The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-11-07
Rural

Among the things which specially contrib
ute to the charms of a country home, are
those thousand %adornments which a per-
son of quick observation and ready tact can
easily avail himself of; and while gratifying
his own artistic perceptions, he can con-
tribute to the growth of a humble a~rt-love,
which it is to be hoped will some day givea
charm to every roadside, and to every
country cottage. 1t is by no means true
that a taste Of this kind must necessarily
prove a mans ruin. The land is indeed a
great absorbent !; and if no discretion be
brought to. the direction of outlay in adorn-
ments and improvements, or if they be
simplicity, it is quite incredible what
amounts of money may be expended.
| have, in the earlier portion Of this vol
ume, limited at certain changes which may
be made in tho throwing out of some half
dozen angular and %unimportant enclosures
at the door into open lawn; in the removal
Of unnecessary fences and the establish
ment of groups of shrubbery to hide
roughness or to furnish shelter, all of
which involve little expenditure, and are
not in violation of any rules of well-con-
sidered economy. / may now add to these
the effects of little unimportant architectu-
raj devices, not requiring a practical build
er, and which, while they lend a great
charm to landscape, give an individuality
to a mans home.
The reader will perhaps allow mi to par
ticularize from my own experience. There
were, to begin with, some four or five build
ings about the farm-house-sheds, shops,
coal-houses, Notwithstanding up of
odds and ends of lumber.boards matching
oddly, som half painted, others too rough
for paint-altogether scarcely bad enough
for removal, and yet terribly slatternly and
dismal in their general effect. They were
not worth new covering I; painting was i'm
possible, and embarrassing would only
have lighted up the seams and inequalities
more staringly. A half a mile away was
a little mill, where cedar posts were squared
by O circular saw, and the slabs were packed
away for fuel land very poorfuel they made)
One day, as my eye lighted upon them
an idea for their conversion to other uses
struck me, and fructified at once. | bought
a cord or two at O nominal rate, and com-
menced the work of covering my disjointed
and slatternly out-buildings with the rough
slabs. 1t was a simple business, requiring
only even mailing, with here and there q
q little Turing out to bring the old angles to
square, with here and there the def turning
of q rude arch, with two crooked bits,
over door or window. Farm laborers,
under direction, were fully competent to
the work, and in a couple of days l had
converted my ~unsightly buildings into
very tasteful rustic affairs, ~harmonizing
with the banks of foliage behind and over
them, and giving capital foothold to the
vines which | planted around them.
In keeping with their effect, | caused
gates to be constructed of the simplest
material from the cedar thickets, varying
these in design, and yet making each so
simple as to admit of easy imitation, and to
unite strength, solidity, and %cheapness. If,
indeed, these latter qualities could not be
united, the work would not at all meet the
end / had in view, which was not merely
to produce a pretty effect, but to demon
strate the harmony of such decorative work
with true farm economy. One often sees,
indeed, rustic work of most cumbrous and
portentous dimensions, oyerladen with ex-
traordinary crooks and curves, and show
ing at a glance immense labor in selection
and in arrangement. All this may be
pleasing, and often exceedingly beautiful,
but it is a mere affectation of rural SIM
plicity /; it wears lone Of that fit and SIM
pie character which would at once COM
mend it to the eye of q practical man as an
available and imitable feature.
If can give such arrangement to simple
boughs, otherwise worthless, or to pine
pickets of simple cost, in the paling of o
yard or the tracery of q gate, as shall catch
the eye by its grace of outline, and suggest
imitation nv ita eosv construction md on.
tire feasibility. there is some hope of lead
ing country tastes in that direction; but if
work shows great nicely Of construction,
puzzling and complicated detail, immense
absorption of labor and material, it might
as well have been, SO far as intended to
encourage farm ruralities, built of Car1ara
marble.-M Marvel, IN My Farm of
Edgepood.