252 The Farmstead 



house, a pig -pen, and later a sheep -barn, cow- 

 barn, a hay -barn, all the room in the first and 

 second barns being by this time required for 

 grain. Outside the grain districts the buildings 

 were modified to suit conditions, but the prac- 

 tice of constructing many small structures was 

 not changed. 



The buildings were erected without any com- 

 prehensive plan as to the farmstead as a whole. 

 This necessitated many fences, gates, yards, and 

 a maze of muddy byways in which the dock 

 and other weeds, discarded implements, and the 

 flotsam and jetsam of the farm found oppor- 

 tunity to grow or to rot. Do what one might, 

 the farmstead could never be made to look neat 

 and tidy. Not infrequently, twelve to fifteen 

 separate structures may be seen on a farm of 

 eighty acres. The farmers who own these struc- 

 tures are not to be criticised too severely. They 

 inherited the method of building and often the 

 buildings, and no one, so far, has deigned to 

 give them help by treating such plebeian sub- 

 jects as the improvement of unsightly stys, 

 stables, sheds, and barns. 



If the concentrated method be adopted, in 

 case of fire all is swept away ; if the distribu- 

 tive, some of the buildings may be saved. 

 There are so many things to be gained, how- 

 ever, by adopting the concentrated method that 



