food is prepared, and ■whence small quantities 

 are taken several times each day, close to the 

 place where food is consumed, than to have it 

 near the storehouse, from wliich the supply re- 

 quires to he carried only once. 



The second principle of airangement which 

 should guide us, although suhordinate, is yet of 

 great importance ; it is to classify and arrange 

 together the buildings used for like pui-po.ses. — 

 An attcutiou to this greatly facilitates the labors 

 of the homestead. Thus, the houses and yards 

 for particular descriptions of stock should be 

 placed together ; the working cattle should be 

 kept by themselves; the cows of the domestic 

 dairy should be kept apart from the feeding- 

 stock ; the pigs and the poultry .should have 

 their proper locality. It is of great assistance 

 to tills classified arrangement to have a work- 

 ing court or yard, round v^hich are assembled, 

 in their proper places, the apartments for storing 

 and preparing food, the sheds where the wheel- 

 carriages of the farm are stored, the houses 

 where the tools and smaller implements are 

 kept, those in which the blacksmith and the car- 

 penter work, and the others iised occasionally 

 for various purposes. And, in addition to this, 

 it is important to place the highest buildings so 

 as to attbrd shelter from the prevailing winds, 

 and yet not to intercept the rays of the sun 

 from the other buildings and the yards. In many 

 situations it is desirable that the whole of the 

 out-houses should be so aiTanged as to have one 

 common entrance, which can be clqpcd for se- 

 curity- every night. This is especially necessa- 

 ry near towns. 



It may be proper to remark that all the roads 

 should be wide enough to allow a cart and horse 

 to be turned on them ; and that it is \ve\l that 

 the yards should be so arranged as to allow of a 

 cart being driven through them, which is much 

 better than backing the horse. 



So far, then, for the principles of arrangement 

 of the buildings relative to each other. The 

 ne.Kt topic ^vhich demands our attention is the 

 form which the collected buildings should as- 

 sume, and this involves the consideration of as- 

 pect. 



Under the idea of compactness, out-houses 

 used generally to be arranged in the form of a 

 square, with a central yard into which the litter 

 was thrown ; and here, uncheered by a ray of 

 sunshine, wading in a pool of rain-water from 

 the roofs of the building.s, and of liquid manure 

 from the hou.scs, the farming stock was suffered 

 to languish. Professor Low, of Edinburgh, 

 first showed the absurdity of this system, and 

 pointed out the advantages to be derived by the 

 stock from the admission of sunshine and air to 

 their yards. He showed that these benefits 

 could be best obtained by the form vi-hich also 

 ensured other advantages — a long parallelo- 

 gram. The Professor's principles of arrange- 

 ment have been extensively ado[)ted in modem 

 homesteads, and have been advocated in almost 

 every publication on Agricultural matters, al- 

 though verj- .seldom with the acknowledgment 

 of the source whence they ^vcrc derived. 



The best form that the farm outhouses can as- 

 sume — tliat which combines the greatest ad- 

 vantages — is a long parallelogram, with its 

 diagonal nearly on a line from North to South. 

 The prevailing and severest winds being from 

 the West and West by North, the greatest pos- 

 sible amount of sunshine, and the best shelter 

 may be obtained by having the shed.-j for the 

 cattle and tlicir yards open to the South and 

 (393) 



East. There are cases, however, in which this 

 rule will not obtain, and these must be dealt 

 with according to circumstances. 



The buildings should bo placed, if possible, 

 on a gentle ri.sing surface. If, where water- 

 power exists, such a situation can be found, it 

 is well to take advantage of it. But if to secure 

 such power it is necessary to place the build- 

 ings where light, warmth, ventilation and drain- 

 age cannot be obtained in perfection, then the 

 water-power ought to be sacrificed to the.se 

 more impoitant benefits. The position of the 

 homestead i.s often determined by existing 

 roads and divisions of the farm, in-espective of 

 the eligibility of the situation in itselt; This is 

 an absurd practice, and cannot be too severely 

 reprehended. 



Among other matters demanding our atten- 

 tion in this preliminary notice, are the means 

 for preserving the liquid manure made in the 

 steading. The attainment of this important 

 point is greatly assisted by the classification of 

 the buildings before spoken of. Underground 

 drains should be carried from the cow-houses, 

 feeding-houses, and pig-sties, to one or more 

 tanks. The tanks may be of two kinds ; they 

 mity be adapted for making compost, in which 

 case they should be in the form of a rectangular 

 basin sloping invs'ards from the ends to its deep- 

 est point in the centre of its length, so that a 

 cart may be driven through when the compost 

 is carried out ; and this, or something similar to it, 

 is probably the most economical mode of using 

 the liquid manure on a farm. Or the tanks may 

 be in the form of a well, square, rectangular, or 

 circular in the horizontal section, and arched or 

 domed over. In this case the tank is used to 

 contain the manure in its liquid state, and 

 should, by puddling and the use of cement, be 

 made perfectly water-tight. It mu.st have a 

 man-hole in the arch or dome, and another 

 opening by which a pump may be inserted, or 

 in which it may be permanently fixed. The 

 drains, before entering this latter kind of tank, 

 should terminate in a cesspool in which the 

 liquid manure may deposit any sedimentary 

 matter which would obstruct the working of the 

 pump if deposited in the tank. 



The caves of all the buildings should be fur- 

 nished with gutters, and the rain-water collected 

 by tliem conveyed to underground drains by 

 cast-iron pipes. The drainage of the site has 

 already been spoken of as an essential requi- 

 site. It shoilld be thoroughly done. In too 

 many instances remedies are applied to the 

 foundations of buildings, to prevent dampness 

 from ascending, while the only true remedy is, 

 by draining thoroughly, to remove the cau.se. — 

 As drains very often harbor vermin, cesspools 

 should be con.structed in them, at proper places, 

 without the buildings, which will etlectually 

 bar their progress. 



On reviewing the principles here recom- 

 mended to be observed in the collocation of the 

 out-hou.ses of a farm, it will be seen that their 

 application in practice must be attended with 

 no little difficulty. Slight variations in manage- 

 ment, to suit the soil, and other peculiarities of 

 tlie farm ; the nature of tho povicr to be em- 

 ploj-cd in threshing, &c. ; the requisite arrange- 

 ments for shelter in exposed situations, vv-hen 

 such situations cannot be avoided ; and the na- 

 ture of the ground on the site of the buildings, 

 all tend to embarrass and prevent the applica- 

 tion, in any single case, of all these principles 

 intlieir integrity. The judicious designer knows 



