Rural Architecture | Page 5

the apology already
given--that of an absence of cultivation, and thought upon the subject.
It may be asked, of what consequence is it that the farmer or small
property-holder should conform to given rules, or mode, in the style
and arrangement of his dwelling, or out-buildings, so that they be
reasonably convenient, and answer his purposes? For the same reason
that he requires symmetry, excellence of form or style, in his horses,
his cattle, or other farm stock, household furniture, or personal dress. It
is an arrangement of artificial objects, in harmony with natural objects;
a cultivation of the sympathies which every rational being should have,
more or less, with true taste; that costs little or nothing in the attainment,
and, when attained, is a source of gratification through life. Every
human being is bound, under ordinary circumstances, to leave the
world somewhat better, so far as his own acts or exertions are
concerned, than he found it, in the exercise of such faculties as have
been given him. Such duty, among thinking men, is conceded, so far as
the moral world is concerned; and why not in the artificial? So far as
the influence for good goes, in all practical use, from the building of a
temple, to the knocking together of a pig-stye--a labor of years, or the
work of a day--the exercise of a correct taste is important, in a degree.
In the available physical features of a country, no land upon earth
exceeds North America. From scenery the most sublime, through the
several gradations of magnificence and grandeur, down to the simply
picturesque and beautiful, in all variety and shade; in compass vast, or
in area limited, we have an endless variety, and, with a pouring out of
God's harmonies in the creation, without a parallel, inviting every
intelligent mind to study their features and character, in adapting them
to his own uses, and, in so doing, to even embellish--if such a thing be
possible--such exquisite objects with his own most ingenious
handiwork. Indeed, it is a profanation to do otherwise; and when so to
improve them requires no extraordinary application of skill, or any

extravagant outlay in expense, not to plan and to build in conformity
with good taste, is an absolute barbarism, inexcusable in a land like
ours, and among a population claiming the intelligence we do, or
making but a share of the general progress which we exhibit.
It is the idea of some, that a house or building which the farmer or
planter occupies, should, in shape, style, and character, be like some of
the stored-up commodities of his farm or plantation. We cannot
subscribe to this suggestion. We know of no good reason why the walls
of a farm house should appear like a hay rick, or its roof like the
thatched covering to his wheat stacks, because such are the shapes best
adapted to preserve his crops, any more than the grocer's habitation
should be made to imitate a tea chest, or the shipping merchant's a rum
puncheon, or cotton bale. We have an idea that the farmer, or the
planter, according to his means and requirements, should be as well
housed and accommodated, and in as agreeable style, too, as any other
class of community; not in like character, in all things, to be sure, but in
his own proper way and manner. Nor do we know why a farm house
should assume a peculiarly primitive or uncultivated style of
architecture, from other sensible houses. That it be a farm house, is
sufficiently apparent from its locality upon the farm itself; that its
interior arrangement be for the convenience of the in-door farm work,
and the proper accommodation of the farmer's family, should be quite
as apparent; but, that it should assume an uncouth or clownish aspect, is
as unnecessary as that the farmer himself should be a boor in his
manners, or a dolt in his intellect.
The farm, in its proper cultivation, is the foundation of all human
prosperity, and from it is derived the main wealth of the community.
From the farm chiefly springs that energetic class of men, who replace
the enervated and physically decaying multitude continually thrown off
in the waste-weir of our great commercial and manufacturing cities and
towns, whose population, without the infusion--and that continually--of
the strong, substantial, and vigorous life blood of the country, would
soon dwindle into insignificance and decrepitude. Why then should not
this first, primitive, health-enjoying and life-sustaining class of our
people be equally accommodated in all that gives to social and

substantial life, its due development? It is absurd to deny them by
others, or that they deny themselves, the least of such advantages, or
that any mark of caste be attempted to separate them from any other
class