92 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



is like a ship at sea ; one latitude is as good as another, as far as 

 beauty, convenience, or sailing capacity of that ship is con- 

 cerned, and a house on a prairie, is only a house on the prairie, 

 and it cannot be made anything else. But New England has 

 the finest building sites of the world. Healthful of location, 

 cheapness and ease of construction, and picturesque views of 

 hills, valleys, lakes and streams. An ideal location is not on a 

 level piece of land, but upon a gently sloping hillside, with a 

 rugged, uneven top, backed by a piece of wooded land. They 

 abound everywhere. 



When selected, adapt the house to the contour of the land, 

 but don't grade the land to make it level for the house. One 

 great advantage of such a location is, that you can get a cellar 

 above ground, — if that does not seem a misnomer to you. A 

 cellar under a house on level ground is a nuisance from begin- 

 ning to end. This is a radical view of my own. I possess 

 them on other matters as well. 



For building material take that which the Iiishman does when 

 he goes into a fight, whatever comes most handy. What is 

 more incongruous than a frame house painted a blazing white, 

 set in a field where gray stones predominate? What is more 

 beautiful than those same stones used in the construction of the 

 house, their gray hues preserved, and presenting a harmony 

 with the whole landscape? In New England we reject the 

 best building material of the world, its granite and cobble stones. 

 In New Jersey unhewn blocks of red sandstone are used almost 

 exclusively in some localities, and blend in perfect harmony with 

 the red soil of that locality. Wood should be used only in a 

 region where trees abound, and are most accessible, and the 

 house when built should not be painted, but stained some of the 

 beautiful shades of brown, or gray, that harmonize so well with 

 nature's coloring. 



My chief criticism of house building has always been the im- 

 perfect foundations, and little or no care given to the soil and 

 surface draina2;e. How seldom we find a good foundation laid 

 in cement, and those foundations protected from the settlings 

 and heavings of frost by complete drainage. Are your own 

 buildings constructed that way, and how many of your neigh- 



