Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/536

 512 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. in ten divisions, marked a, containing five horses in each. In every division there is one chafP-bin, marked b, and one harness cupboard, marked c. These bins and cupboards are formed of boards in the manner of lean-tos, as shown in fig. 1025, at c. They are lighted 1025 by the lower panes of the windows, their roofs being carried high enough for that purpose. The upper panes light the stable over the lean-to slope. There is a barn, d, in which is a threshing-machine driven by a water wheel ; which wheel also drives a straw-cutter, a machine consisting of a pair of rollers for bruising oats, and one for washing turnips or potatoes. There is a turnip-house, e, in which turnips are washed by the tail dam, or water from the overshot wheel, which is led through the house, in the underground drain marked/, to the washing-pond in the centre of the 3'ard, marked g. This pond is about two feet and a half deep, and is paved at bottom, for the purpose of washing the horses' legs. There is a cart and waggon shed, with a granary over, h ; a sick-horse stable, i ; implement-houses, k ; two comfortable cottages, I, with six rooms each, three having fireplaces, and three being without ; a workshop, m ; a tool-house, n ; and three privies, o. The water from the overshot wheel, after passing through the horse-pond, ff, runs off by the undergi-ound drain marked p. 1024. Construction. The walls are of the slate stone quarried on the spot, the mortar used being made from the limestone of Aberthaw, which was considered by the late cele- brated engineer Smeaton as the best in Britain ; and, when mixed with clean sharp sand, as equal to any cement known in his time. The roofs are of fir covered with slate. The floors of the stables are perfectly level, with underground gutters, and gratings over them under each horse. There are no partitions between the horses, except those between every five ; but the space allowed for each horse is six feet, which is more than is found in most farmeries. There are mangers of double the usual size, but no racks ; the horses being fed with straw and hay cut into chaff, and mixed with corn, roots, salt, and water, and given in a semifluid state. No horses ever thrive better than those so treated ; and the expense was found to be less than that of the common mode of feeding in use among farmers. 1025. Remarks. Little care seems to be taken, in this farmery, of the dung or liquid manure ; but it is most gratifying to observe the striking difference between the labourers' cottages shown in this Design, and those on the Scotch and Northumbrian farms. The truth is, that the Scotch and Northumbrian farmers have the fear of their landlords con- tinually before their eyes, and dare not venture to increase the comforts of their labourers, lest they should be thought too comfortable themselves. In every country, all the comforts which the labouring classes without fixed property enjoy above the starvation point, they owe to the commercial classes. Where landed property is in immense masses, farms are necessarily large, small properties few, and manufactures or commerce scarcely known. Under such circumstances, there being only a demand for one description of labour, and that of the rudest kind, the mass of the population are easily kept in a condition little better than if they were the slaves of their employers. Hence the low state of the agricultural labourers in the farm districts of Scotland and the north of England, and, indeed, of all the purely agricultural districts of Britain, compared with their state in the manufacturing, commercial, or mixed districts, where the different kinds of labour required necessarily produces different degrees of remuneration, and where the laborious classes of every description acquire higher tastes, and rise in the scale of comforts. All the comforts which the lowest class of society enjoy, they owe to the introduction of manufactures and commerce ; and it gives us pleasure to i)ay a tribute of respect to this great Welsh Iron Com]5any, for the comfortable cottages which they have built for their carters, as we did before (§ 481) to Messrs. Jones and Wilcox, the eminent builders, for the dwellings they provided for their workmen. Design XXVII. — A Farmery for a Farm of 250 Acres in the Valley of Strathmore, where a Rotation of Seven Crops is followed, the Grass Division being pastured the Second Year. 102. Accommodation. Fig. 1026 shows the general appearance, and fig. 1027 is the ground plan. In the latter are seen three cow-houses, a ; with foddering-bays, b ; barn, c; horse-course for threshing-machine, d ; straw-barn, e ; stable for ten horses with a foddering-bay in the centre, f; house for potatoes or grass, g ; two-stall stable, h j cow-