1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



171 



then spend his declining years, under his own 

 vine and fig-tree, in the delightful pursuits of ag- 

 riculture. But, alas ! a life of care and luxury 

 in the city has unfitted hiin, as well as his fami- 

 ly, for simple rural pleasures. Ilis wife is tor- 

 mented for want of faithful and capable servants, 

 his daughters sigh in vain for the promenade on 

 the pavement, and for the opera, and even the 

 good citizen himself begins soon to suspect that 

 the "old familiar foces" on "change, or at his fa- 

 vorite resort, the insurance office, are more agree- 

 able companions than cows and oxen, or even the 

 farmers about him, who know so little of freights 

 and the stock excliange. 



The leading thought, however, with which we 

 started, related more particularly to expenditures 

 by the farmer, upon his own house and lands. 

 He can calculate pretty accurately, as to the ex- 

 pense of plowing and ditching, and the common 

 labors of the farm ; but our thoughts extended 

 beyond this, to the time Avhen having acquired a 

 little surplus, he undertakes to adorn and embel- 

 lish his residence. Here he is beyond his usual 

 depth, and has not his usual landmark to guide 

 him. He desires to erect a stable or barn, which 

 he thinks should cost some five or six hundred dol- 

 lars. He sets out with the sensible idea, that it 

 should be a plain, substantial, modest structure, 

 for cows and horses to live in. He consults a 

 carpenter or architect, who persuade him to allow 

 liim to take charge of the liuilding, and present- 

 ly, by the side of his simple mansion rises a sort 

 of cross between a martin-house and a temple of 

 Minerva, clap-boarded and painted, with the doors 

 hung in all the new-fashioned methods, so that 

 they will neither open or shut, with a tall venti- 

 lator and a magnificent weather-vane on top — the 

 whole resembling less a farmer's barn, than a vil- 

 lage church, erected under the direction of a com- 

 mittee of nine pew-holders. Now these fancy 

 out-buildings are well enough on fancy places, but 

 are m bad taste, to say the least, on a farm, where 

 economy is consulted ; and the worst of it is that 

 tlie owner finds, when it is completed, that his barn 

 costs twice as much as he could well aflbrd. 



Then, again, he determines upon having a bet- 

 ter /c;irc in front of his house. The carpenter 

 shows him a beautiful pattern, Avhich is like 'Squire 

 Wealthy's, in Roxbury, and persuades him to 

 adopt it. The work is completed, and behold a 

 BiniiW front yard, as we call it in New England, 

 just as wide on the street as the dwelling-house, 

 and running straight to the front corners of the 

 house, enclosing three or four square rods of 

 ground! and for what purpose? Kind reader, 

 did you ever ask yourself for what these little 

 front yards are designed? Usually, they contain 

 a few lilacs, half-a-dozen rose-bushes, and occa- 

 sionally a small flower bed. The flowers and 



shrubs we like, but the expensive fence we do not 

 like. Often a hundred dollars are expended in 

 this way for as many feet in length of such a 

 fence. Instead of this, we would either construct 

 a plain fence of pine, painted, which should 

 not cost more than two duUars a rod, or we 

 would plant a hedge of buckthorn or privet, sup- 

 ported by a wire fence, for strength, if necessary. 

 In every case, we would avoid running straight 

 fences from the street to the house, and would 

 leave a liberal plot in front, and if possible, at one 

 side or both, graded and finislied as a lawn. But 

 let the fence be plain and cheap. There is no 

 beauty either of symmetry, harmony or utility, 

 in such front fcKces as we may see in every village 

 in New England. Save your money to gratify 

 some correct and rational taste, and do not follow 

 an unreasonable fashion. Use the reason, the 

 plain common sense which Providence gaye you 

 to use, before you suffer your hard-earned money 

 to be taken from you, to gratify a carpenter's 

 foolish ambition to work out a more elaborate 

 piece of architectural folly, than has ev€r before 

 been presented to the public. We have noticed 

 so much of tliis display of squares and crosses and 

 triangles in our travels lately, that we think we 

 shall feel better after having spoken our mind on 

 the suliject. We think the people of the ruvii.1 

 districts, especially of the villaf/cs, have yet many 

 lessons of economy to learn, in the structure of 

 their houses, out-buildings and ornamental fences. 

 How to expand a limited amount of money so as to 

 produce the greatest amount of physical cooifort, 

 intellectual gratification and moral improvement, 

 is a problem well worthy of attention. 



COUNTY TRANSACTIONS. 



We are under obligations to gentlemen of the 

 several County Agricultural Societies for copies 

 of their Transactions for 1854. ^Ye have re- 

 ceived copies of the Franklin County Society, 

 Bristol, Berkshire, Middlesex South, Housatonic, 

 Hampden, Norfolk, Hampsliire, Worcester and 

 Essex. Each of these Transactions contain pa- 

 pers of value to the fiirmer, which we should be 

 glad to spread before the reader did our limits 

 permit, — and wi ere any new mode of operation, 

 new and valuable designs of implements, or meth- 

 ods of making or preserving manures are noticed, 

 we shall endeavor to publish them. Our ac- 

 knowledgments are gratefully tendered to gentle- 

 men who have kindly supplied us with these 

 reports. Norfolk, Bristol and ^liddlcsex are 

 beautiful specimens of the typographic art. 



1^ Tlie J\orfulk Herald announces to the for- 

 mers of Virginia auJ Nt)rth Carolina, that the corn 

 dealers in that market have come to tlic determina- 

 tion to buy and sell corn by weight on and after the 

 1st of April next. 



