266 
SOUTHERN cultivator 
On this hill-side a spot is fixed upon to build a little sum- 
mer-house. The air of the neighborhood is proverbially 
healthy ; the scenery of a grandeur and changing fresh- 
ness that the world elsewhere cannot surpass — and a few 
farmers in the vicinity constitute just so much of a neigh- 
borhood as to make a man feel he is not entirely alone, and 
can depend upon a friendly hand for kindly help at need, 
and the woods and waters abound with all that can con- 
tribute to a sportsman’s enjoyment. 
i^iot far from the site where the house is to be, is a farm 
cottage, and a barn, and other outbuildings, all in some- 
ViT^hat of a primitive style of finish ; and at hand is a spot 
of cleared land, sufficient to support the inmates and their 
farming Stock. Back in the woods and on the fertile mar- 
gins of the mountain streams, the cattle find a constant pas- 
turage, and with the aid of such expenditure as the owner 
of the place upon which this tenant house stands, makes 
at times upon the land, the tanner contrives to gather a 
comfortable livelihood, and to provide the inmates of the 
summer-house with all that they require for their table 
supply. This is no fancy sketch— and there are many 
such places scattered about the country, where homes 
such as I am about to describe may cheaply be built. 
The sides of the mountain abound with a soft, shaly 
stone, easily worked if cut in one direction, but splitting 
into laminae if severed in line with its bed. This stone 
makes a good wall, and can be found in natural slabs, that 
but little labor serves to convert into lintels and sills of any 
requisite thickness, for the stone readily divides in vertical 
lines parallel with its bed, but is very difficult to cut 
across. Thus the walls can be laid in courses of as close 
a regularity as may be wished, the stones placed in the 
natural direction of their bed, forming a strong and com- 
pact mode of masonry. Such walls need no pointing, and 
are exceedingly rural in their appearance, and as durable 
as the mountain itself. In constructing them, however, 
it is not desirable to carry them to any veiy great height 
— and it is well known that the ratio of cost.r)f building 
such stone walls, and, indeed, all walls, very rapidly in- 
creases as the building advances in elevation. So a cot- 
tage, with the outer walls a« low as convenience will per- 
mit, is desirable for the .locality in view. But too extreme 
a lowness does not permit comfortable rooms, or healthful 
arrangement of the interior ; therefore, some manner of 
adding to this height is to be sought for, add may be found 
hinted in many old buildings in Eurdpe, where the upper 
stories overhang the lower, and the walls are built above 
tlie masonry, of timber, filled in with cement or other 
, light material. 
The summer-house that is designed to suit the moun- 
bain site that has been sketched, has, therefore, all these 
requirements to fhlfil, and the following illustrations will 
show the reader the manner in which it has been done. 
The building stands upon a small triangular terrace, 
level upon the top, and forming a step in the downward 
bend of the mountain side. The road that has been des- 
cribed skirts it upon one side, and branching from this is 
a by-lane which leads to the farmer’s cottage previously 
alluded to, passing on the way the small stable, kennel, 
and other outbuildings belonging to. the summer-house 
The aspec'’ of the place is such that the travelled road is in 
the rear, and the private lane branches at a point below 
the side of the mountain immediately in front of the house 
— but upon a lower level, and consequently screened from 
sight. The outbuildings are, therefore, lower down the 
mountain, but are concealed by trees and rocky elevations 
from view. 
Thus placed, the whole of the building is exposed to 
view — the public road traversing the rear, and the sunny 
and pleasant exposure being in front of the house. A 
careful arrangement of "the plan, so as to afford all the 
conveniences comfort in living requires to be attached to 
the house — and at the same lime present not too free ar> 
exposure to public view, thns becomes essential. 
The plan, therefore, is disposed as follows: — The road 
is in the rear, and a wagon-drive leads from it at one 
point, loops round tlie house, and returns again to the 
main road — previously, however, touching within a few 
yards of the lane leading to the stable, and affording con- 
nection between the two, by a short road from one to.the 
other. To render the plan more intelligible, it is repre- 
sented as upon the ground, the rear towards the road, mid 
thus agreeing with the perspective sketch of the exterior 
presented as following. 
The above portion is taken from chapter six, “The Cot- 
tage,” and is a graceful example of the author’s pleasant 
and easy manner of imparting what, with less skilful man- 
agement, would prove very dry and uninteresting facts. 
The illustrations accompanying the chapter are beautiful- 
ly adapted to the idea sought to be conyeyed, and make 
one long to seek such a mountain-side and summer-house 
forthwith . — Home Journal. 
Cape of Horses. — Some people never or very seldom 
clean their horses, and pay for it at a dear rate. Some men 
will keep a team all winter and drive them about one- 
quarter of the time, but never clean- them unless to get off 
the tliickest.of the dirt. They never rub down the legs 
of their horses, as the^ ought, to keep them from swelling 
by standing in the stable. Folks talk about their horses 
being stiff and foundered ; if they would feed them more, 
and drive them slower, and clean them neatly, they would 
not complain of stiffness. Let a man use a curry-comb, 
card and brushes, as he ought to, and he will not envy 
other people’s slick horses. Some persons never comb 
out a horses mane or tail ; they complain that it pulls out 
the hair, but keep them combed out all the while, and 
you wont lose much hair.; this will make it grow out 
thick. • 
I don’t pretend to say that this, without feed, will do 
much towards, keejiing a horse decent. There has been 
and is a great deal of cut feed fed to horses, and is very 
good feed if used right, but a horse will not keep fat on a 
bushel of straw and four quarts of shorts a day, with a 
little hay. The way we feed our horses, is a bushel of oat 
straw with a peck of shorts and corn meal twice a day ; 
and when we work them, we feed them grain at noon, 
besides hay. This, with a good cleaning daily, makes 
them look like mahogany pi<rs. “Don’t ever expect to 
keep a horse fat at a straw stack all winter.” — Wool Grow- 
er. 
VirtI’e, the Friend of Health.— “ The mind has a 
mighty influence upon the body, gmd operates either way, 
according to the qualities of reflection. The disorders of 
passion or guilt, inflame a distemper, envenom a wound, 
and boil up the blood to a fever. They often baffle the 
virtue of drugs and the prescriptions of art. On the other 
hand, when the review pleases, when we can look back- 
ward and forward with delight — to be thus satisfied and 
composed is almost a cure of itself. ’Tis true, a good 
conscience won’t, make a man immortal. But yet the 
quiet of his mind often keeps him fr»m wearing out so- 
fast. It smoothes his passage to the other world, and 
makes him slide into the grave by a more gentle and 
insensible motion. And when the body is shaken with- 
diseases, when it bends under time and accident, and ap- 
pears just sinking into ruin, ’tis. sometimes strangely sup- 
ported from within. The man is propped up by the 
strength of thought, and lives upon the cheerfulness and 
vigor of his spirit.” 
