RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



master spirit which marks the difference between the chaos of the sluggard, and the order 

 of the true husbandman. 



Very few persons live upon a farm five years, without wishing to build something, if it 

 is only a piggery; but the misfortune of farmers as a class, has hitherto been, that for 

 the most part they " build as their fathers builded" — they take no pains to see what any 

 one with more knowledge or thought than themselves may have done; unlike mechanics 

 and manufacturers they seek none of the new improvements, and consequently, but for 

 Yankee plough makers, and inventors of all sorts, who wont let the farm escape them 

 althogether, they echo the song of the fishes who heard the sermon of Saint Anthony: 



" Much delighted were they, 

 But preferred the old way." 



Mr. Allen is none of this antideluvian race of farmers. He is for making the most of 

 farmers and farming — looking upon it as the occupation of occupations, and its followers 

 as men who ought live with less ostentation and more substantial comfort, than any other. 

 Ilis remarks on this topic are all in the right spirit, and though not original with him, it 

 is most gratifying to see by his utterance of them, the farming class and its wants vindi- 

 cated by a champion from among themselves. We have always noticed that in this coun- 

 try, any reform, to be salutary and progressive, must originate among the very men who 

 are in need of it; and architects may publish designs for farm houses for centuries, if far- 

 mers do not feel the need of any improvement; it is no better than preaching in English to 

 our Rocky Mountain Indians. 



Hence, we look upon it as the great merit of Mr. Allen's book, that it will cause in 

 the farming class a desire for improvement, by placing before them plans of dwellings and 

 farm buildings adapted to their wants, and by treating of these wants in a way that they 

 can easily understand. Put a plain farmer in direct connection with an architect who 

 considers high art as the first end of his artistic existence, and the two parties will most 

 probably so completely misunderstand each other, as to do each other harm instead of 

 good. And besides this, American farmers, as a class, are not in want of the aid of pro- 

 fessional architects. Their homes would be qui^e spoiled to our own taste, if treated ac- 

 cording to any severe rules of art. We are most delighted with that farm house which is 

 most simply and directly expressive of a comfortable, substantial, rural life — with little 

 decorations except those of trees and vines, and characterised, inside and outside, by the 

 simplest good taste, and most direct expression of harmony, with the simple natural life 

 of the agriculturist in the midst of his fields. When we said that Mr. Allen's book had 

 very little architecture in it, we should not be understood to find fault with it on this ac- 

 count. K farmers can, by means of such works as this, be led to think for themselves on 

 the subject it treats of, and commence by raising their homes in the scale of comfort, utility 

 and convenience, and the charm of looking like farmer's houses, we shall feel confident that 

 beauty of form and expression will speedily follow. 



The plans of farm-dwellings in this volume, are valuable mainly for the excellent com- 

 mon sense they show, and the knowledge of the wants of the farmer's every day life. 

 We are confident that an hour's study of them by any farmer about to build, will mate- 

 rially change and improve all his crude notions, and put him in the way of contriving, 

 with the aid of his carpenter, a very satisfactory home for himself. There is very little 

 aim at either elegance or beauty in the interior arrangement — but for the most part the 

 buildings do not demand it, and greater beauty of plan could not be achieved without 

 a neglect of the more obvious and necessary attributes and conveniences demanded 

 the minor conveniences of the form-house, wood-house, wash-house, piggery, stables 



