railways.
Such as was used had to be brought by the slow barges on the canals, or
else was fetched by the farmers' waggons direct from the pit-mouth. The
teams were not unfrequently absent two days and a night on the journey.
In the outlying districts this difficulty in obtaining coal practically
restricted the available fuel to wood. Now the wood-house is used as
much for coal as wood. Of course the great stacks of wood--the piles of
faggots and logs--were kept outside, generally in the same enclosure as
the ricks, only a sufficient number for immediate use being kept under
cover. The brewhouse was an important feature when all farmers brewed
their own beer and baked their own bread. At present the great majority
purchase their beer from the brewers, although some still brew large
quantities for the labourers' drinking in harvest time. At a period when
comparatively little ready money passed between employer and employed,
and the payment for work was made in kind, beer was a matter which
required a great deal of the attention of the farmer, and absorbed no
little of his time. At this day it is a disputed matter which is
cheapest, to buy or to brew beer: at that time there was no question
about it. It was indisputably economical to brew. The brewhouse was not
necessarily confined to that use; when no brewing was in progress it was
often made a kind of second dairy. Over these offices was the
cheese-room. This was and still is a long, large, and lofty room in
which the cheese after being made is taken to dry and harden. It is
furnished with a number of shelves upon which the cheeses are arranged,
and as no two can be placed one on the other in the early stage of their
maturing, much space is required. It is the duty of the dairymaid and
her assistant to turn these cheeses every morning--a work requiring some
strength. In this part of the house are the servants' rooms. In front of
the dairy and brewhouse is a paved court enclosed with a wall, and in
this court it was not uncommon to find a well, or hog-tub, for the
refuse of the dairy. Sometimes, but not often now, the pig-stye is just
outside the wall which surrounds the court. In this court, too, the
butter is generally churned, under a "skilling" which covers half of it.
Here also the buckets are washed, and other similar duties performed.
The labourers come here to receive their daily allowance of beer.

Most farmhouses in large arable farms were originally built so a