The lover of country life who looks upon rural objects in the true spirit, and, for the first time surveys the cultivated portions of the United States, will be struck with the incongruous appearance and style of our farm houses and their contiguous buildings; and, although, on examination, he will find many, that in their interior accommodation, and perhaps relative arrangement to each other, are tolerably suited to the business and convenience of the husbandman, still, the feeling will prevail that there is an absence of method, congruity, and correct taste in the architectural structure of his buildings generally, by the American farmer.
We may, in truth, be said to have no architecture at all, as exhibited in our agricultural districts, so far as any correct system, or plan is concerned, as the better taste in building, which a few years past has introduced among us, has been chiefly confined to our cities and towns of rapid growth. Even in the comparatively few buildings in the modern style to be seen in our farming districts, from the various requirements of 14 those buildings being partially unknown to the architect and builder, who had their planning—and upon whom, owing to their own inexperience in such matters, their employers have relied—a majority of such dwellings have turned out, if not absolute failures, certainly not what the necessities of the farmer has demanded. Consequently, save in the mere item of outward appearance—and that, not always—the farmer and cottager have gained nothing, owing to the absurdity in style or arrangement, and want of fitness to circumstances adopted for the occasion.
We have stated that our prevailing rural architecture is discordant in appearance; it may be added, that it is also uncouth, out of keeping with correct rules, and, ofttimes offensive to the eye of any lover of rural harmony. For the same reason that he requires symmetry, excellence of form or style, in his horses, his cattle, or other farm stock, household furniture, or personal dress. It is an arrangement of artificial objects, in harmony with natural objects; a cultivation of the sympathies which every rational being should have, more or less, with true taste; that costs little or nothing in the attainment, and, when attained, is a source of gratification through life. In the available physical features of a country, no land upon earth exceeds North America. 16 It is the idea of some, that a house or building which the farmer or planter occupies, should, in shape, style, and character, be like some of the stored-up commodities of his farm or plantation. That it be a farm house, is sufficiently apparent from its locality upon the farm itself; that its interior arrangement be for the convenience of the in-door farm work, and the proper accommodation of the farmer’s family, should be quite as apparent; but, that it should assume an uncouth or clownish aspect, is as unnecessary as that the farmer himself should be a boor in his manners, or a dolt in his intellect.
The farm, in its proper cultivation, is the foundation of all human prosperity, and from it is derived the main wealth of the community. From the farm chiefly springs that energetic class of men, who replace the 17 enervated and physically decaying multitude continually thrown off in the waste-weir of our great commercial and manufacturing cities and towns, whose population, without the infusion—and that continually—of the strong, substantial, and vigorous life blood of the country, would soon dwindle into insignificance and decrepitude. Why then should not this first, primitive, health-enjoying and life-sustaining class of our people be equally accommodated in all that gives to social and substantial life, its due development? It is quite as well to say that the farmer should worship on the Sabbath in a meeting-house, built after the fashion of his barn, or that his district school house should look like a stable, as that his dwelling should not exhibit all that cheerfulness and respectability in form and feature which belongs to the houses of any class of our population whatever. Not that the farm house should be like the town or the village house, in character, style, or architecture, but that it should, in its own proper character, express all the comfort, repose, and quietude which belong to the retired and thoughtful occupation of him who inhabits it. Sheltered in its own secluded, yet independent domain, with a cheerful, intelligent exterior, it should exhibit all the pains-taking in home embellishment and rural decoration that becomes its position, and which would make it an object of attraction and regard.
Content:
Prefatory,
Introductory,
General Suggestions,
Style of Building—Miscellaneous,
Position of Farm Houses,
Home Embellishments,
Material for Farm Buildings,
Outside Color of Houses,
A Short Chapter on Taste,
The Construction of Cellars,
Ventilation of Houses,
Interior Accommodation of Houses,
Chimney Tops,
Preliminary to our Designs,
Design I. A Farm House,
Interior Arrangement,
Ground Plan,
Chamber Plan,
Miscellaneous,
As a Tenant House,
Design II. Description,
Ground and Chamber Plans,
Interior Arrangement,
Miscellaneous Details, Design III. Description,
Ground and Chamber Plans,
Interior Arrangement,
Miscellaneous,
vi Design IV. Description,
Interior Arrangement,
Ground Plan,
Chamber Plan,
Surrounding Plantations, Shrubbery, Walks, &c.,
Tree Planting in the Highway,
Design V. Description,
Interior Arrangement,
Ground Plan,
Chamber Plan,
Construction, Cost of Building, &c.,
Grounds, Plantations, and Surroundings,
Design VI. A Southern, or Plantation House,
Interior Arrangement,
Chamber Plan,
Carriage House,
Miscellaneous,
Lawn and Park Surroundings,
An Ancient New England Family,
An American Homestead of the Last Century,
Estimate of Cost of Design VI,
Design VII. A Plantation House,
Interior Arrangement,
Ground Plan,
Chamber Plan,
Miscellaneous,
Lawns, Grounds, Parks, and Woods,
The Forest Trees of America,
Influence of Trees and Forests on the Character of men,
Hillhouse and Walter Scott as Tree Planters,
Doctor Johnson, no Rural Taste,
Fruit Garden—Orchard,
How to lay out a Kitchen Garden,
Flowers,
Wild Flowers of America,
Succession of Home Flowers,
Farm Cottages,
Design I,
and Ground Plan,
Interior Arrangement
vii Design II,
and Ground Plan,
Interior Arrangement,
Design III,
and Ground Plan,
Interior Arrangement,
Design IV,
and Ground Plan,
Interior Arrangement,
Cottage Outside Decoration,
Cottages on the Skirts of Estates,
House and Cottage Furniture,
Apiary, or Bee House,
View of Apiary and Ground Plan, and description,
Mode of Taking the Honey,
An Ice House,
Elevation and Ground Plan,
An Ash House and Smoke House,
Elevation and Ground Plan,
The Poultry House,
Elevation
and Ground Plan,
Interior Arrangement,
The Dovecote,
Different Varieties of Pigeons,
A Piggery,
Elevation
and Ground Plan,
Interior Arrangement,
Construction of Piggery—Cost,
Farm Barns,
Design I. Description,
Interior Arrangement,
and Main Floor Plan,
Underground Plan, and Yard,
Design II. Description,
Interior Arrangement,
Floor Plan,
Barn Attachments,
Rabbits,
Mr. Rotch’s Description of his Rabbits,
Rabbits and Hutch,
Dutch, and English Rabbits,
Mode of Feeding,
Mr. Rodman’s Rabbitry, Elevation, and Floor Plan,
viii Explanations,
Loft or Garret,
Explanation,
Cellar plan,
Explanation,
Front and Back of Hutches,
and Explanation,
Dairy Buildings,
Cheese Dairy House,
Elevation of Dairy House
and Ground Plan,
Interior Arrangement,
The Butter Dairy,
The Water Ram,
Figure and Description,
Granary—Rat-proof,
Improved Domestic Animals,
Short Horn Bull,
Short Horn Cow,
Devon Cow and Bull,
Southdown Ram and Ewe,
Long-wooled Ram and Ewe,
Common Sheep,
Remarks,
Waterfowls,
The African Goose,
China Goose,
Bremen Goose,
A Word About Dogs,
Smooth Terrier,
Shepherd Dog,
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“Green” sustainable building projects are quite different than traditional construction projects with new materials, processes, unique costs, and much more time and resources utilized in the planning process.