28 
PICTORIAL CULTIVATOR ALMANAC. 
DESIGN FOR A BRACKETED FARM-HOUSE 
We give on these two facing pages, two designs for 
country residences, taken from A. J Downing’s late 
work on “ Country Houses.” The first, costing from 
$1,500 to $2,000, for the farmer in comfortable circum¬ 
stances—the second costing $6,000 or $7,000, for the 
more wealthy class. 
The impression, 
says Downing, 
(from whom this 
account is con¬ 
densed) which this 
house produces, is 
that of a roomy, 
substantial, com¬ 
fortable, and sen¬ 
sible house. It 
looks essentially 
like a country 
house, and while 
it has rather more 
dignity than most 
farm-houses, there 
is neither ambition 
nor ostentation vis¬ 
ible in its exterior. 
On the contrary, 
the rather low and 
broad chimney % 
stacks, and the 
truncated gables, 
show that there is 
a desire to avoid 
any especial affec¬ 
tation of elegance. 
I. BRACKETED FARM-HOUSE 
It is, in short, a design which may 
be built in any part of the Union, and would be recog¬ 
nized as a country house of some importance—while it 
has no feature out of keeping with the position and life 
of a farmer in independent circumstances. 
The interior arrangement of the first floor will be 
maiff.y understood by the _ i ■ i-— 
plan annexed. The back door j 
opens into the scvlierf ,— 
which may be a wash room 
or back kitchen. The pas¬ 
sage from the kitchen to the 
dairy is lighted by a small 
sash of ground g’ass, placed 
in the partition of the scul¬ 
lery, exactly opposite the 
back door Where there is 
a separate building for a j 
dairy, this may be turned ' 
into a bed room or nursery, ij 
making the pantry a milk 
room, and diminishing the 
|size of the scullery. 
On the second floor, a very 
similar arrangement is adopt¬ 
ed. The room over the par¬ 
lor being made into two by a 
partition, six bed rooms are afforded above stairs, all 
of which are entered from the passage directly over the 
passage on the main floor The roof being large' and 
hipped, gives a spacious garret, which may be made 
into three bed rooms for workmen—or four, if a gable 
like that in front is formed on the rear roof. The 
porch is nine by 
twenty feet. 
A cellar is un¬ 
der the whole, and 
there should be a 
back porch, large 
enough to contain, 
or at least to com¬ 
municate with a 
wood-house. 
The first story 
is eleven feet in 
the clear, the se¬ 
cond nine feet — 
The rooms are fin¬ 
ished with brown 
walls, for white¬ 
washing—the win¬ 
dows and doors 
finished with plain 
architraves,' with 
simple back moul¬ 
dings—the doors 
with four parmeis 
on the first and 
second stories— 
the whole execut¬ 
ed in a simple, plain, and substantial manner. 
With planed and matched weather-boarding, and 
the whole filled in with brick, the cost at Newburgh 
is estimated at $2,000. At Rochester, where lumber 
is somewhat cheaper, the estimate, without any filling 
in, and without blinds or shutters, is $1,477 
A too frequent defect in 
cottages is pointed out by 
Mr. Downing, who says— 
“ The cottage is not made to 
express, as much as possible, 
the simplicity of cottage life, 
joined with the greatest com¬ 
fort, intelligence and taste, 
of which life is capable, but 
to imitate as closely as cheap 
and flimsy materials and a 
a few hundred dollars will 
permit, the style and elabo¬ 
rate ornament of the villa, 
with its expenditure of thou¬ 
sands. All ornaments which 
are not simple, should be at 
once rejected; all flimsy deco¬ 
rations, are unbecoming the 
house of him who undei’- 
stands true cottage life. 5 ’A 
HOW TO GROW RICH. 
It is a sound remark, suited to all latitudes and me¬ 
ridians, and to all countries, tropical and frigid, savage 
and civilized, that men do not become rich by what they 
g , but by what they save. The merchant who sells 
by the thousand per day, and saves but one per cent, 
retains no more than he who sells by the hundred and 
saves ten per cent. For the same reason, some farmers 
with a few acres, actual’y make more than others on 
large farms. Let each farmer, then, begin the year 
by looking closely to the causes of waste. For in- 
si ance—how many tons of hay are trodden under foot 
and wasted in ten years by his cattle, for want of feed¬ 
ing racks ? How much is he yearly losing by a waste 
of manure—or, in other words, by making only half the 
manure he might ? How much food is consumed need¬ 
lessly in a year, to keep his cattle .and sheep warm in 
winter, in exposed yards—one-third more being needed 
than in good shelter 1 What is lost for want of a good 
straw and stalk chopper ? What amount is wasted for 
want of cleanliness and comfort for all domestic animals ? 
What is the loss by the backward under-current, gradu¬ 
ally lessening .the' worth of his farm by over-cropping 
and under-manuring—and by a want of a good rotation 
of crops "? How much is he losing by not knowing the 
best mode of attaining all these desirable purposes—by 
not knowing how others have done it best—-and which 
is so readily and thoroughly learned through a good 
agricultural paper ? 
Constant dropping wears away stone; by diligence 
and patience, the mouse ate in two the cable; and little 
strokes fell great oaks. 
