498 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



importance. Never build on low, springy, swampy ground ; or in the 

 neighborhood of decomposing vegetable matter; or where the well will be 

 fed by the soakage of the surrounding soil. Avoiding windy, bleak places, 

 select elevated and dry ground, where the well or spring fed from distant 

 sources will furnish good filtered water. Build back from the road suffi- 

 ciently to have an ample yard in front, and put the barns still further back, 

 at least ten rods from the house. 



Since our tastes, instincts, enjoyments and modes of life are something 

 different from the domestic animals, I do not think we ought to mix up with 

 them as some seem inclined to. I told one of our rich men who was pre- 

 paring to place a large, expensive barn on the road directly in front of his 

 house, shutting off a very fine view, that if he didn't enjoy the beautiful 

 landscape himself, his family and friends would; he might rest assured that 

 pleasant views were sure to rise in the market in the future more than in the 

 past; people with plenty of money will refuse to purchase residences with 

 undesirable surroundings and unpleasant outlooks, but, as when purchasing 

 valuable pictures, they will lavish money on what suits them. 



A great many considerations bear on every case, but people do not take 

 pains to look them up. The first that suggests itself is accepted as conclu- 

 sive — half mankind go off in a tangent, with one reason, when there are half 

 a dozen leading the other way. When it occurred to my friend that the 

 descending ground opposite his house was favorable for a basement (by the 

 way, a most economical and excellent thing to have), there was nothing 

 more to be said; the barn and the basement must be put there and the 

 lovely landscape broken into in the middle. The place I pointed out at the 

 rear of the house would have been quite as accessible from most of the fields 

 and would have been hidden from view by fruit trees ; the banking up against 

 the basement wall not very costly. 



It is a mistaken notion that houses and barns must be close to the high- 

 way. The desire to see everybody who passes, and be seen, is vulgar and 

 unprofitable. Southerners show more sense than we do in selecting their 

 building places. Go where there is a pleasant prospect, if the land be dry 

 and the air and water good, remembering that for convenience it is well to 

 be near the center of the farm. My neighbor put his house in the exact line 

 of the highway "to save land." He does not save any land except what he 

 gets in the shape of road dust. Had he put the house four rods back he 

 might have occupied the front yard with apple, pear and cherry trees, which, 

 if well cared for, would have been profitable as well as ornamental. 



Whoever makes country life attractive is a benefactor. More people ought 

 to live in the country. A neat cottage on a well-selected site, with well- 

 furnished, well-kept gardens and grounds, is a standing invitation to well- 

 disposed city people to move out among the hills and valleys, groves and 

 green fields, blooming orchards and golden grain, where the handiwork of 

 God is seen, and its regenerating power felt, as it is not seen and felt in 

 man-made towns. When men adopt the highest style of living they will be 

 simple in their habits, tastefully but not ostentatiously and expensively clad, 

 courteous and kind in their manners, familiar with the best books, self- 

 reliant, able by their own skill from their own soil to produce much the 

 larger portion of all the comforts and luxuries they require — this attained, 

 half of those now engaged in commerce, manufactures, finance and folly in 

 the cities can move out into the country. 



