1868 ,] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
17 
obstructions, drift wood, logs, fence rails, reeds 
and sedges, etc., or by a very circuitous course. 
The result of this sluggishness is that the 
swamps are more extensive than they need to 
be, the water sets back, into the plowed land 
even, thorough drainage is impossible, miasms 
rise from those swamps which retain their wa¬ 
ter into the warm weather, farming operations 
are put back or rendered futile, crops are poor, 
and fever and ague, typhoid and intermittent 
fevers prevail, men are short-lived, and their 
children have enfeebled constitutions. It is 
easy to deplore this state of things. It requires 
action to put an end to it, and this might, to 
a degree, be done in most States almost as easily 
as to get a railroad charter, if any one energetic 
man would give to it a little time and labor. 
It is obvious that where farms are small, or 
especially where the country is very flat and the 
streams are all sluggish, individual proprietors 
can do but little. Co-operation is required, and 
this must be continual; for, after swamps are 
reclaimed, fields drained, health and prosperity 
introduced, all must not relapse into the former 
dank, boggy, miasmatic state, because the 
streams are allowed to become again obstructed. 
Acts of legislation will probably be requisite to 
secure proper attention to the subject, but soon 
it might be with the water courses much as it is 
with highways. Every township or county is 
responsible for its own roads, and for affording 
facilities for travel into and through its territory. 
Mr. James E. Rankin, of Detroit, directs our 
attention to the annoyances and losses suffered 
by the people of many parts of Michigan, and 
suggests that the duty of keeping the water 
courses clear might be added to those of the 
highway commissioners without making their 
labors too onerous. If this could not be done, 
county water commissioners might be appoint¬ 
ed, or elected, to secure the desirable ends sug¬ 
gested, in accordance with law. In the older 
States, at least, relief, to a certain extent, may 
ordinarily be obtained through the road survey¬ 
ors, or highway commissioners, and town of¬ 
ficers, a regular hearing being had; but the de¬ 
cisions in these cases are usually based on what 
the former condition of the streams has been, 
not having a view to the improvement of the 
county and to the benefit of the community. The 
common law allows a landholder or tenant, un¬ 
der certain restrictions, to secure drainage for 
himself; but a law is really needed to check 
disease, to improve tlie country, and to bene¬ 
fit agriculture. Let the legislatures require 
proprietors to keep the water courses dear. 
American Farm-House Plans. 
So far as we now recollect, we have never 
seen a good plan for an American fam^-Louse. 
We demand a great deal. Our farmers are am¬ 
bitious for themselves and their children. They 
are workers, individually and collectively. The 
whole family work for a living, and glory in it. 
They are the substantial middle class, with good 
incomes, free, independent, hospitable, intelli¬ 
gent, and cultivated. They are the aristocracy 
and gentry of our land, educated, refined, prac¬ 
tical, sensible; having the confidence of neigh¬ 
bors, townsmen, and fellow-citizens, they are 
our Senators, Representatives, and Governors. 
The house and home of the farmer must there¬ 
fore combine in itself features which are neces¬ 
sities for the laboring man, conveniences and 
accommodations for the well-to-do yeoman, 
with his cultivated mind and free hospitality, 
Stud mpre or less of the luxuries which distin¬ 
guish the homes of the “gentry” of other lands. 
We present herewith a plan of the ground 
floor and second story of the dwelling of a 
farmer of abundant means, and propose at some 
time to show also how its main advantages may 
be retained in much smaller and cheaper houses. 
Tlie plan is of a house 36 x 50 feet, (not allow¬ 
ing for the walls, which would vary according to 
Fig. 1. -—FIRST FLOOR. 
the material, wood, brick, or stone, of which the 
house may be built,) with an extension 28 x 46 
feet. It is intended to front east or south. In the 
middle of the ground floor is the large hall or sit¬ 
ting-room, with which the other rooms directly 
or indirectly communicate. This is a room 16 x 
20 feet; at the rear of it is a back entry, 8 feet 
clear, with a staircase at one side, which rises by 
11 easy steps to a platform over the back door, 
and thence by 5 steps to the second floor. This 
arrangement precludes the necessity for back or 
servants’ stairs, for thus the only staircase is shut 
off from the rest of the house, yet perfectly ac¬ 
cessible. On either side of the hall, doors, which 
may he either single or double, open into the 
dining-room (D) on the right, and the parlor (P) 
on the left. Connected with the parlor, and open¬ 
ing into the back entry, is a large room ( B ) which 
most farmers would make their own bedroom. It 
has a good-sized, light dressing-room, and two 
liberal closets, one opening into the dressing- 
room. This room would make a very pleasant 
library, with an alcove (the dressing-room) for 
retiring for quiet study or writing. Should it be 
used as a bedroom, some of the other rooms 
would become of necessity the place for books, 
and book-cases would adorn the ball, tlie par¬ 
lor, or the dining-room, according to the taste 
of the occupants, tlie . uses to which the rooms 
are put, the size of the family, number and 
age of the children,etc. The kilclienW 
communicates Willi the dining-room 
by a short passage way, and is cut 
3 ^T 
the mistress keeps the key; and it has a fine 
large pot-closet near the chimney. The kitchen 
is large, being 10x18 feet, and may be used as 
a dining-room, if that style of living is preferred. 
Tlie china-closet is spacious, 4 ft. x 4, which 
is large enough for any ordinary family. 
The back door opens upon a 10-foot piazza, 
crossing the west side of the house, having a door 
into the shed on the 
north. This shed isl6 
x 28 feet,with a pav¬ 
ed floor, and double 
doors at either 
end, so that a wag¬ 
on may pass in or 
through, leaving or 
taking a load. The 
cellar steps come up near the kitchen door. 
Across the shed from the kitchen is the dairy, 
on the west, aud the wash-room on the east side 
side of the L. Still further in the rear, on the 
west side, is the ice-house, with a cool-closet, 
and on the east, a store-room, staircase, and 
privies. This L may of course be indefinitely 
lengthened, and made to connect with the wood¬ 
shed, carriage-house, horse-barn, etc.; but we 
think it well not to maintain too intimate a con¬ 
nection with such buildings; the danger from fire 
is greatly increased and no adequate convenience 
gained. The shed is large enough to contain a 
three months’ supply of wood, or even a winter’s 
supply, if desirable; a large closet for keeping 
utensils, tools, etc., in frequent use about the 
house; a stove and table, when the shed is used 
as a summer kitchen; besides furnishing protec¬ 
tion from the weather at all seasons. We do not 
recognise the desuao.eness of making such a 
shed a wood-house, as is frequently done, for it 
is much more convenient for other purposes, 
considering its use at different seasons. How¬ 
ever, should this be demanded, we have onlj r to 
put the dairy and wash-room next the kitchen, 
with a cellar under them, and to use the wash¬ 
room for a back kitchen. Then the shed, located 
next beyond, may be made a wood-house; but its 
great convenience as a place to do many kinds of 
work which would otherwise have to be done 
in the kitchen or outdoors, would be lost. 
The second story plan is "worthy of notice, 
for, though very simple, it is arranged for 
the special convenience of the housekeeper 
and servants. All the rooms have spacious 
closets; two have dressing-rooms. There is a 
large linen-closet, and a bath-room, opening 
into tlie central 
stairs rise, and 
upper 
which 
1+ X 83 
D.R. 
L 
Fig. tuxhl 
off from it by two doors, which would gen¬ 
erally prevent the noises and odors of the culi¬ 
nary department being especially observable. 
This room has two windows, a door into the 
back entry, one into the shed, and one down cel¬ 
lar. Into it opens the 8 x 8 store-room, of which 
hall, into which the 
is itself abundantly 
lighted by the large 
staircase window. 
A passage from the 
hall to the second 
floor of the L con¬ 
nects with the ser¬ 
vants’ bedrooms, (S, 
B, It,) which may be 
shut off from the 
main part. The second story of the L is repre¬ 
sented as low, and lighted by dormer windows 
on the sides. Additional expense would raise the 
roof and make this floor much more spacious. 
If a range, or stove, with a water-back be set 
in the kitchen, nothing is more simple and safe 
than an arrangement for having an abundance 
of hot water on the second floor by pumping; 
and, if a head of water can be controlled, hot 
and cold water may easily be conveyed to every 
room in the house, which is the perfection ot 
water arrangements. We know that multitudes 
of our most respected readers enjoy their wash at 
