A few typographical errors have been corrected. They have been
marked in the text with mouse-hover popups. Some inconsistencies of spelling
are noted at the end of the text.

RURAL ARCHITECTURE.

BEING A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION

OF

FARM HOUSES, COTTAGES,

AND

OUT BUILDINGS,

COMPRISING

WOOD HOUSES, WORKSHOPS, TOOL HOUSES, CARRIAGE AND WAGON HOUSES,
STABLES, SMOKE AND ASH HOUSES, ICE HOUSES, APIARY OR BEE HOUSE, POULTRY
HOUSES, RABBITRY, DOVECOTE, PIGGERY, BARNS AND SHEDS FOR CATTLE,
&c., &c., &c.

TOGETHER WITH

LAWNS, PLEASURE GROUNDS AND PARKS; THE FLOWER, FRUIT AND VEGETABLE
GARDEN. ALSO, USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL DOMESTIC ANIMALS FOR THE COUNTRY
RESIDENT,
&c., &c., &c.

ALSO,

THE BEST METHOD OF

CONDUCTING WATER INTO CATTLE YARDS AND HOUSES.

BY LEWIS F. ALLEN.

BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED.

NEW YORK:

C. M. SAXTON,

AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHER.

1852.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852.
By Lewis F. Allen,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of New York.

Stereotyped by
JEWETT, THOMAS AND CO.
Buffalo, N.Y.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The writer of these pages ought, perhaps, to apologize for attempting
a work on a subject, of which he is not a professional master,
either in design or execution. In the science of Farm buildings he
claims no better knowledge than a long practical observation has given
him. The thoughts herein submitted for the consideration of those
interested in the subject of Farm buildings are the result of that
observation, added to his experience in the use of such buildings, and a
conviction of the inconveniences attending many of those already planned
and erected.

Nor is it intended, in the production of this work, to interfere with
the labors of the professional builder. To such builder all who may be
disposed to adopt any model or suggestion here presented, are referred,
for the various details, in their specifications, and estimates, that
may be required; presuming that the designs and descriptions of this
work will be sufficient for the guidance of any master builder, in their
erection and completion.

iv
But for the solicitation of those who believe that the undersigned could
offer some improvements in the construction of Farm buildings for the
benefit of our landholders and practical farmers, these pages would
probably never have appeared. They are offered in the hope that they may
be useful in assisting to form the taste, and add to the comfort of
those who are the main instruments in embellishing the face of our
country in its most pleasing and agreeable features—the American
Farmer.

LEWIS F. ALLEN.

Black Rock, N.Y. 1851.

Note.—For throwing the Designs
embraced in these pages into their present artistic form, the writer is
indebted to Messrs. Otis & Brown, architects, of Buffalo, to whose
skill and experience he takes a pleasure in recommending such as may
wish instruction in the plans, drawings, specifications, or estimates
relating to either of the designs here submitted, or for others of any
kind that may be adapted to their purposes.

L. F. A.

CONTENTS.

PREFATORY.

This work owes its appearance to the absence of any cheap and popular
book on the subject of Rural Architecture, exclusively intended for the
farming or agricultural interest of the United States. Why it is, that
nothing of the kind has been heretofore attempted for the chief benefit
of so large and important a class of our community as our farmers
comprise, is not easy to say, unless it be that they themselves have
indicated but little wish for instruction in a branch of domestic
economy which is, in reality, one of great importance, not only to their
domestic enjoyment, but their pecuniary welfare. It is, too, perhaps,
among the category of neglects, and in the lack of fidelity to their own
interests which pervades the agricultural community of this country,
beyond those of any other profession—for we insist that
agriculture, in its true and extended sense, is as much a profession as
any other pursuit whatever. To the reality of such neglects they have
but of late awaked, and indeed are now far too slowly wheeling into line
for more
x
active progress in the knowledge pertaining to their own advancement. As
an accessory to their labors in such advancement, the present work is
intended.

It is an opinion far too prevalent among those engaged in the more
active occupations of our people,—fortified indeed in such
opinion, by the too frequent example of the farmer himself—that
everything connected with agriculture and agricultural life is of a
rustic and uncouth character; that it is a profession in which
ignorance, as they understand the term, is entirely consistent, and one
with which no aspirations of a high or an elevated character should, or
at least need be connected. It is a reflection upon the integrity of the
great agricultural interest of the country, that any such opinion should
prevail; and discreditable to that interest, that its condition or
example should for a moment justify, or even tolerate it.

Without going into any extended course of remark, we shall find ample
reason for the indifference which has prevailed among our rural
population, on the subject of their own domestic architecture, in the
absence of familiar and practical works on the subject, by such as have
given any considerable degree of thought to it; and, what little thought
has been devoted to this branch of building, has been incidentally
rather than directly thrown off by those professionally engaged in the
finer architectural studies appertaining to luxury and taste, instead of
the every-day wants of a strictly agricultural population, and, of
consequence, understanding but imperfectly the wants and conveniences of
the farm house in its connection with the every-day labors and
necessities of farm life.

xi
It is not intended, in these remarks, to depreciate the efforts of those
who have attempted to instruct our farmers in this interesting branch of
agricultural economy. We owe them a debt of gratitude for what they have
accomplished in the introduction of their designs to our notice; and
when it is remarked that they are insufficient for the purposes
intended, it may be also taken as an admission of our own neglect, that
we have so far disregarded the subject ourselves, as to force upon
others the duty of essaying to instruct us in a work of which we
ourselves should long ago have been the masters.

Why should a farmer, because he is a farmer, only occupy an
uncouth, outlandish house, any more than a professional man,
a merchant, or a mechanic? Is it because he himself is so uncouth
and outlandish in his thoughts and manners, that he deserves no better?
Is it because his occupation is degrading, his intellect ignorant, his
position in life low, and his associations debasing? Surely not. Yet, in
many of the plans and designs got up for his accommodation, in the books
and publications of the day, all due convenience, to say nothing of the
respectability or the elegance of domestic life, is as entirely
disregarded as if such qualities had no connection with the farmer or
his occupation. We hold, that although many of the practical operations
of the farm may be rough, laborious, and untidy, yet they are not, and
need not be inconsistent with the knowledge and practice of neatness,
order, and even elegance and refinement within doors; and, that the due
accommodation of the various things appertaining to farm stock, farm
labor, and farm life, should have a tendency to elevate the social
xii
position, the associations, thoughts, and entire condition of the
farmer. As the man himself—no matter what his occupation—be
lodged and fed, so influenced, in a degree, will be his practice in the
daily duties of his life. A squalid, miserable tenement, with which
they who inhabit it are content, can lead to no elevation of character,
no improvement in condition, either social or moral, of its occupants.
But, the family comfortably and tidily, although humbly provided in
their habitation and domestic arrangements, have usually a corresponding
character in their personal relations. A log cabin, even,—and
I speak of this primitive American structure with profound affection and
regard, as the shelter from which we have achieved the most of our
prodigious and rapid agricultural conquests,—may be so constructed
as to speak an air of neatness, intelligence, and even refinement in
those who inhabit it.

Admitting, then, without further argument, that well conditioned
household accommodations are as important to the farmer, even to the
indulgence of luxury itself, when it can be afforded, as for those who
occupy other and more active pursuits, it is quite important that he be
equally well instructed in the art of planning and arranging these
accommodations, and in designing, also, the various other structures
which are necessary to his wants in their fullest extent. As a question
of economy, both in saving and accumulating, good and sufficient
buildings are of the first consequence, in a pecuniary light, and when
to this are added other considerations touching our social enjoyment,
our advancement in temporal condition, our associations, our position
and influence in life, and, not least,
xiii
the decided item of national good taste which the introduction of good
buildings throughout our extended agricultural country will give, we
find abundant cause for effort in improvement.

It is not intended in our remarks to convey the impression that we
Americans, as a people, are destitute of comfortable, and, in many
cases, quite convenient household and farm arrangements. Numerous
farmeries in every section of the United States, particularly in the
older ones, demonstrate most fully, that where our farmers have taken
the trouble to think on the subject, their ingenuity has been
equal, in the items of convenient and economical arrangement of their
dwellings and out-buildings, to their demands. But, we are forced to
say, that such buildings have been executed, in most cases, with great
neglect of architectural system, taste, or effect; and, in many
instances, to the utter violation of all propriety in appearance,
or character, as appertaining to the uses for which they are
applied.

The character of the farm should be carried out so as to
express itself in everything which it contains. All should bear a
consistent relation with each other. The former himself is a plain man.
His family are plain people, although none the less worthy, useful, or
exalted, on that account. His structures, of every kind, should be
plain, also, yet substantial, where substance is required. All these
detract nothing from his respectability or his influence in the
neighborhood, the town, the county, or the state. A farmer has
quite as much business in the field, or about his ordinary occupations,
with ragged garments, out at elbows, and a crownless hat, as he has to
occupy
xiv
a leaky, wind-broken, and dilapidated house. Neither is he any nearer
the mark, with a ruffled shirt, a fancy dress, or gloved hands,
when following his plough behind a pair of fancy horses, than in
living in a finical, pretending house, such as we see stuck up in
conspicuous places in many parts of the country. All these are out of
place in each extreme, and the one is as absurd, so far as true
propriety is concerned, as the other. A fitness of things, or a
correspondence of one thing with another, should always be preserved
upon the farm, as elsewhere; and there is not a single reason why
propriety and good keeping should not as well distinguish it. Nor is
there any good cause why the farmer himself should not be a man of
taste, in the arrangement and architecture of every building on his
place, as well as other men. It is only necessary that he devote a
little time to study, in order to give his mind a right direction in all
that appertains to this department. Or, if he prefer to employ the
ingenuity of others to do his planning,—which, by the way, is, in
most cases, the more natural and better course,—he certainly
should possess sufficient judgment to see that such plans be correct and
will answer his purposes.

The plans and directions submitted in this work are intended to be of
the most practical kind; plain, substantial, and applicable, throughout,
to the purposes intended, and such as are within the reach—each in
their kind—of every farmer in our country. These plans are chiefly
original; that is, they are not copied from any in the books, or from
any structures with which the writer is familiar. Yet they will
doubtless, on examination, be found in several cases to resemble
buildings,
xv
both in outward appearance and interior arrangement, with which numerous
readers may be acquainted. The object, in addition to our own designs,
has been to apply practical hints, gathered from other structures in
use, which have seemed appropriate for a work of the limited extent here
offered, and that may serve to improve the taste of all such as, in
building useful structures, desire to embellish their farms and estates
in an agreeable style of home architecture, at once pleasant to the eye,
and convenient in their arrangement.

INTRODUCTORY.

The lover of country life who looks upon rural objects in the true
spirit, and, for the first time surveys the cultivated portions of the
United States, will be struck with the incongruous appearance and style
of our farm houses and their contiguous buildings; and, although, on
examination, he will find many, that in their interior accommodation,
and perhaps relative arrangement to each other, are tolerably suited to
the business and convenience of the husbandman, still, the feeling will
prevail that there is an absence of method, congruity, and correct taste
in the architectural structure of his buildings generally, by the
American farmer.

We may, in truth, be said to have no architecture at all, as
exhibited in our agricultural districts, so far as any correct system,
or plan is concerned, as the better taste in building, which a few years
past has introduced among us, has been chiefly confined to our cities
and towns of rapid growth. Even in the comparatively few buildings in
the modern style to be seen in our farming districts, from the various
requirements of
14
those buildings being partially unknown to the architect and builder,
who had their planning—and upon whom, owing to their own
inexperience in such matters, their employers have relied—a
majority of such dwellings have turned out, if not absolute failures,
certainly not what the necessities of the farmer has demanded.
Consequently, save in the mere item of outward appearance—and
that, not always—the farmer and cottager have gained nothing,
owing to the absurdity in style or arrangement, and want of fitness to
circumstances adopted for the occasion.

We have stated that our prevailing rural architecture is discordant
in appearance; it may be added, that it is also uncouth, out of keeping
with correct rules, and, ofttimes offensive to the eye of any lover of
rural harmony. Why it is so, no matter, beyond the apology already
given—that of an absence of cultivation, and thought upon the
subject. It may be asked, of what consequence is it that the farmer or
small property-holder should conform to given rules, or mode, in the
style and arrangement of his dwelling, or out-buildings, so that they be
reasonably convenient, and answer his purposes? For the same reason that
he requires symmetry, excellence of form or style, in his horses, his
cattle, or other farm stock, household furniture, or personal dress. It
is an arrangement of artificial objects, in harmony with natural
objects; a cultivation of the sympathies which every rational being
should have, more or less, with true taste; that costs little or nothing
in the attainment, and, when attained, is a source of gratification
through life. Every human being is
15
bound, under ordinary circumstances, to leave the world somewhat better,
so far as his own acts or exertions are concerned, than he found it, in
the exercise of such faculties as have been given him. Such duty, among
thinking men, is conceded, so far as the moral world is concerned; and
why not in the artificial? So far as the influence for good goes, in all
practical use, from the building of a temple, to the knocking together
of a pig-stye—a labor of years, or the work of a day—the
exercise of a correct taste is important, in a degree.

In the available physical features of a country, no land upon earth
exceeds North America. From scenery the most sublime, through the
several gradations of magnificence and grandeur, down to the simply
picturesque and beautiful, in all variety and shade; in compass vast, or
in area limited, we have an endless variety, and, with a pouring out of
God’s harmonies in the creation, without a parallel, inviting every
intelligent mind to study their features and character, in adapting them
to his own uses, and, in so doing, to even embellish—if such a
thing be possible—such exquisite objects with his own most
ingenious handiwork. Indeed, it is a profanation to do otherwise; and
when so to improve them requires no extraordinary application of skill,
or any extravagant outlay in expense, not to plan and to build in
conformity with good taste, is an absolute barbarism, inexcusable in a
land like ours, and among a population claiming the intelligence we do,
or making but a share of the general progress which we exhibit.

16
It is the idea of some, that a house or building which the farmer or
planter occupies, should, in shape, style, and character, be like some
of the stored-up commodities of his farm or plantation. We cannot
subscribe to this suggestion. We know of no good reason why the walls of
a farm house should appear like a hay rick, or its roof like the
thatched covering to his wheat stacks, because such are the shapes best
adapted to preserve his crops, any more than the grocer’s habitation
should be made to imitate a tea chest, or the shipping merchant’s a rum
puncheon, or cotton bale. We have an idea that the farmer, or the
planter, according to his means and requirements, should be as well
housed and accommodated, and in as agreeable style, too, as any other
class of community; not in like character, in all things, to be sure,
but in his own proper way and manner. Nor do we know why a farm house
should assume a peculiarly primitive or uncultivated style of
architecture, from other sensible houses. That it be a farm
house, is sufficiently apparent from its locality upon the farm itself;
that its interior arrangement be for the convenience of the in-door farm
work, and the proper accommodation of the farmer’s family, should be
quite as apparent; but, that it should assume an uncouth or clownish
aspect, is as unnecessary as that the farmer himself should be a boor in
his manners, or a dolt in his intellect.

The farm, in its proper cultivation, is the foundation of all human
prosperity, and from it is derived the main wealth of the community.
From the farm chiefly springs that energetic class of men, who replace
the
17
enervated and physically decaying multitude continually thrown off in
the waste-weir of our great commercial and manufacturing cities and
towns, whose population, without the infusion—and that
continually—of the strong, substantial, and vigorous life blood of
the country, would soon dwindle into insignificance and decrepitude. Why
then should not this first, primitive, health-enjoying and
life-sustaining class of our people be equally accommodated in all that
gives to social and substantial life, its due development? It is absurd
to deny them by others, or that they deny themselves, the least of such
advantages, or that any mark of caste be attempted to separate
them from any other class or profession of equal wealth, means, or
necessity. It is quite as well to say that the farmer should worship on
the Sabbath in a meeting-house, built after the fashion of his
barn, or that his district school house should look like a stable, as
that his dwelling should not exhibit all that cheerfulness and
respectability in form and feature which belongs to the houses of any
class of our population whatever. Not that the farm house should be like
the town or the village house, in character, style, or architecture, but
that it should, in its own proper character, express all the comfort,
repose, and quietude which belong to the retired and thoughtful
occupation of him who inhabits it. Sheltered in its own secluded, yet
independent domain, with a cheerful, intelligent exterior, it
should exhibit all the pains-taking in home embellishment and rural
decoration that becomes its position, and which would make it an object
of attraction and regard.

RURAL ARCHITECTURE.

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS.

In ascertaining what is desirable to the conveniences, or the
necessities in our household arrangement, it may be not unprofitable to
look about us, and consider somewhat, the existing condition of the
structures too many of us now inhabit, and which, in the light of true
fitness for the objects designed, are inconvenient, absurd, and out of
all harmony of purpose; yet, under the guidance of a better skill, and a
moderate outlay, might be well adapted, in most cases, to our
convenience and comfort, and quite well, to a reasonable standard of
taste in architectural appearance.

At the threshold—not of the house, but of this
treatise—it may be well to remark that it is not here assumed that
there has been neither skill, ingenuity, nor occasional good taste
exhibited, for many generations back, in the United States, in the
construction of farm and country houses. On the contrary, there are
found in the older states many farm and country houses
20
that are almost models, in their way, for convenience in the main
purposes required of structures of their kind, and such as can hardly be
altered for the better. Such, however, form the exception, not the rule;
yet instead of standing as objects for imitation, they have been ruled
out as antiquated, and unfit for modern builders to consult, who have in
the introduction of some real improvements, also left out, or discarded
much that is valuable, and, where true comfort is concerned,
indispensable to perfect housekeeping. Alteration is not always
improvement, and in the rage for innovation of all kinds, among much
that is valuable, a great deal in house-building has been
introduced that is absolutely pernicious. Take, for instance, some of
our ancient-looking country houses of the last century, which, in
America, we call old. See their ample dimensions; their heavy, massive
walls; their low, comfortable ceilings; their high gables; sharp roofs;
deep porches, and spreading eaves, and contrast them with the ambitious,
tall, proportionless, and card-sided things of a modern date, and draw
the comparison in true comfort, which the ancient mansion really
affords, by the side of the other. Bating its huge chimneys, its wide
fire-places,
its heavy beams dropping below the
ceiling overhead, and the lack of some modern conveniences, which, to be
added, would give all that is desired, and every man possessed of a
proper judgment will concede the superiority to the house of the last
century.

That American house-building of the last fifty years is out of joint,
requires no better proof than that the
21
main improvements which have been applied to our rural architecture, are
in the English style of farm and country houses of two or three
centuries ago; so, in that particular, we acknowledge the better taste
and judgment of our ancestors. True, modern luxury, and in some
particulars, modern improvement has made obsolete, if not absurd, many
things considered indispensable in a ruder age. The wide, rambling halls
and rooms; the huge, deep fire-places
in the chimneys; the proximity of out-buildings, and the contiguity of stables,
ricks, and cattle-yards—all these are wisely contracted, dispensed
with, or thrown off to a proper distance; but instead of such style
being abandoned altogether, as has too often been done, the house itself
might better have been partially reformed, and the interior arrangement
adapted to modern convenience. Such changes have in some instances been
made; and when so, how often does the old mansion, with outward features
in good preservation, outspeak, in all the expression of home-bred
comforts, the flashy, gimcrack neighbor, which in its plenitude of
modern pretension looks so flauntingly down upon it!

We cannot, in the United States, consistently adopt the domestic
architecture of any other country, throughout, to our use. We are
different in our institutions, our habits, our agriculture, our
climates. Utility is our chief object, and coupled with that, the
indulgence of an agreeable taste may be permitted to every one who
creates a home for himself, or founds one for his family. The frequent
changes of estates incident to our laws, and the many inducements held
out to our people to
22
change their locality or residence, in the hope of bettering their
condition, is a strong hindrance to the adoption of a universally
correct system in the construction of our buildings; deadening, as the
effect of such changes, that home feeling which should be a prominent
trait of agricultural character. An attachment to locality is not a
conspicuous trait of American character; and if there be a people on
earth boasting a high civilization and intelligence, who are at the same
time a roving race, the Americans are that people; and we acknowledge it
a blemish in our domestic and social constitution.

Such remark is not dropped invidiously, but as a reason why we have
thus far made so little progress in the arts of home embellishment, and
in clustering about our habitations those innumerable attractions which
win us to them sufficiently to repel the temptation so often presented
to our enterprise, our ambition, or love of gain—and these not
always successful—in seeking other and distant places of abode.
If, then, this tendency to change—a want of attachment to any one
spot—is a reason why we have been so indifferent to domestic
architecture; and if the study and practice of a better system of
building tends to cultivate a home feeling, why should it not be
encouraged? Home attachment is a virtue. Therefore let that virtue be
cherished. And if any one study tend to exalt our taste, and promote our
enjoyment, let us cultivate that study to the highest extent within our
reach.

STYLE OF BUILDING.—MISCELLANEOUS.

Diversified as are the features of our country in climate, soil,
surface, and position, no one style of rural architecture is properly
adapted to the whole; and it is a gratifying incident to the indulgence
in a variety of taste, that we possess the opportunity which we desire
in its display to almost any extent in mode and effect. The Swiss châlet may hang
in the mountain pass; the pointed Gothic may shoot up among the
evergreens of the rugged hill-side; the Italian roof, with its
overlooking campanile, may command the wooded slope or the open plain;
or the quaint and shadowy style of the old English mansion, embosomed in
its vines and shrubbery, may nestle in the quiet, shaded valley, all
suited to their respective positions, and each in harmony with the
natural features by which it is surrounded. Nor does the effect which
such structures give to the landscape in an ornamental point of view,
require that they be more imposing in character than the necessities of
the occasion may demand. True economy demands a structure sufficiently
spacious to accommodate its occupants in the best manner, so far as
convenience and
24
comfort are concerned in a dwelling; and its conformity to just rules in
architecture need not be additionally expensive or troublesome. He who
builds at all, if it be anything beyond a rude or temporary shelter, may
as easily and cheaply build in accordance with correct rules of
architecture, as against such rules; and it no more requires an
extravagance in cost or a wasteful occupation of room to produce a given
effect in a house suited to humble means, than in one of profuse
accommodation. Magnificence, or the attempt at magnificence in building,
is the great fault with Americans who aim to build out of the common
line; and the consequence of such attempt is too often a failure,
apparent, always, at a glance, and of course a perfect condemnation in
itself of the judgment as well as taste of him who
undertakes it.

Holding our tenures as we do, with no privilege of entail to our
posterity, an eye to his own interest, or to that of his family who is
to succeed to his estate, should admonish the builder of a house to the
adoption of a plan which will, in case of the sale of the estate,
involve no serious loss. He should build such a house as will be no
detriment, in its expense, to the selling value of the land on which it
stands, and always fitted for the spot it occupies. Hence, an imitation
of the high, extended, castellated mansions of England, or the
Continent, although in miniature, are altogether unsuited to the
American farmer or planter, whose lands, instead of increasing in his
family, are continually subject to division, or to sale in mass, on his
own demise; and when the estate is encumbered with unnecessarily
25
large and expensive buildings, they become an absolute drawback to its
value in either event. An expensive house requires a corresponding
expense to maintain it, otherwise its effect is lost, and many a worthy
owner of a costly mansion has been driven to sell and abandon his estate
altogether, from his unwillingness or inability to support “the
establishment” which it entailed; when, if the dwelling were only such
as the estate required and could reasonably maintain, a contented
and happy home would have remained to himself and family. It behooves,
therefore, the American builder to examine well his premises, to
ascertain the actual requirements of his farm or plantation, in
convenience and accommodation, and build only to such extent, and at
such cost as shall not impoverish his means, nor cause him future
disquietude.

Another difficulty with us is, that we oftener build to gratify the
eyes of the public than our own, and fit up our dwellings to accommodate
“company” or visitors, rather than our own families; and in the
indulgence of this false notion, subject ourselves to perpetual
inconvenience for the gratification of occasional hospitality or
ostentation. This is all wrong. A house should be planned and
constructed for the use of the household, with incidental
accommodation for our immediate friends or guests—which can always
be done without sacrifice to the comfort or convenience of the regular
inmates. In this remark, a stinted and parsimonious spirit is not
suggested. A liberal appropriation of rooms in every department;
a spare chamber or two, or an additional room on the ground floor,
26
looking to a possible increase of family, and the indulgence of an easy
hospitality, should always govern the resident of the country in
erecting his dwelling. The enjoyments of society and the intercourse of
friends, sharing for the time, our own table and fireside, is a crowning
pleasure of country life; and all this may be done without extraordinary
expense, in a wise construction of the dwelling.

The farm house too, should comport in character and area with the
extent and capacity of the farm itself, and the main design for which it
is erected. To the farmer proper—he who lives from the income
which the farm produces—it is important to know the extent of
accommodation required for the economical management of his estate, and
then to build in accordance with it, as well as to suit his own position
in life, and the station which he and his family hold in society. The
owner of a hundred acre farm, living upon the income he receives from
it, will require less house room than he who tills equally well his farm
of three, six, or ten hundred acres. Yet the numbers in their respective
families, the relative position of each in society, or their taste for
social intercourse may demand a larger or smaller household arrangement,
regardless of the size of their estates; still, the dwellings on each
should bear, in extent and expense, a consistent relation to the
land itself, and the means of its owner. For instance: a farm of one
hundred acres may safely and economically erect and maintain a house
costing eight hundred to two thousand dollars, while one of five hundred
to a thousand acres may range in an expenditure
27
of twenty-five hundred to five thousand dollars in its dwelling, and all
be consistent with a proper economy in farm management.

Let it be understood, that the above sums are named as simply
comporting with a financial view of the subject, and such as the
economical management of the estate may warrant. To one who has no
regard to such consideration, this rule of expenditure will not apply.
He may invest any amount he so chooses in building beyond, if he only be
content to pocket the loss which he can never expect to be returned in
an increased value to the property, over and above the price of cheaper
buildings. On the other hand, he would do well to consider that a farm
is frequently worth less to an ordinary purchaser, with an extravagant
house upon it, than with an economical one, and in many cases will bring
even less in market, in proportion as the dwelling is expensive.
Fancy purchasers are few, and fastidious, while he who buys only
for a home and an occupation, is governed solely by the profitable
returns the estate will afford upon the capital invested.

There is again a grand error which many fall into in building,
looking as they do only at the extent of wood and timber; or stone and
mortar in the structure, and paying no attention to the surroundings,
which in most cases contribute more to the effect of the establishment
than the structure itself, and which, if uncultivated or neglected, any
amount of expenditure in building will fail to give that completeness
and perfection of character which every homestead should command. Thus
28
the tawdry erections in imitation of a cast-off feudalism in Europe, or
a copying of the massive piles of more recent date abroad, although in
miniature, both in extent and cost, is the sheerest affectation, in
which no sensible man should ever indulge. It is out of all keeping, or
propriety with other things, as we in this country have them, and the
indulgence of all such fancies is sooner or later regretted. Substance,
convenience, purpose, harmony—all, perhaps, better summed up in
the term EXPRESSION—these are
the objects which should govern the construction of our dwellings and
out-buildings, and in their observance we can hardly err in the
acquisition of what will promote the highest enjoyment which a dwelling
can bestow.

POSITION.

The site of a dwelling should be an important study with every
country builder; for on this depends much of its utility, and in
addition to that, a large share of the enjoyment which its
occupation will afford. Custom, in many parts of the United States, in
the location of the farm buildings, gives advantages which are denied in
others. In the south, and in the slave states generally, the planter
builds, regardless of roads, on the most convenient site his plantation
presents; the farmer of German descent, in Pennsylvania and some other
states, does the same: while the Yankee, be he settled where he will,
either in the east, north, or west, inexorably huddles himself
immediately upon the highway, whether his possessions embrace both sides
of it or not, disregarding the facilities of access to his fields, the
convenience of tilling his crops, or the character of the ground which
his buildings may occupy, seeming to have no other object than proximity
to the road—as if his chief business was upon that, instead of its
being simply a convenience to his occupation. To the last, but little
choice is left; and so long as a close connection with the thoroughfare
is to control, he is obliged
30
to conform to accident in what should be a matter of deliberate choice
and judgment. Still, there are right and wrong positions for a house,
which it is necessary to discuss, regardless of conventional rules, and
they should be considered in the light of propriety alone.

A fitness to the purposes for which the dwelling is constructed
should, unquestionably, be the governing point in determining its
position. The site should be dry, and slightly declining, if possible,
on every side; but if the surface be level, or where water occasionally
flows from contiguous grounds, or on a soil naturally damp, it should be
thoroughly drained of all superfluous moisture. That is indispensable to
the preservation of the house itself, and the health of its inmates. The
house should so stand as to present an agreeable aspect from the main
points at which it is seen, or the thoroughfares by which it is
approached. It should be so arranged as to afford protection from wind
and storm, to that part most usually occupied, as well as be easy of
access to the out-buildings appended to it. It should have an
unmistakable front, sides, and rear; and the uses to which its various
parts are applied, should distinctly appear in its outward character. It
should combine all the advantages of soil, cultivation, water, shade,
and shelter, which the most liberal gratification, consistent with the
circumstances of the owner, may demand. If a site on the estate command
a prospect of singular beauty, other things equal, the dwelling should
embrace it; if the luxury of a stream, or a sheet of water in repose,
present itself, it should, if possible, be enjoyed; if the shade and
protection of a
31
grove be near, its benefits should be included; in fine, any object in
itself desirable, and not embarrassing to the main purposes of the
dwelling and its appendages, should be turned to the best account, and
appropriated in such manner as to combine all that is desirable both in
beauty and effect, as well as in utility, to make up a perfect whole in
the family residence.

Attached to the building site should be considered the quality of the
soil, as affording cultivation and growth to shrubbery and
trees,—at once the ornament most effective to all domestic
buildings, grateful to the eye always, as objects of admiration and
beauty—delightful in the repose they offer in hours of lassitude
or weariness; and to them, that indispensable feature in a perfect
arrangement, the garden, both fruit and vegetable, should be added.
Happily for the American, our soils are so universally adapted to the
growth of vegetation in all its varieties, that hardly a farm of
considerable size can be found which does not afford tolerable
facilities for the exercise of all the taste which one may indulge in
the cultivation of the garden as well as in the planting and growth of
trees and shrubbery; and a due appropriation of these to an agreeable
residence is equal in importance to the style and arrangement of the
house itself.

The site selected for the dwelling, and the character of the scenery
and objects immediately surrounding it, should have a controlling
influence upon the style in which the house is to be constructed.
A fitness and harmony in all these is indispensable to both
expression and effect. And in their determination, a single
32
object should not control, but the entire picture, as completed, should
be embraced in the view; and that style of building constituting the
most agreeable whole, as filling the eye with the most grateful
sensations, should be the one selected with which to fill up and
complete the design.

HOME EMBELLISHMENTS.

A discussion of the objects by way of embellishment, which may be
required to give character and effect to a country residence, would
embrace a range too wide, in all its parts, for a simply practical
treatise like this; and general hints on the subject are all indeed,
that will be required, as no specific rules or directions can be given
which would be applicable, indiscriminately, to guide the builder in the
execution of his work. A dwelling house, no matter what the style,
standing alone, either on hill or plain, apart from other objects, would
hardly be an attractive sight. As a mere representation of a particular
style of architecture, or as a model of imitation, it might excite our
admiration, but it would not be an object on which the eye and the
imagination could repose with satisfaction. It would be incomplete
unless accompanied by such associates as the eye is accustomed to
embrace in the full gratification of the sensations to which that organ
is the
33
conductor. But assemble around that dwelling subordinate structures,
trees, and shrubbery properly disposed, and it becomes an object of
exceeding interest and pleasure in the contemplation. It is therefore,
that the particular style or outward arrangement of the house is but a
part of what should constitute the general effect, and such style is to
be consulted only so far as it may in itself please the taste, and give
benefit or utility in the purposes for which it is intended. Still, the
architectural design should be in harmony with the features of the
surrounding scenery, and is thus important in completing the effect
sought, and which cannot be accomplished without it.

A farm with its buildings, or a simple country residence with the
grounds which enclose it, or a cottage with its door-yard and garden,
should be finished sections of the landscape of which it forms a part,
or attractive points within it; and of consequence, complete each within
itself, and not dependent upon distant accessories to support
it—an imperium in imperio, in classic phrase. A tower,
a monument, a steeple, or the indistinct outline of a distant
town may form a striking feature in a pictorial design and the
associations connected with them, or, the character in which they are
contemplated may allow them to stand naked and unadorned by other
objects, and still permit them to fill up in perfect harmony the
picture. This idea will illustrate the importance of embellishment, not
only in the substitution of trees as necessary appendages to a complete
rural establishment, but in the erection of all the buildings necessary
for occupation
34
in any manner, in form and position, to give effect from any point of
view in which the homestead may be seen. General appearance should not
be confined to one quarter alone, but the house and its surroundings on
every side should show completeness in design and harmony in execution;
and although humble, and devoted to the meanest purposes, a portion
of these erections may be, yet the character of utility or necessity
which they maintain, gives them an air of dignity, if not of grace.
Thus, a house and out-buildings flanked with orchards, or a wood,
on which they apparently fall back for support, fills the eye at once
with not only a beautiful group, in themselves combined, but associate
the idea of repose, of comfort, and abundance—indispensable
requisites to a perfect farm residence. They also seem to connect the
house and out-buildings with the fields beyond, which are of necessity
naked of trees, and gradually spread the view abroad over the farm until
it mingles with, or is lost in the general landscape.

These remarks may seem too refined, and as out of place here, and
trenching upon the subject of Landscape Gardening, which is not designed
to be a part, or but an incidental one of the present work, yet they are
important in connection with the subject under discussion. The proper
disposition of trees and shrubbery around, or in the vicinity of
buildings is far too little understood, although tree planting about our
dwellings is a practice pretty general throughout our country. Nothing
is more common than to see a man build a house, perhaps in most
elaborate and expensive
35
style, and then plant a row of trees close upon the front, which when
grown will shut it almost entirely out of view; while he leaves the rear
as bald and unprotected as if it were a barn or a horse-shed—as if
in utter ignorance, as he probably is, that his house is more
effectively set off by a flanking and background of tree
and shrubbery, than in front. And this is called good taste! Let us
examine it. Trees near a dwelling are desirable for shade;
shelter they do not afford except in masses, which last is always
better given to the house itself by a veranda. Immediately adjoining, or
within touching distance of a house, trees create dampness, more or less
litter, and frequently vermin. They injure the walls and roofs by their
continual shade and dampness. They exclude the rays of the sun, and
prevent a free circulation of air. Therefore, close to the house,
trees are absolutely pernicious, to say nothing of excluding all its
architectural effect from observation; when, if planted at proper
distances, they compose its finest ornaments.

If it be necessary to build in good taste at all, it is quite as
necessary that such good taste be kept in view throughout.
A country dwelling should always be a conspicuous object in its
full character and outline, from one or more prominent points of
observation; consequently all plantations of tree or shrubbery in its
immediate vicinity should be considered as aids to show off the house
and its appendages, instead of becoming the principal objects of
attraction in themselves. Their disposition should be such as to create
a perfect and agreeable whole, when seen in connection with the
36
house itself. They should also be so placed as to open the surrounding
landscape to view in its most attractive features, from the various
parts of the dwelling. Much in the effective disposition of trees around
the dwelling will thus depend upon the character of the country seen
from it, and which should control to a great extent their position.
A single tree, of grand and stately dimensions, will frequently
give greater effect than the most studied plantations. A ledge of
rock, in the clefts of which wild vines may nestle, or around which a
mass of shrubbery may cluster, will add a charm to the dwelling which an
elaborate cultivation would fail to bestow; and the most negligent
apparel of nature in a thousand ways may give a character which we might
strive in vain to accomplish by our own invention. In the efforts to
embellish our dwellings or grounds, the strong natural objects with
which they are associated should be consulted, always keeping in view an
expression of the chief character to which the whole is
applied.

MATERIAL FOR FARM BUILDINGS.

In a country like ours, containing within its soils and upon its
surface such an abundance and variety of building material, the
composition of our farm erections must depend in most cases upon the
ability or the choice of the builder himself.

Stone is the most durable, in the long run the cheapest, and as a
consequence, the best material which can be furnished for the
walls of a dwelling. With other farm buildings circumstances may govern
differently; still, in many sections of the United States, even stone
cannot be obtained, except at an expense and inconvenience altogether
forbidding its use. Yet it is a happy relief that where stone is
difficult, or not at all to be obtained, the best of clay for bricks, is
abundant; and in almost all parts of our country, even where building
timber is scarce, its transportation is so comparatively light, and the
facilities of removing it are so cheap, that wood is accessible to every
one. Hence we may indulge in almost every fitting style of architecture
and arrangement, to which either kind of these materials are best
adapted. We shall slightly discuss them as applicable to our
purposes.

38
Stone is found either on the surface, or in quarries under ground. On
the surface they lie chiefly as bowlders of less or greater size,
usually of hard and durable kinds. Large bowlders may be either blasted,
or split with wedges into sufficiently available shapes to lay in walls
with mortar; or if small, they may with a little extra labor, be fitted
by the aid of good mortar into equally substantial wall as the larger
masses. In quarries they are thrown out, either by blasting or splitting
in layers, so as to form regular courses when laid up; and all their
varieties may, unhammered, except to strike off projecting points
or angles, be laid up with a sufficiently smooth face to give fine
effect to a building. Thus, when easily obtained, aside from the greater
advantages of their durability, stone is as cheap in the first instance
as lumber, excepting in new districts of country where good building
lumber is the chief article of production, and cheaper than brick in any
event. Stone requires no paint. Its color is a natural, therefore an
agreeable one, be it usually what it may, although some shades are more
grateful to the eye than others; yet it is always in harmony with
natural objects, and particularly so on the farm where everything ought
to wear the most substantial appearance. The outer walls of a stone
house should always be firred off inside for lathing and
plastering, to keep them thoroughly dry. Without that, the rooms are
liable to dampness, which would penetrate through the stone into the
inside plastering unless cut off by an open space of air between.

Bricks, where stone is not found, supply its place
39
tolerably well. When made of good clay, rightly tempered with sand, and
well burned, they will in a wall remain for centuries, and as far as
material is concerned, answer all purposes. Brick walls may be thinner
than stone walls, but they equally require “firring off” for inside
plastering, and in addition, they need the aid of paint quite as often
as wood, to give them an agreeable color—bricks themselves not
usually being in the category of desirable colors or shades.

Wood, when abundant and easily obtained, is worked with the greatest
facility, and on many accounts, is the cheapest material, for the
time, of which a building can be constructed. But it is perishable.
It requires every few years a coat of paint, and is always associated
with the idea of decay. Yet wood may be moulded into an infinite variety
of form to please the eye, in the indulgence of any peculiar taste or
fancy.

We cannot, in the consideration of material for house-building
therefore, urge upon the farmer the adoption of either of the above
named materials to the preference of another, in any particular
structure he may require; but leave him to consult his own circumstances
in regard to them, as best he may. But this we will say: If it be
possible, never lay a cellar or underground wall of
perishable material, such as wood or soft bricks; nor build with soft or
unburnt bricks in a wall exposed to the weather anywhere;
nor with stone which is liable to crumble or disintegrate by the action
of frost or water upon it. We are aware that
40
unburnt bricks have been strongly recommended for house-building in
America; but from observation, we are fully persuaded that they are
worthless for any permanent structure, and if used, will in the
end prove a dead loss in their application. Cottages, out-buildings, and
other cheap erections on the farm, for the accommodation of laborers,
stock, or crops, may be made of wood, where wood is the cheapest and
most easily obtained; and, even taking its perishable nature into
account, it may be the most economical. In their construction, it may be
simply a matter of calculation with him who needs them, to calculate the
first cost of any material he has at hand, or may obtain, and to that
add the interest upon it, the annual wear and tear, the insurance, and
the period it may last, to determine this matter to his entire
satisfaction—always provided he have the means at hand to do
either. But other considerations generally control the American farmer.
His pocket is apt more often to be pinched, than his choice is to be at
fault; and this weighty argument compels him into the “make shift”
system, which perhaps in its results, provided the main chance be
attained, is quite as advantageous to his interests as the other.

As a general remark, all buildings should show for themselves, what
they are built of. Let stone be stone; bricks show on their own account;
and of all things, put no counterfeit by way of plaster, stucco, or
other false pretence other than paint, or a durable wash upon wood: it
is a miserable affectation always, and of no possible use whatever. All
counterfeit of
41
any kind as little becomes the buildings of the farmer, as the gilded
pinchbeck watch would fit the finished attire of a gentleman.

Before submitting the several designs proposed for this work, it may
be remarked, that in addressing them to a climate strictly American, we
have in every instance adopted the wide, steeply-pitched roof, with
broad eaves, gables and cornices, as giving protection, shade, and
shelter to the walls; thus keeping them dry and in good preservation,
and giving that well housed, and comfortable expression, so different
from the stiff, pinched, and tucked-up look in which so many of the
haberdasher-built houses of the present day exult.

We give some examples of the hipped roof, because they are convenient
and cheap in their construction; and we also throw into the designs a
lateral direction to the roofs of the wings, or connecting parts of the
building. This is sometimes done for effect in architectural appearance,
and sometimes for the economy and advantage of the building itself.
Where roofs thus intersect or connect with a side wall, the connecting
gutters should be made of copper, zinc, lead, galvanized iron, or tin,
into which the shingles, if they be covered with that material, should
be laid so as to effectually prevent leakage. The eave gutters
should be of copper, zinc, lead, galvanized iron or tin, also, and
placed at least one foot back from the edge of the roof, and lead
the water into conductors down the wall into the cistern or elsewhere,
as may be required. If the water be not needed, and the roof be wide
over the walls, there is no objection to let it pass off naturally,
42
if it be no inconvenience to the ground below, and can run off, or be
absorbed into the ground without detriment to the cellar walls. All this
must be subject to the judgment of the proprietor himself.

OUTSIDE COLOR.

We are not among those who cast off, and on a sudden condemn, as out
of all good taste, the time-honored white house with its green blinds,
often so tastefully gleaming out from beneath the shade of summer trees;
nor do we doggedly adhere to it, except when in keeping, by contrast or
otherwise, with everything around it. For a century past white has been
the chief color of our wooden houses, and often so of brick ones, in the
United States. This color has been supposed to be strong and durable,
being composed chiefly of white lead; and as it reflected the
rays of the sun instead of absorbing them, as some of the darker
colors do, it was thus considered a better preserver of the
weather-boarding from the cracks which the fervid heat of the sun is apt
to make upon it, than the darker colors. White, consequently, has always
been considered, until within a few years past, as a fitting and
tasteful color for dwellings, both in town and country.
A new school of taste in colors has risen, however, within a
few years past, among us; about the same time, too, that the recent
gingerbread and beadwork
43
style of country building was introduced. And these were both, as all
new things are apt to be, carried to extremes. Instead of
toning down the glare of the white into some quiet, neutral
shade, as a straw color; a drab of different hues—always an
agreeable and appropriate color for a dwelling, particularly when the
door and window casings are dressed with a deeper or lighter shade, as
those shades predominate in the main body of the house; or a natural and
soft wood color, which also may be of various shades; or even the
warm russet hue of some of our rich stones—quite appropriate, too,
as applied to wood, or bricks—the fashion must be followed
without either rhyme or reason, and hundreds of our otherwise pretty and
imposing country houses have been daubed over with the dirtiest,
gloomiest pigment imaginable, making every habitation which it touched
look more like a funeral appendage than a cheerful, life-enjoying home.
We candidly say that we have no sort of affection for such sooty daubs.
The fashion which dictates them is a barbarous, false, and arbitrary
fashion; void of all natural taste in its inception; and to one who has
a cheerful, life-loving spirit about him, such colors have no more
fitness on his dwelling or out-buildings, than a tomb would have in his
lawn or dooryard.

Locality, amplitude of the buildings, the purpose to which they are
applied—every consideration connected with them, in fact, should
be consulted, as to color. Stone will give its own color; which, by the
way, some prodigiously smart folks paint—quite as decorous
or essential, as to “paint the lily.” Brick
44
sometimes must be painted, but it should be of a color in keeping with
its character,—of substance and dignity; not a counterfeit of
stone, or to cheat him who looks upon it into a belief that it may be
marble, or other unfounded pretension. A warm russet is most
appropriate for brick-work of any kind of color—the color of a
russet apple, or undressed leather—shades that comport with
Milton’s beautiful idea of

“Russet lawns and fallows gray.”

Red and yellow are both too glaring, and slate, or lead colors too
somber and cold. It is, in fact, a strong argument in favor of
bricks in building, where they can be had as cheap as stone or wood,
that any color can be given to them which the good taste of the builder
may require, in addition to their durability, which, when made of good
material, and properly burned, is quite equal to stone. In a wooden
structure one may play with his fancy in the way of color, minding in
the operation, that he does not play the mountebank, and like the clown
in the circus, make his tattooed tenement the derision of men of correct
taste, as the other does his burlesque visage the ridicule of his
auditors.

A wooden country house, together with its out-buildings,
should always be of a cheerful and softly-toned color—a color
giving a feeling of warmth and comfort; nothing glaring or flashy about
it. And yet, such buildings should not, in their color, any more than in
their architecture, appear as if imitating either stone or brick.
Wood, of itself, is light. One cannot build
45
a heavy house of wood, as compared with brick or stone. Therefore
all imitation or device which may lead to a belief that it may be other
than what it really is, is nothing less than a fraud—not criminal,
we admit, but none the less a fraud upon good taste and architectural
truth.

It is true that in this country we cannot afford to place in stone
and brick buildings those ornate trimmings and appendages which,
perhaps, if economy were not to be consulted, might be more durably
constructed of stone, but at an expense too great to be borne by those
of moderate means. Yet it is not essential that such appendages should
be of so expensive material. The very purposes to which they are
applied, as a parapet, a railing, a balustrade,
a portico, piazza, or porch; all these may be of wood, even when
the material of the house proper is of the most durable kind; and
by being painted in keeping with the building itself, produce a fine
effect, and do no violence to good taste or the most fastidious
propriety. They may be even sanded to a color, and grained, stained, or
otherwise brought to an identity, almost, with the material of the
house, and be quite proper, because they simply are appendages of
convenience, necessity, or luxury, to the building itself, and may be
taken away without injuring or without defacing the main structure. They
are not a material part of the building itself, but reared for
purposes which may be dispensed with. It is a matter of taste or
preference, that they were either built there, or that they remain
permanently afterward, and of consequence, proper that
46
they be of wood. Yet they should not imitate stone or brick. They
should still show that they are of wood, but in color and outside
preservation denote that they are appendages to a stone or
brick house, by complying with the proper shades in color which
predominate in the building itself, and become their own subordinate
character.

Not being a professional painter, or compounder of colors, we shall
offer no receipts or specifics for painting or washing buildings.
Climate affects the composition of both paints and washes, and those who
are competent in this line, are the proper persons to dictate their
various compositions; and we do but common justice to the skill and
intelligence of our numerous mechanics, when we recommend to those who
contemplate building, to apply forthwith to such as are masters of their
trade for all the information they require on the various subjects
connected with it. One who sets out to be his own architect, builder,
and painter, is akin to the lawyer in the proverb, who has a fool for
his client, when pleading his own case, and quite as apt to have quack
in them all. Hints, general outlines, and oftentimes matters of detail
in interior convenience, and many other minor affairs may be given by
the proprietor, when he is neither a professional architect, mechanic,
or even an amateur; but in all things affecting the substantial
and important parts of his buildings, he should consult those who are
proficient and experienced in the department on which he consults them.
And it may perhaps be added that none professing to be such, are
competent, unless well
47
instructed, and whose labors have met the approbation of those competent
to judge.

There is one kind of color, prevailing to a great extent in many
parts of our country, particularly the northern and eastern, which, in
its effect upon any one having an eye to a fitness of things in country
buildings, is a monstrous perversion of good taste. That is the glaring
red, made up of Venetian red, ochre, or Spanish brown, with doors and
windows touched off with white. The only apology we have ever heard
given for such a barbarism was, that it is a good, strong, and lasting
color. We shall not go into an examination as to that fact, but simply
answer, that if it be so, there are other colors, not more expensive,
which are equally strong and durable, and infinitely more tasteful and
fitting. There can be nothing less comporting with the simplicity of
rural scenery, than a glaring red color on a building. It
connects with nothing natural about it; it neither fades
into any surrounding shade of soil or vegetation, and must of necessity,
stand out in its own bold and unshrouded impudence, a perfect
Ishmaelite in color, and a perversion of every thing harmonious in the
design. We eschew red, therefore, from every thing in rural
architecture.

A SHORT CHAPTER ON TASTE.

The compound words, or terms good-taste and bad-taste
have been used in the preceding pages without, perhaps, sufficiently
explaining what is meant by the word taste, other than as giving
vague and unsatisfactory terms to the reader in measuring the subject in
hand. Taste is a term universally applied in criticism of the
fine-arts, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, &c., &c.,
of which there are many schools—of taste, we
mean—some of them, perhaps natural, but chiefly conventional, and
all more or less arbitrary. The proverb, “there is no accounting for
taste,” is as old as the aforesaid schools themselves, and defines
perfectly our own estimate of the common usage of the term.

As we have intended to use it, Webster defines the word taste
to be “the faculty of discerning beauty, order, congruity, proportion,
symmetry, or whatever constitutes excellence; style; manner with respect
to what is pleasing.” With this understanding, therefore; a fitness
to the purpose for which a thing is intended—got up in a manner
agreeable to the eye and the
49
mind—preserving also a harmony between its various parts and uses;
pleasing to the eye, as addressed to the sense, and satisfactory to the
mind, as appropriate to the object for which it is required;—these
constitute good-taste, as the term is here understood.

The term style, also, is “the manner or form of
a thing.” When we say, “that is a stylish house,” it should mean that it
is in, or approaches some particular style of building recognized by the
schools. It may or may not be in accordance with good taste, and is,
consequently, subject to the same capricious test in its government. Yet
styles are subject to arrangement, and are classified in the
several schools of architecture, either as distinct specimens of
acknowledged orders, as the Doric, the Ionic, the Corinthian, in Grecian
architecture, or, the Tuscan and Composite, which are, more distinctly,
styles of Roman architecture. To these may be added the Egyptian, the
most massive of all; and either of them, in their proper character,
grand and imposing when applied to public buildings or extensive
structures, but altogether inapplicable, from their want of lightness
and convenience, to country or even city dwellings. Other
styles—not exactly orders—of architecture, such as the
Italian, the Romanesque, the Gothic, the Swiss, with their
modifications—all of which admit of a variety of departures from
fixed rules, not allowed in the more rigid orders—may be adapted
in a variety of ways, to the most agreeable and harmonious arrangement
in architectural effect, for dwellings and structures appurtenant to
them.

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The Italian style of architecture, modified somewhat in pretension and
extent, is admirably adapted to most parts of the United States. Its
general lightness, openness, and freedom gives a wide range of choice;
and its wings, verandas, and terraces, stretching off in any and almost
every direction desired, from the main building, make it exceedingly
appropriate for general use. The modern, or rural Gothic, branching off
sometimes into what is termed the English cottage style, and in many
instances blending so intimately with the Italian, as hardly to mark the
line of division, is also a beautiful arrangement of building for
country dwellings. These, in ruder structures, may also be carried into
the Rustic—not a style proper, in itself—but so termed as
approximating in execution or pretension to either of the above; while
the Swiss, with its hanging roofs, and sheltering eaves may be
frequently brought in aid to show out the rustic form in more
completeness, and in greater harmony with surrounding objects, than
either of the others.

For farm houses, either of these arrangements or departures
from a set and positive style, are better fitted than any
which we have noticed; and in some one or other of the modifications
named, we have applied them in the examples submitted in this work. They
may not therefore be viewed as distinct delineations of an
order of architecture, or style proper, even; but as a
mode appropriate to the object required. And so long as they do
not absolutely conflict with true taste, or in their construction commit
a barbarism upon any acknowledged system of architecture, in any of its
51
modifications, we hazard no impropriety in introducing them for the
imitation of country builders. Congruity with the objects to which it is
applied should be the chief merit of any structure whatever; and so long
as that object be attained, good taste is not violated, and utility is
fully subserved.

Intimately connected with this subject, in rural buildings, is the
shape of the structure. Many of the designs recently introduced
for the imitation of builders, are full of angles and all sorts of
zig-zag lines, which, although they may add to the variety of style, or
relieve the monotony of straight and continuous lines, are carried to a
needless excess, expensive in their construction, and entail infinite
trouble upon the owner or occupant, in the repairs they subject him to,
in the leakages continually occurring, against which last, either of
wind or rain, it is almost impossible to guard. And what, let us ask,
are the benefits of a parcel of needless gables and peaked windows,
running up like owl’s ears, above the eaves of a house, except to create
expense, and invite leakage and decay? If in appearance, they provoke an
association of that kind, they certainly are not in good taste; and a
foot or two of increased height in a wall, or a low window sufficient
for the purpose intended, would give a tone of dignity, of comfort, and
real utility, which a whole covey of such pretentious things could not.
All such trumpery should be scouted from the dwelling house of the
farmer, and left to the special indulgence of the town builder.

A square form of house will afford more area within
52
a given line of wall than any other sensible form which may be
adopted. Yet a square house is not so agreeable to the eye as an oblong.
Thus, a house should stand somewhat broader on one front than on
another. It should also be relieved from an appearance of monotony and
tameness, by one or more wings; and such wings should, at their junction
with the main building, retreat or advance a sufficient distance from a
continuous line, as to relieve it effectually from an appearance of
stiffness, and show a different character of occupation from that of the
main structure. The front of a house should be the most imposing and
finished in its architecture of any one of its parts; and unless some
motive of greater convenience control otherwise, its entrance the most
highly wrought, as indicating the luxury of the establishment—for
even the humblest habitations have their luxuries. The side rooms, or
more usually occupied apartments, require less pretension in both
architectural effect and finish, and should wear a more subdued
appearance; while the kitchen section, and from that, the several grades
of apartments stretching beyond it, should distinctly show that they are
subservient in their character, and wear a style and finish accordingly.
Thus, each part of the house speaks for itself. It is its own
finger-board, pointing the stranger to its various accommodation, as
plainly as if written on its walls, and saying as significantly as dumb
walls can do, that here dwells a well regulated family, who have a
parlor for their friends; a library, or sitting-room for their own
leisure and comfort; an ample bedroom and nursery, for the parents
53
and the little ones; a kitchen for the cooking; and a scullery and
closets, and all the other etceteras which belong to a perfect family
homestead.

And so with the grounds. The lawn or “dooryard,” should be the best
kept ground on the place. The most conspicuous part of the garden should
show its shrubbery and its flowers. The side or rear approach should be
separated from the lawn, and show its constant business
occupation, and openly lead off to where men and farm stock meet on
common ground, devoted to every purpose which the farm requires. Such
arrangement would be complete in all its parts, satisfactory, and
lasting. Tinsel ornament, or gewgaw decoration should never be permitted
on any building where the sober enjoyment of agricultural life is
designed. It can never add consideration or dignity to the retired
gentleman even, and least of all should it be indulged in by the farmer,
dwelling on his own cultivated acres.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF CELLARS.

Every farm house and farm cottage, where a family of any size occupy
the latter, should have a good, substantial stone-walled cellar
beneath it. No room attached to the farm house is more profitable, in
its occupation, than the cellar. It is useful for storing numberless
articles which are necessary to be kept warm and dry in winter, as well
as cool in summer, of which the farmer is well aware. The walls of a
cellar should rise at least one, to two, or even three feet above the
level of the ground surrounding it, according to circumstances, and the
rooms in it well ventilated by two or more sliding sash windows
in each, according to size, position, and the particular kind of storage
for which it is required, so that a draft of pure air can pass through,
and give it thorough ventilation at all times. It should also be at
least seven and a half feet high in the clear; and if it be even nine
feet, that is not too much. If the soil be compact, or such as will hold
water, it should be thoroughly drained from the lowest point or corner,
and the drain always kept open; (a stone drain is the best and most
durable,) and if
55
floored with a coat of flat, or rubble stones, well set in good
hydraulic cement—or cement alone, when the stone cannot be
obtained—all the better. This last will make it rat proof.
For the purpose of avoiding these destructive creatures, the
foundation stones in the wall should be brought to a joint, and
project at least six inches on each side, from the wall itself, when
laid upon this bottom course; as the usual manner of rats is to burrow
in a nearly perpendicular direction from the surface, by the side of the
wall, when intending to undermine it. On arriving at the bottom, if
circumvented by the projecting stones, they will usually abandon their
work. Plank of hard wood, or hard burnt bricks, may answer this purpose
when stone cannot be had.

All cellar walls should be laid in good lime mortar, or if that be
not practicable, they should be well pointed with it. This keeps them in
place, and renders them less liable to the ingress of water and vermin.
The thickness of wall should not be less than fifteen to eighteen
inches, in any event, when of stone; and if the house walls above be
built of stone or brick, two feet is better; and in all cases the cellar
wall should be full three inches thicker than the wall resting
upon it.

In the cellar of every farm house there should be an outside door,
with a flight of steps by which to pass roots and other bulky or heavy
articles, to which a wagon or cart may approach, either to receive or
discharge them. This is indispensable.

Every out-building upon the farm, let it be devoted to what purpose
it may, having a wooden floor on the
56
ground story, should be set up sufficiently high from the surface to
admit a cat or small terrier dog beneath such floor, with openings for
them to pass in and out, or these hiding places will become so many rat
warrens upon the premises, and prove most destructive to the grain and
poultry. Nothing can be more annoying to the farmer than these vermin,
and a trifling outlay in the beginning, will exclude them from the
foundations and walls of all buildings. Care, therefore, should be taken
to leave no haunt for their convenience.

With these suggestions the ingenuity of every builder will provide
sufficient guards against the protection of vermin beneath his
buildings.

VENTILATION OF HOUSES.

Pure air, and enough of it, is the cheapest blessing one can enjoy;
and to deny one’s self so indispensable an element of good health, is
little short of criminal neglect, or the sheerest folly. Yet thousands
who build at much needless expense, for the protection of their health
and that of their families, as they allege, and no doubt suppose, by
neglecting the simplest of all contrivances, in the work of ventilation,
invite disease and infirmity, from the very pains they so unwittingly
take to ward off such afflictions.

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A man, be he farmer or of other profession, finding himself prosperous
in life, sets about the very sensible business of building a house for
his own accommodation. Looking back, perhaps, to the days of his
boyhood, in a severe climate, he remembers the not very highly-finished
tenement of his father, and the wide, open fireplace which, with its
well piled logs, was scarcely able to warm the large living-room, where
the family were wont to huddle in winter. He possibly remembers, with
shivering sympathy, the sprinkling of snow which he was accustomed to
find upon his bed as he awaked in the morning, that had found its way
through the frail casing of his chamber window—but in the midst of
all which he grew up with a vigorous constitution, a strong arm,
and a determined spirit. He is resolved that his children shall
encounter no such hardships, and that himself and his excellent helpmate
shall suffer no such inconvenience as his own parents had done, who now
perhaps, are enjoying a strong and serene old age, in their
old-fashioned, yet to them not uncomfortable tenement. He therefore
determines to have a snug, close house, where the cold cannot
penetrate. He employs all his ingenuity to make every joint an air-tight
fit; the doors must swing to an air-tight joint; the windows set into
air-tight frames; and to perfect the catalogue of his comforts, an
air-tight stove is introduced into every occupied room which, perchance,
if he can afford it, are further warmed and poisoned by the heated flues
of an air-tight furnace in his air-tight cellar. In short, it is an
air-tight concern throughout. His family breathe an
58
air-tight atmosphere; they eat their food cooked in an “air-tight
kitchen witch,” of the latest “premium pattern;” and thus they start,
father, mother, children, all on the high road—if persisted
in—to a galloping consumption, which sooner or later conducts them
to an air-tight dwelling, not soon to be changed. If such melancholy
catastrophe be avoided, colds, catarrhs, headaches, and all sorts of
bodily afflictions shortly make their appearance, and they wonder what
is the matter! They live so snug! their house is so warm! they sleep so
comfortable! how can it be? True, in the morning the air of their
sleeping-rooms feels close, but then if a window is opened it will chill
the rooms, and that will give them colds. What can be the matter?
The poor creatures never dream that they have been breathing, for hour
after hour, decomposed air, charged with poisonous gases, which cannot
escape through the tight walls, or over the tight windows, or through
the tight stoves; and thus they keep on in the sure course to infirmity,
disease, and premature death—all for the want of a little
ventilation! Better indeed, that instead of all this painstaking,
a pane were knocked out of every window, or a panel out of every
door in the house.

We are not disposed to talk about cellar furnaces for heating a
farmer’s house. They have little to do in the farmer’s inventory of
goods at all, unless it be to give warmth to the hall—and even
then a snug box stove, with its pipe passing into the nearest chimney
is, in most cases, the better appendage. Fuel is usually abundant with
the farmer; and where so, its
59
benefits are much better dispensed in open stoves or fireplaces, than in
heating furnaces or “air-tights.”

We have slightly discussed this subject of firing in the farm house,
in a previous page, but while in the vein, must crave another word.
A farmer’s house should look hospitable as well as be
hospitable, both outside and in; and the broadest, most cheerful look of
hospitality within doors, in cold weather, is an open fire in the
chimney fireplace, with the blazing wood upon it. There is no
mistake about it. It thaws you out, if cold; it stirs you up, if
drooping; and is the welcome, winning introduction to the good cheer
that is to follow.

A short time ago we went to pay a former town friend a visit. He had
removed out to a snug little farm, where he could indulge his
agricultural and horticultural tastes, yet still attend to his town
engagements, and enjoy the quietude of the country. We rang the door
bell. A servant admitted us; and leaving overcoat and hat in the
hall, we entered a lone room, with an “air-tight” stove, looking as
black and solemn as a Turkish eunuch upon us, and giving out about the
same degree of genial warmth as the said eunuch would have expressed had
he been there—an emasculated warming machine truly! On the floor
was a Wilton carpet, too fine to stand on; around the room were mahogany
sofas and mahogany chairs, all too fine to sit on—at all events to
rest one upon if he were fatigued. The blessed light of day was
shut out by crimson and white curtains, held up by gilded arrows; and
upon the mantle piece, and on the center
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and side tables were all sorts of gimcracks, costly and worthless. In
short, there was no comfort about the whole concern. Hearing our
friend coming up from his dining-room below, where too, was his
cellar kitchen—that most abominable of all appendages to a
farm house, or to any other country house, for that matter—we
buttoned our coat up close and high, thrust our hands into our pockets,
and walked the room, as he entered. “Glad to see you—glad to see
you, my friend!” said he, in great joy; “but dear me, why so buttoned
up, as if you were going? What’s the matter?” “My good sir,” we replied,
“you asked us to come over and see you, ‘a plain farmer,’ and
‘take a quiet family dinner with you.’ We have done so; and here find
you with all your town nonsense about you. No fire to warm by; no seat
to rest in; no nothing like a farm or farmer about you; and it only
needs your charming better half, whom we always admired, when she lived
in town, to take down her enameled harp, and play

‘In fairy bowers by moonlight hours,’

to convince one that instead of ruralizing in the country, you had
gone a peg higher in town residence! No, no, we’ll go down to farmer
Jocelyn’s, our old schoolfellow, and take a dinner of bacon and cabbage
with him. If he does occupy a one-story house, he lives up in sunshine,
has an open fireplace, with a blazing wood fire on a chilly day, and his
‘latch string is always out.'”

Our friend was petrified—astonished! We meant
61
to go it rather strong upon him, but still kept a frank, good-humored
face, that showed him no malice. He began to think he was not exactly in
character, and essayed to explain. We listened to his story. His good
wife came in, and all together, we had a long talk of their family and
farming arrangements; how they had furnished their house; and how they
proposed to live; but wound up with a sad story, that their good farming
neighbors didn’t
call on them the second time—kind,
civil people they appeared, too—and while they were in, acted as
though afraid to sit down, and afraid to stand up;—in short, they
were dreadfully embarrassed; for why, our friends couldn’t tell, but now
began to understand it. “Well, my good friends,” said we, “you have
altogether mistaken country life in the outset. To live on a farm, it is
neither necessary to be vulgar, nor clownish, nor to affect ignorance.
Simplicity is all you require, in manners, and equal simplicity
in your furniture and appointments. Now just turn all this nonsense in
furniture and room dressing out of doors, and let some of your town
friends have it. Get some simple, comfortable, cottage furniture, much
better for all purposes, than this, and you will settle down into quiet,
natural country life before you are aware of it, and all will go ‘merry
as a marriage bell’ with you, in a little time”—for they both
loved the country, and were truly excellent people. We continued,
“I came to spend the day and the night, and I will stay; and this
evening we’ll go down to your neighbor Jocelyn’s; and you, Mrs.
N——, shall go with us; and we will see how quietly and
62
comfortably he and his family take the world in a farmer’s way.”

We did go; not in carriage and livery, but walked the pleasant half
mile that lay between them; the exercise of which gave us all activity
and good spirits. Jocelyn was right glad to see us, and Patty, his staid
and sober wife, with whom we had romped many an innocent hour in our
childhood days, was quite as glad as he. But they looked a little
surprised that such “great folks” as their new neighbors, should drop in
so unceremoniously, and into their common “keeping room,” too, to chat
away an evening. However, the embarrassment soon wore off. We talked of
farming; we talked of the late elections; we talked of the fruit trees
and the strawberry beds; and Mrs. Jocelyn, who was a pattern of good
housekeeping, told Mrs. N—— how she made her apple
jellies, and her currant tarts, and cream cheeses; and before we left
they had exchanged ever so many engagements,—Mrs. Patty to learn
her new friend to do half a dozen nice little matters of household
pickling and preserving; while she, in turn, was to teach Nancy and
Fanny, Patty’s two rosy-cheeked daughters, almost as pretty as their
mother was at their own age, to knit a bead bag and work a fancy chair
seat! And then we had apples and nuts, all of the very best—for
Jocelyn was a rare hand at grafting and managing his fruit trees, and
knew the best apples all over the country. We had, indeed,
a capital time! To cut the story short, the next spring our friend
sent his fancy furniture to auction, and provided his house with
simple cottage furnishings, at
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less than half the cost of the other; which both he and his wife
afterward declared was infinitely better, for all house-keeping
purposes. He also threw a neat wing on to the cottage, for an upper
kitchen and its offices, and they now live like sensible country folks;
and with their healthy, frolicksome children, are worth the envy of all
the dyspeptic, town-fed people in existence.

A long digression, truly; but so true a story, and one so apt to our
subject can not well be omitted. But what has all this to do with
ventilation? We’ll tell you. Jocelyn’s house was ventilated as it
should be;—for he was a methodical, thoughtful man, who planned
and built his house himself—not the mechanical work, but directed
it throughout, and saw that it was faithfully done; and that put us in
mind of the story.

To be perfect in its ventilation, every room in the house, even to
the closets, should be so arranged that a current of air may pass
through, to keep it pure and dry. In living rooms, fresh air in
sufficient quantity may usually be admitted through the doors. In
sleeping rooms and closets, when doors may not be left open, one or more
of the lower panels of the door may be filled by a rolling blind,
opening more or less, at pleasure; or a square or oblong opening for
that purpose, may be left in the base board, at the floor, and covered
by a wire netting. And in all rooms, living apartments, as well as
these, an opening of at least sixty-four square inches should be made in
the wall, near the ceiling, and leading into an air flue, to pass into
the garret. Such opening may be filled by a
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rolling blind, or wire screen, as below, and closed or kept open, at
pleasure. Some builders prefer an air register to be placed in the
chimney, over the fireplace or stove, near the ceiling; but the
liability to annoyance, by smoke escaping through it into the room, if
not thoroughly done, is an objection to this latter method, and the
other may be made, in its construction, rather ornamental than
otherwise, in appearance. All such details as these should be planned
when the building is commenced, so that the several flues may be
provided as the building proceeds. In a stone or brick house,
a small space may be left in the walls, against which these air
registers may be required; and for inner rooms, or closets, they may
pass off into the openings of the partitions, and so up into the garret;
from which apertures of escape may be left, or made at the gables, under
the roof, or by a blind in a window.

For the admission of air to the first floor of the house,
a special opening through the walls, for that purpose, can hardly
be necessary; as the doors leading outside are usually opened often
enough for such object. One of the best ventilated houses we have ever
seen, is that owned and occupied by Samuel Cloon, Esq., of Cincinnati.
It is situated on his farm, three miles out of the city, and in its fine
architectural appearance and finished appointments, as a rural residence
and first-class farm house, is not often excelled. Every closet is
ventilated through rolling blinds in the door panels; and foul air,
either admitted or created within them, is passed off at once by flues
near the ceiling overhead, passing into conductors leading off through
the garret.

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Where chambers are carried into the roof of a house, to any extent, they
are sometimes incommoded by the summer heat which penetrates them,
conducted by the chamber ceiling overhead. This heat can best be
obviated by inserting a small window at each opposite peak of the
garret, by which the outside air can circulate through, above the
chambers, and so pass off the heated air, which will continually ascend.
All this is a simple matter, for which any builder can provide, without
particular expense or trouble.

INTERIOR ACCOMMODATION OF HOUSES.

Ground, in the country, being the cheapest item which the farmer can
devote to building purposes, his object should be to spread over,
rather than to go deeply into it, or climb high in the air above it. We
repudiate cellar kitchens, or under-ground rooms for house work,
altogether, as being little better than a nuisance—dark, damp,
unhealthy, inconvenient, and expensive. The several rooms of a farm
dwelling house should be compact in arrangement, and contiguous as may
be to the principally-occupied apartments. Such arrangement is cheaper,
more convenient, and labor-saving; and in addition, more in accordance
with a good and correct taste in the outward appearance of the house
itself.

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The general introduction of cooking stoves, and other stoves and
apparatus for warming houses, within the last twenty years, which we
acknowledge to be a great acquisition in comfort as well as in
convenience and economy, has been carried to an extreme, not only in
shutting up and shutting out the time-honored open fireplace and its
broad hearthstone, with their hallowed associations, but also in
prejudice to the health of those who so indiscriminately use them,
regardless of other arrangements which ought to go with them.
A farm house should never be built without an ample, open fireplace
in its kitchen, and other principally occupied rooms; and in all
rooms where stoves are placed, and fires are daily required, the
open Franklin should take place of the close or air-tight stove,
unless extraordinary ventilation to such rooms be adopted also. The
great charm of the farmer’s winter evening is the open fireside, with
its cheerful blaze and glowing embers; not wastefully expended, but
giving out that genial warmth and comfort which, to those who are
accustomed to its enjoyment, is a pleasure not made up by any invention
whatever; and although the cooking stove or range be
required—which, in addition to the fireplace, we would always
recommend, to lighten female labor—it can be so arranged as not to
interfere with the enjoyment or convenience of the open fire.

In the construction of the chimneys which appear in the plans
submitted, the great majority of them—particularly those for
northern latitudes—are placed in the interior of the house. They
are less liable to
67
communicate fire to the building, and assist greatly in warming the
rooms through which they pass. In southern houses they are not so
necessary, fires being required for a much less period of the year. Yet
even there they may be oftentimes properly so placed. Where holes, for
the passage of stovepipes through floors, partitions, or into chimneys,
are made, stone, earthen, or iron thimbles should be inserted; and,
except in the chimneys, such holes should be at least one to two inches
larger than the pipe itself. The main flues of the chimney conducting
off the smoke of the different fires, should be built separate, and kept
apart by a partition of one brick in thickness, and carried out
independently, as in no other way will they rid the house of smoky
rooms.

An illustration in point: Fifteen years ago we purchased and removed
into a most substantial and well-built stone house, the chimneys of
which were constructed with open fireplaces, and the flues carried up
separately to the top, where they all met upon the same level surface,
as chimneys in past times usually were built, thus. Every fireplace in
the house (and some of them had stoves in,) smoked intolerably; so much
so, that when the wind was in some quarters the fires had to be put out
in every room but the kitchen, which, as good luck would have it, smoked
less—although it did smoke there—than the others. After
balancing the matter in our own mind some time, whether we should pull
down and rebuild the chimneys
68

altogether, or attempt an alteration; as we had given but little thought
to the subject of chimney draft, and to try an experiment was the
cheapest, we set to work a bricklayer, who, under our direction, simply
built over each discharge of the several flues a separate top of fifteen
inches high, in this wise: The remedy was perfect. We have had no smoke
in the house since, blow the wind as it may, on any and all occasions.
The chimneys can’t smoke; and the whole expense for four
chimneys, with their twelve flues, was not twenty dollars! The remedy
was in giving each outlet a distinct current of air all around,
and on every side of it.

CHIMNEY TOPS.

Nothing adds more to the outward expression of a dwelling, than the
style of its chimneys. We have just shown that independent chimney tops
pass off their smoke more perfectly, than when only partitioned inside
to the common point of outlet. Aside from the architectural beauty which
a group of chimney flues adds to the building, we have seen that they
are really useful, beyond the formal, square-sided piles so common
throughout the country. They denote good cheer,
69
social firesides, and a generous hospitality within—features which
should always mark the country dwelling; and more particularly that of
the farmer.

The style and arrangement of these chimney groups may be various, as
comporting with the design of the house itself; and any good architect
can arrange them as fitted to such design. Our illustrations will show
them of different kinds, which are generally cheap in construction, and
simple, yet expressive in their arrangement.

PRELIMINARY TO OUR DESIGNS.

We have discussed with tolerable fullness, the chief subjects
connected with farm buildings—sufficiently so, we trust, to make
ourselves understood as desiring to combine utility with commendable
ornament in all that pertains to them. The object has been, thus far, to
give hints, rather than models, in description. But as the point to
which we have endeavored to arrive will be but imperfectly understood
without illustration, we shall submit a few plans of houses and
outbuildings, as carrying out more fully our ideas.

We are quite aware that different forms or fashions of detail and
finish, to both outside and inside work, prevail among builders in
different sections of the United States. Some of these fashions are the
result of climate, some of conventional taste, and some of
70
education. With them we are not disposed to quarrel. In many cases they
are immaterial to the main objects of the work, and so long as they
please the taste or partialities of those adopting them, are of little
consequence. There are, however, certain matters of principle,
both in general construction and in the detail of finish, which should
not be disregarded; and these, in the designs submitted, and in the
explanations which follow, will be fully discussed, each in its place.
The particular form or style of work we have not directed, because, as
before remarked, we are no professional builder, and of course free from
the dogmas which are too apt to be inculcated in the professional
schools and workshops. We give a wide berth, and a free toleration in
all such matters, and are not disposed to raise a hornet’s nest about
our ears by interfering in matters where every tyro of the drafting
board and work-bench assumes to be, and probably may be, our superior.
All minor subjects we are free to leave to the skill and ingenuity of
the builder—who, fortunately for the country, is found in almost
every village and hamlet of the land.

Modes and styles of finish, both inside and outside of buildings,
change; and that so frequently, that what is laid down as the reigning
fashion to-day, may be superseded by another fashion of
to-morrow—immaterial in themselves, only, and not affecting the
shape, arrangement, and accommodation of the building itself, which in
these, must ever maintain their relation with the use for which it is
intended. The northern dwelling, with its dependencies and appointments,
requires
71
a more compact, snug, and connected arrangement than that of the south;
while one in the middle states may assume a style of arrangement between
them both, each fitted for their own climate and country, and in equally
good taste. The designs we are about to submit are intended to be such
as may be modified to any section of the country, although some of them
are made for extremes of north and south, and are so distinguished.
Another object we have had in view is, to give to every farmer and
country dweller of moderate means the opportunity of possessing a cheap
work which would guide him in the general objects which he wishes to
accomplish in building, that he may have his own notions on the
subject, and not be subject to the caprice and government of such as
profess to exclusive knowledge in all that appertains to such subjects,
and in which, it need not be offensive to say, that although clever in
their way, they are sometimes apt to be mistaken.

Therefore, without assuming to instruct the professional
builder, our plans will be submitted, not without the hope that he even,
may find in them something worthy of consideration; and we offer them to
the owner and future occupant of the buildings themselves, as models
which he may adopt, with the confidence that they will answer all his
reasonable purposes.

(73)
(74)

FARM HOUSE. Pages 73-74.

larger view

Design I.

We here present a farm house of the simplest and most unpretending
kind, suitable for a farm of twenty, fifty, or an hundred acres.
Buildings somewhat in this style are not unfrequently seen in the New
England States, and in New York; and the plan is in fact suggested,
although not copied, from some farm houses which we have known there,
with improvements and additions of our own.

This house may be built either of stone, brick, or wood. The style is
rather rustic than otherwise, and intended to be altogether plain, yet
agreeable in outward appearance, and of quite convenient arrangement.
The body of this house is 40×30 feet on the ground, and 12 feet
high, to the plates for the roof; the lower rooms nine feet high; the
roof intended for a pitch of 35°—but, by an error in the drawing,
made less—thus affording very tolerable chamber room in the roof
story. The L, or rear projection, containing the wash-room and
wood-house, juts out two feet from the side of the house to which it is
attached, with posts 7½ feet high above the floor of the main house; the
pitch of the roof being the same. Beyond this is a building 32×24 feet,
with 10 feet posts, partitioned off into a swill-room, piggery,
workshop, and wagon-house, and a like roof with the others.
A light, rustic porch,
75
12×8 feet, with lattice work, is placed on the front of the house, and
another at the side door, over which vines, by way of drapery, may run;
thus combining that sheltered, comfortable, and home-like expression so
desirable in a rural dwelling. The chimney is carried out in three
separate flues, sufficiently marked by the partitions above the roof.
The windows are hooded, or sheltered, to protect them from the weather,
and fitted with simple sliding sashes with 7×9 or 8×10 glass. Outer
blinds may be added, if required; but it is usually better to have these
inside, as they are no ornament to the outside of the building,
are liable to be driven back and forth by the wind, even if fastenings
are used, and in any event are little better than a continual
annoyance.

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

GROUND PLAN.

The front door, over which is a single sash-light across, opens into
a hall or entry 9×7 feet, from which a door opens on either side into a
sitting-room and parlor, each 16×15 feet, lighted by a double, plain
window, at the ends, and a single two-sash window in front. Between the
entrance door and stove, are in each room a small pantry or closet for
dishes, or otherwise, as may be required. The chimney stands in the
center of the house, with a separate flue for each front room, into
which a thimble is inserted to receive the stovepipes by which they are
warmed; and from the inner side of these rooms each has a door passing
to the kitchen, or chief living room. This last apartment
77
is 22×15 feet, with a broad fireplace containing a crane, hooks, and
trammel, if required, and a spacious family oven—affording those
homely and primitive comforts still so dear to many of us who are not
ready to concede that all the virtues of the present day are combined in
a “perfection” cooking stove, and a “patent” heater; although there is a
chance for these last, if they should be adopted into the peaceful
atmosphere of this kitchen.

On one side of the kitchen, in rear of the stairs, is a bedroom, 9×8
feet, with a window in one corner. Adjoining that, is a buttery,
dairy-room, or closet, 9×6 feet, also having a window. At the inner end
of the stairway is the cellar passage; at the outer end is the chamber
passage, landing above, in the highest part of the roof story. Opposite
the chamber stairs is a door leading to the wash-room. Between the two
windows, on the rear side of the kitchen, is a sink, with a waste pipe
passing out through the wall. At the further corner a door opens into a
snug bedroom 9×8 feet, lighted by a window in rear; and adjoining this
is a
78
side entry leading from the end door, 9×6 feet in area; thus making
every room in the house accessible at once from the kitchen, and giving
the greatest possible convenience in both living and house-work.

CHAMBER PLAN.

The roof story is partitioned into convenient-sized bedrooms; the
ceiling running down the pitch of the roof to within two feet of the
floor, unless they are cut short by inner partitions, as they are in the
largest chamber, to give closets. The open area in the center, at the
head of the stairs, is lighted by a small gable window inserted in the
roof, at the rear, and serves as a lumber room; or, if necessary,
a bed may occupy a part of it.

In rear of the main dwelling is a building 44×16 feet, occupied as a
wash-room and wood-house. The wash-room floor is let down eight inches
below the kitchen, and is 16×14 feet, in area, lighted by a window on
each side, with a chimney, in which is set a boiler, and fireplace, if
desired, and a sink in the corner adjoining. This room is 7½ feet in
height. A door passes from this wash-room into the wood-house,
which is 30×16 feet, open in front, with a water-closet in the further
corner.

The cellar is 7½ feet in height—and is the whole size of the
house, laid with good stone wall, in lime mortar, with a flight of steps
leading outside, in rear of the kitchen, and two or more sash-light
windows at the ends. If not in a loose, gravelly, or sandy soil, the
cellar should be kept dry by a drain leading out on to lower ground.

The building beyond, and adjoining the wood-house,
79
contains a swill-house 16×12 feet, with a window in one end;
a chimney and boiler in one corner, with storage for swill barrels,
grain, meal, potatoes, &c., for feeding the pigs, which are in the
adjoining pen of same size, with feeding trough, place for sleeping,
&c., and having a window in one end and a door in the rear, leading
to a yard.

Adjoining these, in front, is a workshop and tool-house, 16×10 feet,
with a window at the end, and an entrance door near the wood house.
In this is a joiner’s work-bench, a chest
of working tools, such as saw, hammer, augers, &c., &c.,
necessary for repairing implements, doing little rough jobs, or other
wood work, &c., which every farmer ought to do for himself; and also
storing his hoes, axes, shovels, hammers, and other small farm
implements. In this room he will find abundant rainy-day employment in
repairing his utensils of various kinds, making his beehives, hencoops,
&c., &c. Next to this is the wagon-house, 16×14 feet, with broad
doors at the end, and harness pegs around the walls.

The posts of this building are 10 feet high; the rooms eight feet
high, and a low chamber overhead for storing lumber, grain, and other
articles, as may be required. Altogether, these several apartments make
a very complete and desirable accommodation to a man with the property
and occupation for which it is intended.

On one side and adjoining the house, should be the garden, the
clothes-yard, and the bee-house, which last should always stand in full
sight, and facing the most frequented room—say the
kitchen—that they can be
80
seen daily during the swarming season, as those performing household
duties may keep them in view.

MISCELLANEOUS.

In regard to the surroundings, and approach to this dwelling, they
should be treated under the suggestions already given on these subjects.
This is an exceedingly snug tenement, and everything around and
about it should be of the same character. No pretension or frippery
whatever. A neat garden, usefully, rather than ornamentally and
profusely supplied; a moderate court-yard in front; free access to
the end door, from the main every-day approach by vehicles—not on
the highway, but on the farm road or lane—the business entrance,
in fact; which should also lead to the barns and sheds beyond, not far
distant. Every feature should wear a most domestic look, and breathe an
air of repose and content. Trees should be near, but not so near as to
cover the house. A few shrubs of simple kind—some standing
roses—a few climbing ones; a syringa, a lilac,
a snow ball, and a little patch or two of flowers near the front
porch, and the whole expression is given; just as one would wish to look
upon as a simple, unpretending habitation.

It is not here proposed to give working plans, or estimates, to a
nicety; or particular directions for building any design even, that we
present. The material for construction best suited to the circumstances
and locality of the proprietor must govern all those matters; and as
good builders are in most cases at
81
hand, who are competent to give estimates for the cost of any given
plan, when the material for construction is once settled, the question
of expense is readily fixed. The same sized house, with the same
accommodation, may be made to cost fifty to one hundred per cent. over
an economical estimate, by the increased style, or manner of its finish;
or it may be kept within bounds by a rigid adherence to the plan first
adopted.

In western New York this house and attachments complete, the body of
stone, the wood-house, wagon-house, &c., of wood, may be built and
well finished in a plain way for $1,500. If built altogether of wood,
with grooved and matched vertical boarding, and battens, the whole may
be finished and painted for $800, to $1,200. For the lowest sum, the
lumber and work would be of a rough kind, with a cheap wash to color it;
but the latter amount would give good work, and a lasting coat of
mineral paint both outside and within.

As a tenant
house on a farm of three, four, or even five hundred acres, where
all who live in it are laborers in the field or household, this design
may be most conveniently adopted. The family inhabiting it in winter may
be well accommodated for sleeping under the main roof, while they can at
all seasons take their meals, and be made comfortable in the several
rooms. In the summer season, when a larger number of laborers are
employed, the lofts of the carriage or wagon-house and work-shop may be
occupied with beds, and thus a large share of the expense of house
building for a very considerable farm be saved. Luxury is a quality more
or less consulted by every one who
82
builds for his own occupation on a farm, or elsewhere; and the
tendency in building is constantly to expand, to give a higher finish,
and in fact, to over-build. Indeed, if we were to draw the balance, on
our old farms, between scantily-accommodated houses, and houses
with needless room in them, the latter would preponderate. Not that
these latter houses either are too good, or too convenient for the
purpose for which they were built, but they have too much room,
and that room badly appropriated and arranged.

On a farm proper, the whole establishment is a workshop. The
shop out of doors, we acknowledge, is not always dry, nor
always warm; but it is exceedingly well aired and lighted, and a place
where industrious people dearly love to labor. Within doors it is a work-shop
too. There is always labor and occupation
for the family, in the general business of the farm; therefore
but little room is wanted for either luxury or leisure, and the farm
house should be fully occupied, with the exception, perhaps, of a single
room on the main floor, (and that not a large one,) for some regular
business purpose. All these accommodated, and the requirements of the
house are ended. Owners of rented farms should reflect, too, that
expensive houses on their estates entail expensive repairs, and that
continually. Many tenants are careless of highly-finished houses. Not
early accustomed to them, they misappropriate, perhaps, the best rooms
in the house, and pay little attention to the purposes for which the
owner designed them, or to the manner of using them. It is
therefore a total waste of money to build a house on a tenant
83
estate anything beyond the mere comfortable wants of the family
occupying it, and to furnish the room necessary for the accommodation of
the crops, stock, and farm furniture, in the barns and other
out-buildings—all in a cheap, tidy, yet substantial way.

So, too, with the grounds for domestic purposes around the house.
A kitchen garden, sufficient to grow the family vegetables—a
few plain fruits—a posey bed or two for the girls—and
the story is told. Give a larger space for these things—anything
indeed, for elegance—and ten to one, the plow is introduced,
a corn or potato patch is set out, field culture is adopted,
and your choice grounds are torn up, defaced, and sacrificed to the
commonest uses.

Notwithstanding these drawbacks, a cheerful, home-expression may
be given, and should be given to the homestead, in the character and
construction of the buildings, be they ever so rough and homely. We can
call to mind many instances of primitive houses-log cabins
even—built when none better could be had, that presented a most
comfortable and life-enjoying picture—residences once, indeed, of
those who swayed “the applause of listening senates,” but under the
hands of taste, and a trifle of labor, made to look comfortable, happy,
and sufficient. We confess, therefore, to a profound veneration, if not
affection, for the humble farm house, as truly American in character;
and which, with a moderate display of skill, may be made equal to the
main purposes of life and enjoyment for all such as do not aspire to a
high display, and who are content to make the most of moderate
means.

(85)
(86)

FARM HOUSE Pages 85-86

larger view

Design II.

This is the plan of a house and out-buildings based chiefly on one
which we built of wood some years since on a farm of our own, and which,
in its occupation, has proved to be one of exceeding convenience to the
purposes intended. As a farm business house, we have not known it
excelled; nor in the ease and facility of doing up the house-work within
it, do we know a better. It has a subdued, quiet, unpretending look; yet
will accommodate a family of a dozen workmen, besides the females
engaged in the household work, with perfect convenience; or if occupied
by a farmer with but his own family around him, ample room is afforded
them for a most comfortable mode of life, and sufficient for the
requirements of a farm of two, to three or four hundred acres.

This house is, in the main body, 36×22 feet, one and a half stories
high, with a projection on the rear 34×16 feet, for the kitchen and its
offices; and a still further addition to that, of 26×18 feet, for
wash-room. The main body of the house is 14 feet high to the
plates; the lower rooms are 9 feet high; the roof has a pitch of
35° from a horizontal line, giving partially-upright chambers in the
main building, and roof lodging rooms in the rear. The rear, or
kitchen part,
87
is one story high, with 10 feet posts, and such pitch of roof
(which last runs at right angles to the main body, and laps on to the
main roof,) as will carry the peak up to the same air line. This
addition should retreat 6 inches from the line of the main
building, on the side given in the design, and 18 inches on the
rear. The rooms on this kitchen floor are 8 feet high, leaving one
foot above the upper floor, under the roof, as a chamber garret, or
lumber-room, as may be required. Beyond this, in the rear, is the other
extension spoken of, with posts 9 feet high, for a buttery, closet,
or dairy, or all three combined, and a wash-room; the floor of which is
on a level with the last, and the roof running in the same direction,
and of the same pitch. In front of this wash-room, where not covered by
the wood-house, is an open porch, 8 feet wide and 10 feet
long, the roof of which runs out at a less angle than the
others—say 30° from a horizontal line. Attached to this is the
wood-house, running off by way of L, at right angles, 36×16 feet, of
same height as the wash-room.

Adjoining the wood-house, on the same front line, is a building 50×20
feet, with 12 feet posts, occupied as a workshop, wagon-house,
stable, and store-room, with a lean-to on the last of 15×10 feet, for a
piggery. The several rooms in this building are 8 feet high,
affording a good lumber room over the workshop, and hay storage over the
wagon-house and stable. Over the wagon-house is a gable, with a blind
window swinging on hinges, for receiving hay, thus relieving the long,
uniform line of roof, and affording ample
88
accommodation on each side to a pigeon-house or dovecote, if
required.

The style of this establishment is of plain Italian, or bracketed,
and may be equally applied to stone, brick, or wood. The roofs are
broad, and protect the walls by their full projection over them,
2½ feet. The small gable in the front roof of the main dwelling
relieves it of its otherwise straight uniformity, and affords a high
door-window opening on to the deck of the veranda, which latter should
be 8 or 10 feet in width. The shallow windows, also, over the wings of
the veranda give it a more cheerful expression. The lower end
windows of this part of the house are hooded, or sheltered by a cheap
roof, which gives them a snug and most comfortable appearance. The
veranda may appear more ornamental than the plain character of the house
requires; but any superfluous work upon it may be omitted, and the style
of finish conformed to the other. The veranda roof is flatter than that
of the house, but it may be made perfectly tight by closer shingling,
and paint; while the deck or platform in the centre may be roofed with
zinc, or tin, and a coat of sanded paint laid upon it. The front chimney
is plain, yet in keeping with the general style of the house, and may be
made of ordinary bricks. The two parts of the chimney, as they appear in
the front rooms, are drawn together as they pass through the chamber
above, and become one at the roof. The kitchen chimneys pass up through
the peaks of their respective roofs, and should be in like character
with the other.

Plans in original orientation

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

The front door of this house opens into a small entry or hall, 9×6
feet, which is lighted by a low sash of glass over the front door.
A door leads into a room on each side; and at the inner end of the
hall is a recess between the two chimneys of the opposite rooms, in
which may be placed a table or broad shelf to receive hats and coats. On
the left is a parlor 22×15 feet, lighted on one side by a double window,
and in front by a single plain one. The fireplace is centrally placed on
one side of the room, in the middle of the house. On one side of the
fireplace is a closet, three feet deep, with shelves, and another closet
at the inner end of the room, near the kitchen door; or this closet may
be dispensed with for the use of this parlor, and given up to enlarge
the closet which is attached to the bedroom. Another door opens directly
into the kitchen. This parlor is 9 feet high between joints. The
sitting-room is opposite to the parlor, 19×15 feet, and lighted and
closeted in nearly the same manner, as will be seen by referring to the
floor plan.

The kitchen is the grand room of this house. It is 24×16 feet in
area, having an ample fireplace, with its hooks and trammels, and a
spacious oven by its side. It is lighted by a double window at one end,
and a single window near the fireplace. At one end of this kitchen is a
most comfortable and commodious family bedroom, 13×10 feet, with a large
closet in one corner, and lighted by a window in the side. Two
91
windows may be inserted if wanted. A passage leads by the side of
the oven to a sink-room, or recess, behind the chimney, with shelves to
dry dishes on, and lighted by the half of a double window, which
accommodates with its other half the dairy, or closet adjoining.
A door also opens from this recess into the closet and dairy,
furnished with broad shelves, that part of which, next the kitchen, is
used for dishes, cold meat and bread cupboards, &c.; while the part
of it adjoining the window beyond, is used for milk. This room is 14×6
feet, besides the L running up next to the kitchen, of 6×4 feet. From
the kitchen also opens a closet into the front part of the house for any
purpose needed. This adjoins the parlor, and sitting-room, closets. In
the passage to the sitting-room also opens the stairway leading to the
chambers, and beneath, at the other end of it, next the outside wall, is
a flight leading down cellar. The cellar is excavated under the whole
house, being 36×22, and 34×16 feet, with glass windows, one light deep
by four wide, of 8×10 glass; and an outer door, and flight of steps
outside, under either the sitting-room or kitchen windows, as may be
most convenient. A door opens, also, from the kitchen, into a
passage 4 feet wide and 12 feet long leading to the wash-room,
18×16 feet, and by an outside door, through this passage to the porch.
In this passage may be a small window to give it light.

In the wash-room are two windows. A chimney at the far end
accommodates a boiler or two, and a fireplace, if required. A sink
stands adjoining the chimney. A flight of stairs, leading to a
garret over head on one side,
92
and to the kitchen chamber on the other, stands next the dairy, into
which last a door also leads. In this wash-room may be located the
cooking stove in warm weather, leaving the main kitchen for a family and
eating room. A door also leads from the wash-room into the
wood-house.

The wood-house stands lower than the floor of the wash-room, from
which it falls, by steps. This is large, because a plentiful store of
wood is needed for a dwelling of this character. If the room be not all
wanted for such purpose, a part of it may devoted to other
necessary uses, there seldom being too much shelter of this kind on a
farm; through the rear wall of this wood-house leads a door into the
garden, or clothes-yard, as the case may be; and at its extreme angle is
a water closet, 6×4 feet, by way of lean-to, with a hipped roof,
8 feet high, running off from both the wood-house and workshop.
This water-closet is lighted by a sliding sash window.

On to the wood-house, in a continuous front line, joins the workshop,
an indispensable appendage to farm convenience. This has a flight of
stairs leading to the lumber-room above. For the furnishing of this
apartment, see description of Design I. Next to the work-house is the
wagon and tool-house, above which is the hay loft, also spread over the
stable adjoining; in which last are stalls for a pair of horses, which
may be required for uses other than the main labors of the farm—to
run to market, carry the family to church, or elsewhere. A pair of
horses for such purposes should always be kept near the house. The
horse-stalls
93
occupy a space of 10×12 feet, with racks and feeding boxes. The plans of
these will be described hereafter. The door leading out from these
stalls is 5 feet wide, and faces the partition, so that each horse
may be led out or in at an easy angle from them. Beyond the stalls is a
passage 4 feet wide, leading to a store-room or area, from which a
flight of rough stairs leads to the hay loft above. Beyond this room, in
which is the oat bin for the horses, is a small piggery, for the
convenience of a pig or two, which are always required to consume the
daily wash and offal of the house; and not for the general pork
stock of the farm; which, on one of this size, may be expected to
require more commodious quarters.

The chamber plan of this house is commodious, furnishing one large
room and three smaller ones. The small chamber leading to the deck over
the porch, may, or may not be occupied as a sleeping room. The small one
near the stairs may contain a single bed, or be occupied as a large
clothes-closet. Through this, a door leads into the kitchen
chamber, which may serve as one, or more laborers’ bed-chambers. They
may be lighted by one or more windows in the rear gable.

If more convenient to the family, the parlor and sitting-room,
already described, may change their occupation, and one substituted for
the other.

The main business approach to this house should be by a lane, or farm
road opening on the side next the stable and wagon-house. The yard, in
front of these last named buildings, should be separated from the lawn,
or front door-yard of the dwelling. The establishment
94
should stand some distance back from the traveled highway, and be
decorated with such trees, shrubbery, and cultivation, as the taste of
the owner may direct. No general rules or directions can be
applicable to this design beyond what have already been given; and the
subject must be treated as circumstances may suggest. The unfrequented
side of the house should, however, be flanked with a garden, either
ornamental, or fruit and vegetable; as buildings of this character ought
to command a corresponding share of attention with the grounds by which
they are surrounded.

This house will appear equally well built of wood, brick, or stone.
Its cost, according to materials, or finish, may be $1,000 or $1,500.
The out-buildings attached, will add $400 to $600, with the same
conditions as to finish; but the whole may be substantially and well
built of either stone, brick, or wood, where each may be had at equal
convenience, for $2,000 in the interior of New York. Of course, it is
intended to do all the work plain, and in character for the occupation
to which it is intended.

MISCELLANEOUS DETAILS.

At this point of our remarks a word or two may be offered on the
general subject of inside finish to farm houses, which may be applicable
more or less to any one, or all of the designs that may come under our
observation; therefore what is here said, may be applied at large.
Different sections of the United States have their own several
local notions, or preferences as to the mode of finish to their
houses and out-buildings, according to climate, education, or other
circumstances. In all these matters neither taste, fashion, nor climate
should be arbitrary. The manner of finish may be various, without any
departure from truth or propriety—always keeping in mind the
object for which it is intended. The material for a country house
should be strong, and durable, and the work simple in its
details, beyond that for either town or suburban houses. It should be
strong, for the reason that the interior of the farm house is
used for purposes of industry, in finishing up and perfecting the labors
of the farm; labors indispensable too, and in amount beyond the ordinary
housekeeping requirements of a family who have little to do but merely
to live, and make themselves comfortable. The material should be
durable, because the distance at which the farm house is usually
located from the
96
residences of building mechanics, renders it particularly troublesome
and expensive to make repairs, and alterations. The work should be
simple, because cheaper in the first place, in construction, and
finish; quite as appropriate and satisfactory in appearance; and
demanding infinitely less labor and pains to care for, and protect it
afterward. Therefore all mouldings, architraves, chisel-work, and
gewgawgery in interior finish should be let alone in the living and
daily occupied rooms of the house. If, to a single parlor, or
spare bedchamber a little ornamental work be permitted,
let even that be in moderation, and just enough to teach the active
mistress and her daughters what a world of scrubbing and elbow work they
have saved themselves in the enjoyment of a plainly-finished house,
instead of one full of gingerbread work and finery. None but the
initiated can tell the affliction that chiseled finishing entails
on housekeepers in the spider, fly, and other insect lodgment which it
invites—frequently the cause of more annoyance and daily
disquietude in housekeeping, because unnecessary, than real griefs from
which we may not expect to escape. Bases, casings, sashes,
doors—all should be plain, and painted or stained a quiet
russet color—a color natural to the woods used for the
finish, if it can be, showing, in their wear, as little of dust,
soiling, and fly dirt as possible. There is no poetry about common
housekeeping. Cooking, house-cleaning, washing, scrubbing, sweeping, are
altogether matter-of-fact duties, and usually considered work,
not recreation; and these should all be made easy of performance, and as
seldom to be done as
97
possible; although the first item always was, and always will be,
and the last item should be, an every-day vocation for
somebody; and the manner of inside finish to a house has a great
deal to do with all these labors.

In a stone, or brick house, the inside walls should be firred off for
plastering. This may be done either by “plugging,” that is, driving a
plug of wood strongly into the mortar courses, into which the firring
should be nailed, or by laying a strip of thin board in the mortar
course, the entire length of each wall. This is better than
blocks laid in for such purpose, because it is effectually
bound by the stone, or brick work; whereas, a block may get
loose by shrinking, but the nails which hold the firring to the plug, or
to the thin strip of board will split and wedge it closer to the
mason work of the outside wall. This is an important item. It makes
close work too, and leaves no room for rats, mice, or other vermin; and
as it admits a space—no matter how thin—so that no
outside damp from the walls can communicate into, or through the inner
plastering, it answers all purposes. The inside, and partition walls
should be of coarse, strong mortar, floated off as smoothly as
may be, not a hard finish, which is fine, and costly; and then
papered throughout for the better rooms, and the commonly-used rooms
whitewashed. Paper gives a most comfortable look to the rooms, more so
than paint, and much less expensive, while nothing is so sweet, tidy,
and cheerful to the working rooms of the house as a lime
wash, either white, or softened down with some agreeable tint, such as
light blue, green, drab, fawn, or russet, to give the shade
desired, and for which
98
every professional painter and whitewasher in the vicinity, can
furnish a proper recipe applicable to the place and climate. On such
subjects we choose to prescribe, rather than to play the apothecary by
giving any of the thousand and one recipes extant, for the
composition.

Our remarks upon the strength and durability of material in
house-building do not apply exclusively to brick and stone. Wood is
included also; and of this, there is much difference in the kind. Sound
white oak, is, perhaps the best material for the heavy frame-work
of any house or out-building, and when to be had at a moderate expense,
we would recommend it in preference to any other. If white oak
cannot be had, the other varieties of oak, or chesnut are the next best.
In light frame-timbers, such as studs, girts, joists, or rafters,
oak is inclined to spring and warp, and we would prefer hemlock, or
chesnut, which holds a nail equally as well, or, in its absence, pine,
(which holds a nail badly,) whitewood, or black walnut. The outside
finish to a wooden house, may be lighter than in one of stone or
brick. The wood work on the outside of the latter should always be
heavy, and in character with the walls, giving an air of firmness and
stability to the whole structure. No elaborate carving, or beadwork
should be permitted on the outside work of a country house at all; and
only a sufficient quantity of ornamental tracery of any kind, to
break the monotony of a plainness that would otherwise give it a formal,
or uncouth expression, and relieve it of what some would consider a
pasteboard look. A farm house, in fact, of
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any degree, either cheap or expensive, should wear the same appearance
as a well-dressed person of either sex; so that a stranger, not looking
at them for the purpose of inspecting their garb, should, after an
interview, be unable to tell what particular sort of dress they wore, so
perfectly in keeping was it with propriety.

In the design now under discussion, a cellar is made under the
whole body of the house; and this cellar is a shallow one, so far
as being sunk into the ground is concerned, say 5½ feet, leaving 2½ feet
of cellar wall above ground—8 feet in all. A part of the wall
above ground should be covered by the excavated earth, and sloped off to
a level with the surrounding surface. A commodious, well-lighted,
and well-ventilated cellar is one of the most important apartments of
the farm house. It should, if the soil be compact, be well drained from
some point or corner within the walls into a lower level outside, to
which point within, the whole floor surface should incline, and the
bottom be floored with water-lime cement. This will make it hard,
durable, and dry. It may then be washed and scrubbed off as easily as an
upper floor. If the building site be high, and in a gravelly, or sandy
soil, neither drain nor flooring will be required. The cellar may be
used for the storage of root crops, apples, meats, and household
vegetables. A partitioned room will accommodate either a summer or
a winter dairy, if not otherwise provided, and a multitude of
conveniences may be made of it in all well arranged farmeries. But in
all cases the cellar should be well lighted, ventilated, and dry. Even
the ash-house and smoke-house may be made in it with perfect
100
convenience, by brick or stone partitions, and the smoke-house flue be
carried up into one of the chimney flues above, and thus make a more
snug and compact arrangement than to have separate buildings for those
objects. A wash-room, in which, also, the soap may be made, the
tallow and lard tried up, and other extraordinary labor when fire heat
is to be used, may properly be made in a cellar, particularly when on a
sloping ground, and easy of access to the ground level on one side. But,
as a general rule, such room is better on a level with the main floor of
the dwelling, and there are usually sufficient occupations for the
cellar without them.

All cellar walls should be at least 18 inches thick, for even a
wooden house, and from that to 2 feet for a stone or brick one, and
well laid in strong lime-mortar. Unmortared cellar walls are frequently
laid under wooden buildings, and pointed with lime-mortar inside;
but this is sometimes dug out by rats, and is apt to crumble and fall
out otherwise. A complete cellar wall should be thoroughly
laid in mortar.

(101)
(102)

FARM HOUSE Pages 101-102.

larger view

Design III.

We here present the reader with a substantial, plain, yet
highly-respectable stone or brick farm house, of the second class,
suitable for an estate of three, to five hundred acres, and
accommodation for a family of a dozen or more persons. The style is
mixed rural Gothic, Italian, and bracketed; yet in keeping with the
character of the farm, and the farmer’s standing and occupation.

The main body of this house is 42×24 feet on the ground, and one and
three quarter stories high—the chambers running two or three feet
into the roof, as choice or convenience may direct. The roof has a pitch
of 30 to 40° from a horizontal line, and broadly spread over the walls,
say two and a half feet, showing the ends of the rafters, bracket
fashion. The chimneys pass out through the peak of the roof, where the
hips of what would otherwise be the gables, connect with the long sides
of the roof covering the front and rear. On the long front is partly
seen, in the perspective, a portico, 16×10 feet—not the
chief entrance front, but rather a side front, practically, which
leads into a lawn or garden, as may be most desirable, and from which
the best view from the house is commanded. Over this porch is a small
gable running into the roof, to break its monotony, in which is a
door-window leading from the upper hall on to the deck of the porch.
This
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gable has the same finish as the main roof, by brackets. The chamber
windows are two-thirds or three-quarters the size of the lower ones;
thus showing the upper story not full height below the plates, but
running two to four feet into the garret. The rear wing, containing the
entrance or business front, is 24×32 feet, one and a half stories high,
with a pitch of roof not less than 35°, and spread over the walls both
at the eaves and gable, in the same proportion as the roof to the main
body. In front of this is a porch or veranda eight feet wide, with a
low, hipped roof. In the front and rear roofs of this wing is a dormer window,
to light the chambers. The gable to this wing is bold, and gives it
character by the breadth of its roof over the walls, and the strong
brackets by which it is supported. The chimney is thrown up strong and
boldly at the point of the roof, indicating the every-day uses of the
fireplaces below, which, although distinct and wide apart in their
location on the ground floors, are drawn together in the chambers, thus
showing only one escape through the roof.

The wood-house in the rear of the wing has a roof of the same
character, and connects with the long building in the rear, which has
the same description of roof, but hipped at one end. That end over the
workshop, and next the wood-house, shows a bold gable like the wing of
the house, and affords room and light to the lumber room over the shop,
and also gives variety and relief to the otherwise too great sameness of
roof-appearance on the further side of the establishment.

Plans in original position
(note orientation of chamber floor plan)

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

As has been remarked, the main entrance front to this house is from
the wing veranda, from which a well finished and sizeable door leads
into the principal hall, 24×8 feet in area, and lighted by a full-sized
window at the front end. Opposite the entrance door is the door leading
into the parlor; and farther along is the staircase, under the upper
landing of which a door leads into a dining or sitting-room, as may be
determined. This hall is 10 feet high, as are all the rooms of this
lower main story. In the chimney, which adjoins the parlor side of this
hall, may be inserted a thimble for a hall stovepipe, if this method of
warming should be adopted. The parlor, into which a door leads from the
hall, is 18×16 feet, with two windows on the side, shown in perspective,
and one on the front facing the lawn, or garden. It has also a fireplace
near the hall door. At the further angle is a door leading to an entry
or passage on to the portico. E is the entry just mentioned, six feet
square, and lighted by a short sash, one light deep, over the outside
door. This portico may be made a pleasant summer afternoon and evening
resort for the family, by which the occupied rooms connect with the lawn
or garden, thus adding to its retired and private character.

Opposite the parlor, on the other side of this entry, a door
leads into a room 18×12 feet, which may be occupied as a family bedroom,
library, or small sitting-room. This is lighted by two windows, and has
a closet of 6×5 feet. A fireplace is on the inner side of
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this room; and near to that, a door connects with a dining-room of
the same size, having a window in one end, and a fireplace, and closet
of the same size as the last. Through the rear wall is a door leading
into a pantry, which also communicates with the kitchen; and another
door leads to the hall, and from the hall, under the staircases, (which,
at that point, are sufficiently high for the purpose,) is a passage
leading to the kitchen.

Under the wing veranda, near the point of intersection of the wing
with the main body of the house, is an every-day outer door,
leading into a small entry, 6×5 feet, and lighted by a low, one-sash
window over the door. By another door, this leads to the kitchen, or
family room, which is lighted by three windows. An ample fireplace, with
oven, &c., accommodates this room at the end. A closet, 7×5
feet, also stands next to the entry; and beyond that, an open passage,
to the left, leading out under the front hall stairs to the rooms of the
main building. A door also leads from that passage into a
best pantry, for choice crockery, sweetmeats, and tea-table
comforts. Another door, near the last, leads into a dairy or milk-room,
9×8 feet, beyond the passage; in which last, also, may be placed a tier
of narrow shelves. This milk, or dairy-room, is lighted by a window in
the end, and connects also, by a door in the side, with the outer
kitchen, or wash-room. Next to this milk-room door, in the front
kitchen, is another door leading down cellar; and through this door,
passing by the upper, broad stair of the flight of cellar steps, is
another door into the wash-room. At
108
the farther angle of the kitchen is still another door, opening into a
passage four feet wide; and, in that passage, a door leading up a
flight of stairs into the wing chambers. This passage opens into the
back kitchen, or wash-room, 16×16 feet in area, and lighted by two
windows, one of which looks into the wood-house. In this wash-room is a
chimney with boilers and fireplace, as may be required. The cellar and
chamber stairs, and the milk-room are also accessible direct, by doors
leading from this wash-room.

The chamber plan will be readily understood, and requires no
particular description. The space over the wing may be partitioned off
according to the plan, or left more open for the accommodation of the
“work folks,” as occasion may demand. But, as this dwelling is intended
for substantial people, “well to do in the world,” and who extend a
generous hospitality to their friends, a liberal provision of
sleeping chambers is given to the main body of the house. The parlor
chamber, which is the best, or spare one, is 18×16 feet, with
roomy side-closets. Besides this, are other rooms for the daughters
Sally, and Nancy, and Fanny, and possibly Mary and Elizabeth—who
want their own chambers, which they keep so clean and tidy, with closets
full of nice bedclothes, table linen, towels, &c., &c., for
certain events not yet whispered of, but quite sure to come round. And
then there are Frederick, and Robert, and George, fine stalwart boys
coming into manhood, intending to be “somebody in the world,” one day or
another; they must have their rooms—and good ones too; for,
if any people are to
109
be well lodged, why not those who toil for it? All such accommodation
every farm house of this character should afford. And we need not go
far, or look sharp, to see the best men and the best women in our state
and nation graduating from the wholesome farm house thus tidily and
amply provided. How delightfully look the far-off mountains, or the
nearer plains, or prairies, from the lawn porch of this snug farm house!
The distant lake; the shining river, singing away through the valley; or
the wimpling brook, stealing through the meadow! Aye, enjoy them all,
for they are God’s best, richest gifts, and we are made to love
them.

The wood-house strikes off from the back kitchen, retreating two feet
from its gable wall, and is 36×14 feet in size. A bathing room may
be partitioned off 8×6 feet, on the rear corner next the wash-room, if
required, although not laid down in the plan. At the further end is the
water-closet, 6×4 feet. Or, if the size and convenience of the family
require it, a part of the wood-house may be partitioned off for a
wash-room, from which a chimney may pass up through the peak of the
roof. If so, carry it up so high that it will be above the eddy that the
wind may make in passing over the adjoining wing, not causing it to
smoke from that cause.

At the far end of the wood-house is the workshop and tool-house,
18×16 feet, lighted by two windows, and a door to enter it from beneath
the wood-house. Over this, is the lumber and store-room.

Next to this is the swill-room and pigsty for the
110
house pigs, as described in the last design; and over it a loft for farm
seeds, small grains, and any other storage required.

Adjoining this is the wagon and carriage-house; and above, the
hayloft, stretching, also, partly over the stable which stands next,
with two stalls, 12×5 feet each, with a flight of stairs leading to the
loft, in the passage next the door. In this loft are swinging windows,
to let in hay for the horses.

This completes the household establishment, and we leave the
surroundings to the correct judgment and good taste of the proprietor to
complete, as its position, and the variety of objects with which it may
be connected, requires.

Stone and brick we have mentioned as the proper materials for this
house; but it may be also built of wood, if more within the means and
limits of the builder. There should be no pinching in its proportions,
but every part carried out in its full breadth and effect.

The cost of the whole establishment may be from $2,000, to $3,000;
depending somewhat upon the material used, and the finish put upon it.
The first-named sum would build the whole in an economical and plain
manner, while the latter would complete it amply in its details.

MISCELLANEOUS.

It may be an objection in the minds of some persons to the various
plans here submitted, that we have connected the out-buildings
immediately with the offices of the dwelling itself. We are well
aware that such is not always usual; but many years observation have
convinced us, that in their use and occupation, such connection is
altogether the most convenient and economical. The only drawback is in
the case of fire; which, if it occur in any one building, the whole
establishment is liable to be consumed. This objection is conceded; but
we take it, that it is the business of every one not able to be his own
insurer, to have his buildings insured by others; and the additional
cost of this insurance is not a tithe of what the extra expense of time,
labor, and exposure is caused to the family by having the out-buildings
disconnected, and at a fire-proof distance from each other. There
has, too, in the separation of these out-buildings, (we do not now speak
of barns, and houses for the stock, and the farmwork proper,) from the
main dwelling, crept into the construction of such dwellings, by modern
builders, some things, which in a country establishment,
particularly, ought never to be there, such as privies, or
water-closets, as they are more genteelly called. These
last, in our estimation, have no business in a farmer’s
house. They are an effeminacy, only, and introduced by
city life. An appendage they should be, but separated to
some distance from the living rooms, and accessible by sheltered
112
passages to them. The wood-house should adjoin the outer kitchen,
because the fuel should always be handy, and the outer kitchen, or
wash-room is a sort of slop-room, of necessity; and the night
wood, and that for the morning fires may be deposited in it for
immediate use. The workshop, and small tool-house naturally comes next
to that, as being chiefly used in stormy weather. Next to this last,
would, more conveniently, come the carriage or wagon-house, and of
course a stable for a horse or two for family use, always accessible at
night, and convenient at unseasonable hours for farm labor. In the same
close neighborhood, also, should be a small pigsty, to accommodate a pig
or two, to eat up the kitchen slops from the table, refuse vegetables,
parings, dishwater, &c., &c., which could not well be carried to
the main piggery of the farm, unless the old-fashioned filthy mode of
letting the hogs run in the road, and a trough set outside the door-yard
fence, as seen in some parts of the country, were adopted. A pig
can always be kept, and fatted in three or four months, from the wash of
the house, with a little grain, in any well-regulated farmer’s family.
A few fowls may also be kept in a convenient hen-house, if desired,
without offence—all constituting a part of the household
economy of the place.

These out-buildings too, give a comfortable, domestic look to the
whole concern. Each one shelters and protects the other, and gives an
air of comfort and repose to the whole—a family expression all
round. What so naked and chilling to the feelings, as to see a country
dwelling-house all perked up, by itself,
113
standing, literally, out of doors, without any dependencies about it?
No, no. First should stand the house, the chief structure, in the
foreground; appendant to that, the kitchen wing; next in grade, the
wood-house; covering in, also, the minor offices of the house. Then by
way of setting up, partially on their own account, should come the
workshop, carriage-house, and stable, as practically having a separate
character, but still subordinate to the house and its requirements; and
these too, may have their piggery and hen-house, by way of tapering off
to the adjoining fence, which encloses a kitchen garden, or family
orchard. Thus, each structure is appropriate in its way—and
together, they form a combination grateful to the sight, as a complete
rural picture. All objections, on account of filth or vermin, to this
connection, may be removed by a cleanly keeping of the premises—a
removal of all offal immediately as it is made, and daily or weekly
taking it on to the manure heaps of the barns, or depositing it at once
on the grounds where it is required. In point of health, nothing is more
congenial to sound physical condition than the occasional smell of a
stable, or the breath of a cow, not within the immediate contiguity to
the occupied rooms of the dwelling. On the score of neatness, therefore,
as we have placed them, no bar can be raised to their adoption.

(115)
(116)

FARM HOUSE. Pages 115-116.

larger view

Design IV.

This is perhaps a more ambitious house than either of the preceding,
although it may be adapted to a domain of the same extent and value. It
is plain and unpretending in appearance; yet, in its ample finish, and
deeply drawn, sheltering eaves, broad veranda, and spacious
out-buildings, may give accommodation to a larger family indulging a
more liberal style of living than the last.

By an error in the engraving, the main roof of the house is made to
appear like a double, or gambrel-roof, breaking at the intersection of
the gable, or hanging roof over the ends. This is not so intended. The
roofs on each side are a straight line of rafters. The Swiss, or hanging
style of gable-roof is designed to give a more sheltered effect to the
elevation than to run the end walls to a peak in the point of the
roof.

By a defect in the drawing, the roof of the veranda is not
sufficiently thrown over the columns. This roof should project at least
one foot beyond them, so as to perfectly shelter the mouldings beneath
from the weather, and conform to the style of the main roof of the
house.

The material of which it is built may be of either stone, brick, or
wood, as the taste or convenience of the proprietor may suggest. The
main building is 44×36 feet, on the ground. The cellar wall may show
117
18 to 24 inches above the ground, and be pierced by windows in each end,
as shown in the plan. The height of the main walls may be two full
stories below the roof plates, or the chambers may run a foot or two
into the garret, at the choice of the builder, either of which
arrangements may be permitted.

The front door opens from a veranda 28 feet long by 10 feet in
depth, dropping eight inches from the door-sill. This veranda has a
hipped roof, which juts over the columns in due proportion with the roof
of the house over its walls. These columns are plain, with brackets, or
braces from near their tops, sustaining the plate and finish of the roof
above, which may be covered either with tin or zinc, painted, or closely
shingled.

The walls of the house may be 18 to 20 feet high below the plates;
the roof a pitch of 30 to 45°, which will afford an upper garret, or
store, or small sleeping rooms, if required; and the eaves should
project two to three feet, as climate may demand, over the walls.
A plain finish—that is, ceiled underneath—is shown in
the design, but brackets on the ends of the rafters, beaded and
finished, may be shown, if preferred. The gables are
Swiss-roofed, or truncated, thus giving them a most
sheltered and comfortable appearance, particularly in a northerly
climate. The small gable in front relieves the roof of its monotony, and
affords light to the central garret. The chimneys are carried out with
partition flues, and may be topped with square caps, as necessity or
taste may demand.

Retreating three feet from the kitchen side of the
118
house runs, at right angles, a wing 30×18 feet, one and a half
stories high, with a veranda eight feet wide in front. Next in rear of
this, continues a wood-house, 30×18 feet, one story high, with ten feet
posts, and open in front, the ground level of which is 18 inches
below the floor of the wing to which it is attached. The roof of these
two is of like character with that of the main building.

Adjoining this wood-house, and at right angles with it, is a building
68×18 feet, projecting two feet outside the line of wood-house and
kitchen. This building is one and a half stories high, with 12 feet
posts, and roof in the same style and of equal pitch as the others.

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

GROUND PLAN.

The front door from the veranda of the house opens into a hall, 18×8
feet, and 11 feet high, amply lighted by sash windows on the sides,
and over the door. From the rear of this hall runs a flight of easy
stairs, into the upper or chamber hall. On one side of the lower hall,
a door leads into a parlor, 18 feet square, and 11 feet
high, lighted by three windows, and warmed by an open stove, or
fireplace, the pipe passing into a chimney flue in the rear. A door
passes from this parlor into a rear passage, or entry, thus giving it
access to the kitchen and rear apartments. At the back end of the front
hall, a door leads into the rear passage and kitchen; and on the
side opposite the parlor, a door opens into the sitting or family
room, 18×16 feet in
119
area, having an open fireplace, and three windows. On the hall side of
this room, a door passes into the kitchen, 22×16 feet, and which
may, in case the requirements of the family demand it, be made the chief
family or living room, and the last one described converted into a
library. In this kitchen, which is
120
lighted by two windows, is a liberal open fireplace, with an ample oven
by its side, and a sink in the outer corner. A flight of stairs,
also, leads to the rear chambers above; and a corresponding flight,
under them, to the cellar below. A door at each end of these
stairs, leads into the back entry of the house, and thus to the other
interior rooms, or through the rear outer door to the back porch. This
back entry is lighted by a single sash window over the outside door
leading to the porch. Another door, opposite that leading down cellar,
opens into the passage through the wing. From the rear hall, which is
16×5 feet, the innermost passage leads into a family bedroom, or
nursery, 16×14 feet, lighted by a window in each outside wall, and
warmed by an
121
open fireplace, or stove, at pleasure. Attached to this bedroom is a
clothes-closet, 8×4 feet, with shelves, and drawers. Next the outer
door, in rear end of the hall, is a small closet opening from it, 6×4
feet in dimensions, convertible to any use which the mistress of the
house may direct.

CHAMBER PLAN.

Opening into the wing from the kitchen, first, is a large closet and
pantry, supplied with a table, drawers, and shelves, in which are stored
the dishes, table furniture, and edibles necessary to be kept at a
moment’s access. This room is 14×8 feet, and well lighted by a window of
convenient size. If necessary, this room may have a partition, shutting
off a part from the everyday uses which the family requires. In this
room, so near to the kitchen, to the sink, to hot-water, and the other
little domestic accessories which good housewives know so well how to
arrange and appreciate, all the nice little table-comforts can be got
up, and perfected, and stored away, under lock and key, in drawer, tub,
or jar, at their discretion, and still their eyes not be away from their
subordinates in the other departments. Next to this, and connected by a
door, is the dairy, or milk-room, also 14×8 feet; which, if necessary,
may be sunk three or four feet into the ground, for additional coolness
in the summer season, and the floor reached by steps. In this are ample
shelves for the milkpans, conveniences of churning, &c., &c.
But, if the dairy be a prominent object of the farm, a separate
establishment will be required, and the excavation may not be necessary
for ordinary household uses. Out of this milk-room, a door leads
122
into a wash-room, 18×14 feet. A passage from the kitchen also leads
into this. The wash-room is lighted by two windows in rear, and one in
front. A sink is between the two rear windows, with conductor
leading outside, and a closet beneath it, for the iron ware. In the
chimney, at the end, are boilers, and a fireplace, an oven, or anything
else required, and a door leading to a platform in the wood-house, and
so into the yard. On the other side of the chimney, a door leads
into a bathing-room, 7×6 feet, into which hot water is drawn from one of
the boilers adjoining, and cold water may be introduced, by a hand-pump,
through a pipe leading into the well or cistern.

As no more convenient opportunity may present itself, a word or
two will be suggested as to the location of the bath-room in a country
house. In city houses, or country houses designed for the summer
occupancy of city dwellers, the bathing-rooms are usually placed in the
second or chamber story, and the water for their supply is drawn from
cisterns still above them. This arrangement, in city houses, is
made chiefly from the want of room on the ground floor; and, also, thus
arranged in the city-country houses, because they are so
constructed in the city. In the farm house, or in the country house
proper, occupied by whom it may be, such arrangement is unnecessary,
expensive, and inconvenient. Unnecessary, because there is no want of
room on the ground; expensive, because an upper cistern is always liable
to leakages, and a consequent wastage of water, wetting, and rotting out
the floors, and all the slopping and dripping which such accidents
123
occasion; and inconvenient, from the continual up-and-down-stair labor
of those who occupy the bath, to say nothing of the piercing the walls
of the house, for the admission of pipes to lead in and let out the
water, and the thousand-and-one vexations, by way of plumbers’ bills,
and expense of getting to and from the house itself, always a distance
of some miles from the mechanic.

The only defence for such location of the bath-room and cisterns is,
the convenience and privacy of access to them, by the females of the
family. This counts but little, if anything, over the place appropriated
in this, and the succeeding designs of this work. The access is almost,
if not quite as private as the other, and, in case of ill-health, as
easily approachable to invalids. And on the score of economy in
construction, repair, or accident, the plan here adopted is altogether
preferable. In this plan, the water is drawn from the boiler by the
turning of a cock; that from the cistern, by a minute’s labor with the
hand-pump. It is let off by the drawing of a plug, and discharges, by a
short pipe, into the adjoining garden, or grassplat, to moisten and
invigorate the trees and plants which require it, and the whole affair
is clean and sweet again. A screen for the window gives all the
privacy required, and the most fastidious, shrinking female is as
retired as in the shadiest nook of her dressing-room.

So with water-closets. A fashion prevails of thrusting these
noisome things into the midst of sleeping chambers and living
rooms—pandering to effeminacy, and, at times, surcharging the
house—for they
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cannot, at all times, and under all circumstances, be kept
perfectly close—with their offensive odor. Out of the house
they belong; and if they, by any means, find their way within its walls
proper, the fault will not be laid at our door.

To get back to our description. This bathing-room occupies a corner
of the wood-house.

A raised platform passes from the wash-room in, past the bath-room,
to a water-closet, which may be divided into two apartments, if
desirable. The vaults are accessible from the rear, for cleaning out, or
introducing lime, gypsum, powdered charcoal, or other deodorizing
material. At the extreme corner of the wood-house, a door opens
into a feed and swill-room, 20×8 feet, which is reached by steps, and
stands quite eighteen inches above the ground level, on a stone
under-pinning, or with a stone cellar beneath, for the storage of roots
in winter. In one corner of this is a boiler and chimney, for cooking
food for the pigs and chickens. A door leads from this room into
the piggery, 20×12 feet, where half-a-dozen swine may be kept.
A door leads from this pen into a yard, in the rear, where they
will be less offensive than if confined within. If necessary,
a flight of steps, leading to the loft overhead, may be built,
where corn can be stored for their feeding.

Next to this is the workshop and tool-house, 18×14 feet; and, in
rear, a snug, warm house for the family chickens, 18×6 feet. These
chickens may also have the run of the yard in rear, with the pigs, and
apartments in the loft overhead for roosting.

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Adjoining the workshop is the carriage house, 18×18 feet, with a flight
of stairs to the hayloft above, in which is, also, a dovecote; and,
leading out of the carriage floor, is the stable, 18×12 feet, with
stalls for two or four horses, and a passage of four feet wide, from the
carriage-house into it; thus completing, and drawing under one
continuous roof, and at less exposure than if separated, the chief
every-day requirements of living, to a well-arranged and
highly-respectable family.

The chamber plan of the dwelling will be readily understood by
reference to its arrangement. There are a sufficiency of closets for all
purposes, and the whole are accessible from either flight of stairs. The
rooms over the wing, of course, should be devoted to the male domestics
of the family, work-people, &c.

SURROUNDING PLANTATIONS, SHRUBBERY, WALKS, ETC.

After the general remarks made in the preceding pages, no
particular instructions can be given for the manner in which this
residence should be embellished in its trees and shrubbery. The large
forest trees, always grand, graceful, and appropriate, would become such
a house, throwing a protecting air around and over its quiet,
unpretending roof. Vines, or climbing roses, might throw their delicate
spray around the columns of the modest veranda, and a varied selection
of familiar shrubbery and ornamental plants checker the immediate front
and sides of the house looking out upon the lawn; through which a
spacious walk, or
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carriage-way should wind, from the high road, or chief approach.

There are, however, so many objects to be consulted in the various
sites of houses, that no one rule can be laid down for individual
guidance. The surface of the ground immediately adjoining the house must
be considered; the position of the house, as it is viewed from
surrounding objects; its altitude, or depression, as affected by the
adjacent lands; its command upon surrounding near, or distant objects,
in the way of prospect; the presence of water, either in stream, pond,
or lake, far or near, or the absence of water altogether—all these
enter immediately into the manner in which the lawn of a house should be
laid out, and worked, and planted. But as a rule, all filagree
work, such as serpentine paths, and tortuous, unmeaning circles,
artificial piles of rock, and a multitude of small
ornaments—so esteemed, by some—should never be
introduced into the lawn of a farm house. It is unmeaning, in the
first place; expensive in its care, in the second place; unsatisfactory
and annoying altogether. Such things about a farm establishment are
neither dignified nor useful, and should be left to town’s-people,
having but a stinted appreciation of what constitutes natural
beauty, and wanting to make the most of the limited piece of ground of
which they are possessed.

Nor would we shut out, by these remarks, the beauty and odor of the
flower-borders, which are so appropriately the care of the good matron
of the household and her comely daughters. To them may be devoted a
well-dug plat beneath the windows, or in the garden.
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Enough, and to spare, they should always have, of such cheerful,
life-giving pleasures. We only object to their being strewed all over
the ground,—a tussoc of plant here, a patch of posey there,
and a scattering of both everywhere, without either system or meaning.
They lower the dignity and simplicity of the country dwelling
altogether.

The business approach to this house is, of course, toward the stables
and carriage-house, and from them should lead off the main
farm-avenue.

The kitchen garden, if possible, should lie on the kitchen side of
the house, where, also, should be placed the bee-house, in full sight
from the windows, that their labors and swarming may be watched. In
fact, the entire economy of the farm house, and its appendages, should
be brought close under the eye of the household, to engage their care
and watchfulness, and to interest them in all the little associations
and endearments—and they are many, when properly studied
out—which go to make agricultural life one of the most agreeable
pursuits, if not altogether so, in which our lot in life may be
cast.

A fruit-garden, too, should be a prominent object near this house. We
are now advancing somewhat into the elegances of agricultural
life; and although fruit trees, and good fruits too, should hold
a strong place in the surroundings of even the humblest of all country
places—sufficient, at least, for the ample use of the
family—they have not yet been noticed, to any extent, in those
already described. It may be remarked, that the
fruit-garden—the orchard, for market
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purposes, is not here intended—should be placed in near proximity
to the house. All the small fruits, for household use, such as
strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, blackberries, grapes,
as well as apricots, plums, nectarines, peaches, pears, apples, quinces,
or whatever fruits may be cultivated, in different localities, should be
close by, for the convenience of collecting them, and to protect them
from destruction by vermin, birds, or the depredations of creatures
called human.

A decided plan of arrangement for all the plantations and grounds,
should enter into the composition of the site for the dwelling,
out-houses, gardens, &c., as they are to appear when the whole
establishment is completed; and nothing left to accident, chance, or
after-thought, which can be disposed of at the commencement. By the
adoption of such a course, the entire composition is more easily
perfected, and with infinitely greater expression of character, than if
left to the chance designs, or accidental demands of the future.

Another feature should be strictly enforced, in the outward
appointments of the farm house,—and that is, the entire withdrawal
of any use of the highway, in its occupation by the stock of the farm,
except in leading them to and from its enclosures. Nothing looks more
slovenly, and nothing can be more unthrifty, in an enclosed
country, than the running of farm stock in the highway. What so untidy
as the approach to a house, with a herd of filthy hogs rooting about the
fences, basking along the sidewalk, or
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feeding at a huge, uncouth, hollowed log, in the road near the dwelling.
It may be out of place here to speak of it, but this disgusting
spectacle has so often offended our sight, at the approach of an
otherwise pleasant farm establishment, that we cannot forego the
opportunity to speak of it. The road lying in front, or between the
different sections of the farm, should be as well, and as cleanly kept
as any portion of the enclosures, and it is equally a sin against good
taste and neighborhood-morality, to have it otherwise.

TREE-PLANTING IN THE HIGHWAY.

This is frequently recommended by writers on country embellishment,
as indispensable to a finished decoration of the farm. Such may, or may
not be the fact. Trees shade the roads, when planted on their sides, and
so they partially do the fields adjoining, making the first muddy, in
bad weather, by preventing the sun drying them, and shading the crops of
the last by their overhanging foliage, in the season of their growth.
Thus they are an evil, in moist and heavy soils. Yet, in light soils,
their shade is grateful to the highway traveler, and not, perhaps,
injurious to the crops of the adjoining field; and when of proper kinds,
they add grace and beauty to the domain in which they stand.
130
We do not, therefore, indiscriminately recommend them, but leave it to
the discretion of the farmer, to decide for himself, having seen estates
equally pleasant with, and without trees on the roadside. Nothing,
however, can be more beautiful than a clump of trees in a
pasture-ground, with a herd, or a flock beneath them, near the road; or
the grand and overshadowing branches of stately tree, in a rich meadow,
leaning, perhaps, over the highway fence, or flourishing in its solitary
grandeur, in the distance—each, and all, imposing features in the
rural landscape. All such should be preserved, with the greatest care
and solicitude, as among the highest and most attractive ornaments which
the farm can boast.

(131)
(132)

FARM HOUSE. Pages 131-132.

larger view

Design V.

We here present a dwelling of a more ambitious and pretending
character than any one which we have, as yet, described, and calculated
for a large and wealthy farmer, who indulges in the elegances of country
life, dispenses a liberal hospitality, and is every way a country
gentleman, such as all our farmers of ample means should be. It will
answer the demands of the retired man of business as well; and is,
perhaps, as full in its various accommodation as an American farm or
country house may require. It claims no distinct style of architecture,
but is a composition agreeable in effect, and appropriate to almost any
part of the country, and its climate. Its site may be on either hill or
plain—with a view extensive, or restricted. It may look out over
broad savannas, cultivated fields, and shining waters; it may nestle
amid its own quiet woods and lawn in its own selected shade and
retirement, or lord it over an extensive park, ranged by herds and
flocks, meandered by its own stream, spreading anon into the placid
lake, or rushing swiftly over its own narrow bed—an independent,
substantial, convenient, and well-conditioned home, standing upon its
own broad acres, and comporting with the character and standing of its
occupant, among his friends and neighbors.

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The main building is 50×40 feet in area upon the ground, two stories
high; the ground story 11 feet high, its floor elevated 2½ or 3
feet above the level of the surrounding surface, as its position may
demand; the chambers 9 feet high, and running 2 feet into the
roof. The rear wing is one and a half stories high, 36×16 feet; the
lower rooms 11 feet high, with a one story lean-to range of
closets, and small rooms on the weather side, 8 feet in width and
9 feet high. In the rear of these is a wood-house, 30×20 feet, with
10 feet posts, dropped to a level with the ground. At the extremity
of this is a building, by way of an L, 60×20 feet, one and a half
stories high, with a lean-to, 12×30 feet, in the rear. The ground rooms
of this are elevated 1½ feet above the ground, and 9 feet
high. A broad roof covers the whole, standing at an angle of 40 or
45° above a horizontal line, and projecting widely over the walls,
2½ to 3 feet on the main building, and 2 feet on the others,
to shelter them perfectly from the storms and damps of the weather.
A small cupola stands out of the ridge of the rear building, which
may serve as a ventilator to the apartments and lofts below, and in it
may be hung a bell, to summon the household, or the field laborers, as
the case may be, to their duties or their meals.

The design, as here shown, is rather florid, and perhaps profusely
ornamental in its finish, as comporting with the taste of the day; but
the cut and moulded trimmings may be left off by those who prefer a
plain finish, and be no detriment to the general effect which the deep
friezes of the roofs, properly cased beneath,
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may give to it. Such, indeed, is our own taste; but this full finish has
been added, to gratify such as wish the full ornament which this style
of building may admit.

GROUND PLAN.

Plans in original orientation

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

The front of this house is accommodated by a porch, or veranda, 40
feet long, and 10 feet wide, with a central, or entrance projection of
18 feet in length, and 12 feet in width, the floor of which is
eight inches below the main floor of the house. The wings, or sides of
this veranda may be so fitted up as to allow a pleasant conservatory on
each side of the entrance area in winter, by enclosing them with glass
windows, and the introduction of heat from a furnace under the main
hall, in the cellar of the house. This would add to its general effect
in winter, and, if continued through the summer, would not detract from
its expression of dignity and refinement. From the veranda, a door
in the center of the front, with two side windows, leads into the main
hall, which is 26×12 feet in area, two feet in the width of which is
taken from the rooms on the right of the main entrance. On the left of
the hall a door opens into a parlor or drawing-room, marked P,
20 feet square, with a bay window on one side, containing three
sashes, and seats beneath. A single window lights the front opening
on to the veranda. On the opposite side to this is the fireplace, with
blank walls on each side. On the opposite side of the hall is a library,
18×16 feet, with an end window, and a
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corresponding one to the parlor, in front, looking out on the veranda.
In case these portions of the veranda, opposite the two front windows
are occupied as conservatories, these windows should open to the floor,
to admit a walk immediately into them. At the farther corner of the
library a narrow door leads into an office, or business apartment, 12×8
feet, and opening by a broad door, the upper half of which is a lighted
sash. This door leads from the office out on a small porch, with a floor
and two columns, 8×5 feet, and nine feet high, with a gable and double
roof of the same pitch as the house. Between the chimney flues, in the
rear of this room may be placed an iron safe, or chest for the deposit
of valuable papers; and, although small, a table and chairs
sufficient to accommodate the business requirements of the occupant, may
be kept in it. A chimney stands in the center of the inner wall of
the library, in which may be a fireplace, or a flue to receive a
stovepipe, whichever may be preferred for warming the room.

Near the hall side of the library a door opens into a passage leading
into the family bedroom, or nursery. A portion of this passage may
be shelved and fitted up as a closet for any convenient purpose. The
nursery is 18×16 feet in size, lighted by two windows. It may have an
open fireplace, or a stove, as preferred, let into the chimney,
corresponding to that in the library. These two chimneys may either be
drawn together in the chambers immediately above, or carried up
separately into the garret, and pass out of the roof in one stack, or
they maybe built in one solid mass from the
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cellar bottom; but they are so placed here, as saving room on the
floors, and equally accommodating, in their separate divisions, the
stovepipes that may lead into them. On the inner side of the nursery,
a door leads into a large closet, or child’s sleeping-room, 9×8
feet; or it may be used as a dressing-room, with a sash inserted in the
door to light it. A door may also lead from it into the small rear
entry of the house, and thus pass directly out, without communicating
with the nursery. On the extreme left corner of the nursery is a door
leading into the back entry, by which it communicates either with the
rear porch, the dining-room, or the kitchen. Such a room we consider
indispensable to the proper accommodation of a house in the country, as
saving a world of up-and-down-stairs’ labor to her who is usually
charged with the domestic cares and supervision of the family.

On the right of the main hall an ample staircase leads into the upper
hall by a landing and broad stair at eight feet above the floor, and a
right-angled flight from that to the main floor above. Under this main
hall staircase, a door and stairs may lead into the cellar. Beyond
the turning flight below, a door leads into the back hall, or
entry, already mentioned, which is 13×4 feet in area, which also has a
side passage of 8×4 feet, and a door leading to the rear porch, and
another into the kitchen at its farther side, near the outer one.
Opposite the turning flight of stairs, in the main hall, is also a door
leading to the dining-room, 20×16 feet. This is lighted by a large
double window at the end. A fireplace, or stove flue is in the
center wall, and on
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each side a closet for plate, or table furniture. These closets come out
flush with the chimney. At the extreme right corner a door leads into
the rear entry—or this may be omitted, at pleasure. Another door
in the rear wall leads into the kitchen, past the passage down into the
cellar—or this may be omitted, if thought best. Still another door
to the left, opens into a large dining closet of the back lean-to
apartments, 8×8 feet. This closet is lighted by a window of proper
architectural size, and fitted up with a suite of drawers, shelves,
table, and cupboards, required for the preparation and deposit of the
lighter family stores and edibles. From this closet is also a door
leading into the kitchen, through which may be passed all the meats and
cookery for the table, either for safe-keeping, or immediate service.
Here the thrifty and careful housekeeper and her assistants may, shut
apart, and by themselves, get up, fabricate, and arrange all their table
delicacies with the greatest convenience and privacy, together with ease
of access either to the dining-room or kitchen—an apartment most
necessary in a liberally-arranged establishment.

From the rear entry opens a door to the kitchen, passing by the
rear chamber stairs. This flight of stairs may be entered
directly from the kitchen, leading either to the chamber, or under them,
into the cellar, without coming into the passage connecting with the
entry or dining-room, if preferred. In such case, a broad stair of
thirty inches in width should be next the door, on which to turn, as the
door would be at right angles with the stairs, either up or down.

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The kitchen is 20×16 feet, and 11 feet high. It has an outer door
leading on the rear porch, and a window on each side of that door; also
a window, under which is a sink, on the opposite side, at the end of a
passage four feet wide, leading through the lean-to. It has also an open
fireplace, and an oven by the side of it—old fashion. It may be
also furnished with a cooking range, or stove—the smoke and fumes
leading by a pipe into a flue into the chimney. On the lean-to side is a
milk or dairy-room, 8×8 feet, lighted by a window. Here also the kitchen
furniture and meats may be stored in cupboards made for the purpose. In
rear of the kitchen, and leading from it by a door through a lighted
passage next the rear porch, is the wash-room, 16×16 feet, lighted by a
large window from the porch side. A door also leads out of the rear
on to a platform into the wood-house. Another door leads from the
wash-room into a bath-room in the lean-to 8×8 feet, into which warm
water is drawn by a pipe and pump from the boiler in the wash-room; or,
if preferred, the bath-room may be entered from the main kitchen, by the
passage next the sink. This bath-room is lighted by a window. Next to
the bath-room is a bedroom for a man servant who has charge of the
fires, and heavy house-work, wood, &c., &c. This bedroom is also
8×8 feet, and lighted by a window in the lean-to. In front of this
wash-room and kitchen is a porch, eight inches below the floor, six feet
wide, with a railing, or not, as may be preferred. (The railing is made
in the cut.) A platform, three feet wide, leads from the back door of
the wash-room to a
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water-closet for the family proper. The wood-house is open in
front, with a single post supporting the center of the roof. At the
extreme outer angle is a water-closet for the domestics of the
establishment.

Adjoining the wood-house, and opening from it into the L before
mentioned, is a workshop, and small-tool-house,
20×16 feet, lighted by a large
double window at one end. In this should be a carpenter’s work-bench and
tool-chest, for the repairs of the farming utensils and vehicles.
Overhead is a store-room for lumber, or whatever else may be necessary
for use in that capacity. Next to this is a granary or feed-room, 20×10
feet, with a small chimney in one corner, where may be placed a boiler
to cook food for pigs, poultry, &c., as the case may be. Here may
also be bins for storage of grain and meal. Leading out of this is a
flight of stairs passing to the chamber above, and a passage four feet
wide, through the rear, into a yard adjoining. At the further end of the
stairs a door opens into a poultry house, 16×10 feet, including the
stairs. The poultry room is lighted at the extreme left corner, by a
broad window. In this may be made roosts, and nesting places, and
feeding troughs. A low door under the window may be also made for
the fowls in passing to the rear yard. Adjoining the granary, and
leading to it by a door, is the carriage-house, 20×20 feet, at the gable
end of which are large doors for entrance. From the carriage-house is a
broad passage of six feet, into the stables, which are 12 feet
wide, and occupy the lean-to. This lean-to is eight feet high below the
eaves, with two double stalls for
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horses, and a door leading into the side yard, with the doors of
the carriage-house. A window also lights the rear of the stables.
A piggery 12 feet square occupies the remainder of the lean-to
in rear of the poultry-house, in which two or three pigs can always be
kept, and fatted on the offal of the house, for small pork, at
any season, apart from the swine stock of the farm. A door leads
out of the piggery into the rear yard, where range also the poultry. As
the shed roof shuts down on to the pigsty and stables, no loft
above them is necessary. In the loft over the granary, poultry, and
carriage-house is deposited the hay, put in there through the doors
which appear in the design.

Chamber Plan.—This is easily
understood. At the head of the stairs, over the main hall, is a large
passage leading to the porch, and opening by a door-window on the middle
deck of the veranda, which is nearly level, and tinned, or coppered,
water-tight, as are also the two sides. On either side of this upper
hall is a door leading to the front sleeping chambers, which are well
closeted, and spacious. If it be desirable to construct more
sleeping-rooms, they can be partitioned laterally from the hall, and
doors made to enter them. A rear hall is cut off from the front,
lighted by a window over the lower rear porch, and a door leads into a
further passage in the wing, four feet wide, which leads down a flight
of stairs into the kitchen below. At the head of this flight is a
chamber 20×12 feet, for the female domestic’s sleeping-room, in which
may be placed a stove, if necessary, passing its pipe into the kitchen
chimney which passes through it.

CHAMBER PLAN.

It is also lighted by a window over the lean-to, on the side. Back of
this, at the end of the passage, is the sleeping-room, 16 feet
square, for the “men-folks,” lighted on both sides by a window. This may
also be warmed, if desired, by a stove, the pipe passing into the
kitchen chimney.

The cellar may extend under the entire house and wing, as convenience
or necessity may require. If it be constructed under the main body only,
an offset should be excavated to accommodate the cellar stairs, three
feet in width, and walled in with the rest. A
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wide, outer passage, with a flight of steps should also be made
under the rear nursery window, for taking in and passing out bulky
articles, with double doors to shut down upon it; and partition walls
should be built to support the partitions of the large rooms above. Many
minor items of detail might be mentioned, all of which are already
treated in the general remarks, under their proper heads, in the body of
the work, and which cannot here be noticed—such as the mode of
warming it, the construction of furnaces, &c.

It may, by some builders, be considered a striking defect in the
interior accommodation of a house of this character, that the chief
entrance hall should not be extended through, from its front to the
rear, as is common in many of the large mansions of our country. We
object to the large, open hall for more than one reason, except,
possibly, in a house for summer occupation only. In the first
place it is uncomfortable, in subjecting the house to an unnecessary
draught of air when it is not needed, in cold weather. Secondly, it cuts
the house into two distinct parts, making them inconvenient of access in
crossing its wide surface. Thirdly, it is uneconomical, in taking up
valuable room that can be better appropriated. For summer ventilation it
is unnecessary; that may be given by simply opening the front door and a
chamber window connected with the hall above, through which a current of
fresh air will always pass. Another thing, the hall belongs to the
front, or dress part of the house, and should be cut off
from the more domestic and common apartments by a partition, although
accessible to them,
145
and not directly communicating with such apartments, which cannot of
necessity, be in keeping with its showy and pretending character. It
should contain only the front flight of stairs, as a part of its
appointments, besides the doors leading to its best apartments on the
ground floor, which should be centrally placed—its rear door being
of a less pretending and subordinate character. Thus, the hall, with its
open doors, connecting the best rooms of the house on each side, with
its ample flight of stairs in the background, gives a distinct
expression of superiority in occupation to the other and humbler
portions of the dwelling.

In winter, too, how much more snug and comfortable is the house, shut
in from the prying winds and shivering cold of the outside air, which
the opposite outer doors of an open hall cannot, in their continual
opening and shutting, altogether exclude! Our own experience, and, we
believe, the experience of most housekeepers will readily concede its
defects; and after full reflection we have excluded it as both
unnecessary and inconvenient.

Another objection has been avoided in the better class of houses here
presented, which has crept into very many of the designs of modern
builders; which is, that of using the living rooms of the family, more
or less, as passages from the kitchen apartments in passing to and from
the front hall, or chief entrance. Such we consider a decided objection,
and hence arose, probably, the older plans of by-gone years, of making
the main hall reach back to the kitchen itself. This is here obviated by
a cutting up of the rear section of the
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hall, by which a passage, in all cases of the better kind of dwelling,
is preserved, without encroaching upon the occupied rooms in passing out
and in. To be sure, the front door is not the usual passage for the
laborers or servants of the house, but they are subject, any hour of the
day, to be called there to admit those who may come, and the continual
opening of a private room for such purposes is most annoying. Therefore,
as matter of convenience, and as a decided improvement on the designs
above noticed, we have adhered strictly to the separate rear
passage.

The garret, also, as we have arranged our designs, is either
altogether left out, or made a quite unimportant part of the dwelling.
It is but a lumber room, at best; and should be approached only
by a flight of steps from a rear chamber or passage, and used as a
receptacle for useless traps, or cast-off furniture, seldom wanted. It
is hot in summer, and cold in winter, unfit for decent lodging to any
human being in the house, and of little account any way. We much prefer
running the chambers partially into the roof, which we think gives them
a more comfortable expression, and admits of a better ventilation, by
carrying their ceilings higher without the expense of high body
walls to the house, which would give them an otherwise naked look. If it
be objected that thus running the chambers above the plates of the roof
prevents the insertion of proper ties or beams to hold the roof plates
together to prevent their spreading, we answer, that he must be a poor
mechanic who cannot, in framing the chamber partitions so connect the
opposite plates as to insure
147
them against all such difficulty. A sheltered, comfortable
aspect is that which should distinguish every farm house, and the
cottage chamber is one of its chiefest characteristics; and this
can only be had by running such apartments into the roof, as in our
design.

CONSTRUCTION.

A house of this kind must, according to its locality, and the
material of which it is built, be liable to wide differences of estimate
in its cost; and from our own experience in such matters, any estimate
here made we know cannot be reliable as a rule for other localities,
where the prices of material and labor are different from our own. Where
lumber, stone, and brick abound, and each are to be had at reasonable
prices, the cost of an establishment of this kind would not vary much in
the application of either one of these materials for the walls, if well
and substantially constructed. There should be no sham, nor
slight, in any part of the building. As already observed, the design
shows a high degree of finish, which, if building for ourself, we should
not indulge in. A plain style of cornice, and veranda finish, we
should certainly adopt. But the roof should not be contracted in its
projecting breadth over the walls, in any part of the structure—if
anything, it should be more extended. The bay-window is an appendage of
luxury, only. Great care should be had, in attaching its roof to the
adjoining outer wall, to prevent leakage of any kind. If the
148
walls be of brick, or stone, a beam or lintel of wood should be
inserted in the wall over the window-opening, quite two
inches—three would be better—back from its outer surface, to
receive the casing of the window, that the drip of the wall, and the
driving of the storms may fall over the connecting joints of the
window roof, beyond its point of junction with it. Such, also, should be
the case with the intersection of the veranda or porch roof with the
wall of the house, wherever a veranda, or porch is adopted; as, simply
joined on to a flush surface, as such appendages usually
are—even if ever so well done—leakage and premature decay is
inevitable.

The style of finish must, of course, influence, in a considerable
degree, its cost. It may, with the plainest finish, be done for $4,000,
and from that, up to $6,000. Every one desirous to build, should apply
to the best mechanics of his neighborhood for information on that point,
as, in such matters, they are the best judges, and from experience in
their own particular profession, of what the cost of building
must be.

The rules and customs of housekeeping vary, in different sections of
the United States, and the Canadas. These, also, enter into the
estimates for certain departments of building, and must be considered in
the items of expenditure.

The manner in which houses should be warmed, the ventilation,
accommodation for servants and laborers, the appropriations to
hospitality—all, will have a bearing on the expense, of which we
cannot be the proper judge.

149
A sufficient time should be given, to build a house of this character.
A house designed and built in a hurry, is never a satisfactory
house in its occupation. A year is little enough, and if two years
be occupied in its design and construction, the more acceptable will
probably be its finish, and the more comfort will be added in its
enjoyment.

GROUNDS, PLANTATIONS, AND SURROUNDINGS.

A house of this kind should never stand in vulgar and familiar
contact with the highway, but at a distance from it of one hundred to a
thousand yards; or even, if the estate on which it is built be
extensive, a much greater distance. Breadth of ground between the
highway and the dwelling adds dignity and character to its appearance.
An ample lawn, or a spreading park, well shaded with trees, should lay
before it, through which a well-kept avenue leads to its front, and most
frequented side. The various offices and buildings of the farm itself,
should be at a respectable distance from it, so as not to interfere with
its proper keeping as a genteel country residence. Its occupant is not
to be supposed as under the necessity of toiling with his daily laborers
in the fields, and therefore, although he may be strictly a man of
business, he has sufficient employment in planning his work, and
managing his estate through a foreman, in the various labor-occupations
of the estate. His horse may be at his door in the earliest morning
hours, that he may
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inspect his fields, and give timely directions to his laborers, or view
his herds, or his flocks, before his breakfast hour; or an early walk
may take him to his stables, his barns, or to see that his previous
directions are executed.

The various accommodation appurtenant to the dwelling, makes ample
provision for the household convenience of the family, and the main
business of the farm may be at some distance, without inconvenience to
the owner’s every-day affairs. Consequently, the indulgence of a
considerable degree of ornament may be given, in the surroundings of his
dwelling, which the occupant of a less extensive estate would neither
require, nor his circumstances warrant. A natural forest of stately
trees, properly thinned out, is the most appropriate spot on which to
build a house of this character. But that not at hand, it should be set
off with plantations of forest trees, of the largest growth, as in
keeping with its own liberal dimensions. A capacious kitchen garden
should lead off from the rear apartments, well stocked with all the
family vegetables, and culinary fruits, in their proper seasons.
A luxuriant fruit-garden may flank the least frequented side of the
house. Neat and tasteful flower beds may lie beneath the windows of the
rooms appropriated to the leisure hours of the family, to which the
smaller varieties of shrubbery may be added, separated from the chief
lawn, or park, only by a wire fence, or a simple railing, such as not to
cut up and checker its simple and dignified surface; and all
these shut in on the rear from the adjoining fields of the farm by belts
of large shrubbery
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closely planted, or the larger orchards, thus giving it a style of its
own, yet showing its connection with the pursuits of the farm and its
dependence upon it.

These various appointments, however, may be either carried out or
restricted, according to the requirements of the family occupying the
estate, and the prevailing local taste of the vicinity in which it is
situated; but no narrow or stingy spirit should be indicated in the
general plan or in its execution. Every appointment connected with it
should indicate a liberality of purpose in the founder, without which
its effect is painfully marred to the eye of the man of true taste and
judgment. Small yards, picketed in for small uses, have no business in
sight of the grounds in front, and all minor concerns should be thrown
into the rear, beyond observation from the main approach to the
dwelling. The trees that shade the entrance park, or lawn, should be
chiefly forest trees, as the oak, in its varieties, the elm, the maple,
the chestnut, walnut, butternut, hickory, or beech. If the soil be
favorable, a few weeping willows may throw their drooping spray
around the house; and if exotic, or foreign trees be permitted, they
should take their position in closer proximity to it than the natural
forest trees, as indicating the higher care and cultivation which
attaches to its presence. The Lombardy poplar, albeit a tree of disputed
taste with modern planters, we would now and then throw in, not in stiff
and formal rows, as guarding an avenue, but occasionally in the midst of
a group of others, above which it should rise like a church spire from
amidst a block of contiguous houses—a
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cheerful relief to the monotony of the rounder-headed branches of the
more spreading varieties. If a stream of water meander the park, or
spread into a little pond, trees which are partial to moisture should
shadow it at different points, and low, water shrubs should hang over
its border, or even run into its margin. Aquatic herbs, too, may form a
part of its ornaments, and a boat-house, if such a thing be necessary,
should, under the shade of a hanging tree of some kind, be a conspicuous
object in the picture. An overhanging rock, if such a thing be native
there, may be an object of great attraction to its features, and its
outlet may steal away and be hid in a dense mass of tangled vines and
brushwood. The predominating, natural features of the place
should be cultivated, not rooted out, and metamorphosed into
something foreign and unfamiliar. It should, in short, be nature
with her hair combed out straight, flowing, and graceful, instead
of pinched, puffed, and curling—a thing of luxuriance and beauty
under the hand of a master.

The great difficulty with many Americans in getting up a new place of
any considerable extent is, that they seem to think whatever is common,
or natural in the features of the spot must be so changed as to show,
above all others, their own ingenuity and love of expense in fashioning
it to their peculiar tastes. Rocks must be sunk, or blasted, trees
felled, and bushes grubbed, crooked water-courses straightened—the
place gibbeted and put into stocks; in fact, that their own boasted
handiwork may rise superior to the wisdom of Him who fashioned it in his
own good
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pleasure; forgetting that a thousand points of natural beauty upon the
earth on which they breathe are

“When unadorned, adorned the most;”

and our eye has been frequently shocked at finding the choicest gems
of nature sacrificed to a wanton display of expense in perverting, to
the indulgence of a mistaken fancy, that, which, with an eye to truth
and propriety, and at a trifling expense, might have become a spot of
abiding interest and contentment.

(155)
(156)

FARM HOUSE. Pages 155-156.

larger view

Design VI.

A Southern or Plantation
House.—The proprietor of a plantation in the South, or
South-west, requires altogether a different kind of residence from the
farmer of the Northern, or Middle States. He resides in the midst of his
own principality, surrounded by a retinue of dependents and laborers,
who dwell distant and apart from his own immediate family, although
composing a community requiring his daily care and superintendence for a
great share of his time. A portion of them are the attachés of his
household, yet so disconnected in their domestic relations, as to
require a separate accommodation, and yet be in immediate contiguity
with it, and of course, an arrangement of living widely different from
those who mingle in the same circle, and partake at the same board.

The usual plan of house-building at the South, we are aware, is to
have detached servants’ rooms, and offices, and a space of some
yards of uncovered way intervene between the family rooms of the chief
dwelling and its immediate dependents. Such arrangement, however, we
consider both unnecessary and inconvenient; and we have devised a plan
of household accommodation which will bring the family of the planter
himself, and their servants, although under
157
different roofs, into convenient proximity with each other.
A design of this kind is here given.

The style is mainly Italian, plain, substantial, yet, we think,
becoming. The broad veranda, stretching around three sides, including
the front, gives an air of sheltered repose to what might otherwise
appear an ambitious structure; and the connected apartments beyond, show
a quiet utility which divests it of an over attempt at display. Nothing
has been attempted for appearance, solely, beyond what is necessary and
proper in the dwelling of a planter of good estate, who wants his
domestic affairs well regulated, and his family, and servants duly
provided with convenient accommodation. The form of the main dwelling is
nearly square, upright, with two full stories, giving ample area of room
and ventilation, together with that appropriate indulgence to ease which
the enervating warmth of a southern climate renders necessary. The
servants’ apartments, and kitchen offices are so disposed, that while
connected, to render them easy of access, they are sufficiently remote
to shut off the familiarity of association which would render them
obnoxious to the most fastidious—all, in fact, under one shelter,
and within the readiest call. Such should be the construction of a
planter’s house in the United States, and such this design is intended
to give.

A stable and carriage-house, in the same style, is near by, not
connected to any part of the dwelling, as in the previous
designs—with sufficient accommodation for coachman and grooms, and
the number of saddle and carriage horses that may be required for
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either business or pleasure; and to it may be connected, in the rear, in
the same style of building, or plainer, and less expensive, further
conveniences for such domestic animals as may be required for family
use.

The whole stands in open grounds, and may be separated from each
other by enclosures, as convenience or fancy may direct.

The roofs of all the buildings are broad and sweeping, well
protecting the walls from storm and frosts, as well as the glaring
influences of the sun, and combining that comfortable idea of shelter
and repose so grateful in a well-conditioned country house. It is true,
that the dwelling might be more extensive in room, and the purposes of
luxury enlarged; but the planter on five hundred, or five thousand acres
of land can here be sufficiently accommodated in all the reasonable
indulgences of family enjoyment, and a liberal, even an elegant and
prolonged hospitality, to which he is so generally inclined.

The chimneys of this house, different from those in the previous
designs, are placed next the outer walls, thus giving more space to the
interior, and not being required, as in the others, to promote
additional warmth than their fireplaces will give, to the rooms.
A deck on the roof affords a pleasant look-out for the family from
its top, guarded by a parapet, and giving a finish to its architectural
appearance, and yet making no ambitious attempt at expensive ornament.
It is, in fact, a plain, substantial, respectable mansion for a
gentleman of good estate, and nothing beyond it.

GROUND PLAN.

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

This house stands 50×40 feet on the ground. The front door opens from
the veranda into a hall, 24×14 feet, in which is a flight of stairs
leading to the chambers above. On the left a door leads into a library,
or
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business room, 17×17 feet, lighted by three windows. A fireplace is
inserted in the outer wall. Another door leads into a side hall, six
feet wide, which separates the library from the dining-room, which is
also 17×17 feet in area, lighted and accommodated with a fireplace like
the other, with a door leading into it from the side hall, and another
door at the further right hand corner leading into the rear hall, or
entry.

On the right of the chief entrance hall, opposite the library,
a door opens into the parlor or drawing-room, 23×19 feet in area,
lighted by three windows, and having a fireplace in the side wall.
A door leads from the rear side of the parlor into a commodious
nursery, or family bedroom, 19×16 feet in size, lighted by a window in
each outer wall. A fireplace is also inserted on the same line as
in the parlor. From the nursery a door leads into and through a large
closet, 9×7 feet, into the rear hall. This closet may also be used as a
sleeping-room for the children, or a confidential servant-maid, or
nurse, or devoted to the storage of bed-linen for family use. Further
on, adjoining, is another closet, 7×6 feet, opening from the rear hall,
and lighted by a window.

Leading from the outer door of the rear hall is a covered passage six
feet wide, 16 feet long, and one and a half stories high, leading
to the kitchen offices, and lighted by a window on the left, with a door
opening in the same side beyond, on to the side front of the
establishment. On the right, opposite, a door leads on to the
kitchen porch, which is six feet wide, passing on to the bath-room and
water-closet, in the
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far rear. At the end of the connecting passage from the main dwelling,
a door opens into the kitchen, which is 24×18 feet in size,
accommodated with two windows looking on to the porch just described. At
one end is an open fireplace with a cooking range on one side, and an
oven on the other. At the left of the entrance door is a large,
commodious store-room and pantry, 12×9 feet, lighted by a window; and
adjoining it, (and may be connected with it by a door, if necessary,) a
kitchen closet of the same size, also connected by a corresponding door
from the opposite corner of the kitchen. Between these doors is a flight
of stairs leading to the sleeping-rooms above, and a cellar passage
beneath them. In the farther right corner of the kitchen a door leads
into a smaller closet, 8×6 feet, lighted by a small window looking on to
the rear porch at the end. A door at the rear of the kitchen leads
out into the porch of the wash-room beyond, which is six feet wide, and
another door into the wash-room itself, which is 20×16 feet, and
furnished with a chimney and boilers. A window looks out on the
extreme right hand, and two windows on to the porch in front.
A door opens from its rear wall into the wood-house, 32×12 feet,
which stands open on two sides, supported by posts, and under the
extended roof of the wash-room and its porch just mentioned.
A servants’ water-closet is attached to the extreme right corner of
the wood-house, by way of lean-to.

The bath-room is 10×6 feet in area, and supplied with water from the
kitchen boilers adjoining. The water-closet beyond is 6 feet
square, and architecturally,
162
in its roof, may be made a fitting termination to that of the porch
leading to it.

CHAMBER PLAN.

The main flight of stairs in the entrance hall leads on to a broad
landing in the spacious upper hall, from which doors pass into the
several chambers, which may be duly accommodated with closets. The
passage connecting with the upper story of the servants’ offices, opens
from the rear section of this upper hall, and by the flight of rear
stairs communicates with the kitchen and out-buildings. A garret
flight of steps may be made in the rear section of the main upper hall,
by which that apartment may be reached, and the upper deck of the roof
ascended.

The sleeping-rooms of the kitchen may be divided off as convenience
may dictate, and the entire structure thus appropriated to every
accommodation which a well-regulated family need require.

The carriage-house is 48×24 feet in size, with a projection of five
feet on the entrance front, the door of which leads both into the
carriage-room and stables. On the right is a bedroom, 10×8 feet, for the
grooms, lighted by a window; and beyond are six stalls for horses, with
a window in the rear wall beyond them. A flight of stairs leads to
the hayloft above. In the rear of the carriage-room is a harness-room,
12×4 feet, and a granary of the same size, each lighted by a window. If
farther attachments be required for the accommodation of out-building
conveniences, they may be continued indefinitely in the rear.

CARRIAGE HOUSE.

MISCELLANEOUS.

It may strike the reader that the house just described has a lavish
appropriation of veranda, and a needless side-front, which latter may
detract from the precise architectural keeping that a dwelling of
this pretension should maintain. In regard to the first, it may be
remarked, that no feature of the house in a southern climate can be more
expressive of easy, comfortable
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enjoyment, than a spacious veranda. The habits of southern life demand
it as a place of exercise in wet weather, and the cooler seasons of the
year, as well as a place of recreation and social intercourse during the
fervid heats of the summer. Indeed, many southern people almost live
under the shade of their verandas. It is a delightful place to take
their meals, to receive their visitors and friends; and the veranda
gives to a dwelling the very expression of hospitality, so far as any
one feature of a dwelling can do it. No equal amount of accommodation
can be provided for the same cost. It adds infinitely to the room
of the house itself, and is, in fact, indispensable to the full
enjoyment of a southern house.

The side front in this design is simply a matter of convenience to
the owner and occupant of the estate, who has usually much office
business in its management; and in the almost daily use of his library,
where such business may be done, a side door and front is both
appropriate and convenient. The chief front entrance belongs to
his family and guests, and should be devoted to their exclusive use; and
as a light fence may be thrown off from the extreme end of the side
porch, separating the front lawn from the rear approach to the house,
the veranda on that side may be reached from its rear end, for business
purposes, without intruding upon the lawn at all. So we would
arrange it.

Objections may be made to the sameness of plan, in the
arrangement of the lower rooms of the several designs which we have
submitted, such as having the nursery, or family sleeping-room, on the
main floor of
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the house, and the uniformity, in location, of the others; and that
there are no new and striking features in them. The answer
to these may be, that the room appropriated for the nursery, or bedroom,
may be used for other purposes, equally as well; that when a mode of
accommodation is already as convenient as may be, it is poorly worth
while to make it less convenient, merely for the sake of variety; and,
that utility and convenience are the main objects to be attained in any
well-ordered dwelling. These two requisites, utility and convenience,
attained, the third and principal one—comfort—is secured.
Cellar kitchens—the most abominable nuisances that ever crept into
a country dwelling—might have been adopted, no doubt, to the
especial delight of some who know nothing of the experimental duties of
housekeeping; but the recommendation of these is an offence which we
have no stomach to answer for hereafter. Steep, winding, and complicated
staircases might have given a new feature to one or another of the
designs; dark closets, intricate passages, unique cubby-holes, and all
sorts of inside gimcrackery might have amused our pencil; but we have
avoided them, as well as everything which would stand in the way of the
simplest, cheapest, and most direct mode of reaching the object in view:
a convenient, comfortably-arranged dwelling within, having a
respectable, dignified appearance without—and such, we trust, have
been thus far presented in our designs.

LAWN, AND PARK SURROUNDINGS.

The trees and shrubbery which ornament the approach to this house,
should be rather of the graceful varieties, than otherwise. The
weeping-willow, the horse-chesnut, the mountain-ash, if suitable to the
climate; or the china-tree of the south, or the linden, the weeping-elm,
and the silver-maple, with its long slender branches and hanging leaves,
would add most to the beauty, and comport more closely with the
character of this establishment, than the more upright, stiff, and
unbending trees of our American forests. The Lombardy-poplar—albeit,
an object of fashionable derision with many tree-fanciers in these more tasty
days, as it was equally the admiration of our fathers, of forty years
ago—would set off and give effect to a mansion of this character,
either in a clump at the back-ground, as shown in the design, or
occasionally shooting up its spire-like top through a group of the other
trees. Yet, if built in a fine natural park or lawn of oaks, with a few
other trees, such as we have named, planted immediately around it, this
house would still show with fine effect.

The style of finish given to this dwelling may appear too ornate and
expensive for the position it is supposed to occupy. If so,
a plainer mode of finish may be adopted, to the cheapest degree
consistent with the manner of its construction. Still, on examination,
there will be found little intricate or really expensive work upon it.
Strength, substance, durability, should all enter into its composition;
and without these elements,
167
a house of this appearance is a mere bauble, not fit to stand upon the
premises of any man of substantial estate.

If a more extensive accommodation be necessary, than the size of this
house can afford, its style will admit of a wing, of any desirable
length, on each side, in place of the rear part of the side verandas,
without prejudice to its character or effect. Indeed, such wings may add
to its dignity, and consequence, as comporting with the standing and
influence which its occupant may hold in the community wherein he
resides. A man of mark, indeed, should, if he live in the country,
occupy a dwelling somewhat indicating the position which he holds, both
in society and in public affairs. By this remark, we may be treading on
questionable ground, in our democratic country; but, practically, there
is a fitness in it which no one can dispute. Not that extravagance,
pretension, or any other assumption of superiority should mark
the dwelling of the distinguished man, but that his dwelling be of like
character with himself: plain, dignified, solid, and, as a matter of
course, altogether respectable.

It is a happy feature in the composition of our republican
institutions, both social and political, that we can afford to let the
flashy men of the day—not of time—flaunter in
all their purchased fancy in house-building, without prejudice to the
prevailing sober sentiment of their neighbors, in such particulars. The
man of money, simply, may build his “villa,” and squander his tens of
thousands upon it. He may riot within it, and fidget about it for a few
brief years; he may even
168
hang his coat of arms upon it, if he can fortunately do so without
stumbling over a lapstone, or greasing his coat against the pans of a
cook-shop; but it is equally sure that no child of his will occupy it
after him, even if his own changeable fancy or circumstances permit him
to retain it for his natural life. Such are the episodes of country
house-building, and of frequent attempts at agricultural life, by those
who affect it as a matter of ostentation or display. For the subjects of
these, we do not write. But there is something exceedingly grateful to
the feelings of one of stable views in life, to look upon an estate
which has been long in an individual family, still maintaining its
primitive character and respectability. Some five-and-twenty years ago, when too young to have
any established opinions in matters of this sort, as we were driving
through one of the old farming towns in Massachusetts, about twenty
miles west of Boston, we approached a comfortable, well-conditioned
farm, with a tavern-house upon the high road, and several great elms
standing about it. The road passed between two of the trees, and from a
cross-beam, lodged across their branches, swung a large square sign,
with names and dates painted upon it—name and date we have
forgotten; it was a good old Puritan name, however—in this
wise:

“John Endicott, 1652.”
“John Endicott, 1696.”
“John Endicott, 1749.”
“John Endicott, 1784.”
“John Endicott, 1817.”

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As our eyes read over this list, we were struck with the stability of a
family who for many consecutive generations had occupied, by the same
name, that venerable spot, and ministered to the comfort of as many
generations of travelers, and incontinently took off our hat in respect
to the record of so much worth, drove our horse under the shed, had him
fed, went in, and took a quiet family dinner with the civil,
good-tempered host, and the equally kind-mannered hostess, then in the
prime of life, surrounded with a fine family of children, and heard from
his own lips the history of his ancestors, from their first emigration
from England—not in the Mayflower, to whose immeasurable
accommodations our good New England ancestors are so prone to
refer—but in one of her early successors.

All over the old thirteen states, from Maine to Georgia, can be found
agricultural estates now containing families, the descendants of those
who founded them—exceptions to the general rule, we admit, of
American stability of residence, but none the less gratifying to the
contemplation of those who respect a deep love of home, wherever it may
be found. For the moral of our episode on this subject, we cannot
refrain from a description of a fine old estate which we have frequently
seen, minus now the buildings which then existed, and long since
supplanted by others equally respectable and commodious, and erected by
the successor of the original occupant, the late Dr. Boylston, of
Roxbury, who long made the farm his summer residence. The description is from an old work,
“The History of the County of Worcester, in the
170
State of Massachusetts, by the Rev. Peter Whitney, 1793:”

“Many of the houses (in Princeton,) are large and elegant. This leads to
a particular mention, that in this town is the country seat of the Hon.
Moses Gill, Esq., (‘Honorable’ meant something in those days,) who has
been from the year 1775 one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas
for the county of Worcester, and for several years a counsellor of this
commonwealth. His noble and elegant seat is about one mile and a quarter
from the meeting-house, to the south. The farm contains upwards of three
thousand acres. The county road from Princeton to Worcester passes
through it, in front of the house, which faces to the west. The
buildings stand upon the highest land of the whole farm; but it is level
round about them for many rods, and then there is a very gradual
descent. The land on which these buildings stand is elevated between
twelve hundred and thirteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, as
the Hon. James Winthrop, Esq. informs me. The mansion house is large,
being 50×50 feet, with four stacks of chimnies. The farm house is 40 feet
by 36: In a line with this stand the coach and chaise-house, 50
feet by 36. This is joined to the barn by a shed 70 feet in
length—the barn is 200 feet by 32. Very elegant fences are
erected around the mansion house, the out-houses, and the garden.

“The prospect from this seat is extensive and grand, taking in a horizon
to the east, of seventy miles, at least. The blue hills in Milton are
discernible with
171
the naked eye, from the windows of this superb edifice, distant not less
than sixty miles; as also the waters in the harbor of Boston, at certain
seasons of the year. When we view this seat, these buildings, and this
farm of so many hundred acres, now under a high degree of profitable
cultivation, and are told that in the year 1766 it was a perfect
wilderness, we are struck with wonder, admiration, and astonishment. The
honorable proprietor thereof must have great satisfaction in
contemplating these improvements, so extensive, made under his
direction, and, I may add, by his own active industry. Judge Gill
is a gentleman of singular vivacity and activity, and indefatigable in
his endeavors to bring forward the cultivation of his lands; of great
and essential service, by his example, in the employment he finds for so
many persons, and in all his attempts to serve the interests of the
place where he dwells, and in his acts of private munificence, and
public generosity, and deserves great respect and esteem, not only from
individuals, but from the town and country he has so greatly benefited,
and especially by the ways in which he makes use of that vast estate
wherewith a kind Providence has blessed him.”

Such was the estate, and such the man who founded and enjoyed it
sixty years ago; and many an equal estate, founded and occupied by
equally valuable men, then existed, and still exist in all our older
states; and if our private and public virtues are preserved, will ever
exist in every state of our union. Such pictures, too, are forcible
illustrations of the morals of correct building on the ample
estates of many of our American
172
planters and farmers. The mansion house, which is so graphically
described, we saw but a short time before it was pulled down—then
old, and hardly worth repairing, being built of wood, and of style
something like this design of our own, bating the extent of veranda.

The cost of this house
may be from $5000 to $8000, depending upon the material of which it is
constructed, the degree of finish given to it, and the locality where it
is built. All these circumstances are to be considered, and the
estimates should be made by practical and experienced builders, who are
competent judges in whatever appertains to it.

(173)
(174)

FARM HOUSE. Pages 173-174.

larger view

Design VII.

A Plantation House.—Another
southern house is here presented, quite different in architectural
design from the last, plain, unpretending, less ornate in its finish, as
well as less expensive in construction. It may occupy a different site,
in a hilly, wooded country of rougher surface, but equally becoming it,
as the other would more fitly grace the level prairie, or spreading
plain in the more showy luxury of its character.

This house stands 46×44 feet on the ground, two stories high, with a
full length veranda, 10 feet wide in front, and a half length one
above it, connecting with the main roof by an open gable, under which is
a railed gallery for summer repose or recreation, or to enjoy the
scenery upon which it may open. The roof is broad and overhanging,
thoroughly sheltering the walls, and giving it a most protected,
comfortable look. Covering half the rear is a lean-to, with shed roof,
16 feet wide, communicating with the servants’ offices in the wing,
the hall of which opens upon a low veranda on its front, and leading to
the minor conveniences of the establishment. The main servants’ building
is 30×20 feet, one and a half stories high, with a roof in keeping with
the main dwelling, and a chimney in
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the center. In rear of this is attached a wood-house, with a shed roof,
thus sloping off, and giving it a reposed, quiet air from that point of
view. A narrow porch, 23 feet long and 8 feet wide, also
shades the remaining rear part of the main dwelling, opening on to the
approach in rear.

GROUND PLAN

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

The front door opens into a hall 34 feet long and 10 feet wide,
with a flight of stairs. On the left of this opens a parlor or
dining-room, 22×18 feet, lighted by two windows in front and one on the
side, and connecting with the dining-room beyond, which is 18×16 feet,
with two small dining closets between. The dining-room has two windows
opening on to the rear veranda. Under the cross flight of stairs in the
hall, a partition separates it from the rear hall, into which is a
door. On the right of the entrance hall is a library, 18×18 feet,
lighted by three windows. At the farther end is a closet, and by the
side of it a small entry leading into the nursery or family bedroom,
18×15 feet in size, which also has a corresponding closet with the
library. On the rear of the nursery is a flight of back stairs opening
from it. Under these stairs, at the other end, a door opens to
another flight leading into the cellar below. A door also leads out
from the nursery into the rear passage, to the offices; another door on
the further side of the room opens into the rear hall of the house. The
nursery should have two windows, but
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the drawing, by an error, gives only one. From this rear hall a door
opens on the rear veranda, and another into the passage to the rear
offices. This passage is six feet wide and 34 feet long, opening at
its left end on to the veranda, and on the right, to the servants’
porch, and from its rear side into three small rooms, 10 feet
square each, the outer one of which may be a business room for the
proprietor of the estate; the next, a store-room for family
supplies; and the other a kitchen closet. Each of these is lighted by a
window on the rear. A door also leads from the
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rear passage into the kitchen, 20×16 feet in area, with a window looking
out in front and two others on the side and rear, and a door into the
wood-house. In this is placed a large chimney for the cooking
establishment, oven, &c., &c. A flight of stairs and
partition divides this from the wash-room, which is 14×14 feet, with two
windows in the side, and a door into the wood-house. This wood-house is
open on two sides, and a water-closet is in the far corner. The small
veranda, which is six feet wide, fronting the kitchen apartments, opens
into the bath-room, 9×6 feet, into which the water is drawn from the
kitchen boilers in the adjoining chimney. Still beyond this is the
entrance to the water-closets, 6×5 feet.

CHAMBER PLAN

The chamber plan is simple, and will be readily comprehended. If more
rooms are desirable, they can be cut off from the larger ones.
A flight of garret stairs may also be put in the rear chamber hall.
The
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main hall of the chambers, in connection with the upper veranda, may be
made a delightful resort for the summer, where the leisure hours of the
family may be passed in view of the scenery which the house may command,
and thus made one of its most attractive features.

MISCELLANEOUS.

We have given less veranda to this house than to the last, because
its style does not require it, and it is a cheaper and less pains-taking
establishment throughout, although, perhaps, quite as convenient in its
arrangement as the other. The veranda may, however, be continued round
the two ends of the house, if required. A screen, or belt of
privet, or low evergreens may be planted in a circular form from the
front right-hand corner of the dwelling, to the corresponding corner of
the rear offices, enclosing a clothes drying yard, and cutting them off
from too sightly an exposure from the lawn in front. The opposite end of
the house, which may be termed its business front, may open to
the every-day approach to the house, and be treated as convenience may
determine.

For the tree decoration of this establishment, evergreens may
come in for a share of attraction. Their conical, tapering points will
correspond well with its general architecture, and add strikingly to its
effect; otherwise the remarks already given on the subject of park and
lawn plantation will suffice. As, however, in the position where this
establishment is supposed to
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be erected, land is plenty, ample area should be appropriated to its
convenience, and no pinched or parsimonious spirit should detract from
giving it the fullest effect in an allowance of ground. Nor need the
ground devoted to such purposes be at all lost, or unappropriated;
various uses can be made of it, yielding both pleasure and profit, to
which a future chapter will refer; and it is one of the chief pleasures
of retired residence to cultivate, in the right place, such incidental
objects of interest as tend to gratify, as well as to instruct, in
whatever appertains to the elevation of our thoughts, and the
improvement of our condition. All these, in their place, should be drawn
about our dwellings, to render them as agreeable and attractive as our
ingenuity and labor may command.

LAWNS, GROUNDS, PARKS, AND WOODS.

Having essayed to instruct our agricultural friends in the proper
modes of erecting their houses, and providing for their convenient
accommodation within them, a few remarks may be pardoned touching
such collateral subjects of embellishment as may be connected with the
farm residence in the way of plantations and grounds in their immediate
vicinity.

We are well aware that small farms do not permit any considerable
appropriation of ground to waste purposes, as such spots are
usually called which are occupied with wood, or the shade of open trees,
near the dwelling. But no dwelling can be complete in all its
appointments without trees in its immediate vicinity. This subject has
perhaps been sufficiently discussed in preceding chapters; yet, as a
closing course of remark upon what a farm house, greater or less in
extent, should be in the amount of shade given to it, a further
suggestion or two may be permitted. There are, in almost all places, in
the vicinity of the dwelling, portions of ground which can be
appropriated to forest trees without detriment to other economical uses,
if applied in the proper way. Any one who passes along
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a high road and discovers the farm house, seated on the margin or in the
immediate vicinity of a pleasant grove, is immediately struck with the
peculiarly rural and picturesque air which it presents, and thinks to
himself that he should love such a spot for his own home, without
reflecting that he might equally as well create one of the same
character. Sites already occupied, where different dispositions are made
of contiguous ground, may not admit of like advantages; and such are to
be continued in their present arrangement, with such course of
improvement as their circumstances will admit. But to such as are about
to select the sites of their future homes, it is important to
study what can best embellish them in the most effective shade and
ornament.

In the immediate vicinity of our large towns and cities it is seldom
possible to appropriate any considerable breadth of land to ornamental
purposes, excepting rough and unsightly waste ground, more or less
occupied with rock or swamp; or plainer tracts, so sterile as to be
comparatively worthless for cultivation. Such grounds, too, often lie
bare of wood, and require planting, and a course of years to cover them
with trees, even if the proprietor is willing, or desirous to devote
them to such purpose. Still, there are vast sections of our country
where to economize land is not important, and a mixed occupation of it
to both ornament and profit may be indulged to the extent of the owner’s
disposition. All over the United States there are grand and beautiful
sweeps and belts of cultivated country, interspersed with finely-wooded
tracts, which
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offer the most attractive sites for the erection of dwellings on the
farms which embrace them, and that require only the eye and hand of
taste to convert them, with slight labor, into the finest-wooded lawns
and forested parks imaginable. No country whatever produces finer trees than North
America. The evergreens of the north luxuriate in a grandeur scarcely
known elsewhere, and shoot their cones into the sky to an extent that
the stripling pines and firs, and larches of England in vain may strive
to imitate. The elm of New England towers up, and spreads out its
sweeping arms with a majesty unwonted in the ancient parks or forests of
Europe; while its maples, and birches, and beeches, and ashes, and oaks,
and the great white-armed buttonwood, make up a variety of intervening
growth, luxuriant in the extreme. Pass on through the Middle States, and
into the far west, and there they still flourish with additional
kinds—the tulip and poplar—the nut-trees, in all their wide
variety, with a host of others equally grand and imposing, interspersed;
and shrub-trees innumerable, are seen every where as they sweep along
your path. Beyond the Alleghanies, and south of the great lakes, are
vast natural parks, many of them enclosed, and dotted with herds of
cattle ranging over them, which will show single trees, and clumps of
forest that William the Conqueror would have given a whole fiefdom in
his Hampshire spoliations to possess; while, stretching away toward the
Gulf of Mexico, new varieties of tree are found, equally imposing,
grand, and beautiful, throughout the whole vast range, and in almost
every
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locality, susceptible of the finest possible appropriation to ornament
and use. Many a one of these noble forests, and open, natural parks have
been appropriated already to embellish the comfortable family
establishment which has been built either on its margin, or within it;
and thousands more are standing, as yet unimproved, but equally inviting
the future occupant to their ample protection.

The moral
influences, too, of lawns and parks around or in the vicinity of our
dwellings, are worthy of consideration. Secluded as many a country
dweller may be, away from the throng of society, there is a sympathy in
trees which invites our thoughts, and draws our presence among them with
unwonted interest, and in frequent cases, assist materially in stamping
the feelings and courses of our future lives—always with pure and
ennobling sentiments—

“The groves were God’s first temples.”

The thoughtful man, as he passes under their sheltering boughs, in
the heat of summer, with uncovered brow, silently worships the Hand that
formed them there, scarcely conscious that their presence thus elevates
his mind to holy aspirations. Among them, the speculative man

“Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones.”

Even children, born and educated among groves of trees, drink in
early impressions, which follow them for good all their days; and, when
the toils of their
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after life are passed, they love to return to these grateful coverts,
and spend their remaining days amid the tranquillity of their presence.
Men habituated to the wildest life, too, enjoy the woods, the hills, and
the mountains, beyond all the captivation and excitement of society, and
are nowhere at rest, but when in their communion.

The love of forest scenery is a thing to be cultivated as a high
accomplishment, in those whose early associations have not been among
them. Indeed, country life is tame, and intolerable, without a taste,
either natural or acquired, for fine landscape scenery; and in a land
like this, where the country gives occupation to so great a proportion
of its people, and a large share of those engaged in the active and
exciting pursuits of populous towns, sigh and look forward to its
enjoyment, every inducement should be offered to cultivate a taste for
those things which make one of its chief attractions. Nor should
seclusion from general society, and a residence apart from the bustling
activity of the world, present a bar to the due cultivation of the taste
in many subjects supposed to belong only to the throng of association.
It is one of the advantages of rural life, that it gives us time to
think; and the greatest minds of whose labors in the old world we have
had the benefit, and of later times, in our own land, have been reared
chiefly in the solitude of the country. Patrick Henry loved to range
among the woods, admiring the leafy magnificence of nature, and to
follow the meandering courses of the brooks, with his hook and line.
Washington,
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when treading the vast solitudes of central Virginia, with his
surveyor’s instruments on his back, conceived the wonderful resources of
the great empire of which he will ever be styled the “father.” The
dwelling of the late John C. Calhoun, sheltered by noble trees, stands
on an elevated swell of a grand range of mountain land, and it was there
that his prolific genius ripened for those burning displays of thought
which drew to him the affections of admiring thousands. Henry Clay
undoubtedly felt the germ of his future greatness while sauntering, in
his boyhood days, through the wild and picturesque slashes of Hanover.
Webster, born amid the rugged hills of New Hampshire, drew the
delightful relish of rural life, for which he is so celebrated, from the
landscapes which surrounded his early home, and laid the foundation of
his mighty intellect in the midst of lone and striking scenery. Bryant
could never have written his “Thanatopsis,” his “Rivulet,” and his
“Green River,” but from the inspiration drawn from his secluded youthful
home in the mountains of Massachusetts. Nor, to touch a more sacred
subject, could Jonathan Edwards ever have composed his masterly
“Treatise on the Will,” in a pent-up city; but owes his enduring fame to
the thought and leisure which he found, while ministering, among the
sublime mountains of the Housatonic, to a feeble tribe of Stockbridge
Indians.

And these random
names are but a few of those whose love of nature early imbibed, and
in later life enjoyed in their own calm and retired homes, amid the
serene beauty of woods and waters, which might
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be named, as illustrations of the influence which fine scenery may
exercise upon the mind, to assist in moulding it to greatness. The
following anecdote was told us many years ago, by a venerable man in
Connecticut, a friend of the elder Hillhouse, of New Haven, to whom
that city is much indebted for the magnificent trees by which it has
become renowned as “the City of the Elms:” While a member of the General
Assembly of that state, when Hillhouse was in Congress, learning that he
had just returned home from the annual session, our informant, with a
friend, went to the residence of the statesman, to pay him a visit. He
had returned only that morning, and on their way there, they met him
near his house, with a stout young tree on his shoulder, just taken from
a neighboring piece of forest, which he was about to transplant in the
place of one which had died during his absence. After the usual
salutations, our friend expressed his surprise that he was so soon
engaged in tree-planting, before he had even had time to look to his
private and more pressing affairs. “Another day may be too late,”
replied the senator; “my tree well planted, it will grow at its leisure,
and I can then look to my own concerns at my ease. So, gentlemen, if you
will just wait till the tree is set, we’ll walk into the house, and
settle the affairs of state in our own way.”

Walter Scott, whose deep love of park and forest scenery has stamped
with his masterly descriptions, his native land as the home of all
things beautiful and useful in trees and plantations, spent a great
share of his leisure time in planting, and has written a most
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instructive essay on its practice and benefits. He puts into the mouth
of “the Laird of Dumbiedikes,” the advice, “Be aye sticking in a tree,
Jock; it will be growing while you are sleeping.” But Walter Scott had
no American soil to plant his trees upon; nor do the grandest forest
parks of Scotland show a tithe of the luxuriance and majesty of our
American forests. Could he but have seen the variety, the symmetry, and
the vast size of our oaks, and elms, and evergreens, a new element
of descriptive power would have grown out of the admiration they had
created within him; and he would have envied a people the possession of
such exhaustless resources as we enjoy, to embellish their homes in the
best imaginable manner, with such enduring monuments of grace and
beauty.

To the miscellaneous, or casual reader, such course of remark may
appear merely sublimated nonsense. No matter; we are not upon stilts,
talking down to a class of inferior men, in a condescending tone,
on a subject above their comprehension; but we are addressing men, and
the sons of men, who are our equals—although, like ourself, upon
their farms, taking their share in its daily toils, as well as
pleasures—and can perfectly well understand our language, and
sympathize with our thoughts. They are the thoughts of rural life
everywhere. It was old
Sam Johnson, the great lexicographer, who lumbered his unwieldy gait
through the streets of cities for a whole life, and with all his vast
learning and wisdom, had no appreciation of the charms of the country,
that said, “Who feeds fat cattle should himself be fat;” as if the
dweller on
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the farm should not possess an idea above the brutes around him. We
wonder if he ever supposed a merchant should have any more brain than
the parcel that he handled, or the bale which he rolled, or directed
others to roll for him! But, loving the solitude of the farm, and
finding a thousand objects of interest and beauty scattered in
profusion, where those educated among artificial objects would see
nothing beyond things, to them, vulgar and common-place, in conversing
with our rural friends upon what concerns their daily comfort, and is to
constitute the nursery of those who succeed them, and on the influences
which may, in a degree, stamp their future character, we cannot forbear
such suggestions, connected with the family Home, as may induce them to
cultivate all those accessories around it, which may add to their
pleasure and contentment. We believe it was Keats, who said,

“A thing of Beauty is a joy for ever.”

And the thought that such “beauty” has been of our own creation, or
that our own hands have assisted in its perpetuation, should certainly
be a deep “joy” of our life.

We have remarked, that the farm house is the chief nursery on which
our broad country must rely for that healthy infusion of stamina and
spirit into those men who, under our institutions, guide its destiny and
direct its councils. They, in the great majority of their numbers, are
natives of the retired homestead. It is, therefore, of high consequence,
that good taste, intelligence, and correct judgment, should enter into
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all that surrounds the birth-place, and early scenes of those who are to
be the future actors in the prominent walks of life, either in public or
private capacity; and as the love of trees is one of the leading
elements of enjoyment amid the outward scenes of country-life, we
commend most heartily all who dwell in the pure air and bright sunshine
of the open land to their study and cultivation.

Every man who lives in the country, be he a practical farmer or not,
should plant trees, more or less. The father of a family should
plant, for the benefit of his children, as well as for his own. The
bachelor and the childless man should plant, if for nothing more than to
show that he has left some living thing to perpetuate his memory.
Boys should early be made planters. None but those who love trees, and
plant them, know the serene pleasure of watching their growth, and
anticipating their future beauty and grandeur; and no one can so
exquisitely enjoy their grateful shade, as he whose hand has planted and
cared for them. Planting, too, is a most agreeable pastime to a
reflecting mind. It may be ranked among the pleasures, instead of the
toils of life. We have always so found it. There is no pleasanter sight
of labor than to see a father, with his young lads about him, planting a
tree. It becomes a landmark of their industry and good taste; and no
thinking man passes a plantation of fine trees but inwardly blesses the
man, or the memory of the man who placed them there.

Aside from all this, trees properly distributed, give a value to an
estate far beyond the cost of planting,
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and tending their growth, and which no other equal amount of labor and
expense upon it can confer. Innumerable farms and places have been sold
at high prices, over those of perhaps greater producing value, merely
for the trees which embellished them. Thus, in a pecuniary light, to say
nothing of the pleasure and luxury they confer, trees are a source of
profitable investment.

It is a happy feature in the improving rural character of our
country, that tree-planting and tree preservation for some years past
have attracted much more attention than formerly; and with this
attention a better taste is prevailing in their selection. We have
gained but little in the introduction of many of the foreign trees among
us, for ornament. Some of them are absolutely barbarous in comparison
with our American forest trees, and their cultivation is only a
demonstration of the utter want of good taste in those who apply
them.

For ordinary purposes, but few exotics should be tolerated; and those
chiefly in collections, as curiosities, or for arboretums—in which
latter the farmer cannot often indulge; and for all the main purposes of
shade, and use, and ornament, the trees of no country can equal our
own.

Varied as our country is, in soils and climates, no particular
directions can be given as to the individual varieties of tree which are
to be preferred for planting. Each locality has its own most appropriate
kinds, and he who is to plant, can best make the selections most fitted
to his use. Rapid-growing trees, when of fine symmetry, and free from
bad habits in throwing up
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suckers; not liable to the attacks of insects; of early, dense, and
long-continued foliage, are most to be commended; while their opposites
in character should be avoided in all well-kept grounds. It requires,
indeed, but a little thought and observation to guide every one in the
selection which he should make, to produce the best effect of which the
tree itself is capable.

Giving the importance we have, to trees, and their planting, it may
be supposed that we should discuss their position in the grounds to
which they should be appropriated. But no specific directions can be
given at large. All this branch of the subject must be left to the
locality, position, and surface of the ground sought to be improved.
A good tree can scarcely stand in a wrong place, when not injurious
to a building by its too dense shade, or shutting out its light, or
prospect. Still, the proper disposition of trees is a study, and
should be well considered before they be planted. Bald, unsightly spots
should be covered by them, when not devoted to more useful objects of
the farm, either in pasturage or cultivation. A partial shading of
the soil by trees may add to its value for grazing purposes, like the
woodland pastures of Kentucky, where subject to extreme droughts, or a
scorching sun.

If the planter feels disposed to consult authorities, as to the best
disposition of his trees, works on Landscape Gardening may be studied;
but these can give only general hints, and the only true course is to
strive to make his grounds look as much like nature herself as
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possible—for nature seldom makes mistakes in her designs. To
conclude a course of remark, which the plain farmer, cultivating his
land for its yearly profit alone, may consider as foreign to the subject
of our work, we would not recommend any one to plant trees who is not
willing to spend the necessary time to nurse and tend them afterward,
till they are out of harm’s way, and well established in a vigorous
growth. All this must be taken into the account, for it is better to
have even but a few trees, and those what trees should be, than a whole
forest of stinted things, writhing and pining through a course of sickly
existence.

A chapter might also be written upon the proper mode of taking up and
planting trees, but as this would lead us to a subject more directly
belonging to another department, the proper authorities on that head
must be consulted.

FRUIT GARDEN—ORCHARDS.

As the fruit garden and orchards are usually near appendages to the
dwelling and out-buildings, a few remarks as to their locality and
distribution may be appropriate. The first should always be near
the house, both for convenience in gathering its fruits, and for its due
protection from the encroachments of those not entitled to its
treasures. It should, if possible, adjoin the kitchen garden, for
convenience of access; as fruit is, or should be, an important item in
the daily consumption of every family where it can be grown and
afforded. A sheltered spot, if to be had, should be devoted to this
object; or if not, its margin, on the exposed side, should be set with
the hardiest trees to which it is appropriated—as the apple. The
fruit garden, proper, may also contain the smaller fruits, as they are
termed, as the currant, gooseberry, raspberry, and whatever other
shrub-fruits are grown; while the quince, the peach, the apricot,
nectarine, plum, cherry, pear, and apple may, in the order they are
named, stand in succession behind them, the taller and more hardy growth
of each successive variety rising higher, and protecting its less hardy
and aspiring neighbor. The soil for all these varieties of tree is
supposed to be
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congenial, and our remarks will only be directed to their proper
distribution.

The aspect for the fruit garden should, if possible, front the south,
south-east, or south-west, in a northerly climate. In the Middle and
Southern States the exposure is of less consequence. Currants,
gooseberries, raspberries, &c., should, for their most productive
bearing, and the highest quality of their fruits, be set at least four
feet apart, in the rows, and the rows six feet distant from each other,
that there may be abundant room to cultivate them with the plow, and
kept clean of weeds and grass. The quince, peach, apricot, nectarine,
and plum should be 16 feet apart each way. The pear, if on quince stock,
may be 12 feet apart, and if on its own stock, 20 to 24 feet;
while the apple should always be 30 to 36 feet apart, to let in the
requisite degree of sun and air to ripen as well as give growth, color,
and flavor to its fruit. The tendency of almost all planters of fruit
trees is to set them too close, and many otherwise fine fruit gardens
are utterly ruined by the compact manner in which they are planted.
Trees are great consumers of the atmosphere; every leaf is a lung,
inhaling and respiring the gases, and if sufficient breathing room be
not allowed them, the tree sickens, and pines for the want of it;
therefore, every fruit tree, and fruit-bearing shrub should be so placed
that the summer sun can shine on every part of its surface at some hour
of the day. In such position, the fruit will reach its maximum of
flavor, size, and perfection.

The ground, too, should be rich; and, to have the
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greatest benefit of the soil, no crops should be grown among the trees,
after they have arrived at their full maturity of bearing. Thus planted,
and nursed, with good selections of varieties, both the fruit garden and
the orchard become one of the most ornamental, as well as most
profitable portions of the farm.

In point of position, as affecting the appearance of the homestead,
the fruit garden should stand on the weather-side of the
dwelling, so as, although protected, in its several varieties, by
itself, when not altogether sheltered by some superior natural barrier,
it should appear to shelter both the dwelling and kitchen gardens, which
adjoin them.

As this is a subject intended to be but incidentally touched in these
pages, and only then as immediately connected in its general character
with the dwelling house and its attachments, we refrain from going into
any particulars of detail concerning it. It is also a subject to which
we are strongly attached, and gladly would we have a set chat with our
readers upon it; but as the discussion for so broad a field as we should
have to survey, would be in many points arbitrary, and unfitting to
local information as to varieties, and particular cultivation, we refer
the reader, with great pleasure, to the several treatises of Downing,
and Thomas, and Barry, on this interesting topic, with which the public
are fortunately in possession; observing, only, that there is no one
item of rural economy to which our attention can be given, which yields
more of luxury, health, and true enjoyment, both to the body and the
mind, than the cultivation of good fruits.

HOW TO LAY OUT A KITCHEN GARDEN.

The kitchen garden yields more necessaries and comforts to the
family, than any other piece of ground on the premises. It is, of
consequence, necessary that it be so located and planned as to be ready
of access, and yield the greatest possible quantity of products for the
labor bestowed upon it; and as locality and plan have much to do with
the labor bestowed upon it and the productions it may yield, both these
subjects should be considered.

As to locality, the kitchen garden should lie in the warmest
and most sheltered spot which may be convenient to the
kitchen of the house. It should, in connection with that, be
convenient of access to the dung-yards of the stables. The size may be
such as your necessities or your convenience may demand. The shape,
either a parallelogram or a square; for it will be recollected, that
this is a place allotted, not for a show or pleasure
ground, but for profit. If the garden be large, this shape will
better allow the use of the plow to turn up the soil, which, in a large
garden, is a much cheaper, and, when properly done, a better mode
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than to spade it; and if small, and it be worked with the spade,
right lines are easier made with the spade than curved ones. One
or more walks, at least eight feet wide, should be made, leading from a
broad gate, or bars, through which a cart and horse, or oxen, may enter,
to draw in manure, or carry out the vegetables; and if such walk, or
walks, do not extend around the garden, which, if in a large one, they
should do, a sufficient area should be thrown out at the farther
extremity, to turn the cart upon. If the soil be free, and stony, the
stones should be taken out clean, when large—and if small,
down to the size of a hen’s egg—and the surface made as level as
possible, for a loose soil will need no draining. If the soil be a clay,
or clayey loam, it should be underdrained two and a half feet, to be
perfect, and the draining so planned as to lead off to a lower spot
outside. This draining warms the soil, opens it for filtration,
and makes it friable. Then, properly fenced, thoroughly manured, and
plowed deep, and left rough—no matter how rough—in the fall
of the year, and as late before the setting in of winter as you dare
risk it, that part of the preparation is accomplished.

The permanent or wide walks of the garden, after being laid
out and graded, should never be plowed nor disturbed, except by the hoe
and rake, to keep down the weeds and grass; yet, if a close, and
well-shorn grass turf be kept upon them, it is perhaps the cheapest and
most cleanly way of keeping the walks. They need only cutting off close
with the hand-hook, in summer.

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We have known a great many people, after laying out a kitchen garden,
and preparing it for use, fill it up with fruit trees, supposing that
vegetables will grow quite as well with them as without. This is a wide
mistake. No tree larger than a currant or gooseberry bush should ever
stand in a vegetable garden. These fruits being partially used in
the cooking department, as much in the way of vegetables, as of fruits,
and small in size, may be permitted; and they, contrary to the usual
practice, should always stand in open ground, where they can have
all the benefits of the sun and rain to ripen the fruit to perfection,
as well as to receive the cultivation they need, instead of being placed
under fences around the sides of the garden, where they are too
frequently neglected, and become the resort of vermin, or make prolific
harbors for weeds.

Along the main walks, or alleys, the borders for perennial plants, as
well as the currant and gooseberry bushes, should be made—for the
plow should run parallel to, and not at right angles with them. Here may
stand the rhubarbs, the sea kales, the various herbs, or even the
asparagus beds, if a particular quarter be not set apart for them; and,
if it be important, a portion of these main borders may be
appropriated to the more common flowers and small shrubbery, if desired
to cultivate them in a plain way; but not a peach, apricot, or any other
larger tree than a currant or raspberry, should come within it. They not
only shade the small plants, but suck up and rob them of their food and
moisture, and keep off the sun, and prevent the circulation of
air—than which nothing needs all
200
these more than garden vegetables, to have them in high perfection. If
it be necessary, by means of a cold exposure on the one side, to have a
close plantation of shrubbery to screen the garden, let it be
outside the fence, rather than within it; but if within, let
there be a broad walk between such shrubbery and the garden beds,
as their roots will extend under the vegetables, and rob them of their
food.

A walk, alley, or cartway, on the sides of the garden, is always
better next to the fence, than to fill that space with anything
else, as it is usually shaded for a portion of the day, and may be
better afforded for such waste purposes than the open, sunny
ground within.

It will be observed that market gardeners, men who always
strive to make the most profit from their land and labor, and obtain the
best vegetables, cultivate them in open fields. Not a tree, nor
even a bush is permitted to stand near the growing crop, if they can
prevent it; and where one is not stinted in the area of his domain,
their example should be followed.

A word upon plowing gardens. Clays, or clayey loams, should
always be manured and plowed in the fall, just before the setting in of
the winter frosts. A world of pounding and hammering of lumps, to
make them fine, in spring, is saved by fall plowing, besides
incorporating the manure more thoroughly with the soil, as well as
freezing out and destroying the eggs of worms and insects which infest
it. Thrown up deeply and roughly with the plow or spade, the frosts act
mechanically upon the soil, and slack and pulverise it so thoroughly
that a heavy raking in early spring, is
201
all that becomes necessary to put it in the finest condition for seeds,
and make it perhaps the very best and most productive of all garden
soils whatever. A light sandy loam is better to lie compact in
winter, and manured and turned up in early spring. Its friable nature
leaves it always open and light, and at all times in the absence of
frost, accessible to the spade or the hoe. On these accounts, it is
usually the most desirable and convenient soil for the kitchen garden,
and on the whole, generally preferred where either kind may be a matter
simply of choice.

FLOWERS.

Start not, gentle reader! We are not about to inflict upon you a
dissertation on Pelargoniums, Calla-Ethiopias, Japonicas, and such like
unmentionable terms, that bring to your mind the green-house, and
forcing-house, and all the train of expense and vexation attending them;
but we desire to have a short familiar conversation about what is all
around you, or if not around you, should be, and kept there, with very
little pains or labor on your part. Still, if you dislike the subject,
just hand this part of our book over to your excellent wife, or
daughters, or sisters, as the case may be, and we will talk to them
about this matter.

Flowers have their objects, and were made for our use and pleasure;
otherwise, God would never have strewed them, as he has, so bountifully
along our paths, and filled the world with their fragrance and beauty.
Like all else beautiful, which He made, and pronounced “good,” flowers
have been objects of admiration and love since man’s creation; and their
cultivation has ever been a type of civilization and refinement among
all people who have left written
203
records behind them. Flowers equally become the cottage and the palace,
in their decoration. The humblest cottager, and the mightiest monarch,
have equally admired their beauty and their odor; and the whole train of
mortals between, have devoted a portion of their time and thoughts to
the development of their peculiar properties.

But let that pass.
Plain country people as we are, there are enough of sufficient variety
all around us, to engage our attention, and give us all that we desire
to embellish our homes, and engage the time which we have to devote to
them. Among the wild flowers, in the mountains and hills of the farthest
North, on the margin of their hidden brooks, where

“Floats the scarce-rooted watercress;”

and on their barren sides, the tiny violet and the laurel bloom, each
in their season, with unwonted beauty; and, sloping down on to the
plains beneath, blush out in all their summer garniture, the wild rose
and the honeysuckle. On, through the Middle States, the lesser flowers
of early spring throw out a thousand brilliant dyes, and are surrounded
by a host of summer plants, vieing with each other in the exuberance of
their tints. On the Alleghanies, through all their vast range, grow up
the magnificent dogwood, kalmia, and rhododendron, spangling mile upon
mile of their huge sides and tops with white, and covering crags and
precipices of untold space with their blushing splendor. Further west,
on the prairies, and oak openings, and in the deep woods, too, of the
great lakes,
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and of the Mississippi valley, with the earliest grass, shoot up, all
over the land, a succession of flowers, which in variety and
profusion of shape, and color, and odor, outvie all the lilies of the
gardens of Solomon; and so they continue till the autumnal frosts cut
down both grass and flower alike. Further south, along the piney coast,
back through the hills and over the vast reach of cotton and sugar
lands, another class of flowers burst out from their natural coverts in
equal glory; and the magnolia, and the tulip-tree, and the wild orange
throw a perfume along the air, like the odors of Palestine. In the deep
lagoons of the southern rivers, too, float immense water-lilies, laying
their great broad leaves, and expanded white and yellow flowers, upon
the surface, which the waters of the Nile in the days of Cleopatra never
equaled. And these are nature’s wild productions only.

Flowers being
cultivated, not for profit, but for show and amusement, need not
intrude upon the time which is required to the more important labors of
the farm. A little time, given at such hours when it can be best
spared, will set all the little flower-beds in order, and keep the
required shrubbery of the place in trim—and should not be denied
in any family who enjoy a taste for them. Even the simplest of their
kind, when carefully disposed, produce a fine effect; and the hardy
bulbous, and tuberous-rooted plants require but slight aid in producing
the highest perfection of their bloom; while the fibrous-rooted perennials,
and the flowering shrubs, bloom on from year to year, almost uncared for
and untouched.

205
The annuals require the most attention. Their seeds must be planted and
gathered every year; they must be weeded and nursed with more care than
the others; yet they richly repay all this trouble in their fresh bloom
when the others are gone, and will carry their rich flowers far into the
frosts of autumn, when their hardier companions have composed themselves
for a winter’s rest.

The position of the flower-bed, or borders, may be various. As a
matter of taste, however, they should be near the house, and in view of
the windows of the most frequented rooms. They thus give more enjoyment
in their sight, than when but occasionally seen in special visits; and
such spots can usually be set apart for them. If not in the way of more
important things, they should always be thus placed, where they are ever
objects of interest and attraction.

The ground which flowering plants occupy should be devoted to them
alone, and the soil be made deep and rich. They should not be huddled
up, nor crowded, but stand well apart, and have plenty of breathing-room
for their branches and leaves, and space for the spread of their roots.
They are consumers of the fertilizing gases, and require, equally with
other plants, their due supply of manures—which also adds to the
brilliance and size of their bloom, as well as to the growth of their
stems. Their roots should be protected in winter by coarse litter thrown
over them, particularly the earlier flowering plants, as it gives them
an early and rapid start in the spring.

In variety, we need scarcely recommend what may
206
be most desirable. The crocus, and snowdrop are among (if not quite) the
earliest in bloom; and to these follow the hyacinth, and daffodil, the
jonquil, and many-varied family of Narcissus, the low-headed
hearts-ease, or pansy; with them, too, comes the flowering-almond, the
lilac, and another or two flowering shrubs. Then follow the tulips, in
all their gorgeous and splendid variety of single, double, and fringed.
To these follow the great peonies, in their full, dashing colors of
crimson, white and pink, and the tree-like snow-ball, or guelder-rose.
By the side of these hangs out the monthly-trumpet-honeysuckle, gracing
the columns of your veranda, porch, or window, and the large Siberian
honeysuckle, with its white and pink flowers; and along with them, the
various Iris family, or fleur-de-lis, reminding one of France and the
Bourbons, the Prussian lilac, and the early phloxes. Then blush out, in
all their endless variety of shade and tint, from the purest white to
the deepest purple, the whole vast family of roses; and in stature, from
the humblest twig that leans its frail stem upon the ground, up to the
hardy climber, whose delicious clusters hang over your chamber window;
and a month of fragrance and beauty of these completes the succession of
bulbs, and tubers, and perennial plants and shrubs—scores of which
have not been noticed.

Now commence the annuals, which may carry you a month further into
the season, when the flaunting dahlia of every hue, and budding from its
plant of every size, from the height of little Tommy, who is just
toddling out with his mother to watch the first
207
opening flower, up to the top of his father’s hat, as he stands quite
six feet, to hold the little fellow up to try to smell of another,
which, like all the rest, has no sign of odor. Then come, after a long
retinue of different things—among which we always count the
morning-glory, or convolvulus, running up the kitchen windows,—the
great sun-flower, which throws his broad disk high over the garden
fence, always cheerful, and always glowing—the brilliant tribe of
asters, rich, varied, and beautiful, running far into the autumnal
frosts; and, to close our floral season, the chrysanthemum, which, well
cared-for, blooms out in the open air, and, carefully taken up and
boxed, will stay with us, in the house, till Christmas. Thus ends the
blooming year. Now, if you would enjoy a pleasure perfectly pure, which
has no alloy, save an occasional disappointment by casualty, and make
home interesting beyond all other places, learn first to love, then to
get, and next to cultivate flowers.

FARM COTTAGES.

Altogether too little attention has been paid in our country to these
most useful appendages to the farm, both in their construction and
appearance. Nothing adds more to the feeling of comfort, convenience,
and home expression in the farm, than the snug-built laborers’
cottage upon it. The cottage also gives the farm an air of
respectability and dignity. The laborer should, if not so sumptuously,
be as comfortably housed and sheltered as his employer. This is quite as
much to the interest of such employer as it is beneficial to the health
and happiness of the laborer. Building is so cheap in America, that the
difference in cost between a snugly-finished cottage, and a rickety,
open tenement, is hardly to be taken into consideration, as compared
with the higher health, and increased enjoyment of the laborer and his
family; while every considerate employer knows that cheerfulness and
contentment of disposition, which are perhaps more promoted by good home
accommodations for the workingman than by any other influence, are
strong incentives to increased labor on his part, and more fidelity in
its application.

209
A landed estate, of whatever extent, with its respectable farm house, in
its own expressive style of construction, relieved and set off by its
attendant cottages, either contiguous, or remote, and built in their
proper character, leaves nothing wanting to fill the picture upon which
one loves to gaze in the contemplation of country life; and without
these last in due keeping with the chief structures of the estate,
a blank is left in its completeness and finish. The little
embellishments which may be given, by way of architectural arrangement,
or the conveniences in accommodation, are, in almost all cases,
appreciated by those who occupy them, and have an influence upon their
character and conduct; while the trifling decorations which may be added
in the way of shrubbery, trees, and flowering plants, costing little or
nothing in their planting and keeping, give a charm to the humblest
abode.

The position of cottages on a farm should be controlled by
considerations of convenience to the place of labor, and a proper
economy in their construction; and hardly a site can be inappropriate
which ensures these requirements. In the plans which are submitted, due
attention has been paid to the comfort of those who inhabit them, as
well as to picturesque effect in the cottage itself. Decency, order, and
respectability are thus given to the estate, and to those who inhabit
the cottages upon it, as well as to those whose more fortunate position
in life has given the enjoyment of a higher luxury in the occupancy of
its chief mansion.

210
On all estates where the principal dwelling is located at any
considerable distance from the public road, or where approached by a
side road shut off from the highway by a gate, a small cottage, by
way of lodge, or laborer’s tenement, should be located at or near the
entrance. Such appendage is not only ornamental in itself, but gives
character to the place, and security to the enclosure; in guarding it
from improper intrusion, as well as to receive and conduct into the
premises those who either reside upon, or have business within it. It is
thus a sort of sentry-box, as well as a laborer’s residence.

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ELEVATION

COTTAGE Pages 211-212.

Design I.

This cottage is 10 feet high, from the sill to the plates, and may be
built of wood, with a slight frame composed of sills and plates only,
and planked up and down (vertically) and battened; or grooved and
tongued, and matched close together; or it may be framed throughout with
posts and studs, and covered with rough boards, and over these
clapboards, and lathed and plastered inside. The first mode would be the
cheapest, although not so warm and durable as the other, yet quite
comfortable when warmed by a stove. On the second plan of building, it
will cost near or quite double the amount of the first, if neatly
painted. A small brick chimney should rest upon the floor overhead,
in the side of which, at least a foot above the chamber floor, should be
inserted an earthen or iron thimble, to receive the stovepipe and guard
against fire; unless a flat stone, 14 to 16 inches square, and 2 to
4 inches thick, with a pipe-hole—which is the better
plan—should rest on the floor immediately over the pipe. This
stone should be, also, the foundation of the chimney, which should pass
immediately up through the ridge of the roof, and, for effect, in the
center longitudinally, of the house. Such position
214
will not interfere with the location of the stove, which may be placed
in any part of the room, the pipe reaching the chimney by one or more
elbows.

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

PLAN

The main body of this cottage is 18×12 feet, with a lean-to,
8 feet wide, running its whole length in rear. This lean-to may be
8 or 9 inches lower, on the floor, than the main room, and divided into
a passage, (leading to an open wood-house in rear, 10×12 feet, with a
shed roof,) a large closet, and a bedroom, as may be required; or,
the passage end may be left open at the side, for a wood shelter, or
other useful purpose. The roof, which is raftered, boarded, and shingled
in the usual mode, is well spread over the gables, as well as over the
front and rear—say 18 inches. The porch in front will give
additional convenience in summer, as a place to sit, or eat under, and
its posts so fitted with grooves as to let in rough planks for winter
enclosure in front and at one end, leaving the entrance only, at the
least windy, or stormy side. The extra cost of such preparation, with
the planks, which should be 1¼ or 1½ inches thick, and jointed, would
not exceed ten or fifteen dollars. This would make an admirable
wood-house for the winter, and a perfect snuggery for a small family.
While in its summer dress, with the porch opened—the planks taken
out and laid overhead, across the beams connecting the porch with the
house—it would present an object of quiet comfort and beauty.
A hop vine or honeysuckle
215
might be trained outside the posts, and give it all the shade
required.

In a stony country, where the adjoining enclosures are of stone, this
cottage may be built of stone, also, at about double the cost of wood.
This would save the expense of paint, or wash of any kind, besides the
greater character of durability and substance it would add to the
establishment. Trees, of course, should shelter it; and any little
out-buildings that may be required should be nestled under a screen of
vines and shrubbery near by.

This being designed as the humblest and cheapest kind of cottage,
where the family occupy only a single room, the cost would be small. On
the plan first named, stained with a coarse wash, it could be built for
$100. On the second plan, well-framed of sills, plates, posts, studs,
&c. &c., covered with vertical boarding and battens, or
clapboarded, and well painted in oil, it might cost $150 to $200. Stone,
or brick, without paint, would add but little, if anything in cost over
the last sum. The ceiling of the main floor is 8 feet high, and a
low chamber or garret is afforded above it, into which a swing-step
ladder ascends; and when not in use, it may be hung to the ceiling
overhead by a common hook and staples.

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ELEVATION

COTTAGE Pages 217-218.

Design II.

This cottage is a grade beyond the one just described, both in
appearance and accommodation. It is 20×16 feet on the ground, with a
rear wing 26×8 feet in area. The main body is 10 feet high, to the
roof, vertically boarded and battened. A snug, half-open (or it may
be closed, as convenience may require,) porch shelters the front door,
5×4 feet in area. The cottage has a square or hipped roof, of a 30°
pitch from a horizontal line, which spreads full two feet over the walls
and bracketed beneath. The rear wing retreats two feet from the wall
line of the main building, and has also a hipped roof of the same pitch
as the main one, with eight-feet posts. The open end of the wing
advances 6 feet toward the front of the main part for wood-house
and storage. The construction of this is in the same style as Design I.
The windows are plain, two-sashed, of six lights each, 8×12 glass in
front, and 8×10 in the rear.

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

PLAN

The front door opens into a common living room, 16×12 feet, with two
windows, in which is a stove-chimney running up from the main floor next
the partition, or placed over it in the chamber, and running
219
up through the center of the roof. On one side of the living room is a
bedroom, 10×8 feet, with two windows. Next to this bedroom is a large
closet, 8×6 feet, with one window, and shelves, and tight cupboard
within. These rooms are 9 feet high, and over them is a chamber, or
garret, 20×16 feet, entered by a swing step ladder, as in Design No. I.
This garret is lighted by a small dormer window in the rear roof, over
the shed or lean-to. A bed may be located in this chamber, or it
may serve as a storage and lumber-room.

The wing contains a small kitchen, in case the living room be not
occupied for that purpose, 10×8 feet, lighted by a side-window, and
having a small chimney in the rear wall. It may contain, also,
a small closet, 3 feet square. A door passes from this
small kitchen into the wood-house, which is 16×8 feet, or with its
advance L, 14 feet, in the extreme outer corner of which is a
water-closet, 5×3 feet; thus, altogether, giving accommodation to a
family of five or six persons.

The construction of this cottage is shown as of wood. Other material,
either brick or stone, may be used, as most convenient, at a not much
increased cost. The expense of this building may be, say fifty per cent.
higher than that of No. I, according to the finish, and may be
sufficiently well done and painted complete for $300; which may be
reduced or increased, according to the style of finish and the taste of
the builder.

A cellar may be made under this cottage, which can be reached by a
trap-door from the living room, opening to a flight of steps below.

(221)
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ELEVATION

COTTAGE Pages 221-222.

Design III.

This cottage is still in advance of No. II, in style and arrangement,
and may accommodate not only the farm laborer or gardener, but will
serve for a small farmer himself, or a village mechanic. It is in the
French style of roof, and allied to the Italian in its brackets, and
gables, and half-terraced front. The body of the cottage is 22×20 feet,
with twelve-feet posts; the roof has a pitch of 50° from a horizontal
line, in its straight dimensions, curving horizontally toward the eaves,
which, together with the gables, project 3 feet over the walls. The
terrace in front is 5 feet wide. On the rear is a wood-house, 18×16
feet in area, open at the house end, and in front, with a roof in same
style as the main house, and posts, 8 feet high, standing on the
ground, 2 feet below the surface of the cellar wall, which supports
the main building.

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

PLAN

The front door opens, in the center of the front wall, into a hall,
12×8 feet, with a flight of stairs on one side, leading to the chamber
above; under the stairs, at the upper end, is a passage leading beneath
them into the cellar. On one side of this hall is a bedroom
223
8×10 feet, lighted by a window in front, and part of the hooded double
window on the side. On the inner side, a door leads from the hall
into the living room or kitchen, 18×12 feet. On one side of this is a
bedroom, or pantry, as may be most desirable, 9×6 feet, from which leads
a close closet, 3 feet square. This bedroom has a window on one
side, next the hall. A door from the kitchen leads into a closet,
3 feet wide, which may contain a sink, and cupboard for kitchen
wares. The living room is lighted by a part of the double hooded window
on one side, and another on the rear. A door leads into the
wood-house, which is 12×16 feet, in the extreme corner of which is the
water-closet, 5×3 feet. The rooms in this cottage are 9 feet high.
A chimney leads up from the floor of the living room, which may
receive, in addition to its own fireplace, or stove, a pipe from
the stove in the hall, if one is placed there.

The chamber has two feet of perpendicular wall, and the sharp roof
gives opportunity for two good lodging rooms, which may be partitioned
off as convenience may require, each lighted by a window in the gables,
and a dormer one in the roof, for the passage leading into them.

The hall may serve as a pleasant sitting or dining-room, in pleasant
weather, opening, as it does, on to the terrace, which is mostly
sheltered by the overhanging roof.

The construction of this cottage may be of either stone, brick, or
wood, and produce a fine effect. Although it has neither porch, nor
veranda, the broad
224
eaves and gables give it a well-sheltered appearance, and the hooded
windows on the sides throw an air of protection over them, quite
agreeable to the eye. The framing of this roof is no way different, in
the rafters, from those made on straight lines, but the curve and
projection is given by planks cut into proper shape, and spiked into the
rafters, and apparently supported by the brackets below, which should be
cut from two to three-inch plank, to give them a heavy and substantial
appearance. The windows are in casement form, as shown in the design,
but may be changed into the ordinary sash form, if preferred, which is,
in this country, usually the better way. It will be observed, that we
have in all cases adopted the usual square-sided form of glass for
windows, as altogether more convenient and economical in building,
simple in repairing, and, we think, quite as agreeable in appearance, as
those out-of-the-way shapes frequently adopted to give a more
picturesque effect.

In a hilly, mountainous, and evergreen country, this style of cottage
is peculiarly appropriate. It takes additional character from bold and
picturesque scenery, with which it is in harmony. The pine, spruce,
cedar, or hemlock, or the evergreen laurel, planted around or near it,
will give it increased effect, while among deciduous trees and shrubs,
an occasional Lombardy poplar, and larch, will harmonize with the
boldness of its outline. Even where hill or mountain scenery is wanting,
plantations such as have been named, would render it a pleasing style of
cottage, and give agreeable effect to its bold, sharp roof and
projecting eaves.

225
In a snowy country, the plan of roof here presented is well adapted to
the shedding of heavy snows, on which it can find no protracted
lodgment. Where massive stone walls enclose the estate, this style of
cottage will be in character, as comporting with that strong and solid
air which the rustic appearance of stone alone can give. It may, too,
receive the same amount of outer decoration, in its shrubbery and
plantations, given to any other style of building of like accommodation,
and with an equally agreeable effect.

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ELEVATION

COTTAGE Pages 227-228.

Design IV.

This cottage is still in advance of the last, in its accommodation,
and is suitable for the small farmer, or the more liberal cottager, who
requires wider room, and ampler conveniences than are allowed by the
hitherto described structures. It is a first class dwelling, of its
kind, and, in its details and finish, may be adapted to a variety of
occupation, while it will afford a sufficient amount of expenditure to
gratify a liberal outlay, to him who chooses to indulge his taste in a
moderate extent of decoration and embellishment.

The ground plan of this cottage is 30×22 feet, in light rural-Gothic
style, one and a half stories high, the posts 14 feet in elevation.
It has two chimneys, passing out through the roof on each side of the
ridge, uniformly, each with the other. The roof has a pitch of 45° from
a horizontal line, giving it a bold and rather dashing appearance, and
deeply sheltering the walls. The side gables give variety to the roof,
and light to the chambers, and add to the finish of its appearance;
while the sharp arched double window in the front gable adds character
to the design.

The deep veranda in front covers three-quarters of its surface in
length, and in the symmetry of its roof, and airiness of its columns,
with their light braces,
229
give it a style of completeness; and if creeping vines or climbing
shrubs be trained upon them, will produce an effect altogether rural and
beautiful.

Or, if a rustic style of finish be adopted, to render it cheaper in
construction, the effect may still be imposing, and in harmony with the
purposes to which it is designed. In fact, this model will admit of a
variety of choice in finish, from the plainest to a high degree of
embellishment, as the ability or fancy of the builder may suggest.

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

PLAN

From the veranda in the center of the front, a door opens into a
hall, 17×7 feet, with a flight of stairs leading, in three different
angles, to the chambers above. Opposite the front door is the passage
into the living room, or parlor, 17×15 feet, lighted by three windows,
two of which present an agreeable view of an adjacent stream and its
opposite shores. At the line of partition from the hall, stands a
chimney, with a fireplace, if desirable, or for a stove, to accommodate
both this room and the hall with a like convenience; and under the
flight of stairs adjoining opens a china closet, with spacious shelves,
for the safe-keeping of household comforts. From this room, a door
leads into a bedroom, 10×13 feet, lighted by a window opening into the
veranda, also accommodated by a stove, which leads into a chimney at its
inner partition. Next to this bedroom is the kitchen, 12×13 feet,
accommodated with a chimney, where may be inserted an open fireplace, or
a stove, as required. In this is a flight of
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back chamber and cellar stairs. This room is lighted by two
windows—one in the side, another in the rear. A door leads
from its rear into a large, roomy pantry, 8 feet square, situated
in the wing, and lighted by a window. Next to this is a passage,
3 feet in width, leading to the wood-house, (in which the pantry
just named is included,) 16×12 feet, with nine-feet posts, and roof
pitched like the house, in the extreme corner of which is a
water-closet, 5×3 feet. Cornering upon the wood-house beyond, is a small
building, 15×12 feet, with ten-feet posts, and a roof in same style as
the others—with convenience for a cow and a pig, with each a
separate entrance. A flight of stairs leads to the hay-loft above
the stables, in the gable of which is the hay-door; and under the stairs
is the granary; and to these may be added, inside, a small
accommodation for a choice stock of poultry.

The chamber plan is the same as the lower floor, mainly, giving three
good sleeping-rooms; that over the kitchen, being a back chamber,
need not have a separate passage into the upper hall, but may have a
door passage into the principal chamber. The door to the front bedroom
leads direct from the upper hall. Thus, accommodation is given to quite
a numerous family. Closets may be placed in each of these chambers, if
wanted; and the entire establishment made a most snug and compact, as
well as commodious arrangement.

COTTAGE OUTSIDE DECORATION.

Nothing so perfectly sets off a cottage, in external appearance, as
the presence of plants and shrubbery around it. A large tree or
two, by giving an air of protection, is always in place; and creeping
vines, and climbing shrubs about the windows and porch, are in true
character; while a few low-headed trees, of various kinds, together with
some simple and hardy annual and other flowers—to which should
always be added, near by, a small, well-tended kitchen
garden—fill up the picture.

In the choice of what varieties should compose these ornaments, one
can hardly be at a loss. Flanking the cottage, and near the kitchen
garden, should be the fruit trees. The elm, maples, oak, and hickory, in
all their varieties, black-walnut, butternut—the last all the
better for its rich kernel—are every one appropriate for shade, as
large trees. The hop, morning-glory, running beans—all
useful and ornamental as summer climbers; the clematis, bitter-sweet,
ivy, any of the climbing roses; the lilac, syringa, snow-ball,
and the standard roses; while marigolds, asters, pinks,
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the phloxes, peonies, and a few other of the thousand-and-one simple and
charming annuals, biennials, and perennials, with now and then a
gorgeous sunflower, flaunting in its broad glory, will fill up the
catalogue. Rare and costly plants are not required, and indeed, are
hardly in place in the grounds of an ordinary cottage, unless occupied
by the professional gardener. They denote expense, which the laboring
cottager cannot afford; and besides that, they detract from the
simplicity of the life and purpose which not only the cottage itself,
but everything around it, should express.

There is an affectation of cottage building, with some people
who, with a seeming humility,
really aim at higher flights of style in
living within them, than truth of either design or purpose will admit.
But as such cases are more among villagers, and those temporarily
retiring from the city for summer residence, the farm cottage has little
to do with it. Still, such fancies are contagious, and we have
occasionally seen the ambitious cottage, with its covert expression of
humility, insinuating itself on to the farm, and for the farmer’s own
family occupation, too, which at once spoiled, to the eye, the
substantial reality of the whole establishment. A farmer
should discard all such things as ornamental cottages. They do
not belong to the farm. If he live in a cottage himself, it should be a
plain one; yet it may be very substantial and well
finished—something showing that he means either to be content in
it, in its character of plainness, or that he intends, at a future day,
to build something better—when this may serve for the habitation
of one of his laborers.

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The cottage should
never occupy a principal, or prominent site on the farm. It should
take a subordinate position of ground. This adds to its expression as
subordinate in rank, among the lesser farm buildings. A cottage
cannot, and should not aspire to be chief in either position or
character. Such should be the farm house proper; although unpretending,
still, in style, above the cottage; and if the latter, in addition, be
required on the farm, it should so appear, both in construction and
finish; just what it is intended for—a tenement for economical
purposes.

There is another kind of cottage, the dwellers in which, these pages
will probably never reach, that expresses, in its wild structure, and
rude locality, the idea of Moore’s pretty song—

“I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled
Above the green elms, that a cottage was near.”

Yet, in some parts of our country, landlords may build such, for the
accommodation of tenants, which they may make useful on the outskirts of
their estates, and add indirectly to their own convenience and interest
in so doing. This may be indulged in, poetically too—for
almost any thinking man has a spice of poetry in his
composition—vagabondism, a strict, economizing utilitarian
would call it. The name matters not. One may as well indulge his taste
in this cheap sort of charitable expenditure, as another may indulge, in
his dogs, and guns, his horses and equipages—and the first is far
the cheapest. They, at the west and south, understand this, whose
recreations are occasionally
234
with their hounds, in chase of the deer, and the fox, and in their
pursuit spend weeks of the fall and winter months, in which they are
accompanied, and assisted, as boon companions for the time, by the rude
tenants of the cottages we have described:

“A cheerful, simple, honest people.”

Another class of cottage may come within the farm enclosures, half
poetical, and half economical, such as Milton describes:

“Hard by a cottage chimney smokes,
From betwixt two aged oaks;”

and occupied by a family pensioner and his infirm old wife—we
don’t think all “poor old folks” ought to go to the alms-house,
because they cannot work every day of the year—of which all
long-settled families of good estate have, now and then, one near to, or
upon their premises. Thousands of kind and liberal hearts among our
farming and planting brethren, whose impulses are—

“Open as the day to melting charity,”

are familiar with the wants of those who are thus made their
dependents; and in their accommodation, an eye may be kept to the
producing of an agreeable effect in locating their habitations, and to
rudely embellish, rather than to mar the domain on which they may be
lodged.

In short, cottage architecture, in its proper character, may be made
as effective, in all the ornament which it should give to the farm, as
that of any other structure;
235
and if those who have occasion for the cottage will only be content to
build and maintain it as it should be, and leave off that perpetual
aspiration after something unnatural, and foreign to its purpose, which
so many cottage builders of the day attempt, and let it stand in its own
humble, secluded character, they will save themselves a world of
trouble, and pass for—what they now do not—men possessing a
taste for truth and propriety in their endeavors.

HOUSE AND COTTAGE FURNITURE.

This is a subject so thoroughly discussed in the books, of late, that
anything which may here be said, would avail but little, inasmuch as our
opinions might be looked upon as “old-fashioned,” “out of date,” and “of
no account whatever,”—for wonderfully modern notions in
room-furnishing have crept into the farm house, as well as into town
houses. Indeed, we confess to altogether ancient opinions in regard to
household furniture, and contend, that, with a few exceptions, “modern
degeneracy” has reached the utmost stretch of absurdity, in
house-furnishing, to which the ingenuity of man can arrive. Fashions in
furniture change about as often as the cut of a lady’s dress, or the
shape of her bonnet, and pretty much from the same source,
236
too—the fancy shops of Paré, once, in good old English, Paris, the
capital city of France. A farmer, rich or poor, may spend half his
annual income, every year of his life, in taking down old, and putting
up new furniture, and be kept uncomfortable all the time; when, if he
will, after a quiet, good-tempered talk with his better-half, agree with
her upon the list of necessary articles to make them really
comfortable; and then a catalogue of what shall comprise the
luxurious part of their furnishings, which, when provided, they
will fixedly make up their mind to keep, and be content with, they will
remain entirely free from one great source of “the ills which flesh is
heir to.”

It is pleasant to see a young couple setting out in their
housekeeping life, well provided with convenient and properly-selected
furniture, appropriate to all the uses of the family; and then to keep,
and use it, and enjoy it, like contented, sensible people; adding to it,
now and then, as its wear, or the increasing wants of their family may
require. Old, familiar things, to which we have long been accustomed,
and habituated, make up a round share of our actual enjoyment.
A family addicted to constant change in their household furniture,
attached to nothing, content with nothing, and looking with anxiety to
the next change of fashion which shall introduce something new
into the house, can take no sort of comfort, let their circumstances be
ever so affluent. It is a kind of dissipation in which some otherwise
worthy people are prone to indulge, but altogether pernicious in the
indulgence. It detracts, also, from the apparent respectability of a
family
237
to find nothing old about them—as if they themselves were
of yesterday, and newly dusted out of a modern shop-keeper’s stock in
trade. The furniture of a house ought to look as though the family
within it once had a grandfather—and as if old things had some
veneration from those who had long enjoyed their service.

We are not about to dictate, of what fashion household furniture
should be, when selected, any further than that of a plain, substantial,
and commodious fashion, and that it should comport, so far as those
requirements in it will admit, with the approved modes of the day. But
we are free to say, that in these times the extreme of absurdity, and
unfitness for use, is more the fashion than anything else. What
so useless as the modern French chairs, standing on legs like
pipe-stems, garote-ing your back like a rheumatism, and frail as
the legs of a spider beneath you, as you sit in it; and a tribe of
equally worthless incumbrances, which absorb your money in their cost,
and detract from your comfort, instead of adding to it, when you have
got them; or a bedstead so high that you must have a ladder to climb
into it, or so low as to scarcely keep you above the level of the floor,
when lying on it. No; give us the substantial, the easy, the free, and
enjoyable articles, and the rest may go to tickle the fancy of those who
have a taste for them. Nor do these flashy furnishings add to one’s rank
in society, or to the good opinion of those whose consideration is most
valuable. Look into the houses of those people who are the really
substantial, and worthy of the land. There will be found little of such
frippery with them.
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Old furniture, well-preserved, useful in everything, mark the
well-ordered arrangement of their rooms, and give an air of quietude, of
comfort, and of hospitality to their apartments. Children cling to such
objects in after life, as heir-looms of affection and parental
regard.

Although we decline to give specific directions about what varieties
of furniture should constitute the furnishings of a house, or to
illustrate its style or fashion by drawings, and content ourself with
the single remark, that it should, in all cases, be strong, plain, and
durable—no sham, nor ostentation about it—and such as is
made for use: mere trinkets stuck about the room, on center
tables, in corners, or on the mantel-piece, are the foolishest things
imaginable. They are costly; they require a world of care, to keep them
in condition; and then, with all this care, they are good for nothing,
in any sensible use. We have frequently been into a country house, where
we anticipated better things, and, on being introduced into the
“parlor,” actually found everything in the furniture line so dainty and
“prinked up,” that we were afraid to sit down on the frail things stuck
around by way of seats, for fear of breaking them; and everything about
it looked so gingerly and inhospitable, that we felt an absolute relief
when we could fairly get out of it, and take a place by the wide old
fireplace, in the common living room, comfortably ensconced in a good
old easy, high-backed, split-bottomed chair—there was positive
comfort in that, when in the “parlor” there was nothing but restraint
and discomfort. No; leave all this vanity to town-folk, who have
nothing better—or
239
who, at least, think they have—to amuse themselves with; it has no
fitness for a country dwelling, whatever. All this kind of frippery
smacks of the boarding school, the pirouette, and the dancing master,
and is out of character for the farm, or the sensible retirement of the
country.

In connection with the subject of furniture, a remark may be
made on the room arrangement of the house, which might, perhaps,
have been more fittingly made when discussing that subject, in the
designs of our houses. Some people have a marvellous propensity for
introducing into their houses a suite of rooms, connected by wide
folding-doors, which must always be opened into each other, furnished
just alike, and devoted to extraordinary occasions; thus absolutely
sinking the best rooms in the house, for display half a dozen times in
the year, and at the sacrifice of the every-day comfort of the family.
This is nothing but a bastard taste, of the most worthless kind,
introduced from the city—the propriety of which, for city life,
need not here be discussed. The presence of such arrangement, in a
country house, is fatal to everything like domestic enjoyment, and
always followed by great expense and inconvenience. No room, in any
house, should be too good for occupation by the family
themselves—not every-day, and common-place—but occupation at
any and all times, when convenience or pleasure demand it. If a large
room be required, let the single room itself be large; not sacrifice an
extra room to the occasional extension of the choicer one, as in the use
of folding-doors must be done. This “parlor”
240
may be better furnished—and so it should be—than any other
room in the house. Its carpet should be not too good to tread, or stand
upon, or for the children to roll and tumble upon, provided their shoes
and clothes be clean. Let the happy little fellows roll and tumble on
it, to their heart’s content, when their mother or elder sisters are
with them—for it may be, perhaps, the most joyous, and most
innocent pleasure of their lives, poor things! The hearth-rug should be
in keeping with the carpet, also, and no floor-cloth should be necessary
to cover it, for fear of soiling; but everything free and easy, with a
comfortable, inviting, hospitable look about it.

Go into the houses of our great men—such as live in the
country—whom God made great, not money—and see how
they live. We speak not of statesmen and politicians alone, but
great merchants, great scholars, great divines, great mechanics, and all
men who, in mind and attainments, are head and shoulder above their
class in any of the walks of life, and you find no starch, or flummery
about them. We once went out to the country house—he lived there
all the time, for that matter—of a distinguished banker of one of
our great cities, to dine, and spend the day with him. He had a small
farm attached to his dwelling, where he kept his horses and cows, his
pigs, and his poultry. He had a large, plain two-story cottage house,
with a piazza running on three sides of it, from which a beautiful view
of the neighboring city, and water, and land, was seen in nearly all
directions. He was an educated man. His father had been a statesman of
241
distinguished ability and station at home, and a diplomatist abroad, and
himself educated in the highest circles of business, and of society. His
wife, too, was the daughter of a distinguished city merchant, quite his
equal in all the accomplishments of life. His own wealth was competent;
he was the manager of millions of the wealth of others; and his station
in society was of the highest. Yet, with all this claim to pretension,
his house did not cost him eight thousand dollars—and he built it
by “days-work,” too, so as to have it faithfully done; and the furniture
in it, aside from library, paintings, and statuary, never cost him three
thousand. Every room in it was a plain one, not more highly finished
than many a farmer’s house can afford. The furniture of every kind was
plain, saving, perhaps, the old family plate, and such as he had added
to it, which was all substantial, and made for use. The younger
children—and of these, younger and older, he had several—we
found happy, healthy, cheerful, and frolicking on the carpets; and their
worthy mother, in the plainest, yet altogether appropriate garb, was
sitting among them, at her family sewing, and kindly welcomed us as we
took our seats in front of the open, glowing fireplace. “Why, sir,” we
exclaimed, rubbing our hands in the comfortable glow of warmth which the
fire had given—for it was a cold December day—”you are quite
plain, as well as wonderfully comfortable, in your country
house—quite different from your former city residence!” “To be
sure we are,” was the reply; “we stood it as long as we could, amid the
starch and the gimcracks of ——
242
street, where we rarely had a day to ourselves, and the children could
never go into the streets but they must be tagged and tasselled,
in their dress, into all sorts of discomfort, merely for the sake of
appearance. So, after standing it as long as we could, my wife and I
determined we would try the country, for a while, and see what we could
make of it. We kept our town-house, into which we returned for a winter
or two; but gave it up for a permanent residence here, with which we are
perfectly content. We see here all the friends we want to see; we all
enjoy ourselves, and the children are healthy and happy.” And this is
but a specimen of thousands of families in the enjoyment of country
life, including the families of men in the highest station, and
possessed of sufficient wealth.

Why, then, should the farmer ape the fashion, and the frivolity of
the butterflies of town life, or permit his family to do it? It is the
sheerest possible folly in him to do so. Yet, it is a folly into which
many are imperceptibly gliding, and which, if not reformed, will
ultimately lead to great discomfort to themselves, and ruin to their
families. Let thoughtless people do as they choose. Pay no attention to
their extravagance; but watch them for a dozen years, and see how they
come out in their fashionable career; and observe the fate of their
families, as they get “established” in the like kind of life. He who
keeps aloof from such temptation, will then have no cause to regret that
he has maintained his own steady course of living, and taught his sons
and daughters that a due attention to their own comfort, with economical
habits in everything
243
relating to housekeeping, will be to their lasting benefit in
future.

But, we have said enough to convey the ideas in house-furnishing we
would wish to impart; and the reader will do as he, or she, no doubt,
would have done, had we not written a word about it—go and select
such as may strike their own fancy.

We received, a day or two since, a letter from a person at
the west, entirely unknown to us, whose ideas so entirely correspond
with our own, that we give it a place, as showing that a proper taste
does prevail among many people in this country, in regard to
buildings, and house-furnishings; and which we trust he will pardon us
for publishing, as according entirely with our own views, in
conclusion:

——, ——, Ill.,
Dec. 18, 1851.

Dear Sir,—I received, a few
days since, a copy of the first number of a periodical called the
“Plough,” into which is copied the elevation of a design for a farm
house, purporting to be from a forthcoming work of yours, entitled
“Rural Architecture.” Although a perfect stranger to you, you will
perhaps allow me to make one or two suggestions.

I have seen no work yet, which seems fully to meet the wants of our
country people in the matter of furniture. After having built their
houses, they need showing how to furnish them in the cheapest, most
neat, comfortable, convenient, and substantial manner. The furniture
should be designed for use, not merely for show. I would have it
plain, but not coarse—just
244
enough for the utmost convenience, but nothing superfluous. The articles
of furniture figured, and partially described in the late works on those
subjects, are mostly of too elaborate and expensive a cast to be
generally introduced into our country houses. There is too much
nabobery about them to meet the wants, or suit the taste of the
plain American farmer.

As to out-houses—the barn, stable, carriage and wagon-house,
tool-house, piggery, poultry-house, corn-crib, and granary, (to say nothing of
the “rabbit-warren” and “dovecote,”)—are necessary appendages of
the farm house. Now, as cheapness is one great desideratum with nearly
all our new beginners in this western region, it seems to me, that such
plans as will conveniently include the greatest number of these under
the same roof, will be best suited to their necessities. I do not
mean to be understood that, for the sake of the first cost, we should
pay no regard to the appearance, or that we should slight our work, or
suffer it to be constructed of flimsy or perishable materials: we should
not only have an eye to taste and durability, but put in practice the
most strict economy.

I hope, in the above matters, you may be able to furnish something
better suited to the necessities and means of our plain farmers, than
has been done by any of your predecessors.

I remain, &c., most respectfully yours,

——, ——.

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Having completed the series of Designs for dwelling houses, which we had
proposed for this work, and followed them out with such remarks as were
thought fitting to attend them, we now pass on to the second part of our
subject: the out-buildings of the farm, in which are to be accommodated
the domestic animals which make up a large item of its economy and
management; together with other buildings which are necessary to
complete its requirements. We trust that they will be found to be such
as the occasion, and the wants of the farmer may demand; and in economy,
accommodation, and extent, be serviceable to those for whose benefit
they are designed.

(249)

APIARY.

GROUND PLAN.

AN APIARY, OR BEE-HOUSE.

Every farmer should keep bees—provided he have pasturage for
them, on his own land, or if a proper range for their food and stores
lie in his immediate vicinity. Bees are, beyond any other domestic
stock, economical in their keeping, to their owners. Still they
require care, and that of no inconsiderable kind, and skill, in their
management, not understood by every one who attempts to rear them. They
ask no food, they require no assistance, in gathering their daily
stores, beyond that of proper housing in the cheapest description of
tenement, and with that they are entirely content. Yet, without these,
they are a contingent, and sometimes a troublesome appendage to the
domestic stock of the farm.

We call them domestic. In one sense they are so; in another,
they are as wild and untamed as when buzzing and collecting their sweets
in the vineyard of Timnath, where the mighty Sampson took their honey
from the carcass of the dead lion; or, as when John the Baptist, clothed
with camel’s hair, ate “locusts and wild honey” in the arid wastes of
Palestine. Although kept in partial bondage for six thousand years, the
ruling propensity of the bee is to seek a
247
home and shelter in the forest, when it emerges in a swarm from the
parent hive; and no amount of domestic accommodation, or kindness of
treatment, will induce it willingly to migrate from its nursery
habitation to another by its side, although provided with the choicest
comforts to invite its entrance. It will soon fly to the woods, enter a
hollow and dilapidated tree, and carve out for itself its future
fortunes, amid a world of labor and apparent discomfort. The bee, too,
barring its industry, patience, and sweetened labors, is an arrant
thief—robbing its nearest neighbors, with impunity, when the
strongest, and mercilessly slaughtering its weaker brethren, when
standing in the way of its rapacity. It has been extolled for its
ingenuity, its patience, its industry, its perseverance, and its virtue.
Patience, industry, and perseverance it has, beyond a doubt, and in a
wonderful degree; but ingenuity, and virtue, it has none, more than the
spider, who spins his worthless web, or the wasp, who stings you when
disturbing his labors. Instinct, the bee has, like all animals; but of
kind feeling, and gratitude, it has nothing; and with all our vivid
nursery remembrance of good Doctor Watts’ charming little
hymn—

“How doth the little busy bee,” &c. &c.,

we have long ago set it down as incorrigible to kind treatment, or
charitable sympathy, and looked upon it simply as a thing to be treated
kindly for the sake of its labors, and as composing one of that
delightful family of domestic objects which make our homes attractive,
pleasant, and profitable.

248
The active labors of the bee, in a bright May or June morning, as they
fly, in their busy order, back and forth from their hives, or the
soothing hum of their playful hours, in a summer’s afternoon, are among
the most delightful associations of rural life; and as a luxury to the
sight, and the ear, they should be associated with every farmer’s home,
and with every laborer’s cottage, when practicable. And as their due
accommodation is to be the object of our present writing, a plan is
presented for that object.

In many of the modern structures held out for imitation, the
bee-house, or apiary, is an expensive, pretentious affair, got up in an
ambitious way, with efforts at style, in the semblance of a temple,
a pagoda, or other absurdity, the very appearance of which
frightens the simple bee from its propriety, and in which we never yet
knew a colony of them to become, and remain successful. The insect is,
as we have observed, wild and untamable—a savage in its habits,
and rude in its temper. It rejects all cultivated appearances, and seeks
only its own temporary convenience, together with comfortable room for
its stores, and the increase of its kind; and therefore, the more rustic
and simple its habitation, the better is it pleased with its
position.

The bee-house should front upon a sheltered and sunny aspect. It
should be near the ground, in a clean and quiet spot, free from the
intrusion of other creatures, either human or profane, and undisturbed
by noisome smells, and uncouth sounds—for it loathes all these
instinctively, and loves nothing so much as the wild beauty of nature
itself. The plan here presented
250
is of the plainest and least expensive kind. Nine posts, or crutches,
are set into the ground sufficiently deep to hold them firm, and to
secure them from heaving out by the frost. The distance of these posts
apart may be according to the size of the building, and to give it
strength enough to resist the action of the wind. The front posts should
be 9 feet high, above the ground; the rear posts should be
7 feet—that a man, with his hat on, may stand upright under
them—and 6 feet from the front line. The two end posts
directly in the rear of the front corner posts, should be 3 feet
back from them, and on a line to accommodate the pitch of the roof from
the front to the rear. A light plate is to be fitted on the top
line of the front posts; a plate at each end should run back to the
posts in rear, and then another cross-plate, or girt, from each one of
these middle posts, to the post in rear of all, to meet the plate which
surmounts this rear line of posts; and a parallel plate, or rafter,
should be laid from the two intermediate posts at the ends, to connect
them, and for a central support to the roof. Intermediate central posts
should also be placed opposite those in front, to support the central
plate, and not exceeding 12 feet apart. A shed roof, of
boards, or shingles, tightly laid, should cover the whole, sufficiently
projecting over the front, rear, and sides, to give the house abundant
shelter, and make it architecturally agreeable to the eye—say 12
to 18 inches, according to its extent. A corner board should drop
two feet below the plate, with such finish, by way of ornament, as may
be desirable. The ends should be tightly boarded up against
251
the weather, from bottom to top. The rear should also be tightly
boarded, from the bottom up to a level with the stand inside, for the
hives, and from 15 to 18 inches above that to the roof. Fitted into the
space thus left in the rear, should be a light, though substantial,
swing door, hung from the upper boarding, made in sections, extending
from one post to the other, as the size of the house may determine, and
secured with hooks, or buttons, as may be convenient. The outside of the
structure is thus completed.

The inside arrangement for the hives, may be made in two different
ways, as the choice of the apiarian may govern in the mode in which his
hives are secured. The most usual is the stand method, which may
be made thus: At each angle, equidistant, say 18 to 24 inches, inside,
from the rear side and ends of the building—as shown in the ground
plan—and opposite to each rear and end post, suspend
perpendicularly a line of stout pieces of two-inch plank, 4 inches
wide, well spiked on to the rafters above, reaching down within two feet
of the ground—which is to hold up the bottom of the stand on which
the hives are to rest. From each bottom end of these suspended strips,
secure another piece of like thickness and width, horizontally back to
the post in rear of it, at the side and ends. Then, lengthwise the
building, and turning the angles at the ends, and resting on these
horizontal pieces just described, lay other strips, 3×2 inches, set
edgewise—one in front, and another in rear, inside each post and
suspended strip, and close to it, and secured by heavy nails, so that
there shall be a double line of these
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strips on a level, extending entirely around the interior, from the
front at each end. This forms the hanging frame-work for the planks or
boards on which the hives are to rest.

Now for the hives. First, let as many pieces of sound one and a half,
or two-inch plank as you have hives to set upon them, be cut long enough
to reach from the boarding on the rear and ends of the building, to one
inch beyond, and projecting over the front of the outer strip last
described. Let these pieces of plank be well and smoothly planed, and
laid lengthwise across the aforesaid strips, not less than four inches
apart from each other—if a less number of hives be in the building
than it will accommodate at four inches apart, no matter how far apart
they may be—these pieces of plank are the ferms for the
hives, on which they are to sit. And, as we have for many years adopted
the plan now described, with entire success, a brief description is
given of our mode of hive, and the process for obtaining the surplus
honey. We say surplus, for destroying the bees to obtain their honey, is
a mode not at all according to our notions of economy, or mercy; and we
prefer to take that honey only which the swarm may make, after supplying
their own wants, and the stores for their increasing family. This
process is given in the report of a committee of gentlemen appointed by
the New York State Agricultural Society, on a hive which we exhibited on
that occasion, with the following note attached, at their show at
Buffalo, in 1848:

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“I have seen, examined, and
used several different plans of patent hive, of which there
are probably thirty invented, and used, more or less. I have found
all which I have ever seen, unsatisfactory, not carrying out in full,
the benefits claimed for them.

“The bee works, and lives, I believe, solely by instinct. I do
not consider it an inventive, or very ingenious insect. To succeed well,
its accommodations should be of the simplest and securest
form. Therefore, instead of adopting the complicated plans of many of
the patent hives, I have made, and used a simple box, like that now
before you, containing a cube of one foot square
inside—made of one and a quarter inch sound pine plank,
well jointed and planed on all sides, and put together perfectly tight
at the joints, with white lead ground in oil, and the inside of the hive
at the bottom champered off to three-eighths of an inch thick, with a
door for the bees in front, of four inches long by three-eighths of an
inch high. I do this, that there may be a thin surface to come in
contact with the shelf on which they rest, thus preventing a harbor for
the bee-moth. (I have never used a patent hive which would exclude the
bee-moth, nor any one which would so well do it as this, having never
been troubled with that scourge since I used this tight hive.) On the
top of the hive, an inch or two from the front, is made a passage for
the bees, of an inch wide, and six to eight inches long, to admit the
bees into an upper hive for surplus honey, (which passage is covered,
when no vessel for that purpose is on the top.) For obtaining the honey,
I use a common ten or twelve-quart water
254
pail, inverted, with the bail turned over, in which the bees deposit
their surplus, like the sample before you. The pail will hold about
twenty pounds of honey. This is simple, cheap, and expeditious; the pail
costing not exceeding twenty-five cents, is taken off in a moment, the
bail replaced, and the honey ready for transportation, or market, and
always in place. If there is time for more honey to be made, (my
bees made two pails-full in succession this year,) another pail can be
put on at once.

“Such, gentlemen, in short, is my method. I have kept bees about
twenty years. I succeed better on this plan than with any other.”

In addition to this, our hives are painted white, or other light
color, on the outside, to protect them from warping, and as a further
security against the bee-moth, or miller, which infests and destroys so
many carelessly-made hives, as to discourage the efforts of equally
careless people in keeping them. Inside the hive, on each end, we
fasten, by shingle nails, about half-way between the bottom and top,
a small piece of half-inch board, about the size of a common window
button,
and with a like notch in it, set upward, but
stationary, on which, when the hive is to receive the swarm,
a stick is laid across, to support the comb as
it is built, from falling in hot weather. At such time, also, when
new, and used for the first time, the under-side of the top is scratched
with the tines of a table fork, or a nail, so as to make a rough
surface, to which the new comb can be fastened. In addition to the pails
255
on the top of the hives, to receive the surplus honey, we sometimes use
a flat box, the size of the hive in diameter, and six or seven inches
high inside, which will hold twenty-five to thirty pounds of
honey. The pails we adopted as an article of greater convenience for
transporting the honey.

The other plan of arranging the hives alluded to, is suspending them
between the strips before described, by means of cleats secured
on to the front and rear sides of the hive, say two-thirds the way up
from the bottom. In such case, the strips running lengthwise the house
must be brought near enough together to receive the hives as hung by the
cleats, and the bottom boards, or forms, must be much smaller
than those already described, and hung with wire hooks and staples to
the sides, with a button on the rear, to close up, or let them down a
sufficient distance to admit the air to pass freely across them, and up
into the hive—Weeks’ plan, in fact, for which he has a patent,
together with some other fancied improvements, such as chambers to
receive the boxes for the deposit of surplus honey. This, by the way, is
the best “patent” we have seen; and Mr. Weeks having written an
ingenious and excellent treatise on the treatment of the bee, we freely
recommend his book to the attention of every apiarian who wishes to
succeed in their management. As a rule, we have no confidence in
patent hives. We have seen scores of them, of different kinds,
have tried several of great pretension to sundry virtues—such as
excluding moths, and other marvelous benefits—and, after becoming
the victim of bee
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empirics to the tune of many a dollar, have thrown aside the gimcracks,
and taken again to a common-sense method of keeping our bees, as here
described. The bees themselves, we feel bound to say, seem to hold these
patent-right habitations in quite as sovereign contempt as ourself,
reluctantly going into them, and getting out of them at the first safe
opportunity. But, as a treatise on bee-keeping is not a part of this
present work, we must, for further information, commend the inquirer on
that subject to some of the valuable treatises extant, on so prolific a
subject, among which we name those of Bevan, Weeks, and Miner.

The bee-house should be thoroughly whitewashed inside every
spring, and kept clean of cobwebs, wasp’s nests, and vermin; and it may
be painted outside, a soft and agreeable color, in keeping with the
other buildings of the farm. Its premises should be clean, and sweet.
The grass around should be kept mowed close. Low trees, or shrubbery,
should stand within a few yards of it, that the new swarms may light
upon them when coming out, and not, for want of such settling places, be
liable to loss from flying away. It should, also, be within sight and
hearing, and at no great distance from a continually-frequented room in
the dwelling—perhaps the kitchen, if convenient, that, in their
swarming season, they may be secured as they leave the parent hive. The
apiary is a beautiful object, with its busy tenantry; and to the
invalid, or one who loves to look upon God’s tiny creatures, it may
while away many an agreeable
257
hour, in watching their labors—thus adding pleasure to profit.

The cost of a bee-house, on the plan given, may be from ten to fifty
dollars, according to the price of material, and the amount of labor
expended upon it. It should not be an expensive structure, in any event,
as its purpose does not warrant it. If a gimcrack affair be wanted, for
the purposes of ornament, or expense, any sum of money may be squandered
upon it which the fancy of its builder may choose to spare.

(260)

ICE-HOUSE.

GROUND PLAN.

AN ICE-HOUSE.

Among the useful and convenient appendages to the farm and country
family establishment, is the ice-house. Different from the general
opinion which prevailed in our country before ice became so important an
article of commerce, and of home consumption, the building which
contains it should stand above-ground, instead of below it. And the
plainer and more simple it can be constructed, the better.

The position of the ice-house may be that which is most convenient to
the dwelling, or to the wants of those who use it. If it can be placed
beneath the shade of trees, it will so far be relieved from the
influence of the sun; but it should be so constructed that sunshine will
not affect the ice within it, even if it stand unsheltered; and as it
has, by the ice-merchants of our eastern cities, who put up large
quantities for exportation abroad, and others in the interior, who
furnish ice in quantity for home consumption, been proved to be
altogether the better plan to build the ice-house entirely above ground,
we shall present no other mode of construction than this. It may be
added, that five years’ experience with one of our own
259
building, has confirmed our opinion of the superiority of this over any
other plan which may be adopted.

The design here presented is of the most economical kind, yet
sufficiently ornamental to make it an agreeable appendage to any family
establishment. The size may be 12 feet square—less than that
would be too small for keeping ice well—and from that up to any
required extent. The idea here given is simply the principle of
construction. The posts should be full eight feet high above the ground,
to where the plate of the roof is attached, and built thus:

Mark out your ground the size you require for the house; then,
commencing at one corner, dig, opposite each other, a double set of
holes, one foot deep, and two and a half feet apart, on each side of the
intended building, say three feet equidistant, so that when the posts
stand up they will present a double set, one and a half feet apart. Then
set in your posts, which should be of oak, chestnut, or some lasting
wood, and pack the earth firmly around them. If the posts are sawed,
they may be 4×6 inches in size, set edgeways toward each other. If not
sawed, they may be round sticks cut from the woods, or split from the
body of a tree, quartered—but sizable, so as to appear
decent—and the insides facing each other as they stand up, lined
to a surface to receive the planking. Of course, when the posts are set
in the ground, they are to show a square form, or skeleton of what the
building is to be when completed. When this is done, square off the top
of each post to a level, all round; then frame, or spike on to each line
of posts a plate, say six inches
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wide, and four to six inches deep, and stay the two plates together
strongly, so as to form a double frame. Now, plank, or board up closely
the inside of each line of posts, that the space between them
shall be a fair surface. Cut out, or leave out a space for a door in the
center of the side where you want it, two and a half or three feet wide,
and six and a half feet high, and board up the inner partition sides of
this opening, so as to form a door-casing on each side, that the space
between the two lines of posts may be a continuous box all around. Then
fill up this space between the posts with moist tan-bark, or saw-dust,
well packed from the ground up to the plates; and the body of the house
is inclosed, sun-proof, and air-proof, to guard the ice.

Now lay down, inside the building, some sticks—not much matter
what, so that they be level—and on them lay loose planks or
boards, for a floor. Cover this floor with a coating of straw,
a foot thick, and it is ready to receive the ice.

For the roof, take common 3×4 joists, as rafters; or, in place of
them, poles from the woods, long enough, in a pitch of full 35° from a
horizontal line, to carry the roof at least four feet over the outside
of the plates, and secure the rafters well, by pins or spikes, to them.
Then board over and shingle it, leaving a small aperture at the top,
through which run a small pipe, say eight inches in diameter—a
stove-crock will do—for a ventilator. Then set in, 4 little
posts, say two feet high—as in the design—throw a little
four-sided, pointed cap on to the top of these posts, and the roof is
done. If you want to ornament the under side of
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the roof, in a rude way—and we would advise it—take some
pieces of 3×4 scantling, such as were used for the roof, if the posts
are of sawed stuff—if not, rough limbs of trees from the woods, to
match the rough posts of the same kind, and fasten them to the posts and
the under side of the roof, by way of brackets, as shown in the
design.

When the ice is put into the house, a close floor of boards
should be laid on joists, which rest on the plates, loosely, so that
this floor can be removed when putting in ice, and that covered five or
six inches deep with tan, or saw-dust—straw will do, if the other
can not be had—and the inside arrangement is complete. Two doors
should be attached to the opening, where the ice is put in and taken
out; one on the inner side of the lining, and the other on the outer
side, both opening out. Tan, saw-dust, or straw should also be placed on
the top of the ice, when put in, so as to keep the air from it as much
as possible; and as the ice is removed, it will settle down upon, and
still preserve it. Care must be taken to have a drain under the floor of
the house, to pass off the water which melts from the ice, as it would,
if standing there, injure its keeping.

It will be seen, that, by an error in the cut of the ground plan, the
inside line of posts does not show, as in the outer line, which they
should do; nor is the outside door inserted, as is shown in the
elevation. These defects, however, will be rectified by the builder.

We have given considerable thought to this subject, and can devise no
shape to the building more appropriate than this, nor one cheaper in
construction. It
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may be built for fifty to a hundred dollars, according to the cost of
material and labor, and the degree of finish given to it.

It is hardly worth while to expatiate upon the convenience and
economy of an ice-house, to an American. Those who love well-kept meats,
fruits, butter, milk, and various etceteras for the table, understand
its utility well; to say nothing of the cooling draughts, in the way of
drinks, in hot weather, to which it adds—when not taken to
extremes—such positive luxury. We commend the ice-house,
well-filled, most heartily, to every good country housekeeper, as
a matter of convenience, economy, and luxury, adding next to nothing to
the living expenses, and, as an appendage to the main buildings, an item
of little cost, and a considerable degree of ornament.

If an under-ground ice-house be preferred to the plan here shown,
a side hill, or bank, with a northerly exposure, is the best
location for it; and the manner of building should be mainly like this,
for the body of the house. The roof, however, should be only two-sided,
and the door for putting in and taking out the ice may be in the gable,
on the ground level. The drainage under the floor, and precautions for
keeping the ice, should be quite as thorough as we have described; as,
otherwise, the earth surrounding it on three sides, at least, of the
house, will be a ready conductor of warmth, and melt the ice with great
rapidity. If the under-ground plan is adopted, but little more than the
roof will show, and of course, be of little ornament in the way of
appearance.

(265)

ASH HOUSE AND SMOKE HOUSE.

THE ASH-HOUSE AND SMOKE-HOUSE.

These two objects may, both for convenience and economy, be well
combined under one roof; and we have thus placed them in connection. The
building is an exceedingly simple structure, made of stone, or brick;
the body 10 feet high, and of such size as may be desirable, with a
simple roof, and a plain, hooded chimney.

GROUND PLAN.

In the ground plan will be seen a brick, or stone
partition—which may extend to such height as may be necessary to
contain the bulk of ashes required for storage within it—on one
side of the building, to which a door gives access. The opposite side,
and overhead, is devoted to the smoke-house, in which the various girts
and hooks may be placed, for sustaining the meats to be smoked. The
building should be tied together by joists at the plates, properly
anchored into the walls, to prevent their spreading. A stove, or
pans, or neither, as the method of keeping the smoke alive may govern,
can be placed inside, to which the chimney in the roof may serve as a
partial escape, or not, as required. The whole process is so simple,
266
and so easily understood, that further explanation is unnecessary.

A great advantage that a house of this construction has, is the
convenience of storing the smoked meats for an indefinite time, even
through the whole season, keeping them dark, dry, and cool; and
permitting, at any time, a smoke to be made, to drive out the
flies, if they find their way into it.

The ashes can, of course, be removed at any time, by the door at
which they are thrown in.

(269)

POULTRY LAWN.

THE POULTRY-HOUSE.

As poultry is an indispensable appendage to the farm, in all cases,
the poultry-house is equally indispensable, for their accommodation, and
for the most profitable management of the fowls themselves, and most
convenient for the production of their eggs and young. Indeed, without
well-arranged quarters for the fowls of the farm, they are exceedingly
troublesome, and of doubtful profit; but with the proper buildings
devoted to them exclusively, they become one of the most interesting and
agreeable objects with which either the farm or the country house is
associated.

GROUND PLAN.

It is hardly worth while to eulogize poultry. Their merits and
virtues are written in the hearts of all provident housekeepers; and
their beauty and goodness are familiar to every son and daughter of the
rural homestead. We shall, then, proceed at once to discuss their proper
accommodation, in the cheapest and most familiar method with which we
are acquainted.

The hen-house—for hens (barn-door fowls, we mean) are the first
and chief stock, of the kind, to be provided for, and with them most of
the other varieties
268
can be associated—should be located in a warm, sheltered, and
sunny place, with abundant grounds about it, where they can
graze—hens eat grass—and scratch, and enjoy themselves to
their heart’s content, in all seasons, when the ground is open and they
can scratch into, or range over its surface. Some
people—indeed, a good many people—picket in their
gardens, to keep hens out; but we prefer an enclosure to keep the
hens in, at all seasons when they are troublesome, which, after
all, is only during short seasons of the year, when seeds are planted,
or sown, and grain and vegetables are ripening. Otherwise, they may
range at will, on the farm, doing good in their destruction of insects,
and deriving much enjoyment to themselves; for hens, on the whole, are
happy things.

We here present the elevation of a poultry-house in perspective, to
show the principle which we would adopt in its construction, and
which may be extended to any required length, and to which may be added
any given area of ground, or yard-room, which the circumstances of the
proprietor may devote to it. It is, as will be seen, of a most rustic
appearance, and built as cheaply, yet thoroughly, as the subject may
require. Its length, we will say, is 20 feet, its breadth 16,
and its height 10 feet, made of posts set into the ground—for
we do not like sills, and floors of wood, because rats are apt to burrow
under them, which are their worst enemies—and boarded up, either
inside or outside, as in the case of the ice-house previously described,
though not double. Plates are laid on these posts, to connect them
firmly together; and the rafters
270
rest on the plates, as usual. The chamber floor is 9 feet high,
above the ground, and may be used either for laying purposes by the
fowls, or reserved as a storage-room for their feed. The roof is broadly
drawn over the body of the building, to shelter it, and through the
point of the roof, in the center, is a ventilator, with a covered top,
and a vane significant of its purpose. It is also sufficiently lighted,
with glass windows, into which our draughtsman has put the diamond-paned
glass, contrary to our notions; but, as he had, no doubt, an eye to the
“picturesque,” we let it pass, only remarking, that if we were building
the house on our own account, there should be no such nonsense about it.
The front windows are large, to attract the warmth of the winter’s sun.
A section of picket fence is also attached, and trees in the
rear—both of which are necessary to a complete establishment; the
first, to secure the poultry in the contiguous yards, and the trees to
give them shade, and even roosting-places, if they prefer such lodgings
in warm weather—for which we consider them eminently
wholesome.

The wooden floor is dispensed with, as was remarked, to keep rid of
the vermin. If the ground be gravelly, or sandy, it will be sufficiently
dry. If a heavy or damp soil be used, it should be under-drained, which
will effectually dry it, and be better for the fowls than a floor of
either wood, brick, or stone. Doors of sufficient size can be made on
the yard sides of the house, near the ground, for the poultry to enter
either the living or roosting apartments, at pleasure, and hung with
butts on the upper side, to be closed when necessary.

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

The front door opens into the main living room. At each end, and in
the rear, are tiers of boxes, one foot wide, one and a half feet long,
and one and a half feet high—the lowest tier elevated two feet
above the ground—and built one tier above the other, and snugly
partitioned between, with a hole at one corner of each, ten inches high,
and eight inches wide, for passing in to them; and a shelf, or
passage-board, nine inches wide, in front. These are the nesting boxes,
and should be kept supplied with short, soft straw, or hay orts, for
that purpose. Hens love secrecy in their domestic economy, and are
wonderfully pleased with the opportunity to hide away, and conceal
themselves while laying. Indeed, such concealment, or the supposition of
it, we have no doubt promotes fecundity, as it is well known that a hen
can stop laying, almost at pleasure, when disturbed in her
regular habits and settled plans of life. Burns says—

“The best laid schemes of mice and men
Gang aft agley;”

and why not hen’s? We think so. If turkeys be kept in
the premises, the females can also be accommodated in these boxes, as
they are fond of laying in company with the hens, and frequently in the
same nests, only that they require larger entrances into them; or,
a tier of boxes may be made on the ground, for their
convenience.

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A door leads from the rear of this room into the roosting apartment,
through which is a passage to the back side of the building, and a door
opposite, leading out into the yard. On each side of this passage are
roosts, rising, each behind and above the other, 18 inches apart.
The lowest roosts may be three feet from the ground, and the highest six
feet, that they may easily fly from one to the other; and in this way
they may all be approached, to catch the fowls, when required. For the
roosts, slender poles, two to three inches in diameter—small
trees, cut from the woods, with the bark on, are the best—may be
used; and they should be secured through augur holes in board slats
suspended from the floor joists overhead. This apartment should be
cleaned out as often as once a fortnight, both for cleanliness and
health—for fowls like to be clean, and to have pure air.
A flight of stairs may be made in one corner of the front room, to
go into the chamber, if preferred; but a swing ladder, hung by one end,
with hinges, to the joists above, is, for such purpose, a more
cleanly mode of access; which, when not in use, may be hooked up to the
under side of the floor above; and a trap door, shutting into the
chamber floor, and also hung on hinges, will accommodate the
entrance.

For feeding troughs, we have seen many ingenious contrivances, and
among them, possibly, a Yankee patent, or two; but all these we put
aside, as of little account. A common segar box, or any other
cast-off thing, that will hold their food, is just as good as the most
complicated invention; and, in common feeding,
273
there is no better mode than to scatter abroad their corn, and let them
pick it up at their pleasure—when spread on a clean surface. We
think, also, that, except for fattening poultry, stated hours of feeding
are best for the birds themselves, and that they be fed only such
quantity as they will pick up clean. Water should, if possible, be kept
constantly by them; and if a small running stream could pass through the
yard, all the better.

If it be desirable to have fresh eggs during winter—and that is
certainly a convenience—a box stove may be set in the living room,
and properly protected by a grating around it, for warming the living
apartment. It may be remarked, however, that this winter-laying of hens
is usually a forcing business. A hen will lay but about a
given number of eggs in a year; say a hundred—we believe this is
about the number which the most observant of poultry-keepers allow
them—and what she lays in winter must be subtracted from the number she
would otherwise lay in the spring, summer, or autumn. Yet a warm house
will, laying, aside, keep the fowls with less food, and in greater
comfort, than if cold, and left to their own natural warmth.

There is usually little difficulty in keeping hens, turkies, ducks,
and geese together, in the same inclosure, during winter and early
spring, before the grass grows. But geese and turkies require greater
range during the warm season than the others, and should have it, both
for convenience to themselves and profit to their owners. For winter
quarters, low shelters may be made for the water-fowls in the yards, and
the turkies will
274
frequently prefer to share the shelter of the hens, on the roosts in the
house. Guinea-hens—cruel, vindictive things, as they
are—should never be allowed within a common poultry yard. Always
quarrelsome, and never quiet, they should take to the farmyard, with the
cattle, where they may range at will, and take their amusement in
fisticuffs with each other, at pleasure. Neither should peacocks be
allowed to come into the poultry inclosures, during the breeding season;
they are anything but amiable in their manners to other birds.

With the care and management of the poultry department, after thus
providing for their accommodation, it is not our province to interfere;
that is a subject too generally understood, to require further remark.
Nor need we discuss the many varieties of poultry which, at the present
time, so arrest the attention of many of our good country people; and we
will leave so important a subject to the meditations of the “New England
Poultry Society,” who have taken the gallinaceous, and other tribes
under their special cognizance, and will, doubtless, in due time,
illumine the world with various knowledge in this department of rural
economy, not yet “dreamt of in our philosophy.” The recently published
poultry books, too, with an amplitude and particularity in the
discussion of the different breeds and varieties, which shuts all
suspicions of self-interest into the corner, have given such a
fund of information on the subject, that any further inquiry may, with
entire good will, be turned over to their pages.

THE DOVECOTE.

This is a department, in itself, not common among the farm buildings,
in the United States; and for the reason, probably, that the domestic
pigeon, or house-dove, is usually kept more for amusement than for
profit—there being little actual profit about them—and is
readily accommodated in the spare lofts of sheds and out-buildings
devoted to other purposes. Pigeons, however, add to the variety and
interest of the poultry department; and as there are many different
breeds of them, they are general favorites with the juveniles of the
family.

Our present object is, not to propose any distinct building for
pigeon accommodation; but to give them a location in other buildings,
where they will be conveniently provided with room, and least annoying
by their presence—for, be it known, they are oft-times a most
serious annoyance to many crops of the farm, when kept in any
considerable numbers, as well as in the waste and havoc they make in the
stores of the barns and granaries. Although graceful and beautiful
birds, generally clean and tidy in their personal habits
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out of doors, they are the filthiest housekeepers imaginable, and no
building can be especially devoted to their use, if not often swept and
cleaned, but what will soon become an intolerable nuisance within, and
not much better without, and the ground immediately around the premises
a dirty place. The common pigeon is a pugnacious cavalier, warring
apparently upon mere punctilio, as we have often seen, in the distant
strut-and-coo of a stranger bird to his mate, even if she be the very
incarnation of “rejected addresses.” On all these accounts, we would
locate—unless a small and select family of fancy birds,
perhaps—the pigeon stock at the principal farm-yard, and in the
lofts of the cattle sheds, or the chambers of the stable.

Wherever the pigeon accommodations are designed to be, a close
partition should separate their quarters from the room occupied for
other purposes, with doors for admission to those who have to do with
them, in cleaning their premises, or to take the birds, when needed.
A line of holes, five inches high, and four inches wide—the
top of the hole slightly arched—should be made, say 18 inches
apart, for the distance of room they are to occupy in the building.
A foot above the top of these, another line may be made; and so on,
tiering them up to the height intended to devote to them. A line of
shelves, or lighting-boards, six to eight inches wide, should then be placed one inch
below the bottom of these holes, and firmly braced beneath, and nailed
to the weather-boarding of the house. Inside, a range of box should
be made, of corresponding length with the line of holes, to embrace
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every entrance from the outside, 18 inches wide, and partitioned
equidistant between each entrance, so as to give a square box of
18 inches to each pair of birds. The bottom board of each ascending
tier of boxes will, of course, be the top of the boxes below, and these
must be made perfectly tight, to prevent the offal of the upper
ones from falling through, to the annoyance of their neighbors below.
The back of these boxes should have a line of swing doors, hung with
butts, or hinges, from the top, and fastened with buttons, or hooks, at
the bottom, to allow admission, or examination, at any time, to those
who have the care of them. This plan of door is indispensable, to clean
them out—which should be done as often as once a week, or
fortnight, at farthest—and to secure the birds as they may be
wanted for the table, or other purposes—for it will be recollected
that squabs, just feathered out, are considered a delicious dish, at the
most sumptuous tables. It will be understood, that these boxes above
described, are within a partitioned room, with a floor, in their rear,
with sufficient space for the person in charge of them to pass along,
and to hold the baskets, or whatever is to receive the offal of their
boxes, as it is taken out. This offal is valuable, as a highly
stimulating manure, and is sought for by the morocco tanners, at a high
price—frequently at twenty-five cents a bushel.

As pigeons are prolific breeders, laying and hatching six or seven
times a year, and in warm climates oftener, they require a good supply
of litter—short cut, soft straw is the best—which should be
freely
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supplied at every new incubation, and the old litter removed. The boxes,
too, should be in a warm place, snugly made, and well sheltered from the
wind and driving storms; for pigeons, although hardy birds when grown,
should be well protected while young.

The common food of the pigeon is grain, of almost any kind, and
worms, and other insects, which they pick up in the field. On the whole,
they are a pleasant bird, when they can be conveniently kept, and are
worth the trifling cost that their proper housing may demand.

If our opinion
were asked, as to the best, and least troublesome kind of pigeon to
be kept, we should say, the finest and most hardy of the common kind,
which are usually found in the collections throughout the country. But there
are many fancy breeds—such as the fan-tail, the powter, the
tumbler, the ruffler, and perhaps another variety or two—all
pretty birds, and each distinct in their appearance, and in some of
their domestic habits. The most beautiful of the pigeon kind, however,
is the Carrier. They are the very perfection of grace, and symmetry, and
beauty. Their colors are always brilliant and changing, and in their
flight they cleave the air with a rapidity which no other
variety—indeed, which scarce any other bird, of any kind, can
equal. History is full of examples of their usefulness, in carrying
tidings from one country to another, in letters, or tokens, fastened to
their necks or legs, for which they are trained by those who have thus
used them; but which, now, the well known telegraph wire has nearly
superseded.

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All these fancy breeds require great care in their management, to keep
them pure in blood, as they will all mix, more or less, with the common
pigeon, as they come in contact with them; and the selection of whatever
kind is wanted to be kept, must be left to those who are willing to
bestow the pains which their necessary care may demand.

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PIGGERY.

A PIGGERY.

The hog is an animal for which we have no especial liking, be he
either a tender suckling, nosing and tugging at the well-filled udder of
his dam, or a well-proportioned porker, basking in all the plenitude of
swinish luxury; albeit, in the use of his flesh, we affect not the Jew,
but liking it moderately well, in its various preparations, as a
substantial and savory article of diet. Still, the hog is an important
item of our agricultural economy, and his production and proper
treatment is a valuable study to all who rear him as a creature either
of profit or convenience. In the western and southern states,
a mild climate permits him to be easily reared and fed off for
market, with little heed to shelter or protection; while in the north,
he requires care and covering during winter. Not only this; in all
places the hog is an unruly, mischievous creature, and has no business
really in any other
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place than where he can he controlled, and kept at a moment’s call.

But, as tastes and customs differ essentially, with regard to his
training and destiny, to such as agree with us in opinion, that his
proper place is in the sty, particularly when feeding for pork,
a plan of piggery is given, such as may be economical in
construction, and convenient in its arrangement, both for the swine
itself, and him who has charge of him.

GROUND PLAN.

The design here given, is for a building, 36 feet long, and
24 feet wide, with twelve-feet posts; the lower, or living room for
the swine, 9 feet high, and a storage chamber above, for the grain
and other food required for his keeping. The roof has a pitch of 40°
from a horizontal line, spreading over the sides and gables at least
20 inches, and coarsely bracketed. The entrance front projects
6 feet from the main building, by 12 feet in length. Over its
main door, in the gable, is a door with a hoisting beam and tackle above
it, to take in the grain, and a floor over the whole area receives it.
A window is in each gable end. A ventilator passes up through
this chamber and the roof, to let off the steam from the cooking vats
below, and the foul air emitted by the swine, by the side of which is
the furnace-chimney, giving it, on the whole, as respectable an
appearance as a pigsty need pretend to.

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

At the left of the entrance is a flight of stairs, (b,)
leading to the chamber above. On the right is a small area, (a,)
with a window to light it. A door from this leads into the main
room, (c,) where stands a chimney, (d,) with a furnace to
receive the fuel for cooking the food, for which are two kettles, or
boilers, with wooden vats, on the top, if the extent of food demands
them; these are secured with broad wooden covers, to keep in the steam
when cooking. An iron valve is placed in the back flue of the furnace,
which may fall upon either side, to shut off the fire from either of the
kettles, around which the fire may revolve; or, the valve may stand in a
perpendicular position, at will, if both kettles be heated at the same
time. But, as the most economical mode is to cook one kettle while the
other is in process of feeding out, and vice versa, scarcely more
than one at a time will be required in use. Over each kettle is a
sliding door, with a short spout to slide the food into them, when
wanted. If necessary, and it can be conveniently done, a well may
be sunk under this room, and a pump inserted at a convenient place; or
if equally convenient, a pipe may bring the water in from a
neighboring stream, or spring. On three sides of this room are feeding
pens, (e,) and sleeping partitions, (f,) for the swine.
These several apartments are accommodated with doors, which open into
separate yards on the sides and in rear, or a large one for the entire
family, as may be desired.

CONSTRUCTION.

The frame of this building is of strong timber, and stout for its
size. The sills should be 8 inches square, the corner posts of the
same size, and the intermediate posts 8×6 inches in diameter. In the
center of these posts, grooves should be made, 2 inches wide, and
deep, to receive the plank sides, which should be 2 inches
thick, and let in from the level of the chamber by a flush cutting for
that purpose, out of the grooves inside, thus using no nails or spikes,
and holding the planks tight in their place, that they may not be rooted
out, or rubbed off by the hogs, and the inner projection of the main
posts left to serve as rubbing posts for them—for no creature so
loves to rub his sides, when fatting, as a hog, and this very natural
and praiseworthy propensity should be indulged. These planks, like the
posts, should, particularly the lower ones, be of hard wood, that
they may not be eaten off. Above the chamber floor, thinner planks may
be used, but all should be well jointed, that they may lie snug, and
shut out the weather. The center post in the floor plan of the engraving
is omitted, by mistake, but it should stand there, like the others.
Inside posts at the corners, and in the sides of the partitions, like
the outside ones, should be also placed and grooved to receive the
planking, four and a half feet high, and their upper ends be secured by
tenons into mortices in the beams overhead. The troughs should then, if
possible, be made of cast iron, or, in default of that, the
hardest of
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white oak plank, strongly spiked on to the floor and sides; and the
apartment may then be called hog-proof—for a more unquiet,
destructive creature, to a building in which he is confined, does not
live, than the hog. The slide, or spout to conduct the swill and other
feed from the feeding-room into the trough, should be inserted through
the partition planks, with a steep slant the whole length of the
trough, that the feed may be readily thrown into any or all parts of it.
This slide should be of two-inch white-oak plank, and bound along the
bottom by a strip of hoop-iron, to prevent the pigs from eating it
off—a habit they are prone to; then, firmly spiked down to the
partition planks, and through the ends, to the adjoining studs, and the
affair is complete. With what experience we have had with the hog, and
that by no means an agreeable one, we can devise no better method of
accommodation than this here described, and it certainly is the
cheapest. But the timber and lumber used must be sound and strong; and
then, properly put together, it may defy their most destructive
ingenuity. Of the separate uses to which the various apartments may be
put, nothing need be said, as the circumstances of every farmer will
best govern them.

One, to three hundred dollars, according to price of material and
labor, will build this piggery, besides fitting it up with furnace and
boilers. It may be contracted, or enlarged in size, as necessity may
direct; but no one, with six to twenty porkers in his fatting pens,
a year, will regret the expense of building a convenient
appurtenance of this kind to his establishment.

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A word may be pardoned, in relation to the too universal practice of
permitting swine to prowl along the highways, and in the yards and lawns
of the farm house. There is nothing so slovenly, wasteful, and
destructive to one’s thrift, and so demoralizing, in a small way, as is
this practice. What so revolting to one, of the least tidy nature
whatever, as a villainous brute, with a litter of filthy pigs at her
heels, and the slimy ooze of a mud-puddle reeking and dripping from
their sides? See the daubs of mud marking every fence-post, far and
near, along the highway, or where-ever they run! A burrow is rooted up
at every shady point, a nuisance at every corner you turn, and
their abominable snouts into everything that is filthy, or
obscene—a living curse to all that is decent about them. An
Ishmaelite among the farm stock, they are shunned and hated by every
living thing, when at large. But, put the creature in his pen, with a
ring in his nose, if permitted to go into the adjoining yard, and
comfortably fed, your pig, if of a civilized breed, is a quiet,
inoffensive—indeed, gentlemanly sort of animal; and as such, he is
entitled to our toleration—regard, we cannot say; for in all the
pages of our reading, we learn, by no creditable history, of any
virtuous sympathies in a hog.

FARM BARNS.

The farm barn, next to the farm house, is the most important
structure of the farm itself, in the Northern and Middle States; and
even at the south and southwest, where less used, they are of more
importance in the economy of farm management than is generally supposed.
Indeed, to our own eyes, a farm, or a plantation appears
incomplete, without a good barn accommodation, as much as without good
household appointments—and without them, no agricultural
establishment can be complete in all its proper economy.

The most thorough barn structures, perhaps, to be seen in the
United States, are those of the state of Pennsylvania, built by the
German farmers of the lower and central counties. They are large, and
expensive in their construction; and, in a strictly economical view,
perhaps more costly than required. Yet, there is a substance and
durability in them, that is exceedingly satisfactory, and, where the
pecuniary ability of the farmer will permit, may well be an example for
imitation.

In the structure of the barn, and in its interior accommodation, much
will depend upon the branches of
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agriculture to which the farm is devoted. A farm cultivated in
grain chiefly, requires but little room for stabling purposes. Storage
for grain in the sheaf, and granaries, will require its room; while a
stock farm requires a barn with extensive hay storage, and stables for
its cattle, horses, and sheep, in all climates not admitting such stock
to live through the winter in the field, like the great grazing states
west of the Alleghanies. Again, there are wide districts of country
where a mixed husbandry of grain and stock is pursued, which require
barns and out-buildings accommodating both; and to supply the exigencies
of each, we shall present such plans as may be appropriate, and that
may, possibly, by a slight variation, be equally adapted to either, or
all of their requirements.

It may not be out of place here, to remark, that many
designers of barns, sheds, and other out-buildings for the
accommodation of farm stock, have indulged in fanciful arrangements for
the convenience and comfort of animals, which are so complicated that
when constructed, as they sometimes are, the practical, common-sense
farmer will not use them; and, in the learning required in their
use, are altogether unfit for the use and treatment they usually get
from those who have the daily care of the stock which they are intended
for, and for the rough usage they receive from the animals themselves.
A very pretty, and a very plausible arrangement of stabling, and
feeding, and all the etceteras of a barn establishment, may be thus got
up by an ingenious theorist at the fireside, which will work to a charm,
as he dilates upon its good
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qualities, untried; but, when subjected to experiment will be utterly
worthless for practical use. All this we, in our practice, have gone
through; and after many years experience, have come to the conclusion
that the simplest plan of construction, consistent with an economical
expenditure of the material of food for the consumption of stock, is by
far the most preferable.

Another item to be considered in this connection, is the comparative
value of the stock, the forage fed to them, and the labor
expended in feeding and taking care of them. We will illustrate: Suppose
a farm to lie in the vicinity of a large town, or city. Its value is,
perhaps, a hundred dollars an acre. The hay cut upon it is worth
fifteen dollars a ton, at the barn, and straw, and coarse grains in
proportion, and hired labor ten or twelve dollars a month. Consequently,
the manager of this farm should use all the economy in his power, by the
aid of cutting-boxes, and other machinery, to make the least amount of
forage supply the wants of his stock; and the internal economy of his
barn arranged accordingly; because labor is his cheapest item, and food
the dearest. Then, for any contrivance to work up his forage the
closest—by way of machinery, or manual labor—by which it
will serve the purposes of keeping his stock, is true economy; and the
making, and saving of manures is an item of the first importance. His
buildings, and their arrangements throughout, should, on these accounts,
be constructed in accordance with his practice. If, on the other hand,
lands are cheap and productive, and labor comparatively dear,
a different practice will prevail.
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He will feed his hay from the mow, without cutting. The straw will be
either stacked out, and the cattle turned to it, to pick what they like
of it, and make their beds on the remainder; or, if it is housed, he
will throw it into racks, and the stock may eat what they choose. It is
but one-third, or one-half the labor to do this, that the other mode
requires, and the saving in this makes up, and perhaps more than makes
up for the increased quantity of forage consumed. Again, climate may
equally affect the mode of winter feeding the stock. The winters may be
mild. The hay may be stacked in the fields, when gathered, or put into
small barns built for hay storage alone; and the manure, scattered over
the fields by the cattle, as they are fed from either of them, may be
knocked to pieces with the dung-beetle, in the spring, or harrowed and
bushed over the ground; and with the very small quantity of labor
required in all this, such practice will be more economical than any
other which can be adopted. It is, therefore, a subject of
deliberate study with the farmer, in the construction of his
out-buildings, what plans he shall adopt in regard to them, and their
fitting up and arrangement.

With these considerations before us, we shall submit such plans of
barn structures as may be adapted for general use, where shelters for
the farm crops, and farm stock, are required; and which may, in their
interior arrangement, be fitted for almost any locality of our country,
as the judgment and the wants of the builder may require.

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(292)

Design I.

This is a design of barn partially on the Pennsylvania plan, with
under-ground stables, and a stone-walled basement on three sides, with a
line of posts standing open on the yard front, and a wall, pierced by
doors and windows, retreating 12 feet under the building, giving,
in front, a shelter for stock. Two sheds, by way of wings, are run
out to any desired length, on each side. The body of this barn, which is
built of wood, above the basement, is 60×46 feet; the posts 18 feet
high, above the sills; the roof is elevated at an angle of 40° from a
horizontal line, and the gables hooded, or truncated, 14 feet wide
at the verge, so as to cover the large doors at the ends. The main roof
spreads 3 to 4 feet over the body of the barn, and runs from the
side eaves in a straight line, different from what is shown in
the engraving, which appears of a gambrel or hipped fashion. The sides
are covered with boards laid vertically, and battened with narrow
strips, 3 inches wide. The large doors in the ends are 14 feet
wide, and 14 feet high. A slatted blind window is in each
gable, for ventilation, and a door, 9×6 feet, on the yard side.

INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

A main floor, A, 12 feet wide, runs the whole length through
the center of the barn. S, S, are the large doors.
H, H, are trap doors, to let hay or straw down to the alleys
of the stables beneath. B, is the principal bay for hay
storage, 16 feet wide, and runs up to the roof. C, is the
bay, 26×16 feet, for the grain mow, if required for that purpose. D, is a granary, 13×16 feet, and
8 feet high. E, a storage room for fanning mill,
cutting-box, or other machinery, or implements, of same size and height
as the granary. F, is a passage, 8 feet wide, leading
from the main floor to the yard door, through which to throw out litter.
Over this passage, and the granary, and store-room, may be stored grain
in the sheaf, or hay. The main floor will accommodate the
thrashing-machine, horse-power, cutting box, &c., &c., when at
work. A line of movable sleepers, or poles, may be laid across the
floor, 10 feet above it, on a line of girts framed into the main
posts, for that purpose, over which, when the sides of the
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barn are full, either hay or grain may be deposited, up to the ridge of
the roof, and thus afford large storage. And if the demands of the crops
require it, after the sides and over the floor is thus filled, the floor
itself may, a part of it, be used for packing away either hay or
grain, by taking off the team after the load is in, and passing them out
by a retreating process, on the side of the cart or wagon; and the
vehicle, when unloaded, backed out by hand. We have occasionally adopted
this method, when crowded for room for increased crops, to great
advantage. It requires somewhat more labor, to be sure, but it is much
better than stacking out; and a well-filled barn is a good sight to look
upon.

MAIN FLOOR PLAN.

Underneath the body of the barn are the stables, root cellar, calf
houses, or any other accommodation which the farm stock may require;
but, for the most economical objects, is here cut up into stables. At
the ends, l, l, are passages for the stock to go into their
stalls; and also, on the sides, for the men who attend to them. The main
passage through the center double line of stalls is 8 feet wide;
and on each side are double stalls, 6½ feet wide. From the two end
walls, the cattle passages are 5 feet wide, the partition between
the stalls running back in a slant, from 5 feet high at the
mangers to the floor, at that distance from the walls. The mangers,
j, j, are 2 feet wide, or may be 2½ feet, by
taking an additional six inches out of the rear passage. The passage is,
between the mangers, 3 feet wide, to receive the hay from the trap
doors in the floor above.

UNDER-GROUND PLAN AND YARD.

The most economical plan, for room in tying cattle in their stalls,
is to fasten the rope, or chain, whichever is used, (the wooden
stanchion, or stanchel, as it is called, to open and shut,
enclosing the animal by the neck, we do not like,) into a ring, which is
secured by a strong staple into the post which sustains the partition,
just at the top of the manger, on each side of the stall. This prevents
the cattle in the same stall from interfering with each other, while the
partition effectually prevents any contact from the animals on each side
of it, in the separate stalls. The bottom of the mangers, for grown
cattle, should be a foot above
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the floor, and the top two and a half feet, which makes it deep enough
to hold their food; and the whole, both sides and bottom, should be made
of two-inch, sound, strong plank, that they may not be broken down. The
back sides of the stalls, next the feeding alleys, should be full
3½ feet high; and if the cattle are large, and disposed to climb
into their mangers with their fore-feet, as they sometimes do,
a pole, of 2½ or 3 inches in diameter, should be secured across the
front of the stall, next the cattle, and over the mangers—say
4½ feet above the floor, to keep them out of the manger, and still
give them sufficient room for putting their heads between that and the
top of the manger, to get their food. Cattle thus secured in double
stalls, take up less room, and lie much warmer, than when in single
stalls; besides, the expense of fitting them up being much less—an
experience of many years has convinced us on this point. The doors for
the passage of the cattle in and out of the stables, should be five feet
wide, that they may have plenty of room.

In front of these stables, on the outside, is a line of posts, the
feet of which rest on large flat stones, and support the outer sill of
the barn, and form a recess, before named, of 12 feet in width,
under which may be placed a line of racks, or mangers for outside
cattle, to consume the orts, or leavings of hay rejected by the in-door
stock; or, the manure may be housed under it, which is removed from the
stables by wheel-barrows. The low line of sheds which extend from the
barn on each side of the yard, may be used for the carts, and wagons of
the place; or, racks and mangers may be
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fitted up in them, for outside cattle to consume the straw and coarse
forage; or, they may be carried higher than in our plan, and floored
overhead, and hay, or other food stored in them for the stock. They are
so placed merely to give the idea.

There may be no more fitting occasion than this, perhaps, to make a
remark or two on the subject of managing stock in stables of any kind,
when kept in any considerable numbers; and a word may not be impertinent
to the subject in hand, as connected with the construction of
stables.

There is no greater benefit to cattle, after coming into winter
quarters, than a straight-forward regularity in everything appertaining
to them. Every animal should have its own particular stall in the
stable, where it should always be kept, and in no other. The
cattle should be fed and watered at certain hours of the day, as near as
may be. When let out of the stables for water, unless the weather is
very pleasant, when they may be permitted to lie out an hour or two,
they should be immediately put back, and not allowed to range about with
the outside cattle. They are more quiet and contented in their stables
than elsewhere, and eat less food, than if permitted to run out; and are
every way more comfortable, if properly bedded and attended to, as every
one will find, on trying it. The habit of many people, in turning their
cattle out of the stables in the morning, in all weathers—letting
them range about in a cold yard, hooking and thorning each
other—is of no possible benefit, unless to rid themselves of the
trouble of cleaning the stables, which
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pays twice its cost in the saving of manure. The outside cattle, which
occupy the yard, are all the better, that the stabled ones do not
interfere with them. They become habituated to their own quarters, as
the others do to their’s, and all are better for being each in their own
proper place. It may appear a small matter to notice this; but it is a
subject of importance, which every one may know who tries it.