156 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



worked out in detail. Tliere are two ways of doing this. One 

 way is to employ a high-toned architect to reconstruct the house, 

 and a landscape gardener and a brace of surveyors for the lawns 

 and tields. It sounds well to talk about them, and they are very 

 interesting objects to look at while they are at work, but will not 

 be likely to exhibit as much agility and animation as j'ou j'our- 

 self will when they have finished, and present their specilications 

 and bills. 



In country localities congenial society is oftentimes scarce ; 

 therefore the country resident is forced to seek his pleasures and 

 recreations in and about his own homestead, and therein lies a mine 

 of crude satisfaction, to him who has the ingenuity to work it into 

 a tangible shape. I would, therefore, advise a second way, 

 one which has the double advantage of annihilating the expense, 

 and increasing the satisfaction. It is to draw the plan yourself. 

 Perhaps you say you cannot. I say 3'ou can if you will. 



Having thus arbitrarily settled that point, we will now com- 

 mence work. Take some bright morning when your digestion is 

 good, and you feel at peace with your neighbor who borrows and 

 never returns, and when the note you gave to settle your fertilizer 

 bill is not quite due ; then enter upon the task with a determination 

 to have a feasible plan before evening. 



Take the house (irst. Scan it with an eye critical of its defects, 

 and study to find a remedy for each. Should you be so fortunate 

 as to have an old-time house, with ample chimney, shallow eaves, 

 and quaint little windows, content yourself with its simplicity. 

 .Seek to make only such additions as will be suggestive of '' solid 

 comfort " and will be in keeping with the quiet air that invests 

 all such venerable dwellings. Do not tr^' to modernize it, for it 

 cannot be done ; architect and builder will only impair or destroy 

 the charm that time has placed as a spell around it. 



But these old structures may receive improving touches. A 

 wide spreading porch over the door, having bracket supports in- 

 stead of posts or pillars, will add to rather than diminish its 

 quaint and homelike charm. Do not make the porch heavy and 

 solid, with straight timbers, but shape the edges and bevel the 

 ends till they have an artistic effect, however rough in workman- 

 ship. A broad, low piazza, with light supports, might be per- 

 missible, should a re-entrant angle be presented by a projecting 

 portion of the building. Consider all such proposed additions 



