a close contiguously allot. ted to him, or even fhares one with his neighbour, he contrives to raife a few lambs, and makes a profit that way as well as from his cow.' I am a great advocate for grafs-land, with a comfortable houfe to a cottager, a the labourer then becomes attached to the fpot, and interested in the peace and welfare of the country; but to let plough-land to a cottager, I think wrong; because the land is ill managed, they muft hire their plough. ing, and it takes up fo much of their time, that they will not go to labour. er's work at the times the farmers mot want them; being, as I have often heard them fay, better employed about their own business, which if they neglected, they loft more than their earnings as labourers. "To the mode of letting fmall clofes with cottages there feems, however, two objections, first the loss of land, and the expense from so many divifion fences; this may be made amends for to the land owner, if not by rent, at least by the fatisfaction of giving more happiness both in degree and number, than he could give any other way; the second objection which occurs is the decay of the pasture for want of tillage in a courfe of years; but that perhaps may be, obviated by having a small clofe or two more than the number of cottages, fo that in fucceflion each cottager may have ha clofe in tillage, for a meliorating courie of crops, during which time he would hold the fpare close alfo for the fupport of his cow. "A tenant of mine in Lincolnshire, who has diftinguished himself by his industry and good management, has another mode of providing for cottagers, upon an estate of which he is the fteward; and that is, by requiring the farmers to keep a cow the year round for each of the cottagers, for three pounds; and in the cottages which he has built on that estate, he has contrived to give between every two a power of fixing a copper for brewing, &c. "The following are the best anfwers I am able to give to your le veral queries, in their order. ཙམ་ Anfwers. No. 1. The rent of the cottage merely is from l. 10s. to 2l. 2. In many parishes the cottages are very generally let to under-tenants by the farmers; but this is a practice univerfally rejected on my eftates. 3. A garden fhould not be lefs than a rood, exclufive of the pig-yard. 4. Rent of cottage, with fuch a garden, 27. 105. 5. By manuring for potatoes, after which crop, beans, peas, &c. will follow well. 6. Two acres and a half of land will be fufficient. 7. Value about 15s, per acre. 8. Anfwered by what has been faid in the previous statement. 9. Two ton or two ton and a half, is fufficient for winter keep of one COW. 10. By the manure from the pigyard, &c. or if the cow be houfed (which is the best method), by the manure from thence. II. They do derive a profit from keeping lambs from the time of their falling to Michaelmas, or later, when they are fold at the fairs. 12. Cottagers in fome open fields raile clover. 13. The fyftem of cottagers does not do well for tillage, for the reasons in the previous statement. 14. A large garden cannot be as profitable to a cottager as a cow pafture. In the first place, he cannot maintain a cow from it; in the next, he cannot cultivate it without giving to it a great deal of his time, and more manure than he can furnish of his own; for both which he would be ill repaid by the produce, over and above the confumption of his family. But without fome garden, it must be difficult for a cottager to support himself and family; the fize of it fhould be proportioned to the afliftance he may get from his family, in addition to his own fpare time of cultivating it. 15. It is thought not to raise the price of wages; by encouraging population, it increases the number of hands, and a cottager who has fuch ties to the fpot can and will work for lefs wages than a labourer can, who has nothing but his wages for his support. 16. What 16. What are the effects of the fyftem to the cottager, the parish, and the public ? 17. What is found to be the best term-life, lives, years, or at will? 18. What is the price of the cow ? 19. What in general is the quantity of milk, butter, or cheefe, the value by fuckling, &c. or the total profit of each cow? 20. What is done if the cow dies? 21. How is the produce fold? Is it carried weekly to market? 22. How long has this practice been established? 23. Do they keep pigs? When they do, with what profit? 16. To the cottager it affords the comforts of life; to the parish it lowers the poor's rates; a man who keeps a cow has feldom been known to be troublesome to a parish; and to the public it gives an increase of hands, from infancy taught to work by their parents for their advantage. 17. The best term feems to be from year to year at will. If cottagers are upon leafe for years or lives, they will be induced, by a fmall advantage, to work for neighbouring parishes, confequently their own landlord will lofe the labour of his cottagers, and others will reap the benefit who have no cottages; which would be the greatest difcouragement to erecting them. 18. The prefent price of a cow in my neighbourhood is from eight to ten pounds. 19. The quantity of milk, butter, and cheeie, muit depend on the fort both of cow and patture: the_value by fuckling muft alfo depend, I prefume, on the time of year the calf drops; but in common the profits of a cow may be estimated at feven pounds per ann. In dairy farms, by the Trent fide, the profits are reckoned from eight to ten pounds. If well managed, and near a markettown, they are even more. 20. A new cow may be purchased partly from paft profits, and partly from gathering amongst the neighbours: this pretence to afk charity has been known to be often abused, by begging all over the country, and treble the value of the departed cow obtained. 21. The produce is brought weekly to market, fometimes at more coft of labour and lofs of time than the commodity is worth; but butter and cheele may always be fold by cottagers to fhops in their own or neighbouring villages. 22. In all open field lordships there have always been pastures in which the cottagers have had their fhare of be nefit; but the practice of enabling cottagers to keep cows in inclofed parithes is in my neighbourhood rare, and of a recent date. 23. A cottager who keeps a cow always keeps a pig or two; the profit from thence is very confiderable, as a pig is maintained, except when fatting, by what elfe would be thrown away; and a pig bought for 20s. at 24. What is the best form of a cottage? 25. What are the conveniencies given for baking or brewing, and how difpofed to ferve feveral cottages? 26. What is the expenfe of building? 27. How repaired? "For whatever may be defective in the above anfwers, or for any fresh queries, if fuch arife, to which I can give or procure anfwers, it will be the higheft gratification to me to be honoured with your commands; for of all things, the fyftem of cottages is that in which I feel the greatest intereft, being thoroughly convinced that there fubfifts the clofeft connec Midfummer, will be worth 37. at Christmas. 24. The plan (Plate XXXIV. fig. I, 2.) as moft approving of it, is what I have laft built upon. It is taken from Kent's Hints, p. 230, with a little alteration and addition. It is built with ftone, covered with pantile. 25. An oven is built with almost every cottage, and the cottager fets a copper in the chimney corner, which anfwers for the purpofe of brewing as well as washing. 26. Expenfe of building fuch cottages is estimated in Kent's Hints; but as the common wood, fuch as elm, lime, and afh, which are often fuffered to ftand upon eftates till they decay, anfwer for fuch buildings, the actual expenfe of building might be lefs than stated by that author; the amount of which, for two cottages built together, is 140/.; but he does not include pig-ftye, or hovel for fuel and cow occafionally. 27. By the landlord, or elfe they will foon go to decay. tion of intereft between the cottager and the land-owner. I have the honour to be, Sir, 22 February, 1796. "vernment all terror was unrelent"ingly exercifed."-In this reign, the city fuffered greatly by fire(A. D. 1077), A council was held in London, in which the precedency of the two Archbishoprics was decided in favour of Canterburypart of the Tower was built by William-" London was again fe❝verely vifited (A. D. 1086) with a "conflagration, which laid a con"fiderable part of it in afhes, in " which the cathedral church of St. "Paul was involved; but only to "rife in greater fplendor and mag"nificence than had hitherto been Ccc "feen |