SECRETARY'S REPORT. 217 



cellar, and with proper arrangements in the chimneys the neces- 

 sity of ash and smoke-houses may be avoided. The house that 

 embraces the most conveniences, and covers the most wants 

 under one roof, with the least ells, wings, nooks, corners, and 

 projections, with a reasonable reference to taste and due propor- 

 tions, may be said to be the most economical, and will prove 

 most satisfactory in process of time. 



WATER. 



There is scarcely a set of farm-buildings in New England that 

 cannot be economically furnished with constant running water. 

 The make of the land is admirably adapted to that purpose, and 

 any necessary outlay in that direction will well pay. Water can 

 now be brought -nearly as well up-hill as down. We have in 

 our mind one of Douglas's hydraulic rams that has been in 

 constant operation for eighteen years, affording an abundant 

 supply of water for a large family and large stock of cattle ; 

 supplying house, horse-barn, cattle and sheep. The water is 

 brought sixty rods, with a rise of forty feet, and the yearly 

 expense has not exceeded twelve dollars, including interest on 

 the first investment ; whereas, formerly, the water for especial 

 family use was drawn from a well thirty feet deep ; the washing 

 water from a cistern, the horses watered at a pump, the cattle 

 driven sixty rods in the highway, (manured by tlieir droppings,) 

 and the sheep ate snow. 



INCONVENIENT EXPENSE. 



We sometimes see no legs than some ten or a dozen buildings 

 and appurtenances scattered about to make up a complete farm 

 set. First, a house, with a well located off across the road some- 

 where, and an inconvenient wood-shed, with little or no good 

 wood ; then an asli-house or a smoke-house ; next a hog-pen 

 and poultry-house, then a granary, then wagon-house, and per- 

 haps horse-barn, then one or two cattle-barns, and then a sheep- 

 barn. And the farmer has most of these buildings to visit to 

 accomplish his routine of stock tending. And perhaps you 

 will see in connection a small front yard, a side yard or 

 drive-way, another back yard ; and, off at one side, a garden, 

 perhaps picketed to keep the fowls out. The repairs of fencing, 

 roofing, silling, &c., are constant, and never done. 



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