LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS. 171 



where cattle beat their own paths. Even sheep, who 

 are good climbers in search of food, whenever they 

 wend their way to the fold, take the declivities by 

 zigzag, and give us a lesson in landscape art. An 

 ox-team, in worming its way through woodland and 

 down successive slopes, will describe curves which 

 would not vary greatly from the engineering laws of 

 adjustment. 



Once more, there are certain special features about 

 a farm-steading, which may be led to contribute 

 largely to landscape effect without violation of econo- 

 mic law. These are the ventilators upon the barn 

 roof (which no good barn should be without), the 

 dove-cots, the chimney-stacks, the ricks (for which a 

 nice thatch is an economy), the Dutch barns, with 

 their pointed roofs and rustic base, the windmill (if 

 one is dependent upon pumps), the orcharding all 

 which may be made to contribute their quota to an 

 effective landscape, without great violation of the 

 practical aims of the farmer. 



I have dwelt upon this point, because I love to 

 believe and to teach that in these respects true taste 

 and true economy are accordant, and that the graces 

 of life, as well as the profits, may be kept in view by 

 every ruralist, whether farmer or amateur. There 

 have been certain fermes ornkes both in England and 

 France (may be in this country too), which I do not 



