SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 553 



A Cheap Farm-House. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 5:57-58; Feb., 1846 1 ] 



[December 25, 1845] 

 Whoever rears his house in air, 

 Will need much gold to build it there ; 

 While he that builds an humble cot, 

 May save some gold to boil the pot. 

 While that so high the cot outshows, 

 Is hard to climb the good wife knows. 

 Who has the cot ne'er wants a home ; 

 Who spent the gold to want may come. 



It is an old proverb, Mr. Editor, that many a man has 

 built his house so big he could not live in it. Sometimes 

 it is because he don't know how to build less. Can we 

 help to show him? Notwithstanding the high character 

 and the adaptability of Mr. Downing's works to the 

 "upper ten thousand," the wants of the lower ten hundred 

 thousand are not satisfied. 2 



It is often the case, particularly in settling new coun- 

 tries, that a man wants something that will answer for 

 immediate shelter, and which he would be glad so to build 

 that it would by and by form part of the house — so he 

 may be able to build part of a house this year, and part 

 next year, and perhaps another part another year. 



Now, any plan that is so arranged that the new begin- 

 ner can build it in parts, having each part complete in it- 

 self, will be useful to many of your readers, who will 

 never read "Cottage Residences;" and if they did, could 

 not adopt a single plan in the book, for want of means. 

 It is for the benefit of this class that I have arranged the 

 enclosed plan. It is particularly intended for the new 

 settler, and to be built on the baloon plan, which has not 

 a single tennon or mortice in the frame, except the sills ; 



1 Reprinted in Ohio Cultivator, 2:41-42 (March 15, 1846). 



2 Andrew Jackson Downing's work, Cottage Residences (New 

 York, 1842), was influential in creating a national interest in the 

 improvement of country homes. 



