228 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



landscape, need cost no more than such a structure as we often see, 

 not possessing these elements of beauty. 



I have said that we find farm buildings built without reference to 

 the wants of the farmer. How common it is to see a house with 

 several unoccupied rooms, and the arrangements such as to require 

 a large amount of unnecessary travel to do the daily labor. How 

 still more common to see the house so small and inconvenient as to 

 sacrifice comfort, and sometimes, health and morality : and how rare 

 to find the barn and out buildings arranged, as to plan and location, 

 so as to give comfort to the inmates, and suitable facilities to their 

 attendants. How common to see them open underneath, and open 

 at the sides ; the light being admitted only through the open doors 

 or windows, or through the open cracks of the loose boarding. 



There is an unfounded prejudice, that hay will not keep well in a 

 tight barn ; hence they are left without shingles upon the walls. If 

 the theory of Leibig be true, that animal heat is kept up by the 

 consumption of a portion of the food as fuel, which would otherwise 

 go to form fat or flesh, it becomes an interesting and practical prob- 

 lem, to learn how much of this costly fuel may be saved by keeping 

 our barns warm ; how much, for instance, would be required to keep 

 the carcass of an ox, or say his equal weight of water, up to the 

 point of animal heat, for twenty-four hours, in a boiler, exposing 

 the same amount of surface to an atmosphere at zero. 



Go where we will throughout our State, and everywhere the 

 proof meets us, of the necessity of a reform in our farm architecture. 

 The causes of this necessity may be traced, in a great degree, to 

 want of proper education. Our boys at the common schools, learn 

 to read, write and cypher, but they don't learn to observe and think. 

 Living at home upon the farm, and in general, having but small 

 means, they have not the opportunity to go abroad and see what 

 others have done. Having little time and less inclination to read 

 and study, (I speak of the mass) they do not seek for information 

 in books and papers, and even if they sought it, it would be hard to 

 find. Having no knowledge of architecture ; nine out of ten not 

 knowing the meaning of the word ; many never having heard it, and» 

 few imagining that men make a business of designing and drawing 

 plans of buildings, they do not seek its guidance. But beyond and 

 above all, being in haste to marry and settle in life, they do not 



