Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/383

 MODEL DESIGNS FOR FARM HOUSES. 359 in the bottom of the door there ought to be correspondent openings to aihnit fiesh air : both openings ought to liave sliutters sliding in horizontal grooves, with hooks in them, so as to admit of their being easily drawn back, or pushed forward. 7'J6. The Lauriflri/, the business of which in small dwellings is generally performed in the kitchen, may be very conveniently placed over the wash-house ; and, like it, should have windows on two sides, and ventilators under the ceiling, and in the bottoms of the doors. Against the two lighted sides, tables or flaps for ironing on may be fixed ; and in the corner behind, directly over the bailer, maybe placed a drying-closet; which may bo partly heated by the flue Irom the boiler, and partly by the requisite ironing-stoves, or by a steam-pipe. If the laundry should be placed on the same floor with the wash-house, it should adjoin it, so that the i)ack of the boiler fire may heat the drying-closet. In this closet the clothes may be dried by the arrangement described § 306. Where a drying- closet is not used, the clothes may be dried, as is usually done, in the open ironing-room, either on common clothes horses, or on rails suspended from the ceiling by ropes and pulleys, so as to be raised or lowered at pleasure ; or by lines stretched across the room, which may also be raised or lowered by means of pulleys. The last mode may be very completely effected by having the pulleys to work in vertical grooves, or in hollow rods similar to that invented by Mr. Vokins for lianging pictures, to be hereafter described. The mangle may stand in the middle of the room, or on the dark side not occupied by the drying-closet. 727. The Bakehouse shoidd be close to the wash-house, in order that their united flues, with those of the dairy, scullery, and the brewhouse, may form one stack. The bakehouse may have light on one side only. The oven should be lined with fire-bricks ; and immediately without its iron door there should be a grating over an ash-jsit, tor the reception of the ashes v/hen it is cleared out. Height in an oven is of no use, but rather tends to bake the bread imoqually : eighteen inches will generally be found sufficient for private ovens, and the length and width need not be more than three or four feet. Against the light side of the bakehouse should be placed a flap or table, for making up the loaves on, with a kneading-trough close to it ; and near the kneading-trough should be a flour chest or cask. If a kneading macliine be employed, which for large families ought always to be the case, not only from the saving of labour, but from the greater certainty of cleanliness, and the more thorough working of the dough, it should take the place of the kneading-trough. In the largest private establishments it may also be foimd worth while to construct the oven on Hicks's plan, so as to be able to condense the spirituous vapour produced from the dough while baking. The plan will l)e found de- tailed at length in the Repertory of Arts, new series, and in Mech. Mag. vol. xiv. p. 417. 728. The Breichousc, for the reasons before given, should adjoin the wasli-house and the bakehouse. It shoidd occupy two floors, in order that the malt may be placed in the upper floor, and be conveniently put through a shoot into the boiler, which should be near the ceiling of the lower room, to allow of the liquor or wort being conducted from its bottom by pipes or tubes to the coolers, which again should be sufficiently raised from the ground floor to allow of casks being placed under them, so as to be filled without trouble ; or, where it is practicable, a small pipe may be conducted at once from the coolers to the beer-cellar in the house. Where the cellar is under the brewhouse, which, however, is seldom desirable when the latter is detached from the farm house, the same an-angement may be adopted as that mentioned § 498. 729. The Dairy is one of the most important of farm-house offices, and yet it is seldom properly constructed. The desiderata are, equality of temperature during every season of the year; and frequent renewal of the air, so as to have it perfectly fresh and sweet. Equality of temperature is easiest obtained when the dairy is under ground ; but in this case the ventilation is insufficient to supply the other desideratum. Where the dairy is in a detached building, a comjiromise between a cellar and a room above the level of the grovmd may be formed by sinking the dairy two or three feet, and covering the outside of the walls and the roof very thickly with thatch ; or by forming the walls hollow, and raising against them a bank of earth covered with turf. One of the most complete modes is, to form the walls hollow, and to throw over the room two or three arclios of masonry, one above the other, covering the whole with a mound of earth, like that of an ice-house, but with proper windows for light and ventilation, protected from the covering mound by projecting side walls, with lintels or arches over them of corresponding depth. The windows, in this and in every case, should face the north, or north-north-east, or north-north-west, and should be double ; the outer window fixed and of wirecloth, and the inner one of glass and to open. There should also be double doors, and the space between them should not be less than three or four feet. In both doors there should be panels of wirecloth, to exclude the flies, and yet admit the aii-. In the most severe weather of winter, the wirecloth of both doors and windows may require to be protected by temporary shutters of either mats or boards.