THE CULTIVATOR. 
157 
Farm Houses. 
We think there are few points of husbandry in the 
effect of bad management and want of calculation, so 
generally apparent among farmers, as in the position, 
arrangement, and construction of their dwelling houses. 
Comfort and utility is too often sacrificed to show, and 
beauty of design and neatness of execution overlooked, 
where they ought to be most apparent. There can be 
as much good taste shown in the selection of a position, 
and in the construction of a farm house, as in that of a 
palace, and there can be no good reason why it should 
not here be exercised. 
The position of a farm house is of great consequence, 
and should be determined with particular reference to 
conveniences, salubrity, and appearance. The whole 
ground should be examined before the choice is made. 
The facilities of procuring fuel; of securing a plentiful 
supply of good water ; of having an easily accessible 
means of ingress and egress to and from the premises ; 
of the manner in which the productions of the farm must 
be moved, such as hay and grain, and the manure re¬ 
turned to the fields ; all these things must be well-look¬ 
ed at before the place for the farm building is fixed up¬ 
on. It would be obviously improper to build on the 
highest part of the farm, or on some distant corner, be¬ 
cause such spot was on the most public road, since a 
farmer’s travel is mostly on his farm, and a judicious 
selection of a site for his buildings, may, in a few years, 
save him hundreds, if not thousands, of miles of travel. 
If he has occasion to leave his farm twice or three times 
a week, he had much better travel over the distance of 
half or three-fourths of a mile that number of times to 
the main thoroughfare, than by building on one side 
or corner of his farm, be compelled to do it many times 
daily. But some will say, if we do not build on the road, 
how will our friends find us ? Let no one give himself 
uneasiness on this point. The man who has friends 
will be found by them ; and sometimes by being a little 
out of the way, he will be saved the interruptions 
caused by what the idle, and those who are obliged to de¬ 
vise some methods of killing time, denominate calls of 
friendship. A shrewd old farmer, one of the best 
hearted men, as well as one of the most accurate ob¬ 
servers of human nature we have ever known, selected 
the position of his farm buildings at a considerable dis¬ 
tance from the main thoroughfare. His friends object¬ 
ed to the singularity of his choice, as there were places 
equally favorable, and more accessible. “ When a man 
builds his house in the road, as almost every one does,” 
said our friend, “he must expect to be run over by 
those who have nothing else to do but to run over other 
people ; if, on the contrary, he puts himself out of the 
way, the crowd pronounce him a singular man, an ec¬ 
centric genius, or something of the kind, and as the 
mass are usually afraid of an uncommon man, they 
pass him by on the other side.” 
Salubrity is a point not to be overlooked or hazarded 
in the choice of a place for the farm buildings. Never 
allow any consideration to draw you into a swamp or 
the vicinity of one, where the sun of an American sum¬ 
mer is sure to engender in some form the seeds of dis¬ 
ease, if not of death. A dry soil, free ventilation, and 
the absence of all sources of malaria, are indispensable 
conditions to the robust health the farmer requires. 
We know of some who have voluntarily subjected them¬ 
selves to dangers of this kind, under the idea that dis¬ 
eases of this class will wear themselves out. To such 
we recommend the case of a middle aged woman, found 
by a young friend of ours in a log-cabin on the banks 
of the Des Plaines, in Illinois. She was suffering under 
a fit of the ague, and when told to be of good courage, 
as the fever and ague was a disease that would wear 
out, she replied, “ She believed it, as that was the four¬ 
teenth summer she had had it regularly, and she thought 
it Was not quite as severe as at first.” 
Those, then, who are yet to erect their farm buildings 
will, in selecting the position, do well to consider their 
course of cultivation, the crops they will be most likely 
to grow, their comparative bulk and ease of removal, the 
distribution of their manures, the requisites of conveni¬ 
ent location and health, and the capabilities of the place 
for the display of correct taste, before the die is cast, 
since so much of the value of a farm and the pleasure 
and profit of cultivation is depending on these things 
Another point of very great importance is the plan 
of the buildings, and the materials of which they are 
to be constructed. In a house that is well arranged, 
where the apartments bear a proper proportion and 
position to each other, where the whole is skillfully 
constructed with reference to comfort and ease of labor, 
every housewife knows the advantages that are gained 
in the saving of work, and in the economy of time' The 
houses of our farmers are like their farms, usually very 
much too large. Where a house is so constructed 
that no room is wasted, a building of very moderate di¬ 
mensions will furnish ample accommodations for a re¬ 
spectable family ; much better, indeed, than half our ill- 
arranged, half-finished huge “ shingle-palaces,” as our 
English friends term our dwellings, can offer. In build¬ 
ing houses, comfort in the resident, and ease to the la¬ 
borer, male or female, is too much disregarded. Great 
houses, large and high rooms, vast fire places, and 
abundance of light, seem to be the great requisites. 
When the cost of rendering a large and a long room 
comfortable ; of furnishing or finishing them so as to 
cause the execution to correspond with the design ; and 
the little possible use the farmer’s family can have for 
so much room in a dwelling, is considered, we think a 
more rational style of building should be adopted. But 
whatever may be the size of the farm house determined 
upon, the materials used and the execution should be 
such as to ensure permanence and durability. It may 
and will cost more in the first place to build well than 
ill; to use first rate materials than defective or worth¬ 
less ones ; to have the work done in the best manner, 
rather than half done ; but the costly building will be 
the cheapest in the end. When finished, it is finished 
for a life, or perhaps half a dozen, and its repairs will 
cost but a mere trifle, while the cheap house will absorb 
from five to ten per cent of its first cost annually in re¬ 
pairs, and finally require rebuilding, while the other is 
only in its prime. 
Stone or brick is the best material for building in this 
country ; as in such houses the great conditions of dura¬ 
bility, and an equality of temperature, are best attain¬ 
ed. Brick or stone houses, however, require dry and 
well ventilated cellars, and the plastering of the rooms 
should not be laid immediately on the walls, otherwise 
they are apt to acquire humidity, and operate unfavora¬ 
bly on health. When proper precautions in these re¬ 
spects are taken, such dwellings are unobjectionable, 
and their durability, the ease with which they can be 
kept at a proper temperature for comfort and health, 
by heat in the winter and the circulation of air in the 
summer, render them preferable to others. The addi¬ 
tional fuel required in the common wood farm house, 
over that necessary in one of stone or brick will, in a 
few years, balance the difference in the expense of ma¬ 
terials, independent of the pleasure and comfort derived 
from the avoidance of sudden transitions from a high to 
a low temperature, or vice versa, and its general effect 
on the health. 
In the construction and arrangement of our dwellings, 
particular attention should be paid to the economiza¬ 
tion of fuel. There are few farmers in the United 
States that do not find their fuel cost more than their 
bread. This annual expenditure might be lessened 
one-half or two-thirds by care in building, and the 
adoption of the improved method of warming houses by 
heated air, of which illustrations were given in the last 
volume of the Cultivator. That little extra cost at first, 
which prevents die necessity of a constant expenditure 
hereafter, is, to the farmer, the strictest economy ; and 
that method of building which shall secure a desirable 
temperature at nearly all seasons, certainly should have 
the preference. Nowhere is the good effects of system, 
and a well digested plan of operations more conspicuous 
than in the construction and arrangement of the farm 
buildings. Order and judgment here exert their full in¬ 
fluence, and in a great degree stamp the character and 
the mind of the man. The most slovenly are not in¬ 
sensible to the value of neatness, and the farmer whose 
buildings are inconvenient, ill constructed, disorderly, 
dilapidated, and without taste or design, cannot help a 
feeling of respect for the man whose domicile exhibits 
an appearance the reverse of all this. Let the farmer 
then build well, build for durability, build for comfort 
and utility, and not for ostentation or show, and he will 
find his reward. 
Audubon’s Worth American Birds. 
Several years since Mr. Audubon published in a se¬ 
ries of the most splendid volumes the world ever saw, 
a work with the above title, in which all the known 
birds of this continent were figured and colored with an 
accuracy alike creditable to the author who drew them 
in their <l native woodlands wild,” and the engravers of 
London who executed them for the public. The cost, 
however, of this work, in which the figures were all 
of the size of life, was so great as to put it beyond the 
reach of any not possessed of princely fortunes; and 
the constant discoveries of new birds which Mr. Audu¬ 
bon has been since making, added to the wishes of ma¬ 
ny, have at last induced him to undertake an edition in 
which the new varieties shall be incorporated, with the 
descriptions in the former work, the figures diminished 
from the first edition, but engraved and colored with 
equal accuracy. The terms are such as to place it with¬ 
in the reach of many to whom the great work was in¬ 
accessible, it being to be comprised in 100 numbers, 
each containing five plates with letter press, at the 
price of one dollar each number. The first volume 
containing foux'teen numbers, containing about seventy 
species, has been completed, and furnishes one of the 
most beautiful volumes we have seen in many a day. 
We consider the present undertaking of Mr. Au¬ 
dubon as eminently useful also, or we should not feel 
the pleasure we now do in calling the attention of the 
public to the work. Ornithology has taken rank as a 
science ; the history of birds forms one of the most in¬ 
teresting as well as delightful chapters in the natural 
science; they are creatures with which every one has 
more or less to do, and of which a knowledge is more 
or less desirable to every one; and the figures in the 
volume are so spirited and exact, the colors so just and 
beautiful, that one almost fancies they will flutter on 
their light wings from the paper, or pour from their 
tiny throats the clear sweet music to which he has often 
listened. 
Of the excellencies or the demerits of Mr. Audubon’s 
arrangement we say nothing; we leave those things to 
more competent judges. We speak only of what we 
know, when we say that no observer of nature will 
find any difficulty in recognizing any bird of his ac¬ 
quaintance ; and that no one can read the beautiful and 
correct descriptions which accompany the plates, with¬ 
out perceiving and feeling they are drawn from life. 
No one can fully appreciate the labor Mr. Audubon has 
encountered in collecting the specimens he has figured 
for these volumes, and gaining that intimate knowledge 
of their habits so necessary to render his labors useful. 
From the shores of Labrador and Hudson’s Bay to the 
Capes of Florida, the confines of Texas, and the base 
of the Rocky Mountains, over mountain, and through 
woodland, glen, and swamp, has Mr. Audubon traveled, 
and returned laden with his rich and hitherto unknown, 
ungathered spoils. We are glad to perceive his labors 
are appreciated, and are about to give him that reward 
which he has hitherto failed of receiving. In this coun¬ 
try alone, his subscription list is about one thousand, 
and a great addition will be made in England and France. 
The following extract will show one of the uses to 
which the labors of the ornithologist have been convert¬ 
ed, one to which it is presumed Mr. Audubon never con¬ 
templated while engaged in his researches ; it is from 
the lecture on birds before the Manchester Associa¬ 
tion, by Prof. Rymer Jones : 
“ Where are all our important and valuable works in natural 
history produced? Not in England. Where does the English 
pressgive birth to those works in which every tint of the hum¬ 
ming bird, blazing and gorgeous as it is, is represented with the 
minutest accuracy. In France we have these works; but in 
England they are never purchased, and would never pay. And 
who purchases and pays for them there ? The ornithologist ? By- 
no means ; but those who make up the patterns for dresses. The 
weavers and manufacturers of line goods know the importance 
of studying the colors that nature puts together. You will find 
that it is to their support in France that the authors of these 
works look. They have sense enough to see that to “ gild refined 
gold and to paiot the lily,” to “ add purple to the violet,” 
would be extravagant; and that the combination of color in the 
animal world, like all the other operations of nature, is perfect. 
Nothing can be added or taken away without diminishing the 
effect of the whole. They are content, therefore, to take les¬ 
sons of nature in this particular, and we must all acknow¬ 
ledge the success with which they manage this department of 
their manufactories.” 
For ourselves we look on many of the “ counterfeit 
presentments” in the volume, as upon the faces of long 
remembered friends ; friends associated with some of 
the happiest moments of, life. As we look on them we 
forget that we are forty years older than we were when 
we first were delighted with these beautiful “ blos¬ 
soms of the air,” days when childhood overlooked the 
obligations of the future, and care had not graven its 
furrows on the brow. We go back in imagination to 
the green meadows when we listened to the sweet merry 
notes of the bobolink as he fluttered over our head or 
settled on a wild flower, or tuft of rank grass ;—when 
we rambled in the wild wood, and saw the beautiful 
oriole darting among the leaf-clad branches, through 
the openings of which the golden light flushed and danced 
on the velvet moss, on which we were with our frolic¬ 
some playmates, setting time and the schoolmaster at 
defiance ;—when our pulses beat quicker, and hope 
seemed to string our nerves anew, as the first song of 
the returning sparrow greeted our ears, and told “ that 
the winter was over and gone when we looked on 
the swallow as he came back to the old barn, or the 
sandy bank of the river, from his sojourn in the sunny 
south, as a creature of mystery if not of awe, reminding 
us of stories of fairy beings, or visitants from the 
spirit land ; in short, we were young again, and as in 
childhood, we substitute feeling for reason, and are hap¬ 
py we neither know nor care why. 
For ourselves we ackowledge our obligations to Mr. 
Audubon, not only for the substantial addition he has 
contributed to our stock of ornithological knowledge 
but also for the pleasure his work has in more ways than 
one conferred. We have from our childhood loved 
beautiful pictures, and birds are among the most exqui¬ 
site of these. It is the approach to nature in the group¬ 
ing and coloring of Audubon’s birds that render them 
so instructive and fascinating. We are glad to learn 
that he is still devoted to his pursuits ; still adding to 
his ornithological treasures, and busily engaged in con¬ 
ferring new benefits on the cause of science. “ May 
he live a thousand years, and his shadow never be less.” 
Mechanics’ Third Annual Fair of Western New 
York. 
We have received the Circular of this flourishing and 
praiseworthy institution, announcing that the Third 
Annual Fair will be held at Rochester at the Center 
Market, commencing on the 12th of October, an ar¬ 
rangement adopted to accommodate those who visit the 
Agricultural and Horticultural Fair, which is to be held 
on the 15th at the same place, and thus unite the inte- 
rest and attraction of both. The managers say they 
“ feel the utmost assurance that the success attending 
the former fairs, is a sure guarantee for the ensuing— 
pledging that no exertions on their part shall be wanting 
to render the exhibition satisfactory to the contributors, 
worthy of the mechanic arts, and the patronage of the 
community.” Rochester is the center of a rich agricul- 
tural and horticultural region, and the mechanics of 
that city are numerous, intelligent and enterprising, 
and their efforts, combined with those of the farmers, 
can scarcely fail of producing a fair unequaled hitherto 
in Western New-York. The advantages of such asso¬ 
ciations and fairs, cannot as yet be properly appreciated 
but they will not be the less felt in the compiunitv. A 
visit to the fair of the New-York or Rochester associa¬ 
tions will teach the mechanic more pf the present state 
of his art, show him what is done and what remains to 
do, more clearly than years of study or travel can do. 
It is unnecessary for to say we wish §pch associa¬ 
tions every success. ' r,'" 
