RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 629 



in a lamp. If the fat is exhausted to make up for the deficiency 

 of food, the animals are turned out in the spring, poor and 

 emaciated ; and if they survive the trying month of March, 

 they will consume one half the summer in restoring the flesh 

 they have lost. This is no fancy picture, but one that may be 

 ' almost everywhere witnessed around us. 



" Besides these losses and the numerous inconveniences the 

 farmer is subject to in preparing the food and taking care of 

 his stock, for the want of a well constructed barn, arranged 

 with all the improvements of the present day, he loses an im- 

 mense amount for want of shelter for his crops. In 1855 there 

 were ■ millions of bushels of wheat in the United States, either 

 totally lost or greatly injured by exposure in the shock to the 

 rains. This injury was so extensive, that in many sections of 

 the country sufficient wheat — that had not been sprouted — 

 could not be procured for fall sowing ; and the query was made 

 in almost every agricultural paper, whether sprouted wheat 

 would answer for seed." 



A Rat Proof Corn Crib may be built by laying pillars of 

 3at stones twelve inches square, two feet high, and capping 

 .hem with smooth flat stones two feet square. 



An Ice House is not only a great advantage, in connection 

 yith the dairy, but there are many ways in which it adds to 

 he comfort and economy of housekeeping. The ice house 

 ould be wholly above ground, and never less than twelve feet 

 uare on the inside. The walls should be double, with twelve 

 ch space between them, filled with sawdust or tan bark. A 

 uble row of posts, ten feet long and set two feet in the 

 ound, answers as well as any thing else for a frame. 

 We could wish that more attention was paid to the position 

 farm buildings as affecting their looks. If they are arranged 

 out a hollow square, and partially hid'len from passers by 



