214 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the various stages of civilization to the clean, comfortable, 

 beautiful, convenient and best arranged premises of the New 

 England farmer, with a variation according to means, location, 

 and taste, which is only equalled by the natural scenery which 

 surrounds him, but evincing, in the aggregate, the greatest 

 amount of thrift and refinement, and, withal, so« beautifully 

 dotted with school-houses and church-spires, indicating universal 

 education and the Christian religion. 



THE NEW ENGLAND FARMHOUSE. 



Tastefully kept, carefully designed with reference to conve- 

 nient location, convenience of internal arrangement, beauty of 

 form and proportion, draped, perhaps, in tasteful simplicity, with 

 festoons of living vines, and with surrounding ornaments, of 

 flowers, and of shade and fruit-trees ; occupied by the intelli- 

 gent and warm-hearted farmer, with his neat, tasty, frugal, 

 industrious and affectionate housewife, their cares and labors 

 being lessened by the aid of sons bearing the image of the 

 mother, and by daughters in the likeness of the father, and 

 who, through the diligent training of the experienced parents, 

 are the aspiring candidates to like positions, — all these, and 

 even more may be seen in the rural portions of every New 

 England town, and in no " place on earth do we find nearer 

 approaches to the Garden of Eden, or a nobler or purer type 

 of that being who was made in the image of God. 



THE FOUNDATION 



of all buildings should be effectively permanent. We have seen 

 cellar walls and underpinnings that have stood one hundred 

 years without change or variation ; and again we have seen 

 buildings ruined from want of proper foundation before they 

 had stood one- tenth of that time. We sometimes see the 

 upright part of a house with cellar underneath and permanent 

 foundation, with a wing attached without cellar or sufficiently 

 permanent foundation, and every winter the frost breaks the 

 joinings of the two, making periodical work for the mechanic 

 and inconvenience for the occupants. 



Let all foundations for buildings extend below the frost and 

 be substantially made of enduring material. Neither clay, 

 muck, nor loam should be allowed in contact with foundation 



