1508 The Cornell Reading-Courses 



better farmhouses 



(Abstract from address by Director L. H. Bailey to the students of the 



College of Agriculture) 



It is my constant reiteration that country-life affairs must be redirected. 

 These affairs and interests are of two general kinds — those that appertain 

 to the community as a whole and those that connect directly with the 

 farmer's personal life and business. All country-life affairs have been 

 inadequate as measured by their possibilities and by the expansion of 

 civilization at large. Institutions and affairs become crystallized and 

 stationary, and it is only by readjustment that we are to grow. 



The process of redirection has actively begun in a number of country- 

 life institutions, so that we no longer need to point out their deficiencies 

 so much as to aid in shaping the readjustment that is now in progress. 

 That is to say, the forces are beginning to concrete themselves and to work 

 out a solution. This is particularly true with the colleges of agriculture, 

 the country school, the country church, the country highway extension, 

 and the spread of means of communication. In other avenues the redirect- 

 ing forces have scarcely yet taken hold. 



The farm plan and the house plan 



On the side of the individual farmer, the process of redirecting his whole 

 farm scheme is now well under way. By means of direction, aid, and 

 sympathy, a new farm plan will work out in cases where it is needed, 

 although it will still take considerable time. 



Farming is a business system and, like other business systems, it must 

 have a center. The center of the farm business is the residence. When 

 we strike the farmhouse we strike the very center of rural life. It is just 

 as much a problem to reorganize the farmhouse as it is to reorganize the 

 farm itself. 



Our farmhouses were mostly built many years ago. The older ones 

 were adapted to a former kind of country life and to a type of farming 

 that is gradually changing. Many of our older houses are gradually fall- 

 ing down. Many farmhouses are all that can be desired; but the larger 

 part of the establishments in New York State must be either thoroughly 

 remodeled or else rebuilt within the next forty years. It is very important, 

 therefore, that we do not follow old lines of house planning and 

 construction. 



Of course I do not mean that the farmer is to discard his residence 

 before such time as he desires to do so, and certainly not before he feels 

 that his income warrants him to make a change. My point is that as 

 fast as the farmhouses are rebuilt or reconstructed, certain new features 

 must be incorporated into them. Neither do I mean that the fanner 

 must build expensively. A cheap house may serve its purpose in the class 

 of construction to which it belongs, and it is as easy to make it convenient 

 as to make it inconvenient. 



The farm scheme has been largely traditional, fields being added as the 

 forests have been cleared; and these fields tend to remain year after year. 

 A modern farm management obliterates all unnecessary limits and lines 



