dred and sixteenth part of the compliments 

 you almost choked them with before yoa 

 were married, if you would stop the badin- 

 age about whom you were going to have 

 when number one is dead, (such things 

 wives may laugh at, bat they sink deep 

 sometimes,) if you would cease to speak of 

 their faults, however banteringly, before 

 others fewer women would seek for others 

 sources of happiness than your apparently 

 cold, sottish affection. Praise your wife, 

 then. And you may rest assured that her de- 

 ficiencies are fully counterbalanced by your 

 own. 



The Color of Rural Buildings. 



The question of color is a most interest- 

 ing one in any design for a country house, 

 and seems at present but little undeintood 

 in America, by far the greater number of 

 houses being simply painted white, with 

 bright green blinds. By this means each 

 residence is distinctly protruded from the 

 surrounding scenery, and instead of group- 

 ing and harmonizing with it, asserts a right 

 to carry on a separate business on its own 

 account; and this lack of sympathy between 

 tlie building and its surrounding is very dis- 

 agreeable to an artistic eye. Even a harsh 

 vulgar outline may often pass without par- 

 ticular notice, in view of rural scenery, if 

 the mass is quiet and harmonious in color; 

 while a very tolerable composition may in- 

 jure materially the views neurit, if it is pain- 

 ted white, the human eye being so consti- 

 tuted that it will be constantly held in bond- 

 age by this striking blot of crude light, and 

 compelled to give it unwilling attention. 



In country houses, the design has to be 

 adapted to the location, and not the location 

 to the design; for it is undesirable, and gen- 

 erally impracticable, to make the natural 

 landscape subservient to the architectural 

 composition. Woods, fields, mountains and 

 rivers will be more important than T;he 

 houses that are built among them; and 

 every attempt to force individual buildings 

 into prominent notice, is an evidence either 

 of a vulgar desire for notoriety at any sac- 

 rifice, or of an ill-edueated eye and taste. — 

 The colors of rural buildings should be care- 

 fully varied. They should be often cheer- 

 ful and light, sometimes neutral, seldom dark 

 and never black or white, and there is, for- 

 tunately no end to the combinations of tints 

 that may be used in painting a house. The 

 constant recurrence of about the same re- 

 quirements will, of course, lead to much 

 similarity in plan, particularly in small 

 buildings, but the monotony that this would 



occasion may be agreeable relieved by var- 

 iety in color, both in the interior and ex- 

 terior. Different patterns of paper will 

 make two rooms of the same proportions 

 no longer look alike; and the same result 

 will be observed on the exterior, by adop- 

 ting different tints for the walls and the 

 woodwork. Another important point to be 

 considered is, that it is entirely insufficient , 

 to use only one or two shades of color for 

 each house. Every rural building requires 

 four tints to make it a pleasant object in 

 the way of color; and this variety costs but 

 little more than monotonous repetition while 

 it adds much to the completeness of the 

 effect. The main wall should be of some 

 agreeable shade of color; the roof trimmings 

 verandas, and other woodwork, being either 

 of a different color, or of a different shade 

 of the same color, so that a contrast, but 

 not a hard one, may be established. The 

 third color, not widely different from the 

 other wood-work, should be applied to the 

 solid part of the Yenetian blinds, and the 

 movable slats should be painted of the 

 fourth tint. This last should be by far the 

 darkest used on the premises, for the effect 

 of a glass window or opening in a wall is 

 always dark when seen from a distance; 

 and if this natural fact is not remembered, 

 and the shutters are painted the same color 

 as the rest of the house, a blank, uninterest- 

 ing effect will be produced, for when the 

 blinds are closed, which is generally the case 

 the house, except to a person very near it 

 will appear to be without any windows at 

 all. Tills error is often fallen into, and re- 

 quires to be carefully guarded against. 



-<©»- 



Budding Roses. — In roses, as in many 

 other things, climate has a great influence 

 in modifying our operations. For instance, 

 budding can seldom be performed success- 

 fully with us tlUJuly, and in many seasons 

 may be continued till October. The con- 

 dition of the stock is a better rule to go by 

 than any given period of time. Budding 

 ought not to be doue wlien the sap is too 

 watery, which may be known by the bark 

 very thin and delicate, on being raised with 

 the budding knife. It sliould be quite hard 

 and firm, at tiie same time separating read- 

 ily and easily from the wood. The condi- 

 tion of the scions is also of importance. 

 Buds taken from shoots in active growth, 

 are not so good as those selected from 

 branches tljat have partially exhausted them- 

 selves. To this end, stopping a strong 

 growing shoot a few days before we intend 

 to use it for budding, checks the circulation 



