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Starting, therefore, with the conclusion that the experiment of invalid villages should be made on a small scale, the number of inhabitants in any one should not, it seems to us, exceed two hundred adults of both sexes. Land should be apportioned to them according to the nature of the industry about to be pursued, bearing in mind, also, that in distinction from military agriculturists, they are to practise chiefly various forms of artizanship. Their land should support them by supplying food and clothing; while their manual occupations, taking the lead of all other things, should enable them in time to accumulate some little gains. By the assistance of machinery, men highly disabled might still be made capable of earning more than a living, and in this way almost every grade of disability would find some sphere of usefulness in which to exercise itself. It is computed by those competent to judge in such matters, that invalids occupied in any ordinary labor can easily earn two dollars per week, while, by the assistance of machinery, this amount can be increased to three and possibly four dollars. Estimating the cost of supporting an adult, in such a society, at two dollars a week, it seems evident that under ordinary circumstances each man can generally support himself. The plus labor performed by his children, over the cost of their maintenance, would then go toward the family in the form of divided gains; and thus the inability to labor of a parent might be doubly compensated for by the excess labor of his children. It will be readily inferred from this, that unmarried invalids should not be admitted among the population of these villages, unless they chance to be the sons of invalids. Where father and son are both invalids, it would be wrong to separate them. But, in general, unmarried men are not wanted there. Their place, already commented upon in a preceding proposition, is in asylums, where they can find employment with some wages attached to it. In invalid villages, the family should form the predominant type of society, and everything there should conspire to render it self-supporting and acquisitive.

Wherever the character of the country admits of it, dairy farms should be created of preference, because of the part which women can take in their management; and the amount of land to be apportioned to the inhabitants of a village should therefore depend very much upon the nature of the agricultural employment whence their support is, primarily, to be derived. Three acres per head for tillage land, and ten for dairy or stock-raising purposes, seems about enough. More than this would only encumber families and take them from the field of artizanship. Large farms, combined with immethodical culture, have done more to discourage agriculture as a profession than all other causes. What is wanted chiefly is, a husbanding of resources, by employing them upon a narrower field, which in turn, and as all experience proves, becomes a more productive one.

The locality of these villages should, at the outset, be selected with particular reference to proximity to markets, where their own manufactures could be disposed of; and of equal importance, also, is it, that water privileges should be united to their other advantages, so that in time machinery might be added to the productive power of the community. At first, and while the experiment of establishing the village was in operation, manual labor alone should be tested, and according as invalids exhibited a willingness to exert themselves, and an ability to become useful artizans, should the Government proceed to assist them by machinery. It would be an unwarrantable expenditure to begin by establishing factories, before knowing whether the community in which they were located had the ability to turn them to a good account. Taste, original habits, and topographical circumstances, would unquestionably point out the particular branches of art which these villages would adopt. There are preferences in such matters which it is useless to philosophize about, for the simple reason that they are inexplicable. Hence, wherever they exist, they should be respected and developed. In some villages arts will be pursued which require no artificial assistance. In others there will be such as cannot act without it. On the particular circumstances of each case will depend the line of conduct to be pursued by the government. Thus, if a majority of the inhabitants of a village had previously followed some special trade, as shoemaking or broom-making, they should be encouraged to resume it, on the principle that, whatever men have a familiarity with, and experience in, they must necessarily be able to do better than any thing else. For, in all occupations, whether of the head or hands, drill is everything, and the cheapest workman to employ is always a master in any art. Invalids should be allowed, therefore, some choice in this matter, for we may rest assured it will be one founded both in reason and upon experience. Let them first satisfy the country which extends so much help towards them that are zealous to improve it, and they will command still more.