2SS 



THE FARMERY. 



[Chap. III. 



their hogs. Tliey eat every meal here. They sit here every evening, and 

 here they receive their friends. Tlie women in this kitchen toil incessantly, 

 from the time they rise in the morning, until they go to bed at night. Here 

 man and woman, sons and daughters, live in the belief that work is the 

 gi'eat thing, that efficiency in work is the crowning excellence of manhood 

 and Momanhood, and willingly go so far into essential self-debasement some- 

 times as to contemn beauty, and those who love it, and to glory above all 

 lluiiL's in brute strength, and brute endurance. 



We dii not expect to see every farm-house a domestic paradise ; but we do 

 contend that one contrived upon the moderate plan described in No. 305 will 

 he likely to produce a better race of men and women than such a home as 

 fhe olio last mentioned in this paragraph. 



Having occupied as much space as we can afford to give to the dwellings, 

 let us now look at some of the surroundings necessary to make up a complete 

 farmery. 



SECTION XV.-CELLARS, CHIMNEYS, AND ICE-HOUSES. 



"N a cold climate, two of the .most important requi- 

 , sites of a farm-house are good cellars and good cliim- 



9^^ ncys. In all the great farming region north of Lat. 40°, 

 A^ there are nights almost every Winter in which the thermo- 

 meter falls 10° below 0° of Farenheit; and in some of the 

 elevated portions of New England it sometimes falls 40° 

 below zero. Tliere warm cellai-s are a necessity. Every- 

 where chimneys are so, for there is not a greater source of 

 vexation about a farm-house than a smoky chimney. For- 

 merly, ice was looked upon as a luxury merely ; it is so no 

 longer. Hence we devote space to give the best information 

 we can obtain, how to build an ice-house and preserve its 

 contents. 



310. Cellars— Where and How to Build Ihoin. — As we have 

 already intimated, we do not approve of extensive cellars under dwellings. 

 As a general thing, in all damp soils, like millions of acres of the western 

 prairie lands, cellars, even when kept with the utmost care, are not healthy ; 

 and when kept as we have often seen them, dripping with moisture, and 

 frequently with water standing several inches deep, they are positive conta- 

 gion breeders. In all such situations we recommend cave cellars, built on 

 the level of the surface. An excellent one which we built near the kitchen 

 door, 8 by 20 feet, was made of eight-inch brick walls, seven feet high, with 

 an entry and double doors at one end, and double windows at the other. At 

 first our design was to arch this over and make a grassy mound ; but upon 



