Since more than three-fourths of the life of the farmer and his family are spent in sight of home, more than one-half of life in the house, and more than one-fourth in bed, the house, the place where they live, should receive most careful attention. Having secured sufficient land to maintain a home, and having made certain that these lands are productive and profitable, a problem is presented in locating and building the house which demands a high degree of intelligence, long, painstaking study, and a good understanding of what constitutes fitness, beauty and durability.
Life in the country gives one the idea of repose, of strength and breadth, of largeness, of solidity and durability, of healthy, symmetrical, solid development. Things which are evanescent, unreal, shoddy; things which are simply for show or vulgar display; things which have the appearance of aping that which may be appropriate under different conditions, but are totally out of place in rural life, must be avoided if utility, natural beauty and comfort, economy and repose are to be secured.
The pioneer in the wooded districts built the home in some sequestered nook or valley at the base of the hill or table land, where the spring or the stream issued from the wood-covered heights. The rural house of the pioneer allowed free circulation of the frosty air; the problem of ventilation they solved without knowing it. Unwittingly they adopted the correct principle; viz., ventilation by many small, gentle streams of air instead of by a few large openings, which create dangerous drafts. It must be admitted that our forefathers overdid the ventilation in most cases, and rheumatism and chilblains were the result; but the principle was correct.
Now the spring has dried up, the water from the deforested hills comes rushing to the lowlands until the streams overflow their banks, and these and other changed conditions indicate that the future farmsteads should be erected on higher land, on the slopes of the hills. From the one extreme we have gone, in some cases, to the other, and the home has been built on the very apex of some lofty hill. Such locations may be well adapted for summer residences, where little or no farming is carried on, but are not suitable for the farm home.
Now that the house is constructed by more skilled workmen than formerly, and out of better material, there is little need of locating the home in the sheltered nook, except possibly in the extreme north, or on plains subject to tornadoes. The object in locating the house on somewhat elevated lands is fourfold. First, air drainage. In deep, crooked, narrow valleys the air is pocketed, especially at night, and the damp, cold air settles in the lowest land as certainly as water finds the low-lying pool. In these pockets between the hills, frosts come early and remain late.
While traveling in western North Carolina in the late summer and fall, I could not but observe how every little break in the hillside and every narrow valley was filled at sunrise, to the crest of the adjoining hill, with a dense fog. Slowly the sun, as it approached the zenith, dissipated the fog, but the narrow valleys were often free from fog for only a few hours each day. Here the home might be situated well up the mountain side, as shown at the right in [Fig. 5].
Fig. 5. A house in the bottom of the valley and one on the mountain side.
In a little pocket about twenty feet deep, formed by hills, with a road embankment at its mouth, fruits failed, although they flourished on the adjoining land, where there was good air drainage ([Fig. 6]). If fruits do not thrive on these undrained areas, the natural conclusion is that the children will not. It is found that the upper stories of city buildings are healthier than the lower ones, and that the ground floor is the most unhealthy of all. This is the only objection to a one-story house. On the level prairies little opportunity is offered for locating the house above the level of the surrounding country. Fortunately, many of the prairies are undulating, and furnish most beautiful locations for country homes. Much may be done, even in the level country, to overcome the disadvantages of the site by placing the cellar of the house only two or three feet in the ground and grading up to within a short distance of the top of the wall. A pool or two, or a miniature lake near the barns, and skilful planting of trees will lend a diversity and charm well worth the attention and time given to them.
