No. 3. 



Farm Buildings and Rural Improvements. 



87 



the different parts to its different purposes, it 

 must be obvious, tiiat any unnatural obstruc- 

 tion to the due exertion of those powers, or 

 any improper substance being taken into the 

 system with the food, must be followed by 

 disorder, disease and destruction. One great 

 power which plants are allowed to possess, 

 and which seems absolutely necessary to their 

 well-being, is the decomposition of water and 

 the emission of oxygen ; for, from the pro- 

 portion of oxygen in water being so much 

 greater than in any of the vegetable products, 

 the plant must, of necessity, take up more 

 tlian it needs ; and the great power and acti- 

 vity of oxygen are such, that unless plants had 

 the means of expelling the superfluous quan- 

 tity, they could not exist, nor could the dif- 

 ferent products be formed ; but plants do not 

 appear to possess the power of expelling hy- 

 drogen — therefore, whatever quantity of this 

 eubstance be taken into the system, it must 

 remain and be appropriated." 



Here is a new and interesting field for 

 speculation — will your readers cultivate it, 

 and inform us of the result 1 O. 



Sept. 20, 1840. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



On Farm Buildings and Rural Improve- 

 ments in Pennsylvania. 



A VERY general theme of praise with so- 

 journers through Pennsylvania, is the com- 

 parative high state of agriculture as con- 

 trasted with most other portions of the Union. 

 The palm has so often been yielded to us, 

 that we are apt to think ourselves, in all re- 

 spects, perfect, and that no further improve- 

 ment is necessary, whether for comfort, uti- 

 lity, or reputation. 



This oft-repeated praise, if it do not occa- 

 sion vain glory, is, at least, liable to make us 

 overlook our own faults and deficiencies. 



Within the brief limits of this compiunica- 

 tion I shall attempt to point out and illustrate 

 one of them, which has often occasioned me, 

 as a Pennsylvanian, much regret and morti- 

 fication. I allude to the style and condition 

 of agricultural and rural buildings generally. 



We see everywhere abounding, noble 

 farms in neat and beautiful order — waving 

 fields of grain ; luxuriant pasture ; rich crops 

 of various kinds, to delight the eye of the 

 traveller, divided and sub-divided by good 

 and clean fences, and chequered by sufficient 

 woodlands and orchards of fruit-trees, to give 

 agreeable variety ; with browsing herds of 

 fine cattle, and flocks of sheep, all evincing 

 an advanced state of agriculture, as well as 

 a fertile soil and wealthy population. 



But approach the domicile of the owner, or 

 occupant, rich or poor, great or small, and you 

 find too frequently the same dilapidated, neg- 



lected, slovenly appearance about the build- 

 ings. There is here and there an honourable 

 exception, but they are too rare to afTect the 

 national stamp of fine farms and slovenly 

 buildings, devoid of taste and beauty, and 

 without those neat, well-arranged domestic 

 comforts, which every inhabitant of the coun- 

 try, however small his means, may, and 

 should enjoy. It is true, you will meet with 

 many substantial houses, and we have more 

 noble barns than any other state in the Union 

 can boast of. But here the favourable side 

 of the picture generally terminates, for, on 

 looking round, where a fine garden should 

 not only supply but also gratify the inmates 

 of the house by its neatness, and little rural 

 ornaments, you find beds of weeds and wild 

 vines, instead of garden-fruits, flowers and 

 vegetables. The front yard is probably 

 adorned by a broken-down cart, or a cast- 

 away plough — a wood-pile in one corner, and, 

 very possibly, the pigs reposing in another. 



The beauty and rural comfort of a shel- 

 tered piazza, decorated and screened by the 

 rose, or woodbine ; a few fruit or forest trees 

 to break the piercing rays of the summer's 

 sun ; and a clean grass-plat or parterre, all 

 of which cost nothing but a little industry 

 and care, adding infinitely to the felicity of a 

 country life, may be enjoyed by every occu- 

 pant, whether of a castle or a cottage. 



I have said that our barns are objects of 

 pride — they are often magnificent — but it is 

 the structures or buildings only, not the man- 

 ner in which they are kept. Whether we 

 examine their internal or external condition, 

 it does not require a close inspection to dis- 

 cover the slovenly manner that prevails about 

 most of them. If you attempt to approach 

 one of these noble " fodder-houses," provide 

 yourself with water-proof boots, or your feet 

 may get a urinary soaking ; and, when you 

 enter, be careful of pitch-forks, rakes, &c., 

 lying pell-mell among.st the loose straw and 

 hay, on the floors. The golden rule, of " a 

 place for every thing, and every thing in its 

 place," is too seldom observed by most of us. 

 In travelling through New England, a few 

 years since, I was highly gratified by the 

 picture of neatness, order and comfort, that 

 everywhere abounded, whether in their nu- 

 merous villages, or more remote country 

 dwellings. Even their " wood-house" (for 

 almost every habitation had one attached) 

 displayed care and good management. Now, 

 these frugal people have not the same nafrcral 

 means as ours, to possess tiiemselves of such 

 rational and well-ordered enjoyments. It is 

 only by directing their attention, assiduously, 

 to the essential requirements of a happy 

 country-life that they command the admira- 

 tion of strangers. 



That we of Pennsylvania, and most of the 



