280 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Aug. 
Plan of a House. 
[No two men, scarcely, will build dwellings exactly 
alike in all particulars, and the diversity of plans which 
we are enabled occasionally to present our readers, can¬ 
not fail to suggest useful hints to some. The following 
possesses some decided excellencies; but we are sorry 
pur correspondent found it necessary to find fault with 
another plan, to sustain what we cannot but regard some 
defective points of his own. Why cannot we have every 
desirable quality—brick filling—and double doors? Let 
the central portion of the veranda in the following plan, 
be converted into an entry, or vestibule, and a most ob¬ 
jectionable feature is at once removed. We doubt not 
our correspondent will pardon the freedom of these 
hints.* Eds.] 
Eds. Cultivator —I was highly pleased with J.’s re¬ 
marks respecting country buildings, and also with, his 
plan, yet I think that in order to render a house “warm 
and comfortable” in this climate, a good fire-place is 
more essential than a double coat of plastering, or a 
warm covering or filling in with brick. Now, if I un¬ 
derstand his plan, there are no means of heating any of 
the bed-rooms, nor the library or sitting-room ; this, by 
many, would be considered a very serious objection, 
worse even than having doors opening immediately into 
the rooms from the outside. 
Enclosed is the plan of a 
country house, ’ately drawn 
for a friend v, uo is about to 
build, and who wants a house 
with four rooms and a kitch¬ 
en on the first floor, and one 
story high. 
A house built on this plan, 
would be both comfortable 
and convenient, and at the 
same time, as ornamental as 
a farmer who did not wish to 
be thought “ freakish,” 
would like to build in wes¬ 
tern Pennsylvania, where you 
will frequently see fire walls, Fibst Floor. 
or perhaps a roof extending over the gable just far 
enough to cover a three-quarter inch “barge board,” 
high grecian porticos, and chimneys invariably in the 
outside walls. 
* We have taken the liberty 1o give a perspective view, instead 
of the two elevations of our correspondent. 
The main building will be 82 by 34 feet; the kitchen 
12 by 16, with two porches 4 feet wide—the pantry and 
coal-house connected with the kitchen, will be 8 by 20 
feet. There is a door opening out of the kitchen into 
the pantry, and from the porch into the coal-house. 
The building will front the south-east, and from the 
bay window in the sitting-room, will be visible three- 
fourths of the farm; from the parlor bay will be seen 
part of the orchard and the shrubbery. 
Each room is provided with 
one closet or wardrobe; the 
library with a permanent 
book-case. All the windows 
in the second story open on 
hinges ; the one to the north- 
east into a small balcony with 
light iron railing, 4 by 6 feet, Second Floor. 
w'hich is sheltered by the roof, projecting over the wall 
two feet. The window at the opposite end has a railing 
attached to the outer edge of the wall, three feet high. 
The lower story, besides the dining-room, library, and 
parlor, contains one large bed-room. The second has 
two.good bed-rooms, 12 by 16 feet, and if necessary, a 
bed could be placed in the middle room, which is 8 by 
16 feet, extending to the front wall. The stories are 
each 10 feet high. The stairs ascend between the cham¬ 
ber and dining-room; the cellar stairs are under them. 
Every room except the middle one in the second story, 
is provided with a fire-place. The roof is steep, the 
apex being 16 feet from the second floor; this leaves 
room for a high ceiling in the upper bed-rooms, and for 
a small ventilating window at each end, above the ceil¬ 
ing, which permits a free circulation of air between the 
plastering and roof. 
If you, or any of the readers of the Cultivator, can 
suggest any improvements on the above plan, before the 
building is commenced this summer, I will be glad to re- 
ceive them. A. D. C. Temperanceville, March , 1852. 
Bruising Apples. —The Working Farmer says, in 
speaking of the great success of R. L. Pell, and the 
high prices he gets in foreign markets, “ Mr. Pell has 
occasionally made a thumb-dent in an apple, and after 
tying a label to the stem, placed the apple so dented in 
the center of a barrel of sound apples, requesting his 
agent in England to report the result. The report has 
always been, that more than half of such apples have 
been found decayed.” How absurd, then, to club or 
shake apples from a tree, or even to tumble them by 
basketfuls, when hand-picked, into barrels. 
