Fig. 6. A frosty pocket.
A pool may be made by scooping a place in hard earth or by damming a stream ([Fig. 7]). If no water is allowed to flow over the dam and it is raised some two feet above the overflows, it will serve every purpose as well as an expensive grout or stone structure. It will be noticed in the picture that provision has been made by digging shallow ditches on the right and left for carrying off the surplus water when the miniature lake is full. In constructing the dam, a trench two feet wide, at right angles to the stream, should be dug to the depth of one foot, or until solid ground, unmixed with vegetable matter, is reached. Fill the trench with clayey earth which is free from humus, which will prevent the dam from leaking at the bottom where it meets the natural soil. The stream which feeds the lake or pond should be small, and need not be perennial if the dam is raised as high as it should be. If the water is dammed back to the depth of twelve to fourteen feet, and the banks of the pond are rather steep (A, [Fig. 7]), a cool, useful miniature lake will be formed, and not an unsightly marsh, during the dry months of summer.
Fig. 7. A useful pond.
Dryish, gravelly soil and subsoil is to be much preferred as a site for a house to clayey or dark, damp soil which contains much humus. If the ideal soil cannot be secured, then thorough drainage should be provided. In locating on a gentle declivity, there is a constant tendency for water to penetrate the wall next the hillside or to pass under the wall and appear in the bottom of the cellar. Unless this can certainly be prevented, another location had better be selected.
The house should be situated on somewhat elevated ground, to promote both surface and house drainage. If it is the purpose to introduce into the house more water than has been furnished heretofore, then full provision should be made for carrying all waste water and fecal matter to a safe distance from the house, and to do this beyond a peradventure, sufficient fall must be secured to give permanency to the work and an unobstructed outlet.
One of the objections urged against a country home is that it is “too quiet,” too much shut up from the outside world. This, in part, is true. It detracts much from the enjoyment and beauty of the country home if vision is shut in to a few acres just about the house. The American farmer is not content to live under the conditions which delight the Transvaal Dutch farmer, so isolated that he cannot see the smoke from his neighbor’s chimney nor hear the bark of his neighbor’s dog.
When visiting the home of the Hon. Edwin Morgan, I found that he was having three large trees cut down. It seemed to the uninstructed like vandalism. When asked the reason for sacrificing these noble trees, nourished and tended for half a century, he answered: “I have many more trees, but I have but one lake—Cayuga—and I must have vistas through which I can watch the white sail, the crested waves, the ever-changing colors of the water as the winds open vistas in the fleecy clouds. I love the trees not less, but the soft reflection of the moonbeams on the rippling wave more, and so the trees must give way.”
The outlook from the vine-covered veranda should be broad and extended. If possible, the hill and dale, the stream and wood, neighbors’ houses nestled in plantations of trees and shrubs, all should be in sight. As life advances, I see more and more clearly the effect of that noble lake, its now boisterous now placid surface of the rippling water which laved the stony beach. I see its effect on that “tow-headed” lad who at one time breasted the waves, at another sat dreamily casting pebbles into the clear expanse, wondering what life had in store, what the great unknown world offered for the nut-brown, high-tempered, crude country boy. Then plant the country home where nature in her happiest moods has showered her richest gifts!
But beauty loses much of its charm where healthy vigor gives not the power to appreciate and enjoy it. So the house should be located on a healthy eminence. But it is not easy to find a location which shall combine convenience, beauty, air and water drainage, and healthfulness all in the highest degree. In the case of the farmer, convenience as to carrying on the various operations of the farm and healthfulness are paramount. Drainage may be artificially improved, vistas opened, miniature lakes constructed, and surroundings made more beautiful. The farm and its equipment is the workshop, and must be convenient in all its appointments, or much energy is spent for naught; health must be maintained at the highest, or work may become but toil and drudgery.