NEW 
“ TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND MIND.” 
SERIES. 
Vol. IV. 
ALBANY, MARCH, 1847. 
No. 3. 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 
Editors Cultivator —In your favor of the 7th 
inst., you extend to me an invitation to send an article 
for the Cultivator. It is entirely a new business to me, 
and I may fail in sending you anything that you will 
think worthy of insertion. Should this be the case, you 
will do me a favor not to use it. In looking for a 
subject, my mind fixed upon two or three, which I deem 
of general interest. These were Roads, Fences, and 
Buildings. Having several plans of dwelling houses 
in my memorandum book, I have selected one, and at- 
ELEVATION.—Fig. 13. 
tempted to give you a draft of it. I am not a me¬ 
chanic, and feel that I am laying myself open to criti¬ 
cism. I have been led, perhaps, to select this subject 
from having recently re-perused Mr. Downing’s works 
on Cottage Residences and Landscape Gardening, in 
which works I have been much interested. I have 
access to no works treating on the same subject that I 
read with more satisfaction. I like them better than 
Loudon’s, because they are better adapted to our own 
country. But still it seems to me there is something 
needed to meet the wants of the mechanic and farming 
community—I mean the working portion—men who 
manage their own tools, and work their own farms. 
Mr. Downing’s Designs and Plans are too expensive 
for general use among this class of persons; they will 
do for what are termed gentlemen farmers, and me¬ 
chanics who work, if at all, in gloves; but we want 
something for the industrious working man. A man 
who has a farm of fifty or one hundred acres, worth $30 
to $40 per acre, does not like to expend 12, 15, or 
$2,500 in building a dwelling house; and if he is a pru¬ 
dent man, will not do it; and yet, he wants a comforta¬ 
ble home, and deserves it as much as any one. Of a 
^ u ^ re( i dwelling houses, in view from where I am now 
writing, perhaps not more than fifteen or twenty would 
be considered worth over $1000; and these, I should 
judge, are rather above the average of our country. 
This, I think, shows, that a wprk containing designs of 
a less expensive character is needed to meet the wants 
of a large portion of our population. 
Mr. Downing, in an article published in the Sept, 
number of the Horticulturist, complains of the manner in 
which the Grecian and 6ther styles of architecture have 
been misapplied in this country, and says he now 11 sees 
strong symptoms of another disease manifesting itself,” 
PRINCIPAL FLOOR —Fig. 19. 
A. Parlor,—B. Sitting-room—C. Kitchen—D. and E. bed-rooms 
—F. Closets—G. Pantry— H. Hall—I. Back Hall, lighted from 
sash door—K. Wood-house—L, Stoop—M. Ashes. 
&c., alluding to the rural Gothic style of building, 
now practiced among us. Hasnot his w r ork on Cot¬ 
tage Residences had this very effect to some extent. 
Persons have seen his work and designs, and have been 
pleased with them, and in building have endeavored to 
imitate them; but not feeling able to fully adopt his 
plans and carry them out, they have tried to introduce 
some of his suggestions in a cheap way, and have thus 
produced the specimens of bad taste to which he al¬ 
ludes. For one, I do not wish to see any particular 
style generally adopted. It would not comport with 
our heterogeneous population, or our great variety of 
