58 
GARDENING. 
be reserved between the house and orchard. All 
the rest may be left to the taste of the person own¬ 
ing the premises. 
Now, suppose a family just arrived at the “ new 
location,” and designing to build a house upon fhe 
above plan. First, they need some immediate 
shelter. Two hands in two days, can put up the 
room 13 by 13, marked wash room (a), in the plan, 
with a lean-to roof, the sides covered with wide 
I inch boards, feather-edged together, with a rough 
floor, which, with a rough shed to cook under, will 
serve for bed room and parlor while the house is 
building. 
Next add the room marked kitchen (6), a good 
sized farmer’s kitchen, 16 by 24. Board up the 
sides in the same way and finish off inside complete, 
and you then have a house with two rooms, the 
wash room answering well for a summer cooking 
room. Divide the chamber into three rooms, two 
of them 8 by 14 each, and the other 10 by 16, in¬ 
cluding the stairway (n). Make the posts of this 
part of the building 12 ft. 6 in. high from the 
sleepers of lower floor, and the lower room 7 ft. 
b in. in the clear; the joice ten inches deep, and the 
upper room will be 4 ft. high under the eaves, and 
you will consequently have to finish up the rafters 
till you get high enough in the centre. 
Now add as you are able one or both of the 
wings, containing each a bed room 10 by 12 ( d , /, 
h, i), and pantry and store room 8 by 10 ( e , g) ; each 
of these is also a lean-to, the outside posts of which 
should be 6 feet high, and the roof rising 4 ft., will 
leave two feet above in the side of the centre build¬ 
ing for lights into the stairway chamber. These 
side rooms will also have to be finished a little way 
lip the rafters, to get height enough. 
The sides of these rooms, which were formerly 
the outside of the main building, can be plastered or 
papered upon the rough boarding. Your house so 
far is a whole house, complete in itself, but next 
year you want it more extensive. Go on then, and 
add the front room (c), with or without the wings 
and porch, d, i, j, Jc, l, either of which could be 
added afterwards, by making your calculations as 
you go along, building one room after another as 
you are able, and until you finally get a very com¬ 
fortable house, completed like the plan. In calcu¬ 
lating sizes of rooms, I have not allowed for thick¬ 
ness of walls. The front chamber I would leave 
all in ’one room, with one large window in the 
front, and opening out upon the top of the portico, 
and having a drum which would be heated by the 
stove in the room below, and make a pleasant sit¬ 
ting, sewing, or nursery room, either in summer or 
winter. 
As in all my design I aim at great economy of 
cost, convenience of arrangement, and occupancy 
of all the room for some useful purpose ; so now I 
hope you are able to add a little cheap ornamental 
work to the front. Support the porch which is 
6 ft. by 24, upon five neat columns, with railing, 
except the door way; make the roof flat, with a 
pretty little railing on top, so that we can come out 
of the front chamber of a balmy evening to smell 
the honeysuckles that have been trained up from 
below. Carry out bulwarks upon the roof of each 
wing, to hide the pitch. Putin a large window in 
the centre of the parlor front, of a half sexagonal 
shape, with two narrow windows each side, open¬ 
ing by hinges down to the floor, through which in 
summer we can also have access to a pleasant seat 
upon the porch, and still enjoy the company of 
those who might choose to remain within the room. 
For the sake of symmetry, I place a door at each 
end of the porch, only one of which will be an open 
sesame, unless perchance about the time you get 
the “ new white house” done, the sovereigns 
should elect you justice of the peace, or you hap¬ 
pen to be a doctor, or somebody else, that wants a 
room for an office, just see how conveniently you 
can open the blind door through a passage like that 
on the other side, into one of the front bed rooms 
(i), 10 ft. by 12, where you could keep your official 
dignity very snug, without disturbing the family. 
The kitchen, which should be the grand deside¬ 
ratum in every farm house, you will perceive is so 
situated that it has only nine feet of surface exposed 
to the weather, which will save many a load of 
wood, and yet by opening room doors, it can be 
well ventilated in summer. 
Until you do get the wood house built, you can 
use the wash room in winter to keep a stock of 
kindling wood. If you like the plan and have the 
means, of course it will be best to build the whole 
at one time. But, if necessary to build by sections, 
you can do as I have directed, ot you can build the 
front part first, or build the entire centre part first, 
and afterwards add the different rooms that lean-to. 
My object is to accommodate the new settler and 
poor man, with a plan by which he can get a home 
without building himself out of a house, or getting 
a great shell of an outside show, full of unfinished 
emptiness. Look at the plan and see how far I 
have succeeded, and such as it is, accept it as a 
Christmas present from your sick friend, 
Indiana , Dec. 25, 1845. Solon Robinson. 
GARDENING.—No. 1. 
The important benefits derived from gardening 
and the pleasure also associated with its pursuit, 
have obtained for it a distinguished rank among 
the various sciences which have occupied tjie atten¬ 
tion of men. Its productions arealike calculated to 
cheer the frugal board of the cottager and to decorate 
the tables of the affluent. It furnishes pleasure, 
health and profit to the sedentary, the merchant or 
to the gentleman of fortune. Its practice relieves 
the mind from that bustle and confusion attendant 
upon a life of business—it is a source of healthy 
and strengthening exercise—and it is a recreation 
in which may be found endless gratification and de¬ 
light. It has been the inclination of kings and the 
choice of philosophers. It has had among its most 
zealous practitioners, men from every grade in soci¬ 
ety and from every age and climate. “ Our first 
most endearing and most sacred associations,” ob ■ 
serves Mrs. Hofland, “ are connected with gardens ; 
our most simple and refined perceptions of beauty 
are combined with them ; and the very condition of 
our being compels us to the cares, and rewards us 
with the pleasures attached to them.” 
Gardening, like every other art, must be affected by 
the government under which it is exercised, either 
by its laws and institutions, or indirectly by the 
state of society as modified by their influence. Hor 
ticulture, in all its branches, will be most advantav 
