PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 107 



add that economy in building is a very important consideration 

 with me, and I am fully aware that a second story is the cheapest 

 wa}-- of getting the same amount of additional room, to what we 

 must have iu the first storj', two rooms beside woodshed, etc." 



Mr, Solon Eobinson. — Let us look at a few simple facts, which 

 may, perhaps, upset the writer's prejudice about the unhealthiness 

 of lodging in lower rooms. Nearly all of the ancient farm-houses 

 of New England had one, and frequently three or four beds upon 

 the lower floor. The people in those days certainly were no more 

 unhealthy, than they were after it became fashionable to build 

 two or three story houses. About the crudest wrong of all that 

 a man of ample grounds can inflict upon his family, is to build a 

 house which compels them often to traverse long flights of stairs 

 I am well satisfied, from personal expericnee and ol)servation, 

 that a properly constructed one-story house, upon a dry soil, is 

 just as health}^ for lodgings upon its lower floor as a higher house 

 would be upon its upper ones. Mr. Bond speaks of the economy 

 of space gained in making two-story houses instead of one. Should 

 the health, comfort and life of the occupants be sacrificed to 

 economy ? Beside, it is only economy in the first cost of building 

 material ; in all after years it is a serious loss of labor to all the 

 family, who are compelled to ascend to an upper story daily, and 

 frequently hourly, to peform their necessary household duties. 

 An up-stairs sick room is particularly inconvenient. It is bad 

 enough for people who live in cities to sutFer from such disadvan- 

 tages. It is positively Avicked for a man building in the country 

 to ape the fashion of city houses. Be assured sir, there is no rea- 

 son why the lower rooms of a one-story country house should be 

 unhealth}' for lodging. Probably one of the main reasons why 

 houses have of late years been built so high, is owing to the expen- 

 siveness of roofing materials. That difiiculty is likely now to be 

 obviated. Eoofing made cheap, dural)le and safe from dano-er of 

 tire, will tend to a great improvement in the style of our farm 

 houses. If we discuss the subject enough to awaken the public 

 mind to a sense of its importance, we shall one of these days get 

 back to the comforts of one-story houses. 



Mr. R. H. Williams. — I entirely agree with the opinions ex- 

 pressed by Mr. Robinson. I would liever recommend building a 

 farm-house over one and a half story high. That is the most economi- 

 cal, as that form will afibrd all the sleeping rooms necessary to be 

 placed on the upper floor, at a much less cost than they could be 



