DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



Dninrritit JMm. 



Our Frontispiece. — We present our read- 

 ers, this month, with a perspective view and 

 ground plan of a barn and stable designed for 

 the villa residence of a gentleman on the Hud- 

 son, whose whole establishment will be remark- 

 able for the completeness, convenience, and 

 good effect of the various buildings, joined to 

 much natural beauty of features of the locality 

 in which they are placed. 



This stable, is intended to produce a pic- 

 turesque effect externally, and to contain in- 

 ternally all the convenience demanded in a 

 building of this class. The central portion con- 

 tains the carriage-house, with space for four ve- 

 hicles, and a harness-room at the end of it. On 

 one side of this is the stable — the stalls 5^ feet 

 wide, with racks supplied with hay through 

 wells, over each rack, in the floor of the hay- 

 loft above. A flight of stairs leads from the end 

 of the stable to the hay-loft above, and is plac- 

 ed here, (and not in the carriage-house as we 

 frequently see it,) in order to prevent any dust 

 from the hay-loft from finding its way into the 

 carriage-house. On the other side of the car- 

 raige-house are a tool-house and work-shop. 



All the doors in this stable slide upon iron 

 rollers running upon a piece of plain bar iron 

 above the door. These iron rollers are attach- 

 ed firmly to the door by iron straps, and the 

 door, being thus suspended, not only runs much 

 more easily and freely than if the track were at 

 the bottom, as is usually the case, but the track 

 is not liable to get clogged by dust or other 

 matters falling upon the floor. Besides this, 

 a sliding door in a stable, when opened, gives 

 the largest possible egress in a given space, and 

 can never stand in the way to the injury of hor- 

 ses or carriages passing in or out on either side. 



The high-roof of this building gives a good 

 deal of room in the hay loft, and the ventilation 

 on the top keeps this space cool and airy at all 

 seasons. The whole is built of wood, the verti- 

 tical boarding battened in the ordinary man- 

 ner. 



Suburban Embellishments. — We learn, 

 with much pleasure, that an extensive and beau- 

 mprovement is about to be carried out in 

 irons of Rochester, N. Y., by building 



up a part of the suburbs of that city so as to 

 combine the greatest amount of comfort, health 

 and beauty, possible. A suitable piece of land 

 has been selected ; in the center of this, a park 

 of 60 acres is to be laid out and planted in the 

 best manner, and around this are to be located 

 the various cottages and villas of the sharehol- 

 ders in this enterprise — not with a few paltry 

 feet of frontage, but with space enough to give 

 each residence those accessories of trees, shrubs 

 and grounds, that bestow an air of rural beauty 

 upon such a residence, and make the owner feel 

 that he has a home, even if it is in the midst of 

 a city. The project is one that pleases us much, 

 and we shall look forward to its faithful execu- 

 tion as something likely to have an influence on 

 the taste of the country. We, Americans, lay 

 out and build our cities generally, as though 

 there was a fearful scarcity of space for the fu- 

 ture destinies of the race on tliis western con- 

 tinent. 



Habits of the Wild Grape.— I wish to 

 avail myself of the subscriber's privilege, and 

 make one or two inquiries in relation to grape 

 vines. Six or seven years ago I took half a 

 dozen cuttings from the vine of a native white 

 grape, in another garden, and planted them in 

 my own garden ; three out of four of them 

 that lived, when they were three years old, 

 produced an abundance of flowers, but did not 

 set a single grape, and although they would 

 blossom every year, they never bore any grapes ; 

 the other one began to blossom when the others 

 did, and has always borne a good crop of grapes. 

 Now I wish to inquire if cuttings taken from one 

 individual vine, as I think mine were, will pro- 

 duce vines, some of which will be sterile or 

 barren, and others fertile and producive; if so, 

 then, how can I select cuttings from a vine that 

 will be sure to be productive? 



I have thought that a cutting taken from the 

 base of a cane of vine of this year's growth, 

 might, in some cases, produce a productive 

 vine, while another cutting taken from the top 

 of the same cutting, might produce a sterile 

 vine, yet I can hardly think so; it would seem 

 to beat the strawberry in that case. What do 



