Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 379 



their location. 



The first and most important consideration connected with the 

 erection of farm buildings of any description, is the location. If 

 the surface of the land is one continuous plain, there will be very 

 little choice in the locality for dwelling-house, grain-barn, hennery, 

 piggery or any* other buildings. But when the surface is hilly or 

 gently undulating, location is everything. There are many conside- 

 rations of a pecuniaiy character, which should be allowed to have 

 their proper influence when one is making a choice of a location for 

 his buildings. If the location be on the slope of a lake or the bank 

 of a river, or if nothing but a bubbling brook — the source of which 

 is a mountain spring — meanders through the forests or green fields, 

 the location of buildings should be chosen with reference to the 

 water, both for considerations of beauty in laying out the grounds, 

 and utility of convenience, incident to the eminent advantages of a 

 stream of water. If practicably not too inconvenient, let the loca- 

 tion for farm buildings be chosen where water may be conveyed in 

 tubes to points round about buildings, for stock and other purposes. 



Another point of transcendent importance is choosing a location 

 near the center of the farm. The usual custom is to squat every 

 building as near the borders of the highway as the law will allow 

 them to be placed, without any regard whatever to consequences 

 of access to distant fields. The custom of locating farm buildiuo-s 

 along the highway has become so prevalent all over the country, 

 that very few people have sufficient pluck to strike out a beautiful 

 serpentine drive to the centre of theii" land, and choose a location 

 for buildings. 



Hon. Horace Greeley has furnished one of the most striking and 

 illustrious examples on this subject. A narrow carriage-way leads 

 from the main road along the hillside through the wild old woods, 

 more than half a mile, to the middle of a woods where the dwelling- 

 house is surrounded, on every side, by old and towering denizens 

 of the forest. During the growing season, the music of the waving 

 trees, and the delightful shade, render such a location doubly 

 attractive; and in winter, when chilling winds and pelting storms 

 sweep furiously by, the surrounding trees break the force of the 

 cold winds, and thus render a home and its surroundings far more 

 comfortable and pleasant than if the dwelling were standing in a 

 bleak locality. Aside from the beauty of a residence among the 

 trees of the woods, there is a wonderful economy in the growing 

 trees that stand round about dwelling-houses and out-buildings, in 



