In a country like ours, containing within its soils and upon its surface
such an abundance and variety of building material, the composition of
our farm erections must depend in most cases upon the ability or the
choice of the builder himself.
Stone is the most durable, in the long run the cheapest, and as a
consequence, the _best_ material which can be furnished for the walls of
a dwelling. With other farm buildings circumstances may govern
differently; still, in many sections of the United States, even stone
cannot be obtained, except at an expense and inconvenience altogether
forbidding its use. Yet it is a happy relief that where stone is
difficult, or not at all to be obtained, the best of clay for bricks,
is abundant; and in almost all parts of our country, even where building
timber is scarce, its transportation is so comparatively light, and the
facilities of removing it are so cheap, that wood is accessible to every
one. Hence we may indulge in almost every fitting style of architecture
and arrangement, to which either kind of these materials are best
adapted. We shall slightly discuss them as applicable to our purposes.
Stone is found either on the surface, or in quarries under ground.
On the surface they lie chiefly as bowlders of less or greater size,
usually of hard and durable kinds. Large bowlders may be either blasted,
or split with wedges into sufficiently available shapes to lay in walls
with mortar; or if small, they may with a little extra labor, be fitted
by the aid of good mortar into equally substantial wall as the larger
masses. In quarries they are thrown out, either by blasting or splitting
in layers, so as to form regular courses when laid up; and all their
varieties may, _unhammered_, except to strike off projecting points or
angles, be laid up with a sufficiently smooth face to give fine effect
to a building. Thus, when easily obtained, aside from the greater
advantages of their durability, stone is as cheap in the first instance
as lumber, excepting in new districts of country where good building
lumber is the chief article of production, and cheaper than brick in any
event. Stone requires no paint. Its color is a natural, therefore an
agreeable one, be it usually what it may, although some shades are more
grateful to the eye than others; yet it is always in harmony with
natural objects, and particularly so on the farm where everything ought
to wear the most substantial appearance. The outer walls of a stone
house should always be _firred_ off inside for _lathing_ and plastering,
to keep them thoroughly dry. Without that, the rooms are liable to
dampness, which would penetrate through the stone into the inside
plastering unless cut off by an open space of air between.
Bricks, where stone is not found, supply its place tolerably well. When
made of good clay, rightly tempered with sand, and well burned, they
will in a wall remain for centuries, and as far as material is
concerned, answer all purposes. Brick walls may be thinner than stone
walls, but they equally require "firring off" for inside plastering, and
in addition, they need the aid of paint quite as often as wood, to give
them an agreeable color--bricks themselves not usually being in the
category of desirable colors or shades.
Wood, when abundant and easily obtained, is worked with the greatest
facility, and on many accounts, is the cheapest material, _for the
time_, of which a building can be constructed. But it is perishable. It
requires every few years a coat of paint, and is always associated with
the idea of decay. Yet wood may be moulded into an infinite variety of
form to please the eye, in the indulgence of any peculiar taste or
fancy.
We cannot, in the consideration of material for house-building
therefore, urge upon the farmer the adoption of either of the above
named materials to the preference of another, in any particular
structure he may require; but leave him to consult his own circumstances
in regard to them, as best he may. But this we will say: _If it be
possible_, never lay a _cellar_ or underground wall of perishable
material, such as wood or soft bricks; nor build with soft or _unburnt_
bricks in a wall exposed to the weather _anywhere;_ nor with stone which
is liable to crumble or disintegrate by the action of frost or water
upon it. We are aware that unburnt bricks have been strongly recommended
for house-building in America; but from observation, we are fully
persuaded that they are worthless for any _permanent_ structure, and if
used, will in the end prove a dead loss in their application. Cottages,
out-buildings, and other cheap erections on the farm, for the
accommodation of laborers, stock, or crops, may be made of wood, where
wood is the cheapest and most easily obtained; and, even taking its
perishable nature into account, it may be the most economical. In their
construction, it may be simply a matter of calculation with him who
needs them, to calculate the first cost of any material he has at hand,
or may obtain, and to that add the interest upon it, the annual wear and
tear, the insurance, and the period it may last, to determine this
matter to his entire satisfaction--always provided he have the means at
hand to do either. But other considerations generally control the
American farmer. His pocket is apt more often to be pinched, than his
choice is to be at fault; and this weighty argument compels him into the
"make shift" system, which perhaps in its results, provided the main
chance be attained, is quite as advantageous to his interests as the
other.
As a general remark, all buildings should show for themselves, what they
are built of. Let stone be stone; bricks show on their own account; and
of all things, put no counterfeit by way of plaster, stucco, or other
false pretence other than paint, or a durable wash upon wood: it is a
miserable affectation always, and of no possible use whatever. All
counterfeit of any kind as little becomes the buildings of the farmer,
as the gilded _pinchbeck_ watch would fit the finished attire of a
gentleman.
Before submitting the several designs proposed for this work, it may be
remarked, that in addressing them to a climate strictly American, we
have in every instance adopted the wide, steeply-pitched roof, with
broad eaves, gables and cornices, as giving protection, shade, and
shelter to the walls; thus keeping them dry and in good preservation,
and giving that well housed, and comfortable expression, so different
from the stiff, pinched, and tucked-up look in which so many of the
haberdasher-built houses of the present day exult.
We give some examples of the hipped roof, because they are convenient
and cheap in their construction; and we also throw into the designs a
lateral direction to the roofs of the wings, or connecting parts of the
building. This is sometimes done for effect in architectural appearance,
and sometimes for the economy and advantage of the building itself.
Where roofs thus intersect or connect with a side wall, the connecting
gutters should be made of copper, zinc, lead, galvanized iron, or tin,
into which the shingles, if they be covered with that material, should
be laid so as to effectually prevent leakage. The _eave gutters_ should
be of copper, zinc, lead, galvanized iron or tin, also, and placed _at
least_ one foot back from the edge of the roof, and lead the water into
conductors down the wall into the cistern or elsewhere, as may be
required. If the water be not needed, and the roof be wide over the
walls, there is no objection to let it pass off naturally, if it be no
inconvenience to the ground below, and can run off, or be absorbed into
the ground without detriment to the cellar walls. All this must be
subject to the judgment of the proprietor himself.