THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



197 



CHOOSING A SITE FOR A HOUSE. 



In selectinpf a site for a country farm house, 

 many things are to be taken into consideration. 

 The question of healthfulness is of the first im- 

 portance. Such situations as the border of a 

 slujjffiish stream or of a stagnant marsh should be 

 avoided. Soils retentive of moisture, and which 

 draining cannot render dry and warm, should not 

 be chosen. In such situations, desirable as they 

 may be in other respects, the air is raw and chilly, 

 the dampness rises through the walls and apart- 

 ments of the house, discolours the paper hangings, 

 spoils the food, diflFuses a musty odour through 

 every room, depresses the spirits, and injures the 

 health of all the occupants. 



Convenience and comfort should be considered. 

 Fine prospects are fine things, but everything must 

 not be sacrificed to obtain them. It would be folly 

 in a farmer to perch his house on the highest peak 

 on his estate, regardless of convenience of access 

 to and from the highway, market, church, post- 

 office, &c. Poets and " men of genius " may do 

 such things, but ordinary mortals must have an 

 eye to the common wants and comforts of life. 

 Hence, we would set our house within easy reach 

 from the road. It should not, indeed, stand close 

 to the street, exposed to noise and dust, and to the 

 prying curiosity of every passer-by. There 

 is no need of crowding one's house upon the 

 roadside. We beg pardon for saying it, it looks 

 stingy to do so, and it looks as if the owner were 

 excessively anxious to see and to be seen. Far 

 better is it to lay off a liberal space in front and on 

 the sides of the house, where trees and grass may 

 grow undisturbed, and where the members of the 

 household may enjoy themselves without undue 

 exposure from the highway. Home is much less 

 home if it have no privacy, if every opened door 

 and window lets in the gaze of street-goers. We 

 pity the members of that family who have no 

 resources within themselves; who cannot find 

 happiness in books, papers, company, music, trees 

 and flowers, domestic labours and amusements, but 

 must be forever pining to learn the thousand little 

 occurrences and gossip of the neighbourhood. Yet 

 we would not go to the other extreme. Man is a 

 social being, and it is very pleasant to see the faces 

 and hear the voices of those who live about us. It 

 is pleasant, especially for invalids, confined most of 

 the time within doors, to be able to see from the 

 windows of the house who are coming and going, 

 and what is transpiring in the street. Then, in 

 winter, it is very laborious to keep open paths to 

 the highway from a house situated far from the 

 road. We would, therefore, drive our stakes at a 

 moderate distance from the street, leaving room 

 enough in front of the house for lawn, trees and 

 flowers, and yet so near the road as to be easy of 

 access. 



An elevated site is desirable, on many accounts. 

 It affords facilities for drainage. The air is purer, 

 drier and more bracing. The prospect afforded 



of the surrounding scenery is worth more than is 

 generally paid for it : scenery is a gallery of pictures 

 painted by the Great Artist. It is not all poetry to 

 say that such a situation tends to inspire its 

 occupants with an elevation of thought and feeling. 

 Yet it must be borne in mind that such sites are 

 exposed to violent winds, that in winter they are 

 often blocked up by snow-drifts, that one must 

 toil up and down the hills all his life, and that his 

 loaded teams must daily be dragged up hill, or 

 struggled with in going down. By no means 

 should one take a calm, summer day to examine a 

 hill-top for this purpose; let him rather choose a 

 season of unpleasant weather, and if it bears exa- 

 mination then, it will be likely to prove satisfactory 

 at other times. Most hill-tops are bleak, yet one is 

 not sure of escaping severe winds by building in a 

 low situation. Gales often sweep up and down 

 valleys with great violence, with a sort of wildness 

 and madness unknown on the hills. Blustering as 

 is the winter weather of hilly regions, the actual 

 cold, as measured by the thermometer, is seldom 

 as great as that of the valleys, and late frosts 

 seldom do as much damage in the one case as in 

 the other. A sheltered situation is undoubtedly 

 preferable to one open on all sides, and such a 

 situation can hardly be found on a hill, yet much 

 can be gained even on the most elevated spot, by 

 planting belts of trees, chiefly evergreens, on the 

 sides most exposed to the rake of the winds. In 

 respect to elevation, our own choice would fix 

 upon a gentle slope raised just above the damps 

 and late frosts of the valley, and protected from 

 the north winds by tree-clad hills. 



It is often recommended to chose a site already 

 clothed, more or less, with forest trees. There are 

 advantages, certainly, in having such a basis for 

 ornamental operations. It is a great saving- of 

 time and labour to buy your shade-trees already- 

 grown. All you have to do in such cases, is to 

 cut out roads and walks wherever they are wanted, 

 to open up a prospect here, and plant a denser 

 thicket there, and so to smooth out the tangled 

 locks of nature as to develope her finest charms. 

 This is all very well where it can be done ; but 

 such situations cannot always be found, combining, 

 also, the other important features to which we 

 have just alluded. And where they cannot be 

 found, we would select one possessing the other 

 desirable qualities, and then proceed at once to 

 plant the ground with the best trees and in the 

 best manner. With careful treatment, such trees 

 will grow rapidly and develope a greater beauty 

 than the tall, naked denizens of the forest ever 

 present. Whether one Uves to see his trees attam 

 great size or not, is really of no consequence. 

 There is more enjoyment in planting trees and 

 watching their yearly improvement, than in sitting 

 idly under trees already grown. A thousand 

 associations spring up from year to year, and 

 cluster around such trees. They are your trees : 



