138 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
runs adjoining on to the building containing the 
work-shop, carriage-house, and stable. The work¬ 
shop is 12x24 feet, with a flight of stairs in it, and 
a lumber-loit overhead with a door window in 
front to receive and discharge its material. The 
work-room also has a large door in front, and is 
well lighted with windows. Adjoining this, is 
a carriage-room, 10 feet high and 24 feet square, 
with tw'o large double doors in front, and two 
small windows to light it in rear. A flight of 
steps leads into the hay-loft above, and a harness- 
room, and granary may be partitioned off - below, 
if necessary. From the carriage-rooms a door 
leads through a passage, 4 feet wide, into the 
horse stable, with a single and two double stalls, 
and one window in the further end, and another 
in the side. 
The stable, it will be seen, is a lean-to with a 
shed roof of a quarter pitch, or whatever pitch is 
required to bring the roof from the plate of the 
carriage-house to that of the stable, which is 8 feet 
high. The roof of the stable should also project 
in front as far as that of the main building, to 
give the outside wall shelter, and show a full 
finish. VVe have made the stable "a lean-to, be¬ 
cause, being more or less damp from the stale, and 
droppings of the horses, the floor timbers and sills 
are subject to decay, and they can better be re¬ 
paired without disturbing the other parts, than they 
would if in the main building. We think, besides, 
the lean-to form of the stable gives the whole 
building a more comfortable, homelike, and 
sheltered look. We have one on this model which 
we have long used, and have found no indivi¬ 
dual feature of it which we would alter, so con¬ 
venient has it proved. If our readers are dis¬ 
satisfied that this work-shop, carriage house, and 
stable design is just like another which we have 
adopted as an independant building in our series 
of farm structures, our simple answer is, that we 
can invent none better, cheaper, or more conve¬ 
nient, or in better style of architecture; and hav¬ 
ing found a thing as perfect in its kind as we can 
contrive, we think it hardly worth while to design 
an inconvenient and pointless thing for the mere 
object of showing a variety. Our designs are in¬ 
tended, of course, to be merely suggestive,— 
not models to be strictly imitated. 
Thus much for our model farm-house. Our in¬ 
cidental remarks, made as we have proceeded in 
the description, show our views of all that the 
farmer needs in the indulgence of a taste for dis¬ 
play in his buildings consistent with the require¬ 
ments of a well regulated, thrifty rural establish¬ 
ment. That this design will equally well answer 
the purposes of some country dwellers who are 
not farmers, we believe ; and that it may be adapt¬ 
ed with economy and convenience to all their fa¬ 
mily wants. We might have varied it in outer ap¬ 
pearance, and given it a different architectural 
style ; but such, we consider, is scarcely worth 
while, nor do we believe we could better it. As 
it is, we trust it will be acceptable. It may be 
said there is nothing particularly new about it, and 
that the main features of the whole affair are old 
fashioned. Very well; if that be so, there have been 
a good many very good houses built, and lived in 
with great acceptance to their owners and occupi¬ 
ers in past days, at which we rejoice. The hills, 
valleys, mi untains, woods, waters, grass, cultivat¬ 
ed fields, and a thousand other objects of love and 
life-long familiarity are not new, yet none the 
less admired that they have ever greeted our sight. 
That they be sufficient and needful for our wants, 
and agreeable to our tastes, is sufficient to satisfy 
„ n y reasonable mind ; and they who want to go 
into absurdities from the mere love of variety, or 
the giatification of a vagrant fancy, can do so— 
without oar assistance, however. 
COST OF THIS ESTABLISHMENT. 
That may vary from three to five thousand dol¬ 
lars, according to the price of material and labor, 
and the extent of finish. The first sum will erect 
and finish the whole in a plain way; and the latter 
will do it it in the completest manner, while it may 
vary, more or less, at any sum between. We 
cannot well, and we certainly need not go into the 
details of finish, as in the erection of the building. 
A competent builder and mechanic should take 
charge of the work, draw out the plans, and give 
the items of expense in each one, by itself. 
We have submitted the elevation and plans, 
sufficient for general use, as intended, and trust 
they will prove satisfactory. 
■-^ i - -» <» - - ■ . 
To get rid of Ants. 
It may seem an easy matter, to the uninitiated, 
to get rid of ants. So thought we, years ago, but 
we think otherwise now. Our front-yard, when 
we first came into possession of it, abounded in 
ant-hills, and to get rid of them, we followed the 
advice of a neighbor, viz: to cut off the tops of 
the hills with a shovel, and then throw on a 
shovel-full of fresh ashes or lime, carting off the 
hillocks into the street. This process evidently 
weakened their forces for a while, but did not ut¬ 
terly rout them, for in a few weeks new lulls 
were peeping up around the old ones on every 
side. 
At another time, we discovered a large ant-hill 
around the roots of a favorite pear-tiee. A friend 
suggested a dressing of salt, though in small quan¬ 
tities, lest the tree itself should be injured. The 
ants liked salt: at least, they “stood it.” Not to 
be beaten, we increased the dose, and succeeded, 
in salting down the ants and the tree likewise. 
Rather, we simply drove away the ants and killed 
the tree. The ants did not travel far from the salt- 
pit ; they merely moved to the pear tree next in 
the row, and in a few weeks commenced house¬ 
keeping in their usual style. “ Why don’t you scald 
’em out,” said a neighbor, looking over the fence 
and seeing our perplexities ; and if that don’t do, 
then pound ’em, take a mallet, unroof their house 
and pound ’em as fast as they come up to see 
what the matter is. Well, we tried both plans, 
and with partial success. Plainly, their house¬ 
hold affairs were disturbed, when we poured down 
scalding water through garret and chamber and 
kitchen ; but this did not exterminate the var¬ 
mints. And the pounding was an extinguisher, as 
far as it reached, but it did not put an entire end 
to the race : Moreover, the hot water hurt the 
roots of the tree, somewhat; and in our zealous 
pounding, we broke off several fine branches and 
barked the trunk of the tree. 
Last Summer, having suspended warfare with 
the ants, because it did not seem to pay, we 
watered our besieged trees with soapsuds, and the 
refuse slops from the kitchen, hoping to promote 
their vigor and productiveness. What was our 
surprise to find that, before Autumn, the ants had 
struck their tents and gone to parts unknown ! 
They could stand salt and lime, and hot-wate 
and earthquakes, but when bilge-water came 
streaming down into their private apartments, 
they gave it up ! 
But our troubles were not to end so easily. As 
if to wreak vengeance upon us for our attacks on 
their homes out of doors, the ants, like the frogs 
of Egypt, came up into our very dwelling, infest¬ 
ing kitchen and pantry, running into sugar bowls, 
dishes of preserves, molasses jugs and all our 
wife’s dainties. A few years ago, we built an 
arbor* around the trunk of a fine old elm in our 
~*fi: theprevious volume (16) page 229, we gave an en¬ 
graved sketch o f this arbor. 
grounds, w'here we might enjoy a siesta, of a Sum¬ 
mer’s noon, or sit and gaze on the beautiful pros¬ 
pect spread out before us. For the first season, 
it answered our expectations and yielded us a 
great deal of enjoyment. But, last Summer, soon 
after the ants capitulated at the battle of the 
pear-trees, some of them took a fancy to our 
arbor. And while we were daily endeavoring 
to enjoy our favorite seat, we found the ant’s 
running up and down the tree, over the arbor, and 
over our clothes, and under our clothes 
and all to our exceeding consternation and annoy 
ance. The kitchen slops, which were so effic.a 
cious at, the root of the pear-trees, would not an 
swer in the pantry or the arbor, so we are drivep 
to the use of some other weapons. We havfl 
lately devised some new apparatus for assaulting 
our enemy the present Summer. How successfir 
the campaign shall prove, remains to be seen 
How to get thoroughly rid of ants, we consider ar 
open question. 
My Neighbor’s Barn Cats- 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist : 
Notwithstanding the “public” consider cats as 
the fireside divinities of the unappreciated “belles” 
of former generations, and as being specially in¬ 
vented to be tormented by boys and dogs, farm¬ 
ers who raise large quantities of grain acknowl¬ 
edge their usefulness, and if fortunate in their 
management, think one good cat is worth all the 
terriers in the world, this opinion can hardly be 
doubted. Drop in upon your city neighbors, the 
flour and grain dealers, and ask to see their rat 
catchers. Every one will show you a CAT. Youi 
article on page 71, March No., leads me to say a 
word of the cats of my friend, farmer D. He 
Winters some thirty head of cattle and raises 
choice swine, and feeds them high—buying shorts 
or other ground feed by the ton, and keeping it in 
a bin in his barn. The pigs are kept in separate 
pens in a part of the barn cellar and well sup¬ 
plied with clean straw. Their mixing trough 
stands under the bin and is supplied from it 
through a spout, and the aqueduct log is at one 
end of the trough. Is not every arrangement made 
for the convenience of rats and mice as well as 
himselfl Yet he told me that be would give $100 
for every rat or mouse that could be caught upon 
his premises. His barn and dwelling join. He 
keeps six cats—five of the feminine gender and 
the other he calls his “wether” cat. The 
“ wether ” cat is not supposed to be a mouser, 
but drives off the “ Thomas ” cats, so that kittens 
are nearly as scarce as rats. His hens have their 
quarters in the corner of the house-cellar nearest 
to the barn and although grain is always upon the 
floor no rats are seen. The cats are fed on milk— 
only once in a great while do they get anything 
else—and they are never allowed to be in the 
house. He says cats have “fits” because they 
are fed too much meat and are permitted to sleep 
near the fire... .One of his cats has an extraor¬ 
dinary fondness for cows ; I saw her walk along 
in front of them and purr as each cow licked hei 
with the tongue. M. B. I. 
Massachusetts. 
The Mapl-e Sugar Crop for 1858, will proba 
bly be a very light one. The first of the sugai 
season was unexpectedly early and sugar-makers 
were not prepared to improve it, while the early 
opening of Spring, stopped the flow of sap much 
sooner than usual 
He who can take advice is sometimes superio? 
to him who can give it. 
