120 
THE CULTIVATOR 
April, 
FARM HOUSE IN THE ITALIAN STYLE. 
A Farm House in the Italian Style. 
The late A. J. Downing, so remarkable for his 
common sense and accurate taste in architecture, 
fell into an error on the character of the dwellings 
that farmers should provide for themselves. He 
classed all farmers promiscuously in one mass, as 
men who had but little to do with beauty or neat¬ 
ness, and as a consequence most of his farm-house 
designs indicate a degree of homely simplicity, 
often bordering very closely on the uncouth and 
awkward. Now, it happens that there is as much 
diversity in the characters, tastes, and-opinions of 
farmers, as in the motly inhabitants of the far- 
famed Pulo-Penang of the east. Some farmers, 
it is true, are as crude, almost, as a horse-thistle, 
while others are as refined as Count d’ Qrsay him¬ 
self. The absurdity of placing three-fourths of 
all the American people together, consisting of 
Yankees, Englishmen, Irishmen, Swiss, Germans, 
French, Dutch and Spanish, with interminable 
intermixtures of all, and with all grades of culti¬ 
vation, poetry of thought, and the genius of hard¬ 
scrabble and rough-and-tumble, is sufficiently ob¬ 
vious. 
Some farmers, “whose only music is the dollar’s 
chink,” care for nothing in the shape of rural comfort 
and taste, and would look upon a bed of flowers as far 
less ornamental than a sack of grain. We actually 
heard a driving young farmer declare, after viewing a 
beautiful garden, that a heavy crop of wheat was the 
handsomest sight in nature for him ! But all are not' 
so; and although the thirst for the tasteful is often 
undefined and developed in an occasional queer-looking 
building, yet we would rather see a blunder of this 
sort sometimes than a cheerless desert. Even two stiff 
rows of trees in front of a dwelling, look better than a 
bleak unsheltered mansion. ' If the thirst only exists, 
it will not bo satisfied with such crudities as these, but 
will soon lead on to better objects for its satisfaction. 
To assist this worthy purpose, we shall occasionally 
furnish some tangible'hints on building and planting, 
in the shape of distinct examples. 
The design at the head of this article is intended to 
exhibit a dwelling expressive of an air of modest and 
refined neatness, free from any bold or prominent pecu¬ 
liarity of architecture. Its general air is that of the 
Italian style, presenting the varied outline and freedom 
from stiffness for which this mode of building is distin¬ 
guished, but without a rigid adherence to architectural 
rules. It is intended for an intellectual family in 
moderate or comfortable*circumstances, and either as a 
farm or suburban residence. Without any attempt at 
costly ornament, it aims to give a tasteful exterior. A 
profusion of decoration, or as commonly termed “ gin¬ 
gerbread work,” is one of the most common faults in our 
newer country dwellings, much oftener showing a want 
of architectural taste than its presence. The simple 
elegance of a statue, with the plainest drapery, is infi¬ 
nitely more pleasing than if bedizzened with flashy 
ornaments, ribbons, poppies, and peacock feathers; and 
more taste may be shown in the form and proportions 
of a log dwelling, than Horace Walpole exhihted by 
