know what is the _number_ and what the _size_ of the rafters; but from _s_
to _m_ there need be only about half as many as from _m_ to _n_. However,
carpenters know all about this. It is their every-day work. The roof is
forty-five _degrees pitch_, as the carpenters call it. If it were even
_sharper_, it would be none the worse. There will be about _thirty_ ends
of rafters to lodge on the plate, as at _m_; and these cannot _all_ be
fastened to the top of the centre-post rising up from _a_; but carpenters
know how to manage this matter, so as to make all strong and safe. The
_plate_ which goes along on the tops of the row of posts, _b b b_, must,
of course, be put on in a somewhat sloping form; otherwise there would be
a sort of _hip_ formed by the rafters. However, the thatch is to be so
deep, that this may not be of much consequence. Before the thatching
begins, there are _laths_ to put upon the rafters. Thatchers know all
about this, and all that you have to do is, to take care that the thatcher
_tie the straw on well_. The best way, in a case of such deep thatch, is
to have _a strong man to tie for the thatcher_.
246. The roof is now _raftered_, and it is to receive a thatch of _clean_,
_sound_, and well-prepared wheat or rye straw, four _feet thick_, as at _h
h_ in FIG. 2.
247. The house having now got _walls_ and _roof_, the next thing is to
make the _bed_ to receive the ice. This bed is the area of the circle of
which _a_ is the centre. You begin by laying on the ground _round logs_,
eight inches through, or thereabouts, and placing them across the area,
leaving spaces between them of about a foot. Then, _crossways on them_,
poles about four inches through, placed at six inches apart. Then,
_crossways on them_, other poles, about two inches through, placed at
three inches apart. Then, _crossways on them_, rods as thick as your
finger, placed at an inch apart. Then upon these, small, clean, dry,
last-winter-cut _twigs_, to the thickness of about two inches; or, instead
of these twigs, good, clean, strong _heath_, free from grass and moss, and
from rubbish of all sorts.
248. This is the _bed_ for the ice to lie on; and as you see, the top of
the bed will be seventeen inches from the ground. The pressure of the ice
may, perhaps, bring it to fourteen, or to thirteen. Upon this bed the ice
is put, broken and pummelled, and beaten down together in the usual
manner.
249. Having got the bed filled with ice, we have next to _shut it safely
up_. As we have seen, there is a passage (_e_). Two feet wide is enough
for this passage; and, being as long as the wall is thick, it is of
course, four feet long. The use of the passage is this: that you may have
_two doors_, so that you may, in hot or damp weather, shut the outer door,
while you have the inner door open. This inner door may be of hurdle-work,
and straw, and covered, on one of the sides, with sheep-skins with the
_wool on_, so as to keep out the external air. The outer-door, which must
lock, must be of wood, made to shut very closely, and, besides, covered
with skins like the other. At times of great danger from heat, or from
wet, the whole of the passage may be filled with straw. The door (_p._
FIG. 3) should face the North, or between North and East.
250. As to the _size_ of the ice-house, that must, of course, depend upon
the _quantity_ of ice that you may choose to have. A house on the above
scale, is from _w_ to _x_ (FIG. 2) twenty-nine feet; from _y_ to _z_ (FIG.
2) nineteen feet. The area of the circle, of which _a_ is the centre, is
ten feet in diameter, and as this area contains seventy-five superficial
feet, you will, if you put ice on the bed to the height of only five feet,
(and you _may_ put it on to the height of seven feet from the top of the
bed,) you will have _three hundred and seventy-five cubic feet of ice_;
and, observe, a cubic foot of ice will, when broken up, fill much more
than a _Winchester Bushel_: what it may do as to an "IMPERIAL BUSHEL,"
engendered like Greek Loan Commissioners, by the unnatural heat of
"PROSPERITY," God only knows! However, I do suppose, that, without making
any allowance for the "_cold_ fit," as Dr. Baring calls it, into which
"_late_ panic" has brought us; I do suppose, that even the scorching, the
burning dog-star of "IMPERIAL PROSPERITY;" nay, that even DIVES himself,
would hardly call for more than two bushels of ice in a day; for more than
two bushels a day it would be, unless it were used in cold as well as in
hot weather.
251. As to the _expense_ of such a house, it could, in the country, not be
much. None of the posts, except the main or centre-post, need be _very
straight_. The other posts might be easily culled from tree-lops, destined
for fire-wood. The straw would _make all straight_. The _plates_ must of
necessity be short pieces of wood; and, as to the _stakes_, the _laths_,
and the _logs_, _poles_, _rods_, _twigs_, and _heath_, they would not all
cost _twenty shillings_. The straw is the principal article; and, in most
places, even that would not cost more than two or three pounds. If it last
many years, the price could not be an object; and if but a little while,
it would still be nearly as good for litter as it was before it was
applied to this purpose. How often the _bottom of the straw walls_ might
want renewing I cannot say, but I know that the roof would with few and
small repairs, last well for ten years.
252. I have said that the interior row of posts is to be nine feet high,
and the exterior row five feet high. I, in each case, mean, _with the
plate inclusive_. I have only to add, that by way of superabundant
precaution against bottom wet, it will be well to make a sort of _gutter_,
to receive the drip from the roof, and to carry it away as soon as it
falls.
253. Now, after expressing a hope that I shall have made myself clearly
understood by every reader, it is necessary that I remind him, that I do
not pretend to pledge myself for the complete success, nor for any success
at all, of this mode of making ice-houses. But, at the same time, I
express my firm belief, that complete success would attend it; because it
not only corresponds with what I have seen of such matters; but I had the
details from a gentleman who had ample experience to guide him, and who
was a man on whose word and judgment I placed a perfect reliance. He
advised me to erect an ice-house; but not caring enough about _fresh meat_
and _fish_ in summer, or at least not setting them enough above "_prime
pork_" to induce me to take any trouble to secure the former, I never
built an ice-house. Thus, then, I only communicate that in which I
believe; there is, however, in all cases, this comfort, that if the thing
fail as an ice-house, it will serve all generations to come as a model for
a pig-bed.
ADDITION.
_Kensington, Nov. 14th, 1831._
MANGEL WURZEL.
254. This last summer, I have proved that, as keep for cows, MANGEL WURZEL
is preferable to SWEDISH TURNIPS, whether as to quantity or quality. But
there needs no other alteration in the book, than merely to read _mangel
wurzel_ wherever you find _Swedish turnip_; the time of sowing, the mode
and time of transplanting, the distances, and the cultivation, all being
the same; and the only difference being in the _application of the
leaves_, and in _the time of harvesting_ the roots.
255. The leaves of the MANGEL WURZEL are of great value, especially in dry
summers. You begin, about the third week in August, to take off by a
_downward pull_, the leaves of the plants; and they are excellent food for
pigs and cows; only observe this, that, if given to cows, there must be,
for each cow, _six pounds of hay a day_, which is not necessary in the
case of the Swedish turnips. These leaves last till the crop is taken up,
which ought to be in the _first week of November_. The taking off of the
leaves does good to the plants: new leaves succeed higher up; and the
plant becomes _longer_ than it otherwise would be, and, of course,
_heavier_. But, in taking off the leaves, you must not approach too near
to the top.
256. When you take the plants up in November, you must cut off the
_crowns_ and the remaining leaves; and they, again, are for cows and pigs.
Then you put the roots into some place to keep them from the frost; and,
if you have no place under cover, put them in _pies_, in the same manner
as directed for the Swedish turnips. The roots will average in weight 10
_lbs. each_. They may be given to cows _whole_, or to pigs either, and
they are better than the Swedish turnip for both animals; and they do not
give any bad or strong taste to the milk and butter. But, besides this use
of the mangel wurzel, there is another, with regard to pigs at least, of
very great importance. The _juice_ of this plant has so much of
_sweetness_ in it, that, in France, they make _sugar_ of it; and have used
the sugar, and found it equal in goodness to West India sugar. Many
persons in England make _beer_ of this juice, and I have drunk of this
beer, and found it very good. In short, the juice is most excellent for
the mixing of moist food for pigs. I am now (20th Nov. 1831) boiling it
for this purpose. My copper holds seven strike-bushels; I put in three
bushels of mangel wurzel cut into pieces two inches thick, and then fill
the copper with water. I draw off as much of the liquor as I want to wet
pollard, or meal, for little pigs or fatting-pigs, and the rest, roots and
all, I feed the _yard-hogs_ with; and this I shall follow on till about
the middle of May.
257. If you give boiled, or steamed, _potatoes_ to pigs, there wants some
liquor to mix with the potatoes; for the water in which potatoes have been
boiled is _hurtful_ to any animal that drinks it. But mix the potatoes
with juice of mangel wurzel, and they make very good food for hogs of all
ages. The mangel wurzel produces _a larger_ crop than the Swedish turnip.
COBBETT'S CORN.
258. IF you prefer _bread_ and _pudding_ to milk, butter, and meat, this
corn will produce, on your forty rods, forty bushels, each weighing 60
_lbs. at the least_; and more flour, in proportion, than the best white
wheat. To make _bread_ with it you must use _two-thirds_ wheaten, or rye,
flour; but in puddings this is not necessary. The puddings at my house are
all made with this flour, except meat and fruit pudding; for the corn
flour is not adhesive or _clinging_ enough to make paste, or crust. This
corn is the very best for hog-fatting in the whole world. I, last April,
sent parcels of the seed into several counties, to be given away to
working men: and I sent them instructions for the cultivation, which I
shall repeat here.
259. I will first describe this _corn_ to you. It is that which is
sometimes called _Indian corn_; and sometimes people call it Indian wheat.
It is that sort of corn which the disciples ate as they were going up to
Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day. They gathered it in the fields as they went
along and ate it green, they being "an hungered," for which you know they
were reproved by the pharisees. I have written a treatise on this corn in
a book which I sell for four shillings, giving a minute account of the
qualities, the culture, the harvesting, and the various uses of this corn;
but I shall here confine myself to what is necessary for a labourer to
know about it, so that he may be induced to raise and may be enabled to
raise enough of it in his garden to fat a pig of ten score.
260. There are a great many sorts of this corn. They all come from
countries which are hotter than England. This sort, which my eldest son
brought into England, is a dwarf kind, and is the only kind that I have
known to ripen in this country: and I know that it will ripen in this
country in any summer; for I had a large field of it in 1828 and 1829; and
last year (my lease at my farm being out at Michaelmas, and this corn not
ripening till late in October) I had about two acres in my garden at
Kensington. Within the memory of man there have not been three summers so
cold as the last, one after another; and no one so cold as the last. Yet
my corn ripened perfectly well, and this you will be satisfied of if you
be amongst the men to whom this corn is given from me. You will see that
it is in the shape of the cone of a spruce fir; you will see that the
grains are fixed round a stalk which is called the _cob_. These _stalks_
or _ears_ come out of the side of the plant, which has leaves like a flag,
which plant grows to about three feet high, and has two or three and
sometimes more, of these ears or bunches of grain. Out of the top of the
plant comes the tassel, which resembles the plumes of feathers upon a
hearse; and this is the flower of the plant.
261. The grain is, as you will see, about the size of a large pea, and
there are from two to three hundred of these grains upon the ear, or cob.
In my treatise, I have shown that, in America, all the hogs and pigs, all
the poultry of every sort, the greater part of the oxen, and a
considerable part of the sheep, are fatted upon this corn; that it is the
best food for horses; and that, when ground and dressed in various ways,
it is used in bread, in puddings, in several other ways in families; and
that, in short, it is the real staff of life, in all the countries where
it is in common culture, and where the climate is hot. When used for
poultry, the grain is rubbed off the cob. Horses, sheep, and pigs, bite
the grain off, and leave the cob; but horned cattle eat cob and all.
262. I am to speak of it to you, however, only as a thing to make you some
bacon, for which use it surpasses all other grain whatsoever. When the
grain is in the whole ear, it is called corn in the ear; when it is rubbed
off the cob, it is called shelled corn. Now, observe, ten bushels of
shelled corn are equal, in the fatting of a pig, to fifteen bushels of
barley; and fifteen bushels of barley, if properly ground and managed,
will make a pig of ten score, if he be not too poor when you begin to fat
him. Observe that everybody who has been in America knows, that the finest
hogs in the world are fatted in that country; and no man ever saw a hog
fatted in that country in any other way than tossing the ears of corn over
to him in the sty, leaving him to bite it off the ear, and deal with it
according to his pleasure. The finest and solidest bacon in the world is
produced in this way.
263. Now, then, I know, that a bushel of shelled corn may be grown upon
one single rod of ground sixteen feet and a half each way; I have grown
more than that this last summer; and any of you may do the same if you
will strictly follow the instructions which I am now about to give you.
1. Late in March (I am doing it now,) or in the first fortnight of April,
dig your ground up _very deep_, and let it lie rough till between the
seventh and fifteenth of May.
2. Then (in dry weather if possible) dig up the ground again, and make it
smooth at top. Draw drills with a line two feet apart, just as you do
drills for peas; rub the grains off the cob; put a little very rotten and
fine manure along the bottom of the drill; lay the grains along upon that
six inches apart; cover the grain over with fine earth, so that there be
about an inch and a half on the top of the grain; pat the earth down a
little with the back of a hoe to make it lie solid on the grain.
3. If there be any danger of slugs, you must kill them before the corn
comes up if possible: and the best way to do this is to put a little hot
lime in a bag, and go very early in the morning, and shake the bag all
round the edges of the ground and over the ground. Doing this three or
four times very early in a dewy morning, or just after a shower, will
destroy all the slugs; and this ought to be done for all other crops as
well as for that of corn.
4. When the corn comes up, you must take care to keep all birds off till
it is two or three inches high; for the spear is so sweet, that the birds
of all sorts are very apt to peck it off, particularly the doves and the
larks and pigeons. As soon as it is fairly above ground, give the whole of
the ground (in dry weather) a flat hoeing, and be sure to move all the
ground close round the plants. When the weeds begin to appear again, give
the ground another hoeing, but always in dry weather. When the plants get
to be about a foot high or a little more, dig the ground between the rows,
and work the earth up a little against the stems of the plants.
5. About the middle of August you will see the tassel springing up out of
the middle of the plant, and the ears coming out of the sides. If weeds
appear in the ground, hoe it again to kill the weeds, so that the ground
may be always kept clean. About the middle of September you will find the
grains of the ears to be full of milk, just in the state that the ears
were at Jerusalem when the disciples cropped them to eat. From this milky
state, they, like the grains of wheat, grow hard; and as soon as the
grains begin to be hard, you should cut off the tops of the corn and the
long flaggy leaves, and leave the ears to ripen upon the stalk or stem. If
it be a warm summer, they will be fit to harvest by the last of October;
but it does not signify if they remain out until the middle of November or
even later. The longer they stay out, the harder the grain will be.
6. Each ear is covered in a very curious manner with a husk. The best way
for you will be, when you gather in your crop to strip off the husks, to
tie the ears in bunches of six or eight or ten, and to hang them up to
nails in the walls, or against the beams of your house; for there is so
much moisture in the cob that the ears are apt to heat if put together in
great parcels. The room in which I write in London is now hung all round
with bunches of this corn. The bunches may be hung up in a shed or stable
for a while, and, when perfectly dry, they may be put into bags.
7. Now, as to the mode of _using_ the corn; if for poultry, you must rub
the grains off the cob; but if for pigs, give them the whole ears. You
will find some of the ears in which the grain is still soft. Give these to
your pig first; and keep the hardest to the last. You will soon see how
much the pig will require in a day, because pigs, more decent than many
rich men, never eat any more than is necessary to them. You will thus have
a pig; you will have two flitches of bacon, two pig's cheeks, one set of
souse, two griskins, two spare-ribs, from both which I trust in God you
will keep the jaws of the Methodist parson; and if, while you are drinking
a mug of your own ale, after having dined upon one of these, you drink my
health, you may be sure that it will give you more merit in the sight of
God as well as of man, than you would acquire by groaning the soul out of
your body in responses to the blasphemous cant of the sleekheaded
Methodist thief that would persuade you to live upon potatoes.
264. You must be quite sensible that I cannot have any motive but your
good in giving you this advice, other than the delight which I take and
the pleasure which I derive from doing that good. You are all personally
unknown to me: in all human probability not one man in a thousand will
ever see me. You have no more power to show your gratitude to me than you
have to cause me to live for a hundred years. I do not desire that you
should deem this a favour received from me. The thing is worth your
trying, at any rate.
265. The corn is off by the middle of November. The ground should then be
well manured, and deeply dug, and planted with EARLY YORK, or EARLY DWARF
CABBAGES, which will be _loaved_ in the _latter end of April_, and may be
either sold or given to pigs, or cows, _before the time to plant the corn
again_. Thus you have two very large crops on the same ground in the same
year.
INDEX.
PARAGRAPH
Agur 18
Bees 160
Bread, making of 77
Brewing Beer 20, 108
_See also_ "POSTSCRIPT."
Brewing-machine 41
Brougham, Mr. 41
Candles and Rushes 199
Castlereagh's and Mackintosh's Oratory 152
Combination Laws 108
Corn, Cobbett 258
Cows, keeping 111
Cusar, Mr. 86
Custom Laws 108
Drennen, Dr. 80
Dress, Household Goods, and Fuel 199
Ducks 169
Economy, meaning of the term 2, 3
Education 11
Ellman, Mr. 20, 60
Excise Laws 108
Fowls 176
Geese 167
Goats and Ewes 189
Hanning, Mr. Wm. 99
Hill, Mr. 98
Hops 202
Ice-houses 236
Leghorn 212
Libel Laws 108
Malthus, Parson 141
Mangel Wurzel 254
Mustard 198
Parks, Mr. 98
Paul, Saint 148
Peel's flimsy Dresses 152
Pigeons 181
Pigs, keeping 139
Pitt's false Money 152
Plat, English Straw 208
Porter, how to make 71
Potatoes 77
Rabbits 184
Salting Mutton and Beef 157
Stanhope, Lord 144
Swedish Turnips 207
Turkeys 171
Walter's and Stoddart's Paragraphs 152
Walter Scott's Poems 152
Want, the Parent of Crime 18
Wakefield, Mr. Edward 78, 99
Wilberforce's Potatoe-Diet 152
Winchelsea, Lord. 144
Woodhouse, Miss 213
Yeast 203
COBBETT'S
POOR MAN'S FRIEND;
A DEFENCE OF THE RIGHTS OF THOSE WHO DO
THE WORK, AND FIGHT THE BATTLES.
COBBETT'S POOR MAN'S FRIEND.
NUMBER I.
TO THE WORKING CLASSES OF PRESTON.
_Burghclere, Hampshire, 22d August, 1826._
MY EXCELLENT FRIENDS,
1. Amongst all the new, the strange, the unnatural, the monstrous things
that mark the present times, or, rather, that have grown out of the
present system of governing this country, there is, in my opinion, hardly
any thing more monstrous, or even so monstrous, as the language that is
now become fashionable, relative to the condition and the treatment of
that part of the community which are usually denominated the POOR; by
which word I mean to designate the persons who, from age, infirmity,
helplessness, or from want of the means of gaining anything by labour,
become destitute of a sufficiency of food or of raiment, and are in danger
of perishing if they be not relieved. Such are the persons that we mean
when we talk of THE POOR; and, I repeat, that amongst all the monstrous
things of these monstrous days, nothing is, in my opinion, so monstrous as
the language which we now constantly hear relative to the condition and
treatment of this part of the community.
2. Nothing can be more common than to read, in the newspapers,
descriptions the most horrible of the sufferings of _the Poor_, in various
parts of England, but particularly in the North. It is related of them,
that they eat horse-flesh, grains, and have been detected in eating out of
pig-troughs. In short, they are represented as being far worse fed and
worse lodged than the greater part of the pigs. These statements of the
_newspapers_ may be false, or, at least, only partially true; but, at a
public meeting of rate-payers, at Manchester, on the 17th of August, Mr.
BAXTER, the Chairman, said, that some of the POOR had been _starved to
death_, and that _tens of thousands were upon the point of starving_; and,
at the same meeting, Mr. POTTER gave a detail, which showed that Mr.
BAXTER'S general description was true. Other accounts, very nearly
official, and, at any rate, being of unquestionable authenticity, concur
so fully with the statements made at the Manchester Meeting, that it is
impossible not to believe, that a great number of thousands of persons are
now on the point of perishing for want of food, and _that many have
actually perished from that cause_; and that this has taken place, and is
taking place, IN ENGLAND.