In the design now under discussion, a cellar is made under the whole
body of the house; and this cellar is a _shallow_ one, so far as being
sunk into the ground is concerned, say 5-1/2 feet, leaving 2-1/2 feet of
cellar wall above ground--8 feet in all. A part of the wall above ground
should be covered by the excavated earth, and sloped off to a level with
the surrounding surface. A commodious, well-lighted, and well-ventilated
cellar is one of the most important apartments of the farm house. It
should, if the soil be compact, be well drained from some point or
corner within the walls into a lower level outside, to which point
within, the whole floor surface should incline, and the bottom be
floored with water-lime cement. This will make it hard, durable, and
dry. It may then be washed and scrubbed off as easily as an upper floor.
If the building site be high, and in a gravelly, or sandy soil, neither
drain nor flooring will be required. The cellar may be used for the
storage of root crops, apples, meats, and household vegetables. A
partitioned room will accommodate either a summer or a winter dairy, if
not otherwise provided, and a multitude of conveniences may be made of
it in all well arranged farmeries. But in all cases the cellar should be
well lighted, ventilated, and dry. Even the ash-house and smoke-house
may be made in it with perfect convenience, by brick or stone
partitions, and the smoke-house flue be carried up into one of the
chimney flues above, and thus make a more snug and compact arrangement
than to have separate buildings for those objects. A wash-room, in
which, also, the soap may be made, the tallow and lard tried up, and
other extraordinary labor when fire heat is to be used, may properly be
made in a cellar, particularly when on a sloping ground, and easy of
access to the ground level on one side. But, as a general rule, such
room is better on a level with the main floor of the dwelling, and there
are usually sufficient occupations for the cellar without them.
All cellar walls should be at least 18 inches thick, for even a wooden
house, and from that to 2 feet for a stone or brick one, and well laid
in strong lime-mortar. Unmortared cellar walls are frequently laid under
wooden buildings, and _pointed_ with lime-mortar inside; but this is
sometimes dug out by rats, and is apt to crumble and fall out otherwise.
A _complete_ cellar wall should be thoroughly laid in mortar.
[Illustration: FARM HOUSE. Pages 101-102.]
DESIGN III.
We here present the reader with a substantial, plain, yet
highly-respectable stone or brick farm house, of the second class,
suitable for an estate of three, to five hundred acres, and
accommodation for a family of a dozen or more persons. The style is
mixed rural Gothic, Italian, and bracketed; yet in keeping with the
character of the farm, and the farmer's standing and occupation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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