oper--he who lives from the income which the
farm produces--it is important to know the extent of accommodation
required for the economical management of his estate, and then to build
in accordance with it, as well as to suit his own position in life, and
the station which he and his family hold in society. The owner of a
hundred acre farm, living upon the income he receives from it, will
require less house room than he who tills equally well his farm of
three, six, or ten hundred acres. Yet the numbers in their respective
families, the relative position of each in society, or their taste for
social intercourse may demand a larger or smaller household arrangement,
regardless of the size of their estates; still, the dwellings on each
should bear, in extent and expense, a consistent relation to the land
itself, and the means of its owner. For instance: a farm of one hundred
acres may safely and economically erect and maintain a house costing
eight hundred to two thousand dollars, while one of five hundred to a
thousand acres may range in an expenditure of twenty-five hundred to
five thousand dollars in its dwelling, and all be consistent with a
proper economy in farm management.

Let it be understood, that the above sums are named as simply comporting
with a financial view of the subject, and such as the economical
management of the estate may warrant. To one who has no regard to such
consideration, this rule of expenditure will not apply. He may invest
any amount he so chooses in building beyond, if he only be content to
pocket the loss which he can never expect to be returned in an increased
value to the property, over and above the price of cheaper buildings. On
the other hand, he would do well to consider that a farm is frequently
worth less to an ordinary purchaser, with an extravagant house upon it,
than with an economical one, and in many cases will bring even less in
market, in proportion as the dwelling is expensive. _Fancy_ purchasers
are few, and fastidious, while he who buys only for a home and an
occupation, is governed solely by the profitable returns the estate will
afford upon the capital invested.

There is again a grand error which many fall into in building, looking
as they do only at the extent of wood and timber; or stone and mortar in
the structure, and paying no attention to the surroundings, which in
most cases contribute more to the effect of the establishment than the
structure itself, and which