Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/380

 35 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCIIITECTURK. in which reform is more necessary than in the rooms appropriated to unmarried servants ; unless, indeed, it be in the cottages of the married ones. The state of both in liritain is disgraceful to the farmers and their landlords. 712. The Places in which the ordinary Farm-House Stores are kept are, the potato or other root-cellar, the cabbage-cellar, the liquor-cellar, the fruit-room, the cheese-room, the larder, the pantry, and the coal and wood cellar. In general, all articles that are not frequently wanted are better kept in a dry cellar than any where else, because they are there less subject to atmospherical changes. If cellars, however, are damp, they are unfit for storing up any thing except liquors in glass or in earthen vessels. 7 1. 3. In the Cunatruction of Cellars the first thing is, to provide such a di-ainage as will draw off the water at least one foot lower than the surface of the cellar floor. If the soil be naturally wet, this floor, which should be of flag-stones or tiles, should be laid hollow ; the walls should also be built hollow, and, if convenient, with a povi'erful cement, rather than with common mortar ; or, at least, they ought to be coated over with cement in the inside. In all very cold or very hot countries, provision should be made for double doors and double windows, even though the inner window should be nothing more than a boarded shutter ; and the windows, in all such cases, ought to fit tightly. The space between the double windows need not be more than from six inches to a foot ; but the space between the double doors ought to be at least three feet, so that the one door may always be shut before the other is opened. In cellars so constructed, even ice, enveloped in abundance of straw, might be kept without danger of melting ; and it is so kept in most of the confectioners' cellars in London. As cellars are not places to live in, they need not necessarily be made higher than seven feet. In general they are better under- ground, and arched over with masonry ; but the same results may be obtained above ground l)y double walls, very small and double windows, double or thickly tliatclied roofs, and double doors. 714. The Potato and Root Cellar may be under the floor of some part of the house, when the soil is dry naturally, or capable of being rendered so by drainage. The opening by which the potatoes or other roots are introduced should be on the outside of the house, and not higher than the level of the ground, in order that a cart may be set back against it, and the potatoes or other roots shot out and shoveled down the opening. This opening should have double shutters, in each of which should be at least one pane of glass, to admit sufficient light, and yet effectually to exclude the cold in winter and the heat in smnmer. The panes of glass should be in the upper part of the shutters, so as to be protected, by the lintels of the windows, from the direct raj's of the sun ; but, if the opening be to the north, this precaution is imnecessary. The size of a root cellar, where the roots are merely for the consumption of the fanuly, need not be large : ten or twelve feet square, and seven or eight feet high, will be sutticient dimensions in a house calculated for from twelve to twenty persons. When there are different roots to be stored in the same cellar, they may be separated by temporary partitions of boards. 715. A Cabbage- Cellar is a common appendage to a farm house in Germany, and might well be introduced in Britain and North yVmerica. It may be formed citlier above or imder ground, provided it can be rendered (juite dry, and lighted by one or more windows, with double saslies, about six inches apart, to guard against extremes of temperature. This cellar ought to be twice as large as the other, because the manner in which the cabbages and other articles are disposed in it requires a good deal of room. The common method is, to cover the floor with soil to the depth of a foot, and to plant in it, at the commencement of winter, full-grown cabbages, broccoli, lettuce, endive, Ike, as close together as they can be placed without touching each other. Water is given occasionally in the course of the winter, and the greatest care is taken to remove every leaf as soon as it shows symptoms of decay. The improved method which is adopted in the better description of cabbage cellars is, to surround the cellar with shelves about eighteen inches in width and three feet apart, which, if convenient, may be formed of flag-stone or slate, or, if these materials are not to be had, of strong wood. On these shelves are placed layers of earth, with alternate layers of cabbages or other vegetables ; with their tops projecting beyond the shelf, and their roots and stalks bedded in the soil. Where the soil is of a sandy nature, bricks, moss, straw, or some other suitable material, should be introduced in the front part of the soil, to keep it up. Not only the cabbage family, but the lettuce, endive, celery, beet, sweet herbs, and a variety of other culinary vegetables, are kept in this manner from October till May, in Bavaria, Wirtemburg, Baden, and other states. In very severe weather, or when the air is more than usually humid, hot embers are placed on the floor to raise the tem.perature, or dry the air ; or, when the cellar has a chimney-flue, which is the jireferable mode, provided it be kept .shut when not used, a fire may be made in a small iron stove. 716. A Cellar for fhrciny some kinds of Cidinarij Vegetables might be formed in every house, merely by placing an iron stove in any cellar sufficiently protected by extern^