1864 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
2G5 
front, door ami tui'ii, you land in front and can 
Lave no access id the back without making 
your upper hall wide, or going through some 
other room. This plan gives h rest platform over 
the front door, and lands where you ean reach 
each room without passing through another. 
Mr. Woodville’s plan No. 2, for a cheaper 
house, is objectionable chiefly in this; that it 
makes no provision for enlarging at a future 
time. In this country the means to build with, 
and the demand for more room are apt to in¬ 
crease in time as children grow older. A young 
man can hardly afford to build now for his fam¬ 
ily, as it will probably be 20 years hence, there¬ 
fore there should be a cheap plan for the pres¬ 
ent, which will allow additions in the future. 
My second plan (see fig. 1,) is of this kind. Let 
the eaves front the street, and a parlor and addi¬ 
tional bedroom can be added hereafter without 
marring the plan of the present house, making 
it in the form of an L. This will require a hip 
roof in the present building. 
“ Each of these plans contemplates a lean-to 
kitchen, and a back porch. I have known many 
a house built without these appendages, but 
they had to come at last. Better leave some 
part unfinished, and build these at once if you 
can not finish both. Architects and other men 
may say “no,” but the women will have them. 
“ By a very simple and cheap contrivance the 
unpleasant odor rising from the cooking stove, 
can be sent out at the flue. It consists of a 
sheet iron hood, say five feet in diameter, termi¬ 
nating in a neck to receive a six inch stove pipe 
from which by an elbow and another joint, con¬ 
nection is made with the flue between tin ceiling 
of the kitchen and the roof. The whole need 
not cost five dollars. It should not project be¬ 
low the ceiling, but be plastered flush with it. 
If the pipe or flue rise perpendicularly from it, 
and be covered, it may go out through the ro of 
is well as not.” 
The “Veronica Quinquefolia ” once more. 
In the September Agriculturist of last year, 
this was classed among the humbugs of the day, 
and we stated, upon evidence which would con¬ 
vince any intelligent jury, that this was the old 
Veronica Virginica, sold under a new name, and 
at an enormous price. Plants of the so-called 
Veronica quinquefolia were sent by W. R. Prince, 
the person engaged in selling it, to the Rural 
New-Yorker, which paper gave a description 
of it, and made out that it was not a Veronica 
at all. Here was an evident “change of base,” 
and we quietly awaited further developments. 
Since then, a friend procured for us from W. 
R. Prince, some dried specimens of his so-called 
Veronica quinquefolia, labeled with his own hand. 
Although the specimens sent were out of flow¬ 
er, they were readily recognized as belonging to 
an old garden plant of European origin, former¬ 
ly called Lysimachia verticillata , but which is now 
considered only a variety of L. punctata. The 
specimens came directly from Prince to us, and 
agree entirely with the description of the plant 
given in the Rural New-Yorker. The case sums 
up thus: Prince claims to have a new Amer¬ 
ican plant, which grew on Long Island, but 
was very rare, and was sold at a high price as 
a wonderful remedy, and to which he has given 
the name of Veronica quinquefolia. Authentic 
specimens of this pretended new plant, prove to 
be an old ornamental garden plant, and not a 
native of America at all, which is not a Veronica 
nor at all related to it, and one which is not 
known to have any medicinal properties. These 
are the facts in the case; our readers can make 
their own comments. It may be well to state 
in connection with this case that neither threats 
of law-suits, nor those of personal violence, 
will deter us from exposing humbugs, no mailer 
by whom they are fathered or sustained. 
Any thing which adds to the safety of the 
milk pails all over the land, and to the conve¬ 
nience of milkers, is very valuable, and the 
simple contrivance we here present, the inven¬ 
tion of a subscriber to the American Agriculturist, 
Peter Mulvany, of Calhoun Co., Mich., seems 
to be of this kind. Mr. Mulvany writes: 
“ While getting a milk pail of heavy tin mark¬ 
ed at the tinsmith’s the other day, it occurred to 
me that it would be held more easily between 
the knees if it had two pieces of tin soldered 
on, one on each side between the pail ears, as 
in the sketch. I find it to be a decided im¬ 
provement. The pieces need not be large, say 
an inch and a quarter in width, and half moon 
shaped, to fit the curve of the pail, and so as to 
slope downward a little.” It strikes us as de¬ 
cidedly practical, and so to speak, handy. The 
pail being supported upon the knees instead of 
being held up by them, is brought conveniently 
near the teats, arid is much quicker in hand, if 
the cow steps or kicks. It would be interesting 
to know approximately the quantity of milk 
spilt every year, or even on any one day in the 
milk season, by the upsetting of the pails, by 
cows putting their feet into the pails, tipping 
them partly over, or causing splashing and loss 
of milk, while the operation of milking is going 
on, which accidents this contrivance is calcu¬ 
lated to diminish. At the same time it affords 
relief to the muscles of the legs of the milkers. 
Where Ought the Farm-house to Stand ? 
The usual sites of farm houses depend very 
much upon the custom of the community in 
which the farms lie. In New England where 
the country was first settled, and the villages 
laid out, the principal streets were located where 
good farms could be had on each side, and there 
the farms were allotted to the settlers. Each 
farm had a narrow frontage of 300 or 400 yards 
on the street, and ran back at right angles to 
the road half a mile or a mile. The houses and 
buildings were located close to the road for the 
sake of sociability and convenience, at a time 
when nearness of neighbors was not only agree¬ 
able but important to personal safety. 
These long narrow farms obtained in many 
sections besides New England, but among the 
Dutch settlers the farms were laid out much 
more compactly, so that even though the 
houses were located nearer the highways they 
were much nearer the centre of the farms. The 
present mode of settling new land at the West 
is influenced almost entirely by Government 
surveys, and the tendency is to form farms ot 
one or more quarter sections, hence they arc all 
rectangular and most of them square. High 
ways proper can hardly be said to have any ex¬ 
istence over large portions of the Western 
States, particularly upon the prairies, even 
where the country is pretty well settled. So 
the houses are located without reference to roads. 
So far as the farm is concerned, this is well. 
In laying out a new farm or in building a new 
farm house and locating barns and oilier build¬ 
ings, it is most important to study convenience 
and not follow old customs. The nearer the 
house and buildings are to the centre of the 
arable portion of the farm, the better, other things 
being equal. Hills, streams, the location of 
rough oruntillable land dividing that which can 
be brought under the plow or scythe, and sun¬ 
dry other circumstances will lead to a location of 
the buildings away from the centre of the farm. 
It is curious to see how the notion that ex¬ 
tended views are desirable, or some other notion, 
has influenced the location of houses and barns 
upon hill tops, all over the country where it has 
been possible. Every load of hay, grain or 
roots, must in many cases be drawn up the hill. 
The fertility of the farm by every rain is wash 
ed further and further away from the house, so 
that even if it be all caught at the foot of the 
hill, the result is that the farther off a crop 
grows, the heavier it is likely to be. 
The building ought to stand where the farm 
roads and cart paths can conveniently concen¬ 
trate and all approach by reasonably short and 
direct lines from the out-lying fields. Steep 
pitches should be avoided even by making 
circuits, and the steepest places in the roads 
should be where loads will seldom be hauled up 
them. The heaviest loads of produce come 
from those fields upon which the most manure 
is hauled, so the buildings should be nearly on a 
level with the best land, or that which is most 
susceptible of high manuring and culture. 
Proximity to the highway is a great convenience, 
hence those farms are favored which are inter¬ 
sected by a public road. Where there is much 
travel, this having a constant troop of strangers 
and pilferers passing through one’s grounds 
would be any thing but desirable; but where 
the travelers would be chiefly neighbors and 
friends the case is reversed. In districts where 
strong fences must be maintained along the 
highways to prevent the trespassing of neigh¬ 
bors’ cattle, preference may be given to such a 
location of the farm with reference to highways 
as will require least fencing. 
In regard to views. The extensive panoramas 
obtained from hill-tops are not by any means 
so beautiful and pleasing to cultivated taste as 
the more limited landscapes, combining strik¬ 
ing features both near and far, which are much 
more likely to be found at less exalted and 
more protected situations. A southern, south¬ 
eastern, or east-south and-west exposure, pro¬ 
tected from northern and north--\vestcrn winds 
by hills or forests is tc be chosen, and extensive 
views of the grounds of others are to be regard¬ 
ed entirely subordinate to the ability convenient¬ 
ly to overlook one’s own farm and laborers. 
Dr. Evan Pcgu.— The cause of Agricultur¬ 
al Science in this country sustains a very grave 
loss in the death of Dr. Evan Pugh, President 
of the Pennsylvania Agricultural College, which 
occurred at Bcllefont, near the college domain 
