23

III.--Making Bread, 41

IV.--Making Bread, continued--Brewing Beer--Keeping Cows, 59

V.--Keeping Cows, continued,--Keeping Pigs, 73

VI.--Keeping Pigs, continued--Salting Mutton, and Beef, 86

VII.--Bees, Geese, Ducks, Turkeys, Fowls, Pigeons, Rabbits,
Goats, and Ewes, Candles and Rushes, Mustard, Dress
and Household Goods, and Fuel, Hops, and Yeast, 98

VIII.--Selecting, Cutting and Bleaching the Plants of English
Grass and Grain, for the purpose of making Hats and
Bonnets--Constructing and using Ice-houses, 122

ADDITION.--Mangel Wurzel--Cobbett's Corn, 151

INDEX, 158

COTTAGE ECONOMY.

No. I.

INTRODUCTION.

TO THE LABOURING CLASSES OF THIS KINGDOM.

1. Throughout this little work, I shall _number_ the Paragraphs, in order
to be able, at some stages of the work, to refer, with the more facility,
to parts that have gone before. The last Number will contain an _Index_,
by the means of which the several matters may be turned to without loss of
time; for, when _economy_ is the subject, _time_ is a thing which ought by
no means to be overlooked.

2. The word _Economy_, like a great many others, has, in its application,
been very much abused. It is generally used as if it meant parsimony,
stinginess, or niggardliness; and, at best, merely the refraining from
expending money. Hence misers and close-fisted men disguise their
propensity and conduct under the name of _economy_; whereas the most
liberal disposition, a disposition precisely the contrary of that of the
miser, is perfectly consistent with economy.

3. ECONOMY means _management_, and nothing more; and it is generally
applied to the affairs of a house and family, which affairs are an object
of the greatest importance, whether as relating to individuals or to a
nation. A nation is made powerful and to be honoured in the world, not so
much by the number of its people as by the ability and character of that
people; and the ability and character of a people depend, in a great
measure, upon the _economy_ of the several families, which, all taken
together, make up the nation. There never yet was, and never will be, a
nation _permanently great_,