This work owes its appearance to the absence of any cheap and popular
book on the subject of Rural Architecture, exclusively intended for the
farming or agricultural interest of the United States. Why it is, that
nothing of the kind has been heretofore attempted for the chief benefit
of so large and important a class of our community as our farmers
comprise, is not easy to say, unless it be that they themselves have
indicated but little wish for instruction in a branch of domestic
economy which is, in reality, one of great importance, not only to their
domestic enjoyment, but their pecuniary welfare. It is, too, perhaps,
among the category of neglects, and in the lack of fidelity to their own
interests which pervades the agricultural community of this country,
beyond those of any other profession--for we insist that agriculture,
in its true and extended sense, is as much a profession as any other
pursuit whatever. To the reality of such neglects they have but of late
awaked, and indeed are now far too slowly wheeling into line for more
active progress in the knowledge pertaining to their own advancement. As
an accessory to their labors in such advancement, the present work is
intended.
It is an opinion far too prevalent among those engaged in the more
active occupations of our people,--fortified indeed in such opinion,
by the too frequent example of the farmer himself--that everything
connected with agriculture and agricultural life is of a rustic and
uncouth character; that it is a profession in which ignorance, as they
understand the term, is entirely consistent, and one with which no
aspirations of a high or an elevated character should, or at least need
be connected. It is a reflection upon the integrity of the great
agricultural interest of the country, that any such opinion should
prevail; and discreditable to that interest, that its condition or
example should for a moment justify, or even tolerate it.
Without going into any extended course of remark, we shall find ample
reason for the indifference which has prevailed among our rural
population, on the subject of their own domestic architecture, in the
absence of familiar and practical works on the subject, by such as have
given any considerable degree of thought to it; and, what little thought
has been devoted to this branch of building, has been incidentally
rather than directly thrown off by those professionally engaged in the
finer architectural studies appertaining to luxury and taste, instead of
the every-day wants of a strictly agricultural population, and, of
consequence, understanding but imperfectly the wants and conveniences of
the farm house in its connection with the every-day labors and
necessities of farm life.
It is not intended, in these remarks, to depreciate the efforts of those
who have attempted to instruct our farmers in this interesting branch of
agricultural economy. We owe them a debt of gratitude for what they have
accomplished in the introduction of their designs to our notice; and
when it is remarked that they are insufficient for the purposes
intended, it may be also taken as an admission of our own neglect, that
we have so far disregarded the subject ourselves, as to force upon
others the duty of essaying to instruct us in a work of which we
ourselves should long ago have been the masters.
Why should a farmer, because he _is_ a farmer, only occupy an uncouth,
outlandish house, any more than a professional man, a merchant, or a
mechanic? Is it because he himself is so uncouth and outlandish in his
thoughts and manners, that he deserves no better? Is it because his
occupation is degrading, his intellect ignorant, his position in life
low, and his associations debasing? Surely not. Yet, in many of the
plans and designs got up for his accommodation, in the books and
publications of the day, all due convenience, to say nothing of the
respectability or the elegance of domestic life, is as entirely
disregarded as if such qualities had no connection with the farmer or
his occupation. We hold, that although many of the practical operations
of the farm may be rough, laborious, and untidy, yet they are not, and
need not be inconsistent with the knowledge and practice of neatness,
order, and even elegance and refinement within doors; and, that the due
accommodation of the various things appertaining to farm stock, farm
labor, and farm life, should have a tendency to elevate the social
position, the associations, thoughts, and entire condition of the
farmer. As the man himself--no matter what his occupation--be lodged and
fed, so influenced, in a degree, will be his practice in the daily
duties of his life. A squalid, miserable tenement, with which they who
inhabit it are content, can lead to no elevation of character, no
improvement in condition, either social or moral, of its occupants. But,
the family comfortably and tidily, although humbly provided in their
habitation and domestic arrangements, have usually a corresponding
character in their personal relations. A log cabin, even,--and I speak
of this primitive American structure with profound affection and regard,
as the shelter from which we have achieved the most of our prodigious
and rapid agricultural conquests,--may be so constructed as to speak an
air of neatness, intelligence, and even refinement in those who inhabit
it.
Admitting, then, without further argument, that well conditioned
household accommodations are as important to the farmer, even to the
indulgence of luxury itself, when it can be afforded, as for those who
occupy other and more active pursuits, it is quite important that he be
equally well instructed in the art of planning and arranging these
accommodations, and in designing, also, the various other structures
which are necessary to his wants in their fullest extent. As a question
of economy, both in saving and accumulating, good and sufficient
buildings are of the first consequence, in a pecuniary light, and when
to this are added other considerations touching our social enjoyment,
our advancement in temporal condition, our associations, our position
and influence in life, and, not least, the decided item of national good
taste which the introduction of good buildings throughout our extended
agricultural country will give, we find abundant cause for effort in
improvement.
It is not intended in our remarks to convey the impression that we
Americans, as a people, are destitute of comfortable, and, in many
cases, quite convenient household and farm arrangements. Numerous
farmeries in every section of the United States, particularly in the
older ones, demonstrate most fully, that where our farmers have taken
the trouble to _think_ on the subject, their ingenuity has been equal,
in the items of convenient and economical arrangement of their dwellings
and out-buildings, to their demands. But, we are forced to say, that
such buildings have been executed, in most cases, with great neglect of
_architectural_ system, taste, or effect; and, in many instances, to the
utter violation of all _propriety_ in appearance, or character, as
appertaining to the uses for which they are applied.
The character of the farm should be carried out so as to _express_
itself in everything which it contains. All should bear a consistent
relation with each other. The former himself is a plain man. His family
are plain people, although none the less worthy, useful, or exalted, on
that account. His structures, of every kind, should be plain, also, yet
substantial, where substance is required. All these detract nothing from
his respectability or his influence in the neighborhood, the town, the
county, or the state. A farmer has quite as much business in the field,
or about his ordinary occupations, with ragged garments, out at elbows,
and a crownless hat, as he has to occupy a leaky, wind-broken, and
dilapidated house. Neither is he any nearer the mark, with a ruffled
shirt, a fancy dress, or gloved hands, when following his plough behind
a pair of _fancy_ horses, than in living in a finical, pretending house,
such as we see stuck up in conspicuous places in many parts of the
country. All these are out of place in each extreme, and the one is as
absurd, so far as true propriety is concerned, as the other. A fitness
of things, or a correspondence of one thing with another, should always
be preserved upon the farm, as elsewhere; and there is not a single
reason why propriety and good keeping should not as well distinguish it.
Nor is there any good cause why the farmer himself should not be a man
of taste, in the arrangement and architecture of every building on his
place, as well as other men. It is only necessary that he devote a
little time to study, in order to give his mind a right direction in all
that appertains to this department. Or, if he prefer to employ the
ingenuity of others to do his planning,--which, by the way, is, in most
cases, the more natural and better course,--he certainly should possess
sufficient judgment to see that such plans be correct and will answer
his purposes.
The plans and directions submitted in this work are intended to be of
the most practical kind; plain, substantial, and applicable, throughout,
to the purposes intended, and such as are within the reach--each in
their kind--of every farmer in our country. These plans are chiefly
original; that is, they are not copied from any in the books, or from
any structures with which the writer is familiar. Yet they will
doubtless, on examination, be found in several cases to resemble
buildings, both in outward appearance and interior arrangement, with
which numerous readers may be acquainted. The object, in addition to our
own designs, has been to apply practical hints, gathered from other
structures in use, which have seemed appropriate for a work of the
limited extent here offered, and that may serve to improve the taste of
all such as, in building useful structures, desire to embellish their
farms and estates in an agreeable style of home architecture, at once
pleasant to the eye, and convenient in their arrangement.