AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
73 
never aimed, nor aspired. Such ambitious ‘things’ 
are found perked up all over the country, as though 
they belonged there, instead of the plain, comely, 
and appropriate structures, well fitted by their con¬ 
Fig. 1. 
LABORER’S COTTAGE— perspective elevation. 
Farm Buildings. 
Number I. 
In pursuance of our intention to give some 
plans' and elevations of cheap, convenient, and 
practicable buildings for farm purposes, we com¬ 
mence the series in this paper. As we intend to 
continue them throughout the entire range of 
dwelling, barn, and the variousout-buildinns which 
belong to a well organized farm of the Northern 
and Middle States, and some of them applicable to. 
the Southern as well, our remarks will be consid¬ 
erably and diversely extended before we con¬ 
clude. 
In the commencement we will say, that we intend 
these plans for the farmer mainly—and for him 
no further than absolute utility, and economy are 
concerned, consistent with an appropriate expres¬ 
sion, and agreeable appearance, coupled with 
their proper position and purposes. Our Rural 
Architecture, generally, down to thirty, even 
twenty years ago, was imperfect in object, and 
uncouth in appearance. It answered the purpose, 
after a fashion ; but, in the main, was wretchedly 
out of “order,” and mostly inconvenient, both in 
style, economy, and comfort. Suddenly, a change 
was introduced, and like all changes brought 
about by inexperienced hands, with many needed 
reforms, it had an equal number of absurdities. 
“ Rural ” Architects sprang up all ovpr the coun¬ 
try. The saw and hammer werg thrown by with 
many a clever carpenter-and-joiner, and they went 
to planning houses, drawing pictures, and writing 
books on architecture. The country has been 
flooded with designs, plans, and ail sorts of gim- 
crackery in the way of farm buildings, and “ gen¬ 
teel ” country houses, not only for retired city 
folks, and village people, but farmers, cottagers, 
and laborers—for the educated and refined, down 
to the rudest dweller of the back-woods. Plans of 
log-cabins, even, costing not 50 dollars, and thrown 
up in a single day by half-a-dozen stout wood- 
choppers and a pair of oxen, and finished off in 
another day, have been attempted by the archi¬ 
tects aforesaid, and their plans laid down in the 
books cheek-by-jowl with country palaces costing 
twenty to fifty thousand dollars ; and it is but 
sheer justice to say that in both architecture and 
convenience of the “ cabin ” the “ choppers ” beat 
the “ architect ” out of sight! 
We are far from condemning this sudden “im¬ 
provement ” in architectural knowledge and taste, 
for we admit that it has effected much good. Sub¬ 
stantial benefits have grown out of it, and many 
needed reforms have been introduced, while some 
standing inconveniences have been abolished, and 
conveniences substituted in their place, much to 
the relief of both household, and out-door labor, as 
well as a telling economy in the material con¬ 
sumption of every-day living in the family. Yet, 
the disposition on the part of many of the archi¬ 
tects is quite as much to show their own skill in 
invention, as in the utility of their structures. 
Fanciful contrivances, for no possible benefit, are 
often introduced, and commended, when their ab¬ 
sence would be all the better for any use the 
structure could be put to, besides much saving in 
the expense of building it. Broken lines, projec¬ 
tions, and zig-zag angles in the walls ; hips, haws, 
jerks, and scarps in the roofs, costing, perhaps, 
half as much as the whole house, and good for 
nothing but to invite leaks and repairs, are the 
prominent features of the outside ; while within 
the whole economical and comfortable arrange¬ 
ment is tucked into a corner and sacrificed for a 
spacious parlor only occasionally used, and the 
every-day peace of the occupants destroyed for 
the sake of a little paltry pretension to which they 
venience and utility for the purposes of their occu¬ 
pants, and giving that air of repose and ruralty 
justly belonging to them. 
Such frivolity in building will not last. . The 
fashion will ere long go out, as men better appre¬ 
ciate true architectural art, and a plainer style will 
be substituted. We do not, ourself, set up for any 
particular amount of architectural knowledge, or 
skill; but having lived in a house some years, and 
knowing somewhat of its requirements for family 
accommodation, and planned and constructed 
sundry of them for farm use on our own premises, 
have some notions of what belongs to their pur¬ 
poses and convenience. Millions of dollars, in 
the aggregate, have been thrown away within the 
last dozen years in useless tinsel and ornament 
on farm and country buildings, which, we are 
free to say, three-fourths of the owners and build¬ 
ers of them would now gladly be rid of; and when 
the repairs come round—and not long hence either 
—they will be disposed of in the substitution of 
sensible alterations; and in whatever we have 
to submit, we promise that if we do not altogeth¬ 
er gratify the prurient fancy of all those to whom 
they are presented, they shall not, on the other 
hand, sacrifice their money without an object, nor 
prevent them from amendment by their incapacity 
to admit of it. 
We lay down as a postulate, that beauty, and 
utility tor the purpose intended, are one. Each is 
compatible with the other, when properly regard¬ 
ed. A thing is not to be taken by itself alone, un¬ 
accompanied by its accessories, but in its combi¬ 
nation with other things belonging to and insep¬ 
arable from it. So it is that we shall consider our 
farm buildings, and proceed to show our plans, 
with such running remarks upon them as their 
explanation may call forth. 
Commencing at the bottom scale of necessity in 
farm life, and rising in space and expense as we 
proceed, our first design is that of 
a laborer’s cottage. 
We give above the simplest plan of a farm- 
cottage for a working man and his family—the 
latter not large, of course. It is, in the main part, 
22 by 14 feet, with a lean-to 8 feet wide on the 
rear, and projecting 4 feet at one end ; all covered 
under one roof. The elevation, from the bottom 
of the sill, to the top of the plate, is 12 feet, in the 
main part, and seven feet on the rear of the lean- 
to behind. The roof is a “ quarter pitch,” or 3£ 
feet, being one foot perpendicular rise to four in 
the width of building. This pitch is sufficient to 
give a good flow of water down the roof, but it 
may be increased to one-third, or a rise of one foot 
to three in width, if higher chamber room be ne¬ 
cessary The roof is a hanging one—that is, it 
projects 18 or 20 inches over the walls of the 
house, so as to thoroughly protect and shelter them 
from storms and weath¬ 
er, besides adding greatly 
to the warmth, comfort, 
and appearance of the 
tenement, and carrying 
the water completely of! 
from all drips along the 
walls, and throwing it to 
a distance from the sill? 
and underpinning. Just 
above the edges of the 
roof, also, can be placed 
gutters to carry the wa¬ 
ter to one end of the 
house and throw it into 
a cistern, if necessary. 
This style of roof, having 
no breaks, or angles in it 
is lasting, and if well laid, leak proof—which, if 
broken by modern hips and angles, it would not 
he. 
The sills are 8 inches square, and thejoists3by 
4 inch common scantling, laid crosswise, and 14 
feet long; or, they may be 2 by C inches laid 
edgewise, and of either size, not more than 2 feet 
apart. The lower rooms are 8 feet between 
joints, leaving a chamber of 2£ to 3 feet perpen¬ 
dicular wall below the plates, and the bight ol 
the roof above—sufficient for such a tenement. 
The lean-to in rear is but a shed of course, with¬ 
out chamber floor, the roof running continuously 
down, with long rafters over its back wall. This is 
shown in figure 2, as 
the end elevation is 
not shown in the 
perspective. Yet, it 
is covered in with 
the same material, 
and in the same 
manner as the body 
of the house. It 
is a “plank” house; that is, built of inch or 
l£ inch 12 feet unplaned boar Is or plank, placed 
up and down perpendicularly, and battened 
over the cracks with 3 inch strips of inch boards ; 
and if a better finish than this be required, match¬ 
ed boards or planks, may be substituted, with 
battens over the joints , or clapboards, either 
planed or rough, can be laid over them ; and, if 
the covering be planed, painted; if not, white¬ 
washed. 
INSIDE ACCOMMODATION. 
Fig. 3— GROUND PLAN. 
The front door opens into a living room 14 feet 
square, in which is a stove for cooking, and the 
pipe runs up through the chamber floor into the 
chimney, standing either on the floor, or hung by 
a gallows suspended from the rafters. If the 
latter, the pipe goes into it through a thimble oi 
