OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



ventilators upon the barn roof (which no 

 good barn should be without), the dove-cots, 

 the chimney-stacks, the ricks (for which a 

 nice thatch is an economy), the Dutch barns, 

 with their pointed roofs and rustic base, the 

 windmill (if one is dependent upon pumps), 

 the orcharding — all which may be made to 

 contribute their quota to an effective land- 

 scape, without great violation of the practical 

 aims of the farmer. 



I have dwelt upon this point, because I love 

 to believe and to teach that in these respects 

 true taste and true economy are accordant, 

 and that the graces of life, as well as the prof- 

 its, may be kept in view by every ruralist, 

 whether farmer or amateur. There have been 

 certain fermes ornecs both in England and 

 France (may be in this country too), which I 

 do not at all reckon in my estimate of the re- 

 lations of good farming to the positive laws 

 of taste. They are play-farms, upon which it 

 is thought necessary, (however flat the sur- 

 face,) to give to the fields all manner of ir- 

 regular and curvilinear shapes. Such an ar- 

 rangement is to every judicious farmer an af- 

 front. If a field takes irregular shape for suf- 

 ficient reason — in its surface, or encroachment 

 of cliff, border territory, or water,— well and 



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