104 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Agricultural Humbug at Washington - -111. 
WHAT IS TO BE DONE. 
That something should be done to bring our 
Government Department of Agriculture into a 
respectable position, or abolish it altogether, 
seems to be the opinion of a large majority of the 
intelligent farmers of the country. Since starting 
the subject afresh, in our February number, we 
have continued to hear responses from all parts 
of the country. 
At the last meeting of the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society—a full one—the subject 
was freely discussed, and as the sense of that 
society, a committee of five was appointed to 
memorialize Congress to stop the abuses in the 
Agricultural Department of the Patent Office, 
especially the importation of old, worthless trash 
in the shape of seeds, disseminated all over the 
country as varieties of the most approved de. 
scriptions. 
The same subject will come before the next 
meeting of the Pennsylvania Horticultural So¬ 
ciety. 
Various propositions have been offered. Several 
intelligent gentlemen suggest that the most 
effectual and immediate remedy is to petition 
Congress to entirely withhold the Agricultural 
Appropriation. In this we should heartily con¬ 
cur, did we despair of improvement in the 
present mode of conducting the agricultural 
operations of the Patent Office, for we are well 
convinced, as are the mass of farmers, that the 
$75,000 appropriated professedly to benefit agri¬ 
culture is worse than wasted. It is a sugar plum 
neld out to “pacify” farmers and keep them from 
rising up in their might to demand that the leading 
industrial pursuit of our country should receive a 
degree of attention commensurate with its im¬ 
portance. The pittance (of only one dollar in every 
thousand expended by our Government) devoted 
to fostering and improving that occupation upon 
which the prosperity of our country mainly de¬ 
pends, is bad enough, but when that small 
sum is misapplied, in part to the employment of 
ignorant, inefficient clerks and payment of their 
pleasure tours to Europe, and in part to buying up 
old, impure and worthless seeds—cast off by 
European dealers and of no account here, except 
to lumber up the mails and occupy the time of 
farmers in experiments, all througn a season, to 
find out that they have been gulled—we say, when 
this is the case, it is high time the whole thing 
was wiped oui, to make way far something better, 
if no change can be effected in the present mode 
of operations. 
- • I —► -. 
Potatoes—What made them Rot? 
Here is one example like thousands of others. 
Last Spring a friend of ours planted on his farm at 
Flatbusli, L. I., six varieties of potatoes, all the 
same day, on the same soil, and manured and 
treated every way alike. The varieties were Mer¬ 
cers, Carters, Pinkeyes, Dykemans, a new variety 
from Claverack, N. Y., and another from Ireland. 
Of these, the Mercers, Pinkeyes and Dykemans all 
rotted, while the other three were not affected. The 
experiment was on a large scale, and the seed of 
eome varieties was obtained from several distinct 
localities. Now what made these three varieties 
alone rot. In other similar experiments the rot has 
been found in the varieties not affected in this in¬ 
stance 
\Ve are constantly asked how we explain the 
potato rot.” Ans .—We can not explain it at all. 
- m ^ » o »--. 
An animal in high order in December, may be 
eonaidered as half Wintered 
Farm Buildings. 
Number II. 
Having surmounted necessity, as a beginner on 
a new farm—“beginningpoorandlow, and grow¬ 
ing great and high,” as Parker said of 
Daniel Webster—we now pass into the second se¬ 
ries of dwelling, (see next page) extend¬ 
ed from its original, on the same plan of 
the cottage given in our last number, (page 73) 
only of larger dimensions, into a respecta¬ 
ble and commodious farm house, for a proprietor 
of one, two, or three hundred acres. The origin¬ 
al of this, in its cottage size was 26x18 feet, with 
a lean-to 14 ft. wide, and an extension, as now 
shown, of 16 ft. in length on the main part, and on 
the lean-to, of 20 ft., and an upright higlit of 16, 
instead of 12 ft., with the roof running down 
over it, at a quarter pitch. The hight of the lower 
rooms, in the main body, is 9 ft., and of the 
lean-to rooms, the same ; or they may be reduced 
to 8 ft.; and in case the pitch of the roof will not 
admit of that high in the rear lean-to posts, the 
ceiling over head in the rear, can follow the raft¬ 
ers until the proper hight is reached, and then 
pass on a level to the partition, making a good fin¬ 
ish, andsufficiently welllookingforthe humble pur¬ 
poses to which these rear rooms are used. Or, 
w'hich, by the w'ay, we would prefer, the house 
roof may be made one third pitch in fro'nt, and a 
quarter pitch in rear, which will not at all deform 
it, and give H feet higher elevation to the peak, 
or ridge of the roof—that is to say: 6 ft. instead 
of 4£ ft. pitch, as in the cottage heretofore describ¬ 
ed. All this is a matter of calculation which the 
builder can readily solve, and adopt. 
Here, let it be understood that we design but 
one front to this house, with a principal end view, 
and that the other end, and rear, are the garden, 
or back yard sides, covered in with trees, and 
therefore out of sight only to the occupants of the 
house and farm. The roof, throughout, is a plain 
one, which we adopt as the very best, absolutely, 
which can be constructed for the farm house—the 
only break in it being in that short and narrow 
part coming over the front of the outer kitchen, 
or lean-to extension shown in the draft of the 
elevation. Consequently no leakage by joints or 
intersertion can be admitted, excepting from bad 
or negligent work in that one item, and on the 
rear, which will be readily understood by study¬ 
ing the plan and examining the elevation. 
INTERIOR ACCOMMODATION. 
(See Ground Plan, next page.) 
This will be readily understood. On the front is a 
verandah 40x8 ft., the whole upright part of the 
house being 42 ft. long. The entrance hali is 9x6 
feet, leading on the left to a commodious parlor 
18 ft. square ; on the right is a smaller sitting room 
18x13 ft. Between these rooms is a chimney 
with two flues, admitting a stove pipe from each, 
and as a closet for each one is between. To save 
room, the chimney is placed nearer to the parlor, 
and the pipe from the sitting room can pass through 
a part of its closet. In rear of the parlor is a 
family bed-room 14x12 ft., adjoining the inner, or 
Winter kitchen, which is 20x14 ft., having a 
closet next the parlor of 6x4 ft. Between the sit¬ 
ting room and inner kitchen is the stairway, com¬ 
mencing to lead up at the inner end, with a cellar 
door, and stairs to go down, at the outer, or right 
hand extremity. Next the kitchen, on the right, 
is a buttery, or provision and dish closet, which, if 
necessary, can be partitioned into two separate 
ones, now being 12x10 ft., and lighted on the 
rear. A passage of 4 ft. wide between this closet 
and the stairway, leads into an outer, or Summer 
kitchen 18x14 ft., entered in front from the veran¬ 
dah, which is 19x6 ft. In the inner kitchen on 
the rear, between the windows, is a chimney, 
with stove flue, fire-pldce, and oven, if all three ot 
them are wanted ; or, this chimney may be dis¬ 
pensed with, which we would prefer, and a main 
chimney built where the 6x4 closet stands, having 
a broad, old fashioned fire-place, and oven in it, 
and connected with the other front room flues 
above, so as to have but a single chimney stack 
through the ridge of the roof, as in fig. 4. We 
do love an ample, open fire place in the farm house 
kitchen, especially in a wooded country ; and il 
coal be used, we equally like an open fire place, 
and grate. It is a great, and most genial dispens¬ 
er of warmth, and comfort, and nothing so much 
promotes good fellowship in a Winter evening as 
a cheerful fire-side. The cook-stove may have its 
place also, and he thrown back between the win¬ 
dows on the rear, so as to be out of the way o* 
all intrusion by the family, other than those who 
have to use it. 
The outer kitchen—marked O. K.—is “ a place 
of all work,” Summer, or Winter. It serves as 
an entry for the every-day use of the house ; foi 
cooking in Summer; store house in Winter; and 
thoroughfare, always. 
At the end next to the wood house is a chimney, 
with arch, and kettle, a pipe flue, or more, a fire¬ 
place, if needed, or any other heating use requir¬ 
ed. Adjoining it, runs off to the rear, a wood 
house, with half its gable end projecting to the 
right, forming an open entrance. Immediately in 
rear of the kitchen is a closet, or Summer buttery 
for milk, or other purposes, partitioned off from a 
part of the wood house. This wood house is 16 
ft. in width, and may be extended to any depth 
back required, and may there join into a work¬ 
shop, carriage-house, or any other building needed, 
or of which we may heieafter give apian. Oui 
present object is simply to give that indispen¬ 
sable appendage, the wood-house, in its proper 
place. 
CHAMBER ROOM. 
(See next page.) 
The chamber plan is simple. A narrow hall 
leads from the head of the stairway to three 
chambers in the main, or upright part, and three 
low closets taken off from the highest part of the 
lean-to, if needed, while all the rest is thrown in¬ 
to a low garret, of not much use, any way, except 
to tuck away trifling things seldom used. The 
windows and doors are all shown in the plan, and 
need no further remark than to say, that they 
may be of such size and pattern as the owner 
may choose, only that he observe a due propor¬ 
tion as to size and appearance. 
This house may be built of wood, and finished 
in a plain manner, complete, for $1,000, to $1,500, 
according to the cost of material in the part ot 
the country where it is situated. The larger sum 
will be ample to do it very well. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
We have thrown the broad, or hanging root 
over this house, and its appendages, for the same 
reasons given in the previously described cottage, 
and would have it project over the walls of the 
main body 24 to 30 inches, and 18 or 20 inches 
over the wing, and woodhouse. We have also 
given it a full front verandah in both house and 
wing. We believe in verandahs—as much so 
as in any room inside of the house itself. In the 
first place, they don't cost much ; secondly, they 
afford shelter, shade, and protection ; and thirdly, 
they are the very pleasantest parts of the dwelling 
to sit in during the warm season of the year, and 
enjoy the social intercourse of family, and friends. 
The good housewife, too, here finds ample space, 
and protection, to spread her fruits of apple, pear 
