Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/439

 MODEL DESIGNS FOR FARMERIES. 415 tage which is never disregarded by the British fanner ; but, for the sake of those, we often see others of much greater importance wholly neglected. If the buildings are on the highest ground belonging to the farm, it follows that carting out manure from the yards must be facilitated ; but that, on the other liand, all the produce will have to be carried up-hill ; and if, for the sake of water, the homestead be placed in a valley, that these circumstances will be reversed. A gentle eminence, near the centre of the farm, is, on all accounts, the most eligible, provided only that water can conveniently be had near it ; but, now that the practicability of obtaining water by boring, in almost any situation, has become so well known, no homestead need be wrongly placed merely on that score. Some old homesteads are badly arranged in other respects ; such as placing them across public footpaths or bridlewa3's ; in which case gates are frequently left open by careless passengers, and much damage is often sustained by the straying out of cattle, &c. There are even instances of farm houses standing on one side of a turnpike road, and the barns and yards on the other ; but surely accident, and not design, must have produced such absurdities." 835. The Size of the Farmery, and the Kind of Buildings which compose it, must necessarily be regulated by the extent of the farm, and by the kind of culture pursued on it. A farm wholly arable will obviously require different buildings from one chiefly in pasture ; and an arable farm, on a strong alluvial soil, on which wheat, beans, and clover are chiefly cultivated, will require different buildings from a farm on a light soil, on which turnips form a principal article in the succession of crops ; and, consequently, extensive cattle-sheds are required for lodging the cattle to consume them. On this subject Mr. Main observes : — " The size of a farm regulates the extent and number of the build- ings belonging to it. The lowest grade of farmeries has only a dwelling-house of two or four rooms, with a small barn on one side, and a cow-house and stable on the other. A front fence (generally carried across from the outer end of the stable to that of the barn) forms the yard. The rick-yard is behind the barn, and the orchard and garden are behind the stable and dwelling-house. The carts or waggons, when not in use, are usually kept loaded with straw to preserve them from the weather ; pigsties lean against the end of the house or stable ; and the whole is on a very homely and limited scale. Such a homestead is only fitted for a farm of from forty to sixty acres. Large farms require buildings in proportion. Those belonging to a farm of 500 or 1000 acres appear like a little town. In arranging these buildings, it should always be contrived to have all the barn doors and cattle-yards in view from the dwelling-house. The superintending eye of the master, or of some of his family, assists the vigilance of servants, and accidents among the live stock are sooner observed and prevented, or remedied. Another point, in disposing the buildings, should be, to have the lowest on the south, and the liighest on the north and east sides, for the purpose of shelter to the yard. Where the buildings are insufficient for the purpose of shelter, closely planted ranks of spruce firs are available. A horsepond is generally supposed to be a desirable appendage to a farm yard : but a p.-.imp and trough in the yard are far more suitable. Cart horses are liable to greasy heels; and the having their legs wetted in the pond causes irritation, which they generally indicate by constant stamping for an hour or two afterwards ; and this is sometimes attended with dangerous wounds, loss of shoes, &c. The pantry and dairy are always placed on the north side of the house. The latter, on a dairy farm, is usually a large clean room, with a stone floor, four or five feet below the surface; and a ceiling lofty and plastered. At one end, on the ground surface, is the churning and scalding room ; and on the outside of this, next the yard, are the hog-cisterns, for the reception of the whey, skim-milk, &c. It is an advantage to have barn room enough for every crop, especially in climates where the corn is quickly and thoroughly dried. But in cold humid districts of countiy, it is absolutely necessary either to have Dutch barns, or covered rick stands, § 816, or to set the corn abroad in small cocks, thatched, to receive the sun and wind for several months before housing. Agriculturists are generally of opinion that a well-proportioned farm should consist of one third of meadow and pasture ground, and two thirds of arable land ; because all the advantages of the plough and the hoof will thus be so well balanced, and each will assist the other so beneficially, that there need be neither redundancy nor waste of any of the produce ; but aU may be turned to the best account in the shortest time. In grazing farms, the above proportions are reversed ; one third of arable land being considered necessary to supply litter for the cattle, and straw for thatching ricks, &c. The buildings on such farms are also different ; as, instead of barns, they have extensive feeding-houses." We might enlarge on this subject at great length, from the circum- stance of having been early initiated in farming under our parental roof, and having since farmed extensively on our own account, as well as from having designed several farmeries, and executed some of them : but having already treated on the subject in detail, in our Encyclopcedia of Agriculture, we purposely refer the reader to that work ; being desirous of not repeating any part of it in the present one, and of saying no more on