LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS 



annual return they will make. Are lands 

 under such rule of management susceptible of 

 an sesthetic governance as well? Will treat- 

 ment with a view to profit, discard of neces- 

 sity all consideration of tasteful arrangement? 

 I think not, and for reasons among which I 

 may adduce the following: Judicious loca- 

 tion of a farm-steading, with a view to profit 

 simply, will be always near the centre of the 

 lands farmed: this is agreeable, moreover, to 

 every landscape-ruling in the matter. The 

 ricks, the chimney, the barn-roofs, the dove- 

 cots, the door-yard, with its skirting array of 

 shrubbery and shade trees, — if only order 

 and neatness belong to them, as good 

 economy would dictate, — form a charm- 

 ing nucleus for any stretch of fields. 

 If there be a stream whose power for me- 

 chanical purposes can be made available, 

 economy dictates a location of the farm build- 

 ings near to its banks : taste does the same. 

 If there be a hill whose sheltering slope will 

 offer a warm lee from the northwesters, a due 

 regard for the comfort of laborers and of 

 beasts, to say nothing of early garden crops, 

 will dictate the occupancy of such sheltered 

 position by the group of farm buildings : taste 

 will do the same. If such slope has its rocky 



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