4896. These forms may be useful, by directing the attention of farmers to the particulars of which they should keep an accurate record; but as to any particular system of accounts applicable to farmers a good deal of delusion seems to prevail, as if the established modes in general use among mercantile men would not answer. In fact, there is no correct mode of keeping accounts but by the principles of double entry. 4897. The account books for a common farmer may be, a cash-book for all receipts and payments, specifying each; a ledger for accounts with dealers and tradesmen; and a stock book for taking, once a year, an inventory and valuation of stock, crop, manures, tillages, and every thing that a tenant could dispose of or be paid for on quitting his farm. Farming may be carried on with the greatest accuracy and safety, as to money matters, by means of the above books, and a few pocket memorandum books for labourers' time, jobs, &c. With the exception of a time-book, such as we have before described (3383), we should never require more, even from a proprietor's bailiff; many of whom the nine forms just given (4887) would only puzzle, and some we have known them lead to the greatest errors and confusion. Munro's Guide to Farm Book-keeping (Edin. 12mo. 1821) may be recommended to the practical farmer; but no form of books, or mode of procedure will enable a farmer to know whether he is losing or gaining but that of taking stock.

4898. A form for a cattle stock account has been recommended by Sir Patrick Murray, of which it may be useful to present a specimen. This form, Sir Patrick observes, has been kept at his estate of Ochtertyre, in Perthshire, for twenty-two years, and found perfectly adapted to the purpose in view; being sufficiently simple in form to be understood by every farm manager, and sufficiently comprehensive in particulars to embrace all the requisite details. They may be either made up quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly.

4899. Cattle Stock Account for One Half-year, commencing 15th May 183

and ending 11th November 183

4 Quey calves, ditto.

4330

Bull calves,

ditto.

Stots from Carsehead

9 Stots from the 2d Doune market

Doune}

SECT. II. Management of Servants.

4900. In former times, farm servants lived at the same table with their masters, and that is still the practice in those districts where the farms are small. On moderate-sized, and on large farms, they are usually sent to a separate table; but of late a custom has been introduced of putting them on board-wages. This is a most pernicious practice; which often leads them to the ale-house, corrupts their morals, and injures their health. It is a better plan, with a view of lessening trouble, to board them with the bailiff; but it is still more desirable for the farmer to have them under his own eye, that he may attend to their moral conduct. He will find much more useful assistance from the decent and the orderly than from the idle and the profligate.

4901. The best mode of managing yearly married servants, whether ploughmen or labourers, we conceive to be that already referred to (4870) as practised in Northumberland, and other northern counties. Marshal (Review of Bailey's Northumberland) calls it a remain of feudal times; but certainly, if it be so, it appears one of those remains which should be carefully preserved. We may challenge the empire to produce servants and farm operations equal to those where this system is adopted. The great excellence of the system consists on its being founded in the comfort of the servant.

4902. The permanent labourers on a farm ought to be treated in the same manner as the ploughmen; and indeed it is much to be wished, for the sake both of humanity and morality, that all married labourers, who live in the country, should have gardens attached to their cottages, if not a cow kept, and a pig and fowls, in the manner of the Scottish ploughmen. Some valuable observations on this subject will be found in The Husbandry of Scotland.

4903. Temporary labourers, or such as are engaged for hay-making, reaping, turniphoeing, &c. are for the most part beyond the control of the farmer, as to their living and lodging. It is a good practice, however, where hay-making and reaping are performed by the day, to feed the operators, and to lodge on the premises such of them as have not homes in the neighbourhood; providing them with a dry loft and warm blankets. Piece or job-work, however, is now becoming so very general, in all farm operations performed by occasional labourers, that attention to these particulars becomes unnecessary, and the farmer's chief business is to see that the work be properly done.

4904. A day's work of a country labourer, is ten hours during the spring, summer, and autumn quarters. Farmers, however, are not at all uniform in their hours of working during these periods. Some begin at five o'clock, rest three hours at midday, during the more violent heat of the sun, and fill up their day's work by beginning again at one o'clock, and ending at six in the evening. Others begin at six, and end at six, allowing half an hour at breakfast, and an hour at dinner. But although these are the ordinary hours, both for servants and labourers, during the more busy seasons of the year, yet neither of them will scruple to work either sooner or later, when occasion requires. In regard to the winter months, the hours of labour are from the dawn of morning, as long as it is light, with the allowance of about half an hour at midday for dinner.

4905. That the rate of labour must in a great measure depend upon the price of grain, is a general principle. In England, the value of a peck of wheat, and in Scotland, of a peck of oatmeal (being the principal articles of subsistence of the lower orders of the people in the two countries), were long accounted an equivalent to the daily pay of a labourer. In both countries, however, the price of potatoes has, of late years, had a considerable influence on the rate of labour; and in England, the effects of the poor laws have tended to keep down that rate below the increased price of provisions, and thus have deranged the natural progress of things. It has been ascertained, that a man, his wife, and from two to three children, if wheat is their habitual food, will require ten gallons weekly. When they live on bread, hard-working people ought to have the best kind, as that will furnish the most nutrition. How, then, could a labourer and his family exist upon wages of from 6s. to 9s. per week, when wheat is from 88. to 10s. or 12s. per bushel? The difference is compensated by the poor-rates, a most exceptionable mode of making up the deficiency; for labour would otherwise have found its own level, and the labourer would have obtained the price of a bushel and a half of wheat weekly.

4906. In Scotland, the rate of labour has increased beyond the price of provisions. Prior to 1792, the average price of a peck of oatmeal was 1s. 1d, and the average price of a day's labour in summer 1s. 14jd., which nearly corresponded with the principle above stated: but the average price of a peck of oatmeal in 1810 was is. 3d, whilst the average price of a day's labour was 1s. 103d.; which shows, in a most satisfactory manner, the very great improvement that has taken place in the lot of the labouring classes in that part of the United Kingdom. (Gen. Rep. vol. iii. p. 262.)

4907. The practice of giving labourers grain, &c. at a cheap rate was adopted by George III., who carried on farming operations to a considerable extent, allowing his labourers flour at a fixed price, whatever wheat might sell for. This benevolent system has been practised by several gentlemen farmers, some of whom have allowed bread, and others a daily quantity of milk, at moderate prices. The same system is general in several of the western counties, as in Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, where the labourers have a standing supply of bread-corn; of wheat at 65. and of barley at 3s. per bushel. In some of the midland

counties the day-wages are regulated by the price of the best wheaten bread: thus the price of a half. peck loaf forms the day-wages for out-of-door farm servants. Of late years this rule has been departed from in favour of the labourers: thus, when bread is at 1s. 8d. the half-peck, then wages are 18. 10d.; and when at 2s., the wages are 2s. 4d.

4908. Most descriptions of country labour, performed without the aid of horses, may be let by the job. Farey, in his excellent Report of Derbyshire, informs us, that besides all ordinary labour, the late John Billingsley, of Ashwick Grove, in Somersetshire, let his ploughing, harrowing, rolling, sowing, turning of corn when cut, hay-making, &c. by the acre; from which he found great advantages, even where his own oxen and horses were used by the takers of the work. Whether we regard despatch, economy, perfection of rural works, or the bettering of the condition of the labourers therein, nothing will contribute so much to all these as a general system of letting works at fair and truly apportioned prices, according to the degree of labour and skill required in each kind of work. Few persons have doubted that despatch and economy are attainable by this method; but those who have indolently or improperly gone about the letting of their labour, have uniformly complained of its being slovenly done, and of the proneness of the men to cheat when so employed. Such frauds are to be expected in all modes of employment, and can only be counteracted, or made to disappear, by competent knowledge and due vigilance in the employer, or his agents and foremen, who ought to study and understand the time and degree of exertion and skill, as well as the best methods, in all their minutiæ, of performing the various works they have to let. At first sight these might seem to be very difficult and unattainable qualifications in farmers' bailiffs or foremen, but it is nevertheless certain, that a proper system and perseverance will soon overcome these difficulties. One of the first requisites is, the keeping of accurate and methodical day-accounts of all men employed; and, on the measuring up and calculating of every job of work, to register how much has been earned per day, and never to attempt abatement of the amount, should this even greatly exceed the ordinary day's pay of the country; but let this experience gained operate in fixing the price of the next job of the same work, in order to lessen the earnings by degrees, of fully competent and industrious men, to 13 or 14 times the ordinary wages when working by the day.

4909. Form the men into small gangs, according to their abilities and industry, and always set the best gang about any new kind of work, or one whose prices want regulating: encourage these by liberal prices at first, gradually lowering them; and by degrees introduce the other gangs to work with or near them at the same kind of work. On the discovery of any material slight of or deceptions in the work, at the time of measuring it, more than their proportionate values should be deducted for them, and a separate job made to one of the best gangs of men, for completing or altering it by which means shame is made to operate, with loss of carnings, in favour of greater skill, attention, and honesty in future. When the necessity occurs of employing even the best men by the day, let the periods be as short as possible, and the prices considerably below job carnings; and contrive, by the offer of a desirable job to follow, to make it their interest and wish to despatch the work that is necessary to be done by the day, in order to get again to piece-work. The men being thus induced to study and contrive the readiest and best methods of performing every part of their labour, and of expending their time, the work will unquestionably be better done than by the thoughtless drones who usually work by the day. And that these are the true methods of bettering the condition of the labourers, Malthus has ably shown in theory; and all those who have adopted and persevered in them have seen the same in practice. (Farey's Derbyshire, vol. iii. 192.)

SECT. III. Arrangement of Farm Labour.

4910. The importance of order and system we have already insisted on (3370), and the subject can hardly be too often repeated. To conduct an extensive farm well is not a matter of trivial moment, or one to the management of which every man is competent. Much may be effected by capital, skill, and industry; but even these will not always ensure success without judicious arrangement. With it, a farm furnishes an uninterrupted succession of useful labour during all the seasons of the year; and the most is made that circumstances will admit of, by regularly employing the labouring persons and cattle, at such works as are likely to be the most profitable. Under such a system it is hardly to be credited how little time is lost, either of the men or horses, in the course of a whole year. This is a great object; for each horse may be estimated at three shillings per day, and each man at two shillings. Every day, therefore, in which a man and horse are unemployed occasions the loss of at least five shillings to the husbandman.

4911. As the foundation of a proper arrangement, it is necessary to have a plan of the farm, or at least a list of the fields or parcels of land into which it is divided, describing their productive extent, the quality of the soil, the preceding crops, the cultivation given to each, and the species and quantity of manure they have severally received. The future treatment of each field, for a succession of years, may then be resolved on with more probability of success. With the assistance of such a statement, every autumn an arrangement of crops for the ensuing year ought to be made out; classing the fields or pieces of land, according to the purposes for which they are respectively intended. The number of acres allotted for arable land, meadow, or pasture, will thus be ascertained. It will not then be difficult to discover what number of horses and labourers will be

required during the season for the fields in culture, nor the live stock that will be necessary for the pasture land. The works of summer and harvest will likewise be foreseen, and proper hands engaged in due time to perform them.

4912. A farmer should have constantly in view a judicious rotation of crops, according to the nature and quality of his soil, and should arrange the quantity and succession of labour accordingly. Team labour, when frost and bad weather do not intervene, should be arranged for some months; and hand labour, for some weeks, according to the season of the year. "A general memorandum list of business to be done," may therefore be useful, that nothing may escape the memory, and that the most requisite work may be brought forward first, if suitable to the state of the weather. In this way the labour will go on regularly, and without confusion; while, by a proper attention, either a distribution of labour, or an occasional consolidation of it, may be applied to every part of the farm.

4913. As general rules, connected with the arrangement, and the successful management of a farm, the following are particularly to be recommended :

:

4914. The farmer ought to rise early, and see that others do so. In the winter season breakfast should be taken by candle-light, for by this means an hour is gained which many farmers indolently lose; though six hours in a week are nearly equal to the working part of a winter day. This is a material object, where a number of servants are employed. It is also particularly necessary for farmers to insist on the punctual performance of their orders.

4915. The whole farm should be regularly inspected, and not only every field examined, but every beast seen, at least once a day, either by the occupier, or by some intelligent servant.

4916. In a considerable farm, it is of the utmost consequence to have servants specially appropriated for each of the most important departments of labour; for there is often a great loss of time, where per. sons are frequently changing their employments. Besides, where the division of labour is introduced, work is executed not only more expeditiously, but also much better, in consequence of the same hands being constantly employed in one particular department. For that purpose, the ploughmen ought never to be employed in manual labour, but regularly kept at work with their horses, when the weather will admit of it.

4917. To arrange the operation of ploughing, according to the soils cultivated, is an object of essential importance. On many farms there are fields which are soon rendered unfit to be ploughed, either by much rain or by severe drought. In such cases, the prudent farmer, before the wet season commences, should plough such land as in the greatest danger of being injured by too much wet; and before the dry period of the year sets in, he should till such land as in the greatest danger of being rendered unfit for ploughing by too much drought. The season between seed-time and winter may be well occupied in working soils intended to be sown with beans, oats, barley, and other spring crops. On farms where these rules are attended to there is always some land in a proper condition to be ploughed, or to be worked by the improved harrows or grubbers; and there is never any necessity either for delaying the work, or performing it improperly.

4918. Every means should be thought of to diminish labour, or to increase its power. For instance, by proper arrangement, five horses may do as much labour as six perform, according to the usual mode of employing them. One horse may be employed in carting turnips during winter, or in other necessary farin.work at other seasons, without the necessity of reducing the number of ploughs. When driving dung from the farm-yard, three carts may be used, one always filling in the yard, another going to the field, and a third returning; the leading horse of the empty cart ought then to be unyoked, and put to the full one. In the same manner, while one pair of horses are preparing the land for sowing turnips, the other three horses may be employed in carrying the dung to the land, either with two or three carts, as the situation of the ground may happen to require. By extending the same management to other farm operations, a considerable saving of labour may be effected.

4919. Previously to engaging in a work, whether of ordinary practice, or of intended improvement, the best consideration of which the farmer is capable ought to be given to it, till he is satisfied that it is advisable for him to attempt it. When begun, he ought to proceed in it with much attention and perseverance, until he has given it a fair trial. It is a main object, in carrying on improvements, not to attempt too much at once; and never to begin a work without a probability of being able to finish it in due season.

4920. By the adoption of these rules, every farmer will be master of his time, so that every thing required to be done will be performed at the proper moment, and not delayed till the season and opportunity have been lost. The impediments arising from bad weather, sick servants, or the occasional and necessary absence of the master, will, in that case, be of little consequence, nor will they embarrass the operations to be carried on; and the occupier will not be prevented from attending to even the smallest concerns connected with his business, on the aggregate of which his prosperity depends.

SECT. IV. Domestic Management and personal Expenses.

4921. On domestic affairs a hint may suffice. Young farmers beginning housekeeping, like most others in similar circumstances, are apt to sink too great a proportion of their capital in furniture, and furnishing riding-horses, carriages, &c.; and sometimes to live up to, or even beyond, their income. We do not mean that farmers should not live as well as other men of the same property; but merely that all beginners should live within their income. Even in the marketing expenses care is requisite; and the prudent farmer will do well, every penny or sixpence he lays out, to reckon up in his mind what that sum per day would amount to in a year. The amount will often astonish him, and lead to economy and, where practicable, retrenchment. Saving, as Franklin has inculcated, is the only certain way of accumulating money.

4922. In regard to housekeeping, it is observed in The Code of Agriculture, that the safest plan is, not to suffer it to exceed a certain sum for bought articles weekly. An