[Entered According to Act of Congress in the Year 1890 , by the Rural New-Yorker, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C, 
A MARYLAND FARM-HOUSE. 
A. L. CROSBY. 
This house, see Figure 62, has some de¬ 
sirable features and some of the other kind, 
and I suppose all houses are “ built that 
way.” The interior is not arranged in the 
most convenient way, as the house was not 
all built at one time; the first part bemg 
log and additions having been made at 
three different times, it now contains log, 
stone and frame parts. The front door 
opens into a hall which runs through the 
house, and when the front and back doors 
are open there is always a pleasant breeze 
on the porch in summer, and some of our 
neighbors say that we have a good breeze 
when they have none. If that is so, it is 
owing to the way the 
house fronts, south¬ 
east, with the four 
corners to the cardi¬ 
nal points of the com¬ 
pass, which is the way 
all country houses 
ought to be built, be¬ 
cause, so placed, there 
will be more sun and 
breeze in each room 
than there would be if 
the house were faced 
in any other direction. 
The porch is 38 feet 
long by 11 )^ wide and 
furnishes plenty of 
shade during hot 
weather. The upstairs 
porch, being shel¬ 
tered at each end, is 
very convenient for 
an invalid or for a 
summer sewing- 
room. On the first 
floor are the parlor, 
sitting-room, dining¬ 
room and kitchen— 
which is in an L not 
shown in the picture 
—and, in the west 
wing, there is a room 
built for a kitchen 
for a second family’s 
use when two fami¬ 
lies occupied the 
house. Adjoining the 
kitchen in the L is 
a room in which farm 
hands can eat, and 
over it a bed-room 
for their use. Then 
comes a wood and 
coal shed with a cov¬ 
ered way to the kitch¬ 
en. On the second floor are six bed-rooms 
one of which occupies the whole west wing. 
Five garrets complete the list of rooms and 
under the house is a large, dry and cool 
cellar. So much for the inside. 
When I moved here—in ’78—the outside 
of the house was devoid of everything in 
the way of vines on the walls. One of the 
first things I did was to plant hardy vines 
of various kinds to be trained up the sides 
of the house. At each end of the porch I 
planted purple Chinese Wistaria; the two 
met midway long ago and my daughter se¬ 
lected a strong shoot and trained it to the 
top of the second story. When these vines 
are in full bloom they are very showy and 
are pleasant objects to look at at any other 
time even in winter; moreover, they hang 
down sufficiently to shade the porch while 
not allowed to come low enough to be in the 
way of any one stepping upon it. On either 
side of the door of the dining-room (on the 
right side of the picture) are honey-suckles 
shading the door and almost hiding one 
window. Next comes an akebia which, 
with a Virginia-Silk vine, planted around 
the corner at the east gable, and which 
insists on coming to the front, has cov¬ 
ered that corner of the house'' complete¬ 
ly. I can’t say too much in favor of the 
akebia. It is perfectly hardy, will climb on 
wires or sticks, blooms very early in the 
spring, is almost evergreen—it has some of 
last year’s leaves on it now—insects do not 
infest it and it will keep itself covered with 
young shoots from the ground up. On the 
west wing I planted, next the porch, an 
Ampelopsis tricolor which has now 
reached the eaves. It is a handsome vine, 
but not so strong-growing as our native 
Ampelopsis Yirginica. One of the latter 
dropped many graceful shoots almost to 
the ground; in the picture, which was 
taken in June, they are about half way 
down. The picture also shows how vines 
of this class will, unlike the akebia, always 
have naked stems below. On the left of 
the door in the west wing and partly hid¬ 
den by a Cut-leaved Ash is a Clematis 
flammula which is handsome in summer, 
very sweet when in bloom and very ugly in 
winter. A Yirginia-Silk vine at the corner 
finishes the list of vines in front of the 
house. At the west gable is an Ampelopsis 
Yeitchii which completely covers the lower 
story. At the back of this wing there are 
several Virginia Creepers, and, back of the 
main building, is a fine Aristolochia sipho. 
Some people are afraid to train vines on 
their houses because, they say, they gather 
dampness and injure the walls. This, I 
think, is not so. In summer the leaves 
prevent the rain from reaching the walls, 
and in winter the stems do not lie close 
enough, nor are they numerous enough to 
RESIDENCE OF A. L. CROSBY. From a Photograph. Fig. 62 . 
came up in the grass about four feet from 
the house and was cut off every year when 
the grass was cut, but four or five years ago 
my son found a long shoot that had escaped 
the mower and he dug a little trench to the 
wall, laid the vine in it, covered it up and 
it soon climbed up alongside of its tricol- 
ored relative 
Presently it |became evident that the na¬ 
tive would hide the foreigner entirely, and 
I was about to cut down the former when 
it occurred to me to train it out at right 
angles to the house, which I did by cutting 
a small cedar tree, partly trimming it and 
fastening it to the house with the stem pro¬ 
jecting about five feet. The Virginia 
Creeper soon covered this support and 
prevent moisture from drying out rapidly. 
Vines add much to the beauty of a hand¬ 
some house, and make a plain one almost 
handsome. 
Catonsville, Md. 
NOTES ON SWEET POTATO AND 
WATER-MELON CULTURE. 
BY M. H. BECKWITH. 
AT the Sussex County,’ Farmers’ Insti¬ 
tute held February 12 and 13, at Seaford, 
Sussex County, Delaware, Mr. Paynter 
Frame, the originator of several valuable 
varieties of water-melons and who is prob¬ 
ably the most successful melon and sweet 
potato grower in the United States, gave 
his method as follows : 
BEDDING SWEET POTATOES. 
To obtain strong, healthy plants, he pre¬ 
pares a frame the same as for a hot-bed, 
but no sashes are used. This frame is filled 
to a depth of about two feet with coarse, 
horse manure well trodden down; this is 
covered with about eight inches of wheat 
straw, upon which the tubers are placed in 
a single layer close together, then covered 
with just sufficient soil barely to hide them 
from sight; then upon the soil are placed 
about eight inches of pine leaves or “shats” 
as we call them, that can be obtained upon 
the ground beneath the pine trees. Then, 
by placing boards upon the “shats” the bed 
is covered, except a space through the center 
which is left open to allow the surplus heat 
to escape so that the tubers upon the 
outer edges of the bed will sprout as soon 
as those in the center. As soon as the 
sprouts appear the 
“shats” are removed, 
and from three to four 
inches of soil are 
placed upon the tub¬ 
ers. In this manner 
strong’, healthy 
plants can be grown 
with little difficulty. 
preparat’n of land 
AND PLANTING. 
He selects a sandy 
soil that was tilled 
the preceding season; 
as soon as it can be 
worked in the spring 
he plows it shallow, 
then runs furrows 
three and a-half to 
four feet apart and 
about four inches 
deep. These furrows 
are then filled with a 
compost composed of 
barnyard manure and 
ground bone, which 
is covered by throw¬ 
ing a furrow on it. 
Another furrow is 
thrown upon top of 
the compost before 
setting the plants so 
as to form a ridge up¬ 
on which fertilizer is 
liberally applied; im¬ 
mediately before set¬ 
ting the plants two 
furrows are thrown 
upon the fertilizer, 
thus forming quite a 
ridge upon which the 
plants are set about 
eight inches apart. A 
cloudy day is prefer¬ 
red for setting the plants. The ground is cul¬ 
tivated between the rows, soon after they are 
put out. A cultivator with what are known 
as “ fluke” teeth is used when working the 
soil between the rows,which should be done 
twice each week, throwing the soil close to 
the plants and covering all weeds. When 
the vines have become so large that they 
interfere with the cultivator they are turn¬ 
ed over so as not to be covered with soil when 
working and every other row is cultivated 
and replaced; those of the uncultivated rows 
are then turned over upon the cultivated 
rows and worked in the same manner. The 
vines must be kept from taking root in the 
row, as potatoes will grow wherever they 
take root at the expense of the tubers first 
formed upon the vine and many small ones 
