FARM ARCHITECTURE. 153 



certainly gave to the wind, the rain, and the melting snow 

 much of the essential wealth of their farms. 



The more modern barn-cellar is hardly an improvement, — 

 a stagnant, effervescing pit, from which mucli that is valua- 

 ble is constantly escaping, absorbed by the soil, or wasting 

 through leaks or drains. 



I omitted to speak of house-drainage, in order to bring the 

 drains together, and will not now discuss the sanitary bear- 

 ings of the subject, — although in this respect we are but half 

 civilized : our friends and neighbors are dying by the hun- 

 dred, of sewers, cesspools, sink-drains, and poisoned wells ; 

 and thousands more are half dead, — but, keeping on the 

 simple ground of economy and thrift, I wish to remark that 

 every sewer, cesspool, and waste-pipe, every barnyard, pig- 

 pen, and cellar, in which water is not absorbed as soon as it 

 appears, is an intolerable nuisance, and a wicked waste upon 

 a farm. It is so everywhere, but less inexcusable in villages, 

 because the dwellers in town do not depend directly upon 

 saving these raw materials of agriculture for their incomes, 

 and to save them is more difficult. 



It is the special duty of farmers, of all men, to make two 

 blades of grass grow where one grew before. To this end 

 every particle and atom of these valuable volatile elements 

 should be saved, — saved by absorption. 



Water, in the shape of drains and ditches, to convey these 

 waste, or rather wasted elements, to some remote outlet, 

 stream, or even a covered pit, to be cleaned out once or twice 

 a year, or not at all, is a highway robber. 



If it can be compelled to distribute the sewage of the 

 house precisely where it is needed, by sub-irrigation, that is 

 a wise economy. 



Some time we shall be able to reduce all substances that 

 have a manurial value to their most compact form, by chemi- 

 cal or other means. I think that time is rapidly approaching. 

 When it comes, the earth will begin to bud and blossom as 

 the rose, and we shall look back with amazement at the 

 wasteful ignorance of our forefathers. 



There are, then, good reasons for making a large frame- 

 barn consist virtually of several different buildings. It will 

 be cheaper, more convenient ; the danger from fire will be 

 diminished; there will be- greater warmth, better ventilation, 



