136 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



an old liouse, there is no doubt: it will not. By mtikiiig 

 over, I mean making changes that involve moving partitions, 

 enlarging rooms, tearing down chimneys, building new stair- 

 ways, raising roofs, new plastering, and new interior wood- 

 work. 



An addition in the shape of a wing or an L, entirely new, 

 a porch, or a bay-window, is a different matter. 



Many old houses may be made young again, within as well 

 as without, by simple additions that require no important 

 tearing-away of the old. 



A few years ago it was the fashion to remove the old 

 chimney, which filled so large a space in the middle of the 

 house ; and what a pandemonium its destruction made ! 



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How the solid old monument of bricks and mortar and soot 

 caused every body and every thing in the house to repent 

 in dust and ashes the disturbance of its sacred hearths, the 

 invasion of its mysterious flues I 



In nearly all cases it is cheaper, to use no other argument, 

 to build three times as much room as the chimney occupies, 

 in some other shape entirely new, without offending the good 

 spirit that presides over the old-time fireside. If this space 

 is needed for an easier flight of stairs and a more liberal 

 entrance-hall, one of the front-rooms may be used for these 

 purposes, and additional room made somewhere else without 

 regard to formal regularit}'. 



The usual faults in the farmhouses of former years are 

 the absence of porches (I wonder our grandmothers didn't 

 catch their death-colds sitting on the stone doorsteps when 



