CHAP. I. THE HOMESTEAD. 649 



On farms consisting of from two to three hundred acres, these 

 apartments on the ground floor, with four bed-rooms above, and a 

 sleeping-room, with a separate staircase, for men-servants, where it 

 is still the custom to board and lodge some of the hands, either in the 

 garret or over the offices, will be found sufficient. On those of a larger 

 size, a house of superior dimensions and accommodation will of course 

 be deemed requisite. 



The drainage should be perfect, for illness is as likely to originate 

 from bad drains in the country as in towns. Care should also be taken 

 that trees and shrubs are not planted too close to the house, as their 

 roots frequently block the drains ; laurels in particular are troublesome 

 in this way. 



THE FARM-YARD AND ITS OFFICES, OR THE ARRANGEMENT AND CON- 

 STRUCTION OF THE FARM STEADING, " FARMERY," OB " HOME- 

 STALL." 



Farm-homesteads are too commonly built with little regard to the 

 nature of the fanning pursued : they are practically the workshop of 

 the farm, and if they are not conveniently placed and selected, the 

 nature of the work accomplished is bound to be more or less inferior. 

 On a grazing farm, fewer offices are requisite than in other 

 branches of farming ; but it is nevertheless highly necessary to 

 have distinct buildings for the various kinds of cattle, and that the 

 whole of these should be so distributed as to facilitate the labour and 

 convenience of the servants ; that no distances be needlessly traversed, 

 no time lost in going from one apartment which is wrongly placed with 

 reference to another. 



This general principle as to the relative arrangement of the different 

 sections of the farm offices or " farmery," or by whatever one of the 

 names indicated in the heading to this section they may be 

 called, is of the most vital importance. A farm steading viewed as a 

 whole may seem, if on the large scale, to be a complicated arrange- 

 ment of a number of buildings more or less isolated from each other, 

 and of apartments more or less numerous ; thrown together apparently 

 without any fixed rule or guiding principle of arrangement. That this 

 is but too literal a description of many farm steadings designed, and in 

 some cases actually erected, is, we regret to say, exemplified in various 

 districts of the country. The inspection of a well-designed homestead 

 arranged by one who is conversant with the work to be done in it, and 

 with the practical requirements which it is designed to meet, will 

 reveal a leading principle, or principles, the nature of which we propose 

 briefly here to state. 



To one of these we have already in a general way referred, and that 

 is the importance of arranging the relative positions of the various 

 apartments, which go to make up the homestead, in such a way that the 

 work of the farm shall be carried on in the most convenient manner. 

 Numerous and diverse, in relation to the purposes which they are 



