VOL. XXXTT. No. 19 
WHOLiK So. 1345. 
PRICE SIX CENTH, 
S2.65 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by the Rural Publishing Company, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
The Ground Plan of the upper Cottage (of 
which two views are shown) is arranged 
thus: The living room, marked A, has two 
bedrooms at its rear, a kitchen on tllO left, 
and hall entrance on the right. The second, 
or hall' story, gives bedrooms Over each cf 
these. 
The plan of the middle cottage makes the 
living room, A, the whole size, omitting the 
two bedrooms. The house is smaller than 
the preceding one. 
The lower elevations are those of a supe¬ 
rior class of cottages, suitable for a mer¬ 
chant, shopkeeper, artisan or clerk, though 
none the less adapted to the thrifty laborer. 
A is the parlor, with its bay window, J.; B, 
the dining room ; C, the kitchen, with its 
A SERIES OF CHEAP COTTAGES 
The word home gains its chief beauty and 
significance from the millions of humble but 
comfortable abodes of thrift, virtue and fam¬ 
ily enjoyment, rather than from the com¬ 
paratively few stately mansions where 
wealth and luxury uhito to minister to 
man’s happiness, but too often fail In se¬ 
curing it. Were there none but these hab¬ 
itations of the wealthy and fashionable, the 
elen using, without breaking them, and of 
the displaced portion being afterward re¬ 
placed. 
Each cottage should be provided with the 
means of collecting and filtering the rain 
water from the roof, and thus bo indepen¬ 
dent of any other supply, the more especially 
as rain water is the purest of all water. 
The witlU of cottages may be formed of a 
great variety of materials, and the material 
used is a fertile source of variety and beauty. 
Wood is the most susceptible of architec¬ 
tural ornamentation at the least expense. 
of order; and when disturbed for the pur¬ 
pose of cleaning, it should be capable of re¬ 
instatement with the materials at first used. 
The most essential points to bo attended 
to, in the drainage of buildings generally, 
are the following :—All main sewers should 
be formed with concave bottoms, to allow 
the water, however small iu quantity, pass¬ 
ing along with solid matter, to act with the 
utmost possible effect; and they should be 
evenly built. They should have arched tops, 
although flags, well laid, make a good cover. 
Sewers should have a fall of not less than 
PLAN OF SECOND FLOOR, LOWER COTTAGE. 
ei shelved pantry, H ; D, the hall; E, the ves¬ 
tibule; F, staircase ; G, chamber; I, porch. 
k -i The second story, A A A A, bedrooms ; "B, 
hall; C, dressing-room; D, bath-room and 
water-closet; E, roof of bay-window. 
\ The home feeling is the basis of patriotism 
an( j j oye country, and next to having a 
S wife and family, nothing is so promotive of 
the home instinct as to have a place nil one’s 
own to house them in. Here, secure from t he 
storms of winter, secure also from the evils 
f which prey on fashionable social life, families 
may be reared, and intelligence and virtue 
gain a new foothold in the worlds’ teeming 
~— 1 millions through the refining influence of the 
home circle. The country with its thousands 
of humble homes Is the place where must be 
reared those who will exert the greatest in¬ 
fluence on the world’s future. The touch of 
PLAN OF UPPER COTTAGE, 
word Home would never have been invented, 
and would even now speedily lose its special 
significance. For every costly mansion that 
towers to the Bky there are hundreds of 
cheaper Homes for the People, where fami¬ 
lies will be roared and the young trained to 
prepare for fives of activity and usefulness. 
It is to these humble sort of homes that the 
Rural New - Yorker goes, though, quite 
naturally, those who take it long and follow 
its teachings are able to afford tasteful, ex¬ 
pensive, and even luxurious surroundings, 
one inch in every ton feet in length, and 
more than this, in all cases where the flow of 
water is variable. They should have a con¬ 
stant flow of water through them, or pow¬ 
erful flushes at stated intervals; and par¬ 
ticular care taken to ventilate them. 
To prevent the foul air generated in, or 
returning by, the drains, the wasteways 
should be double-trapped, by a bell-trap at 
the sink, where the waste water enters ; and 
by a well-trap short of the inlet to the drain. 
All drains should be so constructed as to 
admit of being opened for the purpose of 
Some persons object to it, as requiring fre- 
qnent painting, being combustible and per¬ 
ishable. 
Stone or brick foundations are always to 
be recommended, even where cellars are not 
to be used; and by keeping the wooden 
frame well up from the ground, the objec¬ 
tion as to perishability may be greatly less¬ 
ened. 
The acccornpanying designs may be con¬ 
structed in either stone or brick. The walls, 
if stone, should be 14 inches thick ; if brick, 
8 inches. 
groun plan of lower cottage. 
mother earth, the sight of green leaves 
and bright blossoms, and the intimate as¬ 
sociation with nature, which country life 
implies, make the farmers* and laborers’ 
rural home the best of all places for men 
and women to be bom in, and to spend 
their earlier years. 
frhs More even than these are the habits of 
industry and frugality, which all the ad- 
jfT. vantages of wealth do not render unnec- 
Ift if essary to men who wish to lead lives 
jli of usefulness aud honor, and of which 
early poverty is the sure though austere 
teacher. It may not be better to be born 
lucky than rich, but it surely is preferable 
-i**^*^ 1 n hftVftnn Psirlv tr«ininor frx tn/)iiotwn 
PLAN OP MIDDLE COTTAGE, 
keeping always the home spirit as the most 
important bond of family union. We have 
frequent inquiries for plans of cottages aud 
cheap homes adapted to workingmen, young 
men with small means, and beginners in 
farming. To all these the following infor¬ 
mation, with illustrations and desirable plans 
of houses, will be useful: 
The first thing to be done, in laying out 
the foundations, is to see to the drainage ; 
and this is a point of the utmost importance, 
as upon it mainly depend the health and 
comfort of its inrnateB. And not only is it 
requisite that the drainage be perfect, but it 
must be as little liable as possible to get out 
to have an early training to industry rather 
than be bom to delusive advantages oj 
wealth. 
- 
Uni 
go? 
