Altogether too little attention has been paid in our country to these
most useful appendages to the farm, both in their construction and
appearance. Nothing adds more to the feeling of comfort, convenience,
and _home_ expression in the farm, than the snug-built laborers' cottage
upon it. The cottage also gives the farm an air of respectability and
dignity. The laborer should, if not so sumptuously, be as comfortably
housed and sheltered as his employer. This is quite as much to the
interest of such employer as it is beneficial to the health and
happiness of the laborer. Building is so cheap in America, that the
difference in cost between a snugly-finished cottage, and a rickety,
open tenement, is hardly to be taken into consideration, as compared
with the higher health, and increased enjoyment of the laborer and his
family; while every considerate employer knows that cheerfulness and
contentment of disposition, which are perhaps more promoted by good home
accommodations for the workingman than by any other influence, are
strong incentives to increased labor on his part, and more fidelity in
its application.
A landed estate, of whatever extent, with its respectable farm house,
in its own expressive style of construction, relieved and set off by its
attendant cottages, either contiguous, or remote, and built in their
proper character, leaves nothing wanting to fill the picture upon which
one loves to gaze in the contemplation of country life; and without
these last in due keeping with the chief structures of the estate, a
blank is left in its completeness and finish. The little embellishments
which may be given, by way of architectural arrangement, or the
conveniences in accommodation, are, in almost all cases, appreciated by
those who occupy them, and have an influence upon their character and
conduct; while the trifling decorations which may be added in the way of
shrubbery, trees, and flowering plants, costing little or nothing in
their planting and keeping, give a charm to the humblest abode.
The position of cottages on a farm should be controlled by
considerations of convenience to the place of labor, and a proper
economy in their construction; and hardly a site can be inappropriate
which ensures these requirements. In the plans which are submitted, due
attention has been paid to the comfort of those who inhabit them, as
well as to picturesque effect in the cottage itself. Decency, order, and
respectability are thus given to the estate, and to those who inhabit
the cottages upon it, as well as to those whose more fortunate position
in life has given the enjoyment of a higher luxury in the occupancy of
its chief mansion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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