FARMERS' HOMES. 33 



FARMEKS' HOMES : WHAT THEY WEEE, 

 ARE, AISB OUGHT TO BE. 



From an Address before the Housatonic Agricultural Society. 



BY ALEXANDER HYDE. 



Our first suggestion for the improvement of farmers' homes 

 is, that more thought be bestowed upon the site. Convenience 

 for work and shelter from cold winds would seem to be the 

 only considerations with some farmers in choosing a site for 

 their home. It may be very convenient, so far as work is 

 concerned, to be located near the centre of the farm, and to 

 be able to step from the front door into the street and from 

 the back door into the barn-yard, but such is not a site for the 

 home. It is not the retired, quiet, comfortable place that we 

 associate with home. Work is man's heritage and blessing, 

 but God never designed this world to be merely one great 

 workhouse. Refinement and beauty are as manifestly the 

 design of the Creator as is utility, and he who would build 

 aright, must imitate the great Architect, and combine consid- 

 erations of health and comfort with those of labor and profit. 

 The house should be located, not only at a suitable distance 

 from the dust and noise of the highway, but also from the 

 filth and effluvia of the barn and pigpen. The house is not 

 made for the barn, but the barn for the house, and the wind 

 should circulate freely and largely between the two. We 

 have known a corner of a barn finished ofl" for the residence 

 of the farmer, but nothing short of necessity should compel 

 a man to shelter his family under the same roof with his dumb 

 beasts. It has been said that a farmer can be known by his 

 barn. There is truth in this ; but whoever puts the barn first 

 and house second has more farmer than man about him, and 



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