306 On architectural, rural, domestic, and other Improvements. 
Localities which are occasionally subject to great changes in their 
condition, and in their influence on the atmosphere. 
5. What considerations are to be taken into view in the choice of 
sites in given cases, as of plains, valleys, hills, mountains, banks of 
rivers, exposure to winds and storms, particular geological formations? 
6. What considerations are to be regarded, in given cases, re- 
specting the depth of cellars, the elevation of the first floor from the 
level of the adjacent grounds, and the position, height, and form of 
houses, reference being had to the position of other dwellings, and to 
that of out-buildings, gardens, roads, streets, and distant scenery, and 
to. exposure to winds, storms, cold and heat ? 
7. What, with relation to dwellings and to each other, should be 
the position of barns and other out-buildings ? ; 
8. What cautions ought to be observed in the location and con- 
struction of dwellings and out-houses to guard each and all of them 
against the hazard of fire ? 
9. What plans and measures are to be adopted respecting door- 
yards, courts, gardens, shrubbery, vines and trees! 
10. What is to be aimed at in respect to water for household oe, 
and in what cases are pumps or aqueducts to be ise chia to wells 
and fountains ? 
11. What plans and materials for fences are to be preferred ? 
12. What plans and materials are most eligible for walks, intend- 
ed to be dry, durable, and tasteful? — 
These and the like heads of enquiry, would give scope for the 
most valuable instruction and advice, applicable to every part of our 
country, and which would, one cannot doubt, be eats well re- 
ceived, adopted and carried into practical effect. 
Of the thousands and tens of thousands who every year engage 
in the erection of dwellings, how few possess or are in any condi- 
tion to obtain the knowledge which is needful to guide their judg- 
ments in respect to the most essential of the above particulars, or 
with a view either to economy, convenience, durability, elegance, 
health, security from fire, effect on price, or any other advantage, 
private or public? In how many thousands of i Instances, even in lo- 
calities which present, to an informed and observant eye, unobject- 
ionable sites, are all these benefits lost, and great inconveniences and 
evils incurred for want of such hints and advices as might be com- 
prised in a tract of a few pages? In numerous cases, both of single 
dwellings and of neighborhoods it would seem that no one of these 
