THE ILLIISrOIS FA^RMER. 



55 



are, with a view to show all their dis- 

 comforts. A new married couple com- 

 mence farming, their means are limited, 

 but the wife says we must have a sitting- 

 room, a dining-room, a kitchen and 

 bedroom below, a chamber for drying 

 clothes and two bedrooms above. While 

 the young farmer admits all this, he is 

 constrained to say, that "if we have 

 these, they must be small,'* and the re- 

 sult is there is not a room in the house 

 fit to live in, and they find too late that 

 the rooms are all too small, and that the 

 numerous partitions and doors occupy 

 too much spare room and have cost too 

 much money. In a city we can bear to 

 be crowded, but in the country, room is 

 cheap. It is better to have one large 

 room than three small ones. In the 

 case cited, it would have been better to 

 have the sitting and dining-room com- 

 bined, with a kitchen and pantry below, 

 and the chambers divided into two sleep- 

 ing rooms, even if they should contain 

 two beds each. Such a house, of the 

 same size outside, would cost very much 

 less than if cut up into so many small 

 rooms, and on the whole more convenient, 

 and certainly, more healthful, and when 

 more room is needed, as is generally the 

 case with our young progressive farmers, 

 an addition could be made: first, by ad- 

 ding a one story wing for a kitchen and 

 woodshed, when the old kitchen will be 

 turned into a dining and living room, 

 and another wing will furnish a comfort- 

 able family sleeping room. 



The plan of having halls in small 

 farm houses, is not only expensive, 

 but nseless; but ample verandas are al- 

 ways useful and add greatly to the 

 value of the farm house. "When the 



hurry of the spring work is over, we 

 shall pay some attention to farm build- 

 ings, especially the farm house. 

 •— « — » — 



Farm Cellars and Timber Growing. 



Tdscola, 111., March?, 1860. 



Editor Illinois Fakmeh: — Can you 

 or some of your correspondents give 

 me some information in relation to that 

 important part of a farmer's home com- 

 fort, a good cellar? 



1st. Where would you put it, under 

 the house or have it separate; is it not 

 unhealthy under the house? 



2d. Of what would you construct 

 it, to have it dry, well lighted and ven- 

 tilated, rat and mice proof? 



3d. Can you give us any directions 

 in growing forest trees, say a grove of 

 four acres, so as to shelter the orchard 



and farm crops from severe winds, the 

 timber for posts when hedges are not 

 wanted, and fur the repairing and mak- 

 ing of farm tools? How would you pre- 

 pare the ground, what trees would you 

 plant, and how cultivate them? Ought 

 not the rows to run so as to conduct the 

 winds around the orchard? An answer 

 through the Fakmek would much oblige. 

 Yours, &c., Wm. L. Pbose. 



Farmer Prose has given us a pretty ex- 

 tensive job, but "we will take off our coat 

 this evening and see what we can do for 

 him. We have handled the spade all 

 day, and the pen is to be driven with 

 rather clumsy fingers. When at Pana, 

 a few days since, we called on business at 

 a new house put up last season by an 

 emigrant from western New York. Ob- 

 serving a quantity of sawed timber six 

 inches square, we inquired to what pur- 

 pose it was to be applied; the answer 

 was, "for an out-door cellar, for we can- 

 not have cellars here under our houses, 

 as they are too wet and they will be full 

 of water, and if not are too damp. I 

 shall build above ground and bank up 

 to keep out the frost; this will keep it 

 dry, warm and rat proof; for you see 

 the rats will not eat through six inches 

 of oak," But, my good friend, you 

 have set your house on the ground; and 

 in the course of three or four years the 

 sills and floor will be ruined with the dry 

 rot; your oak timber covered with the 

 earth embankment will rot down in ten 

 years, and its rotten timbers will be 

 riddled with rats in less than half that 

 time. The embankment will be a fine 

 harbor for rats, mice and other vermin, 

 and your cellar will be but a disappoint- 

 ment. Now, suppose you had set your 

 house up four feet from the ground, dig 

 your cellar three feet, and wiih the earth 

 raise up an embankment with a nice 

 slope from the wall, put in windows of 

 six lights, eight by ten glass, which will 

 ventilate the room. If you use brick, 

 make the wall hollow, a wall ten inches, 

 two of which will be the hollow space, 

 will do. provided that the flues run down 

 into the cellar wall so that you can put 

 up a stove to keep from freezing in the 

 coldest weather and to dry, should it get 

 too damp. In a clay soil, the cellar 

 must have a drain, or it will fill up with 

 water in the spring. The bottom 

 should be cemented to prevent dampness, 

 but not to keep out the water, for the 

 drain alone will do this. When stone 



cannot be had, hard burned brick will 

 answer a good purpose; but in all cases 

 have the chimney flues reach down into 

 the cellar. Our cellar is an eight inch wall 

 of brick laid solid, with four windows 

 oE six lights each. We do not bank it 

 up, but in the coldest weather pile some 

 straw against the windows an occa- 

 sionally make up a fire in and old stove 

 that we use for the purpose. Our veg- 

 etables keep in excellent order. The 

 cellar is so that it is easily ventilated by 

 an outside door which is left open 

 through the day iu mild weather; it is 

 not so warm as to start the vegetables 

 of to have them decay; consequently 

 being so well aired, there is nothing un- 

 pleasantor unhealthy about it; but on the 

 contrary, the abundance of fine vegeta- 

 bles that it contains is a source of health. 

 Potatoes do not keep well in a strong 

 light, and we throw some covering over 

 them, usually Russia matts that we use 

 in tree packing; a thin layer of sods 

 would even be better. Such a cellar is 

 rat proof, except by the door. A rat 

 will not remain in a tight cellar, and if 

 he gets in by the door and it is closed a few 

 days, lie will get out the first opportun- 

 ity. They make us very little trouble. 

 Unfortunately our cellar is four feet in 

 the ground and two and a half above 

 ground; but having occasion to put up a 

 building in the village, we have set it up 

 four feet from the ground and find it 

 about the thing; when the earth that is 

 thrown out of the cellar is nicely graded 

 about the building, the falling rain runs 

 off finely and the yard is soon dry. The 

 cellar should bo put under the whole 

 house. The cost id but little more, and 

 for dairy purposes the wing cellar is in- 

 valuable. Ours is partitionfrd off seper- 

 ate for this purpose, and thus the milk 

 is free from the effect of vegetables in 

 the same room. We have cabbage and 

 Hubbard squash yet in fiue order. It 

 will be seen that a house thus set up 

 high and dry, will last much longer than 

 if on blocks near the ground. 



TIMBER GROWIXO. 



The subject of timber growing is ©ne 

 in which we need further experience to 

 be perfect. It is comparatively new to 

 all of us. On our farm at Leyden, in 

 Cook county, we have & fine grove of 

 locust; many of the trees are over k foot 

 in diameter and would make several cuts 

 of posts. Four years since we used 



