own use, fitting it up with a forge, bellows, anvil, and work-bench. Such a smithy, to contain a pair of draught-horses when shoeing, would require to be 24 feet in length and 15 feet in width, with a wide door in the centre, 7 feet high, and a glazed window on each side of it. As the time of a pair of horses is more valuable than that of a man, a smithy is often erected at the steading, whilst the carpenter's shop is at a distance.

(80.) All the roads around the steading should be properly made of a thick bed, of not less than 9 inches, of small broken whinstone metal, carefully kept dry, with proper outlets for water at the lowest points of the metal bed, and the metal occasionally raked and rolled on the surface until it becomes solid.

(81.) The best way of building such a steading as I have just described, is not to contract for it in a slump sum, because, whatever alterations are made during the progress of the work, the contractor may take advantage of the circumstance, and charge whatever he chooses for the extra work executed, without your having a check upon his charges. Nor, for the same reasons, should the mason, carpenter, or slater work be contracted for separately in the slump. The prices per rood or per yard, and the quantities of each kind of work, should be settled beforehand between the employer and contractor. The advantage of this arrangement is, that the work is finished according to the views and tastes of the individual for whose use the farmstead has been built, he having had the power of adopting such slight modifications of the plan, during the progress of the work, as experience or reflection may have suggested. The contractor is paid according to the measurement of the work he thus executes. A licensed surveyor, mutually chosen by both parties, then measures the work, and calculates its several parts according to the prices stipulated for betwixt the contractor and his employer, and draws up a report of the value of each kind of work, the total sum of which constitutes the cost of the farmstead. Instalments of payment are of course made to the contractor at periods previously agreed upon. This plan may give you no cheaper a steading than the usual one of contracting by a slump sum, but cheapness is not the principal object which you should have in view in building a steading. Your chief object should be the convenience of your work-people, and the comfort of your live-stock. This plan enables you to erect a steading in accordance with your own views in every respect, and you can better judge, in the progress of the work, of the fitness of the plan for the accommodation required, than by any study of the plans on paper, which, upon the whole, may appear well enough adapted to the purposes intended, but may nevertheless overlook many essential particulars of accommodation and comfort.

(82.) What I mean by essential particulars of accommodation and comfort in a steading are such as these:-In giving a foot or two more length to a stable or byre, by which each animal may have two or three inches more room laterally, more ease would be given to it, and which is a great comfort to working stock: A window, instead of looking to the cold north, may be made with as much ease to look to the warm south: A sky-light in the roof, to afford a sufficient light to a place that would otherwise be dark: An additional drain to remove moisture or effluvia, which, if left undisturbed, may give considerable annoyance: A door opening one way instead of the other, may direct a draught of air to a quarter where it can do no harm: These little conveniences incur no more cost than the incongruities of arrangement which are often found in their stead, and though they may seem to many people as trifles unworthy of notice, confer, nevertheless, much additional comfort on the animals inhabiting the apartments in which they should be made. A door made of a whole piece, or divided into leaves, may make a chamber either gloomy or cheerful; and the leaves of a door formed either vertically or horizontally, when left open, may either give security to an apartment, or leave it at liberty to the intrusion of every passer by. There are numerous such small conveniences to be attended to in the construction of a steading before it can be rendered truly commodious and comfortable.

(83.) Before the prices of work to be executed can be fixed on between the employer and contractor, minute specifications of every species of work should be drawn up by a person competent for the task. A vague specification, couched in general terms, will not answer; for when work comes to be executed under it, too much liberty is given to all parties to interpret the terms according to the interest of each. Hence arise disputes, which may not be easily settled even on reference to the person who drew up the specifications, as he possibly may by that time have either forgotten his own ideas of the matter, or, in adducing his original intentions under the particular circumstances, may possibly give offence to one party, and injure the other; and thus his candour may rather widen than repair the breach. Whatever are the ideas of him who draws up the specification, it is much better to have them all embodied in the specifications, than to have to explain them afterwards. (84.) The principle of measuring the whole work after it has been executed, is another consideration which it is essential you should bear in mind. It is too much the practice to tolerate a very loose mode of measuring work; such as measuring voids, as the openings of doors and windows are termed, that is, on measuring a wall, to include all the

openings in the rubble-work, and afterwards to measure the lintels and ribets and corners. In like manner, chimney-tops are measured all round as rubble, and then the corners are measured also as hewn work. Now the fair plan obviously is to measure every sort of work as it stands by itself; where there is rubble let it be measured for rubble, and where there is hewn-work let it be measured for as such. You will thus pay for

what work is actually done for you, and no more; and more you should not pay for, let the price of the work be what it may. This understanding regarding the principle of measurement should be embodied in the specifications.

(85.) To see if the principle I have endeavoured to enforce in the arrangement of the component parts of a steading for the mixed husbandry be applicable to steadings for other modes of husbandry, you have only to apply it to the construction of steadings usually found in the country.

(86.) In pastoral farms, the accommodation for stock in the steading is generally quite inadequate to give shelter, in a severe winter and spring, to the numbers of animals reared on them. For want of adequate accommodation, many of both the younger and older stock suffer loss of condition,—a contingency much to be deprecated by the store-farmer, as the occurrence never fails to render the stock liable to be attacked by some fatal disease at a future period. In the steadings of such farms, the numerous cattle, or still more numerous sheep, as the stock may happen to be, should have shelter. The cattle should be housed in sheds or hammels in stormy weather, supplied with straw for litter and provender, or, what is still better, supported on hay or turnips. For this purpose their sheds should be quite contiguous to the straw-barn. Sheep should either be put in large courts bedded with straw, and supplied with hay or turnips, or so supplied in a sheltered spot, not far distant from the steading. The particular form of steading suitable to this species of farm seems to be that which embraces three sides of a double rectangle, having the fourth side open to

Fig. 27.

PASTORAL FARM-STEADING.

the south, each rectangle enclosing a large court, divided into two or more parts, on each side of the straw-barn, which should form a side common to both rectangles. This form answers to the modification pointed out at 3. in paragraph (8.), p. 111, and it is shewn in fig. 27, where a is the straw-barn, with but the courts placed on each side of it.

(87.) In the steadings of carse farms, comfortable accommodation for stock is made a matter of secondary import. In them it is not unusual to see the cattle

courts facing the north.

Fig. 28.

a

As there is, however, great abundance of straw on such farms, the stock seem to be warm enough lodged at night. Where so much straw is required to be made into manure, the courts and stables should be placed quite contiguous to the straw-barn. The form of steading most suitable to this kind of farm seems to be that of three sides of a rectangle, embracing a large court, divided into two or three parts, facing the south, and having the upper and corn barn projecting behind into the straw-yard, as described in modification 2. (8.), p. 111, and shewn in fig. 28, where a is the straw-barn, near the courts, and contiguous to which should be the byres and stables.

CARSE FARM-STEADING.

Fig. 29.

a

с

(88.) In farms in the neighbourhood of towns, the cow-houses, feeding byres, or hammels, being the only means of converting the straw into manure, which is reserved for home use from the sale of the greatest part to the cowfeeders and stablers in towns, should be placed nearest the straw-barn. The very confined state in which cows are usually kept in the byres of such farms, and especially in those near the largest class of towns, makes them very dirty, the effects of which must injure the quality of the dairy produce. In constructing a steading for a farm of this kind, such an inconvenience should be avoided. The most convenient form of steading is that of the three sides of a rectangle, embracing within it a set of feeding-hammels facing the south; the thrashing-mill and straw barn being in the north range, the workhorse stable in one of the wings, and the cow-byre in the other, from both of which the dung may be wheeled into their respective contiguous dunghills, as is described in modification 1. (8.), p. 111, and shewn graphically in fig. 29, where a is the straw-barn, on both sides of which are the byres and stable, and c are hammels inclosed within the rectangle.

DAIRY FARM, &c. STEADING.

It

(89.) In dairy farms, the cows being the greatest means of making manure, their byres, as well as the hammels for the young horses and young queys, and the sties for the swine, should be those most contiguous to the straw-barn. should be the particular study of the dairy-farmer to make the byre roomy and comfortable to the cows, the thriving state of that portion of his stock being the source from which his profits are principally derived. The form of steading recommended for farms in the neighbourhood of towns seems well adapted to this kind of farming, in which the hammels could be occupied by the young horses and young queys, and beside which the pig-sties could also be placed, such as are shown in fig. 29, where c are the hammels, and e the hog-sties, but which may be placed elsewhere if desired.

(90.) It may prove of service to inquire, whether this principle of constructing steadings for every sort of farm is inculcated by the most recent or authoritative writers on agriculture. 1. In the collection of designs of farm-build

ings, in the Prize Essays* of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, the absolute necessity for the contiguity of cattle-sheds, hammels, and stables to the straw-barn, is a matter not sufficiently attended to. When hammels are placed in front of the principal buildings, as in No. 1. of the designs, doors are required in the back of the hammels for taking in the straw. These doors not only incur additional cost in the making, but, being placed in the shed, induce the animals to escape through them, and, when open, occasion an uncomfortable draught of air. The openings, too, betwixt the sheds and courts of the hammels being placed in the centre, cold easily circulates through the sheds. And the separation of the calves'-house from the cow-byre, as in design No. 2., must be very inconvenient in rearing calves. 2. In "British Husbandry," the principle of constructing a steading is thus laid down:-"The posi tion of a thrashing-mill should decide that of almost every other office; for it cuts, or ought to cut, the hay into chaff, together with much of the straw; and the house that immediately receives this chaff ought to be so placed as to admit of a convenient delivery to the stalls and stables. Thus the straw-barn, chaffhouse, ox-stalls, and horse-stables, with the hay-stacks and the sheep-yard (if there be any), should be dependent on the position of the thrashing-mill, as they will be attended with waste and expense of labour." + If the chaff-cutting machine is to be employed for preparing much of the straw for the use of the stock, it should be placed in the straw-barn, otherwise the straw must be carried to it, which would entail a considerable deal of labour. It is thus the position of neither the chaff-cutting or thrashing-machine, that should determine the site of the rest of the steading. The thrashing-machine cannot conveniently be placed near the centre of a steading, because it would then be necessarily removed to a distance from the stack-yard, and the carriage of the sheaves from which would also entail considerable labour. In the examples of existing steadings given in this recent work from pages 85 to 109, being chiefly the plans of steadings on the properties of the Duke of Sutherland, the position of the straw-barn seems in them to be considered a matter of secondary importance. In the plans in pages 85, 86, 100, 103, 107, 108, and 109, the straw-barn is surely placed at an inconvenient distance from the apartments occupied by the live-stock, and the carriage of straw from it to them must " be attended with waste and expense of labour." 3. Professor Low inculcates the principle more correctly where he says," Barns, being the part whence the straw for fodder and litter is carried to the stables, feeding-houses, and sheds, they should be placed so as to afford the readiest access to these different buildings. It is common to place them as near the centre of the range as the general arrangement of the other buildings will allow." This is quite correct in principle; but, in referring to the figure, it is said that, " In the design of the figure, in which are represented the barns, this principle of arrangement is observed;" yet, on inspecting the figure at p. 624, it will be observed, that the feeding-hammels are placed at a greater distance from the straw-barn than even the pig-sties and poultry-yards. It does not appear that the yard behind the sties is intended to be occupied by anything but manure; so, if the hammels had occupied the more eligible site of the hog-sties, they would not have interposed betwixt the sun-light and any

Prize Essays of the Highland and Agricultural Society, vol. viii. p. 365.

British Husbandry, vol. i. p. 97.

Low's Elements of Practical Agriculture, 2d edition, p. 623.