Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/651

 — .? — 12C0 / DWELLINGS FOR FARxM SERVANTS. GQJ other material. Thus, there cannot be a question as to tlie cheapness of tliis mode, and still less of its eftectiveness. The vaiiations, also, which this mode admits of, are almost endless ; for the i)ipes may be so arranged as to heat a cistern of water, or poultry-house, not only on the same level with the fireplace, but on any floor above its level, or on the cellar floor below it. A perfect level, however, will always be found the cheapest mode. The third manner of conveying heat from the fire of a cottage living-room to a place for poultry, is to form a chest or box, say three feet wide, three feet high, and six feet long, which will afford room for two floors of eight nests each ; and either to keep this in the living-room, its top serving as a table or dresser ; or to place it in a garret, back-kitchen, or outhouse ; and supply it with heat by earthenyare bottles of hot water, set in the corner of each nest ; or by a vertical cistern of water, which might form the separation between the nests. Where a box of nests was adopted, however, the best plan would be, to place it in a garret or other floor over the living-room ; for we cannot recommend the j)ractice, not unfrequent in the small farm houses in France, of hatching poultry in large quantities under the kitch«i dressers. Where there is an oven in frequent use, a poultry- house may be very advantageously placed in contact with it ; and where the floor of the dwelling is heated by flues, or by steam in a bed of stones, there never can be any difficulty in ">. conveying a part of the heat to an outside poultry- house. It is only necessary to extend the flues under its floor. Neither can there be the slightest difficulty in contriving a poultry-house to be heated from the fire of the living-room, when a new cottage is to be built ; for, in the case of a double cottage, two poultry-houses may be placed between the two dwellings, as in fig. 1200, in which / is one dwelling, and g its poultry-house ; and h another dwelling, and i its poultry-house. In the case of single cottages, the poultry-house may either be a lean-to, as proposed for old cottages, or it may be a recess, as in fig. 1201 ; in which k is the dwelling, and I, the poultry-house; the back of the fireplace, m, being supposed to be a cast-iron plate. Perhaps vre have gone more into details on this part of our subject than to some may appear necessary ; but we are extremely anxious to introduce poultry- houses of an improved kind, generally, into the cottages of farm labourers ; and an important step to this is, to make Architects and their employers aware of what is wanted. Sect. V. Designs for Farmery Dwellings for rioughmen and other Yearly Servanli employed on the Farm. 1330. Every Scotch Farmery has some hitman Dwellings belonging to it, in addition to that of the master ; and, in most districts, there is a room, or a couple of rooms, in some places called a bothy, for the single men, with one or more cottages, in a line, not far distant from the farmery, for men having families. This is one of the great advan- tages which the modern farmeries of Scotland, and of the north of England, have over those of most other parts of the island. In consequence of these dwellings, the men employed in taking care of the horses, and in other agricultural labours, being always on the spot, are enabled to commence their work in the morning, without being previously fatigued by getting up very early, and perhaps walking a mile or more to the farm ; and they can also afford to stay later on extra occasions ; always arriving at home less fatigued in the evenings, than they could do under other circumstances. The wives and families of such men must evidently be much more comfortable than when the man has to go a distance to his work ; and the master must feel proportionately satisfied by being enabled to consider his ploughmen as forming part of his family. It is well known in Scotland, that the ploughmen who live with their families on the farms on which they work, and who are paid partly in money and partly in kind, are the most comfortable, moral, and laborious of country workmen ; and it appears to us to be very desirable that the same practice should be introduced into the midland and southern districts of England. We have seen, in § 795, that those in Scotland are suflSciently wretched ; and, in § 996, that those in the north of England are little better. In the agricultural counties of the south and west of England, the cottages of the ploughmen are generally more commodious than those in the north ; though those of some of the midland counties, Buckinghamshire for example, may be referred to in proof of a contrary opinion. Various attempts have been made to introduce improvements into this class of dwellings, and we shall here bring together 1201