Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/381

 MODEL DESIGNS FOR FARM HOUSES. SdJ walls. Eight is not necessary. In boxes or pots, or in beds of earth on the floor, or on shelves, may be placed roots of tart rhubarb for its footstalks; succory for its leaves; hops for their tops, as a substitute for asparagus ; asparagus roots, sea-kale, &c. I'otatoes might also be placed in such a cellar, to make them throw out fresh tubers ; but, as the yoinig ones so produced would be merely a transfer of nutriment from what we consider a better to a worse state, we cannot recommend the practice as one of utility. Were light admitted into a cellar of this description, mustard, cress, and other small salading niight be grown ; and roots of parsley, mint, and other herbs, and of beet, sorrel, and other spinaceous plants, for their leaves, might be planted. In short, a good dry cellar with double doors and windows, might, with very little trouble, be made to produce a great many articles of convenience and luxury for the table, which are now grown in glass frames, or hot-houses, at very considerable expense. Every body knows that mushrooms can be grown in a cellar better than any where else. We do not, however, recommend the practice of forcing for general adoption ; thinking it, with a few exceptions, in better taste to take the vegetable productions of nature or art in the open air, by turns, in their proper seasons. Our exceptions are, tart rhubarb, sea-kale, asparagus, mush- rooms, succory, and small salading ; all of which are as good, when forced, as when grown in their natural climate. 717. A Fruit- Room, or Fruit-Cellar, is essential to every farm which has an orchard ; and no farm ought to be without one where fruit will grow. The great art in preserving fruit is, to keep it dry, and, at the same time, so as to prevent evaporation from its surface ; for this last purpose, all change of temperature and moisture in the air must be guarded against. The simplest mode of effecting these objects is, to place the fruit on a thick bed of dry straw, and to mix and surroimd it with an ample mass of the same material in any situation dry and protected from the weather ; but a better method is, to place the fruit in a dry cellar, on a layer of dry sand, and to cover it with the same material, or with fern, finishing with an upper layer of straw. The superiority of the sand consists in its coolness, and comparative freedom fi-om air, by which the fruit is less liable to wither. Where there are several kinds of fruit to be kept in one cellar, shelves may be employed ; and if the cellar be not often entered, so as to admit air of a different temperature or degree of humidity, the fruit need not be covered at all, or may only have fern strewed over it. Where the situation does not admit of an under-ground fruit- cellar, a fruit-room miay be formed above the surface, with thick or liollow walls, and double doors, windows, and roofs. The size for a fruit-cellar, on a farm of even consider- able extent, need seldom be more than an area of ten feet on a side, and seven feet high, 718. Cellars, for Liquors, including ale, beer, cider, wine, and spirits, are essential to every farm house. In even the smallest there ought to be one cellar for beer, empty casks, brewing utensils, &c. ; and another, opening out of it, for ale, wines, and spirits. The area of the former, in the smallest farm house, should not be less than twelve feet by twelve feet ; nor that of the latter less than six feet by eight feet. The beer-cellar, and that part of the wine-cellar which is to contain ale, should have brick or stone benches or shelves built solid, or on arches or piers about two feet high, on which to place casks, for the greater convenience of drawing off their contents. That part of the inner cellar which is to contain wine should be fitted up with cells, or bins, one above another, ot about two feet broad, and the same height, and of any convenient depth, provided it be a multiple of the height of a common wine bottle. A part of the wine-cellar should be fitted up with stone shelves, for spirits or other liquors, and for various articles which are best preserved in the temperature of a cellar. 719. 77/e Larder and Pantry are conveniently placed near each other, and close to the kitchen. Both ought to face the north ; and the former more especially ought to be thoroughly ventilated, by openings near the floor on one side, generally in the lower part of the door, and near the ceiling, generally in the outer wall, on the other. Both larder and pantry should be fitted up with shelves and hooks ; and the larder may have a wooden grating or cradle, called a rack, three or four feet wide, about one foot deep, and of any convenient length, suspended from the roof, for the purpose of holding bacon. In old farm houses these racks are generally placed in the kitchen, but in very large establishments, or where bacon forms the principal animal food of the labourers, as it does in the midland counties of England, there is often a separate room fitted up with racks and shelves, set apart for keeping it. 720. A Salting-Room is necessary in every house where the farmer occasionally kills his own meat. The effluvia from this room being both disagreeable and deleterious, it sliould, when convenient, form one of a detached group of buildings. In small establish- ments, or where only a part of the meat used is killed at home, an airy cellar, facing the north, may be employed. The room should be fitted up with strong benches for cutting up the meat, and salting it on ; and fixed long shallow troughs, generally lined with lead, for holding the sides of bacon, &c., while in pickle. These troughs shoidd be provided