i'T'Hura iui nifu 
hiitii man mi) ran 
nui hi nmol uinta 
VOL. XXIX. No. *23 
WHOLE No. 1*271. 
PRICE SIX CENTS, 
*‘2.50 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of CongresB, In tbe year 1S74, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
EXPRESSION OF PURPOSE IN BUILDING 
the dome, when present, at once stamps the 
building with the expression of purpose; and 
the few openings and plain exterior, with 
the absence of chimneys, are the suitable 
and easily-recognized characteristics of the 
barn. Were any one to commit so violent 
on outrage upon the principle of the expres- 
chapel, a bank, a hospital or the private 
dwelling of a man of wealth and opulence ! 
The expression of the purpose for which 
every building is erected is the first and 
most essential beauty, and should bo obvious 
from its architecture, although independent 
of any particular style ; in the same manner 
as the reasous for things are altogether inde¬ 
pendent of the language In which they are 
conveyed. As in literary composition, no 
beauty of language can ever compensate for 
poverty of sense, so in architectural com¬ 
position, no beauty of style can ever com¬ 
pensate for want of expression of purpose.— 
Downing. _ 
However much the principle of Jitneaa 
may be appreciated and acted upon in the 
United States, we have certainly great need 
of apology for the flagrant and almost con¬ 
stant violation of the second principle, viz: 
DAIRY AND FARM BARN 
I am a new subscriber to the Rural New- 
Yorker. and the request I am about to pre¬ 
fer may have been anticipated ; if so, I re¬ 
gret that I have not all the back volumes of 
the Rural. But I want to build me a dairy 
barn during the season, and if you can con¬ 
sistently publish any plans that will aid me, 
you will greatly oblige and perhaps benefit 
other admirers of the Rural than — c, F. o. 
In response we republish herewith a per¬ 
spective and plans of a model farm and dairy 
barn designed and owned by D, W. Clark, 
Schuyler Lake, N. Y. t one of the leading 
dairymen of Otsego Co. The correspondent, 
who furnishes the description says : 
The principal advantages attained in its 
construction are a dry, light and well-venti¬ 
lated stable for cows, convenience in feeding 
and caring for the same, ample storage for 
all the forage needed during t he winter, be¬ 
side room for all the grain raised on a large 
dairy farm ; also depositories for manure so 
arranged t hat it is protected from the wash¬ 
ings of heavy rains without incuring the risk 
of injuring the health of stock or rotting the. 
timbers which support the stable floor, as is 
the case where the manure cellars are di¬ 
rectly under the stable. By referring to the 
engraving the reader will understand how 
these advantages are secured. 
The basement walls are built on a founda¬ 
tion of stone, hammered into the soil, and 
are twenty inches thick, of quarry stone, laid 
in lime mortar, and are eight feet high ; the 
sills are bedded in mortar, and are of yellow 
pine. The cross sills are supported by two 
cast iron columns (set on a thick stone four 
feet square) under each bent. The piers 
under main sills are two by four feet of quar¬ 
ry stone. There are six bents in the frame, 
the posts of which are 
braced and pinm-d at ^ V'- 
both top and bottom. ' •- • 
The feed holes or traps 
dowsin rear of stables, 
and may be swung up 
to secure perfect veil- 
Total area of building, 
near the barn, where 
siding is of inch pine, 
planed and matched 
and thoroughly paint- 
ed. Total cost, $3,000. 
Our readers will no- 
tice that the explana- 
ion of plans of this 
barn accompany cuts. 
SWINDLING IN BLINDS 
The Technologist sayB :—“ There is a fear¬ 
ful amount of unmitigated swindliug done by 
many manufacturers of window blinds, by 
way of working In a large proportion of sap 
timber. Such blinds are then painted and 
sold as blinds made of first quality of pine. 
In several shops the writer went into their 
paint shops, ostensibly in quest of the fore¬ 
man or superintendent, where painters were 
painting tho most miserable blinds, as to 
the quality of Umber, that can be found In 
a lumber yard. Every slat was clear sap 
timber; and the bars and stiles of somo of 
tho blinds were not only sap timber, but 
dozy Bap. Some customer will purchase 
those blinds painted and trimmed, with 
hinges and fastenings, and pay what would 
be an exorbitant price for blinds made of 
timber of the first quality.” 
HOUSE PAINTING, 
If house painting consisted of merely cov¬ 
ering the wood work of a dwelling with one 
or more coats of white paint, to speak of it 
as a line art, would hardly be justifiable; 
but so far is such from being the ease that 
to conduct successfully the business of paint¬ 
ing In our cities and 
larger towns requires 
the exercise of those 
faculties which, in 
general acceptation, 
are supposed to dis¬ 
tinguish the artist 
from tho mechanic. 
An eye prompt by na¬ 
ture and education to 
distinguish the nice 
* ' gradations of colors 
^ r' ’ ' and tints — and the 
1 faculty so to arrange 
and dispose them as 
~ - let us hope not to re- 
- ' . turn. It was a kind 
' . of Puritanism in paint- 
==s z. Wft3 n ° Warlant ' n 
c- matters, should be 
ySSsuKsS our teacher and guide. 
^ This subject should 
be studied in the light 
of nature. 
