4 
attic has three bed-rooms, a room to store carpet, and 
a tank loft. 
As will be seen by the accompanying view, a flight 
of steps with heavy balustrade, give prominence to the 
entrance. The broad verandah is an essential feature 
in an American country residence, particularly in the 
middle or southern states. The eaves have a broad 
projection, to shed the rain and snow off from the house. 
The window from the chamber over the hall, opens to 
the balcony over the entrance door, from which a good 
view of the river is obtained; this balcony is sheltered 
by the projecting hood over the window. The oreal 
window of the chamber over the library, and the bal¬ 
cony over the porch in the recess, are happy features 
in the composition. The high pitch and graceful 
curves of the roof add beauty to the design, and by 
the arrangement and grouping of the different parts, 
we think a pleasing outline is obtained and a good ef¬ 
fect produced, without a sacrifice of convenience oi 
plan. 
Persons about to build will find it greatly to their 
advantage to procure proper plans, specifications, and 
working drawings. We send drawings by express and 
also by mail, to different parts of the country at a very 
small cost. 
Hints on Rural Homes. 
As every man’s house is the proper theatre of his 
hospitality, the seat of self fruition, the home of those 
most dearly cherished by him and the place where its 
possessor enjoys the most of his true comfort and hap¬ 
piness, it may well deserve his most earnest considera¬ 
tion how he can best apply the means he proposes to 
appropriate to building a house, so as to make it not 
only a shelter from cold and heat—from storm and 
sunshine—a habitation where himself and family may 
be lodged and fed, but, that it may be so arranged, 
constructed and adorned, as to make it as comfortable, 
convenient, expressive and beautiful as the circum¬ 
stances of the case will admit. 
To aid in cultivating a taste for rural architecture, 
we propose to prepare and publish, from time to time, 
as our professional engagements will permit, illustra¬ 
tions of some of the designs we have prepared during 
the last few years, for country residences that have 
been built under our directions. These designs have 
been prepared to meet the varied requirements of the 
different persons for whom the houses were to be built. 
We do not offer them as model designs, suitable for 
any location or site, or exactly adapted to the wants 
of any one, except the person for whom they were or¬ 
iginally prepared, and for the site they were to occupy ; 
but that they may give to persons who are about to 
build, some useful hints, and serve as stepping stones in 
their search for a design that will meet their particular 
wants and requirements. Thos. & J. M. Dixon, Archi¬ 
tects. 117 Baltimore St., Baltimore , Md. 
-e -» ©- 
Destruction of Peach Buds. 
We have had occasion frequently to point out to our 
readers the influence of the warm days of winter in 
swelling the fruit buds of the peach, and their conse¬ 
quent increased danger of destruction when intense 
cold follows. An eminent eastern horticulturist ridi¬ 
culed this position a year or two since in his magazine, 
maintaining that the trees must enjoy acertain period of 
rest; and that, until the regular period for growth return¬ 
ed, the slight degree of warmth sometimes experienced 
in winter, could have no influence whatever. The pre¬ 
sent mild winter has sufficiently shown his mistake. A 
month ago, or about mid-winter, we found many fruit 
buds a fourth of an inch long, and of corresponding 
diameter—or cubically measured, eight times their size 
at the termination of last summer’s growth. The ac¬ 
companying figures, (which represent the branches 
and buds as magnified to twice their diameter,) show 
their relative sizes at the two periods; Fig. 1, being 
the size at the present time, or after the mild weather 
of winter; and Fig. 2, their size in autumn. 
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 
Fig. 1, magnified view (twice the diameter,) of peach 
buds, as swelled by the warm winter—(two fruit buds, with 
leaf bud between.) Fig. 2, the same last autumn, (before 
swelling.) Fig. 3, swollen fruit bud cut through, showing 
the dark and dead interior. 
After being thus swollen and rendered more succu¬ 
lent, they become more tender and liable to destruc¬ 
tion—of which the two past winters furnish decided 
proof. In 1856, the summer and autumn were dry, 
and the buds matured well—the following winter was 
uniformly cold, and the buds did not swell. At Union 
Springs, N. Y., the thermometer sunk to 22° below 
zero, yet many trees were loaded last summer, the buds 
being uninjured. In portions of Wayne and Monroe 
counties, where the weather was about as cold, the 
peach crop was very abundant. 
Very different has been th8 effect of the present win¬ 
ter. After the buds had become swollen as above de¬ 
scribed, five degrees below zero during the latter part 
