18 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



of this dwelling is to be in the plain, simple cot- 

 tage style, with no attempt at omamentation, by 

 means of intricate detail work. The stock should 

 be of good No. 2 pine throughout. The finish of 

 the windows and doors is to be a plain architrave, 

 with a simple cap moulding above. The base in 

 the parlor, sitting-room and hall, is to be nine 

 inches liigh, with a simple moulding above — and 

 in the other rooms, eight inches high, beveled on 

 ■ top. 



The parlor chimney-piece may be a marble slab, 

 supported on neat bronze brackets — and in the 

 other rooms, the mantles may be of wood. The 

 walls are to be lathed and plastered, and finished 

 for papering. 



All the standing finish throughout the house is 

 to be oUed and varnished. The kitchen floor, sink, 

 <S:c., closet and bathing-room floors and closet- 

 shelves, should have two coats of lead and oil 

 paint of suitable colors. 



Exterior. — The exterior of this house, as will be 

 seen by the jjerspective view, has some ornamen- 

 tal features, which, though not absolutely necessa- 

 ry, add to the convenience, and we think heighten 

 the artistic eff'ect of the design. Thus — the bal- 

 cony — wliile it afl'ords a pleasant retreat for the oc- 

 cupant of the chamber to which it is attached — 

 serves also as a hood, sliielding the parlor windows 

 from the sun ; and the veranda shelters the front 

 entrance to the house, and fills up what would 

 othei"wIse be a blank, cheerless space, combining 

 use with ornament. Then, too, the wldely-j^roject- 

 ing eaves — the heavy brackets — the dormer Avln- 

 dows and truncated gables, are all simple methods 

 of giving character to the design, and, in order to 

 produce proper efiects, care should be taken that 

 these ornamental details be executed In a substan- 

 tial manner, of heavy stock, and not of the useless 

 inch board stuflf, which commonly finds its way into 

 such places, to the great discredit of the builders. 



The outside of this house should then be painted 

 with at least two different tints of lead and oil 

 paint, the color of the trimmings being a few shades 

 darker than the main body, unless the main body 

 be quite dark — In which case the trimmings should 

 be lighter, the object being to obtain a contrast be- 

 tween the two. For this house, we would recom- 

 mend a fawn or a light freestone color for the ver- 

 tical boarding, and a darker tint like that of the 

 common brown freestone for the trimmings. The 

 window-sashes should be ch-awn bronze green, and 

 the outside doors grained and varnished. 



The cellar is seven feet six Inches high In the 

 clear, the principal floor Is ten feet In height, and 

 the attics are also ten feet in the centre, and five 

 at the eaves, the posts being sixteen feet long. 



The walls are to be covered with vertical board- 

 ing and heavy battens, and the roof with cedar 

 sliinsles. 



Cost. — Built in the above manner, and finished 

 throughout, this cottage would cost from $1500 to 

 $1700. 



For the New England Farmer. 



A NEW ERA FOR CHILDREN"— THE 

 PROSPECT BRIGHTENING. 



My Dear Sir : — Something over twenty years 

 ago I wrote a series of articles for the old Neio 

 England Farmer, on the advantages of a knoMl- 

 edge of the natural sciences to famiers. The time 

 that has elapsed since then, and the experiences I 

 have met, have only served to impress the facts 

 I then attempted to utter, more strongly upon my 

 mind. Many others have viewed the matter as I 

 have done, but how to bring the thing about, so 

 that young farmers could obtain a knowledge of 

 these sciences, has been the question. Some have 

 proposed agricultural coUeges, Avith learned pro- 

 fessors, as the best means of accomplishing the 

 end. In a few States, such colleges have been es- 

 tabHshed, and I am happy to beHeve they are meet- 

 ing with gratifying success. 



But colleges cannot meet the wants of every 

 one. There always have been, and always will be, 

 a great many boys In the country, whose capacities 

 are bright, and whose desires of knowledge are 

 equal, and often superior, to those In more fi.vvored 

 circumstances, to whom the doors of the great col- 

 leges are closed. They cannot afl'ord the time, or 

 the means of obtaining education there. Then 

 there are the guis ; the black-eyed and the blue- 

 eyed, laughing girls. They are as fond of knowl- 

 edge as the boys, and their capacities are as bright, 

 and their application in the pursuit of Instruction 

 are often greater than that of the more daring sex. 



It was a noble act In the formation of our gov- 

 ernment that established the common school sys- 

 tem of education, a system that, to a great ex- 

 tent, Is capable of suppljlng the necessities of so 

 large a portion of our population, who, without 

 them, would be very limited in their means of ac- 

 quiring knowledge. 



It is one of the pleasing features of this age of 

 progress, the Improvements that are being made in 

 every department of tliose institutions which have 

 appropriately been denominated "the people's col- 

 leges." We are having better school-houses, spa- 

 cious, comfortable rooms, Avell ventilated, well 

 warmed in winter, with beautiful yards attached, 

 In the places of the little, cramped up, smoky, dark, 

 dingy rooms, located on the corner, so near the 

 public way, as to cause the traveller to become a 

 nuisance to the school, and too often the school a 

 nuisance to the traveller. We are having teachers 

 educated to their business, in the place of those 

 who formerly tauglit a few winters, or a few sum- 

 mers, just to make the most of time in portions of 

 their lives when this employment could be fol- 

 lowed without Injury to the main business of future 

 years, and instead of the frequent changes once so 

 often made hi teachers, in our best schools, the 

 best are obtained and retained In their position as 

 long as possible. 



How few of our readers can follow the memory 

 back to tlie days when Webster's old SpcUIng- 

 Book, the American Preceptor, or "tlie Third Part," 

 Morse's old Geography, with two maps, one of 

 the World, and one of North America, Webster's 



