leisure and comfort;
an ample bedroom and nursery, for the parents and the little ones; a
kitchen for the cooking; and a scullery and closets, and all the other
etceteras which belong to a perfect family homestead.

And so with the grounds. The lawn or "dooryard," should be the best kept
ground on the place. The most conspicuous part of the garden should show
its shrubbery and its flowers. The side or rear approach should be
separated from the lawn, and show its constant _business_ occupation,
and openly lead off to where men and farm stock meet on common ground,
devoted to every purpose which the farm requires. Such arrangement would
be complete in all its parts, satisfactory, and lasting. Tinsel
ornament, or gewgaw decoration should never be permitted on any building
where the sober enjoyment of agricultural life is designed. It can never
add consideration or dignity to the retired gentleman even, and least of
all should it be indulged in by the farmer, dwelling on his own
cultivated acres.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF CELLARS.

Every farm house and farm cottage, where a family of any size occupy the
latter, should have a good, substantial _stone_-walled cellar beneath
it. No room attached to the farm house is more profitable, in its
occupation, than the cellar. It is useful for storing numberless
articles which are necessary to be kept warm and dry in winter, as well
as cool in summer, of which the farmer is well aware. The walls of a
cellar should rise at least one, to two, or even three feet above the
level of the ground surrounding it, according to circumstances, and the
rooms in it well ventilated by _two_ or more sliding sash windows in
each, according to size, position, and the particular kind of storage
for which it is required, so that a draft of pure air can pass through,
and give it thorough ventilation at all times. It should also be at
least seven and a half feet high in the clear; and if it be even nine
feet, that is not too much. If the soil be compact, or such as will hold
water, it should be thoroughly drained from the lowest point or corner,
and the drain always kept open; (a stone drain is the best and most
durable,) and if floored with a coat of flat, or rubble stones, well set
in good hydraulic cement--or cement alone, when the stone cannot be
obtained--all the better. This last will make it _rat proof_. For the
purpose of avoiding these destructive creatures, the _foundation_ stones
in the wal