F. W. Woodward

“ There are so many conditions to govern results in house building, that even an approximate estimate may fall very wide of the mark. Two houses may be built from the same plan, and we may also say, from the same specifications; one by day's work, and the other by contract, and they shall be so exactly alike in all respects when finished, that an unprofessional observer would detect no difference, and yet one may honestly cost just double the amount in money expended on the other; even the same builder may build two houses precisely alike in all respects, and yet the cost be quite unequal. ”

“ That many of these are men of great practical experience in the art, we know full well; but, however skillful they may have been in foreign countries, their success in our climate has been achieved only by discarding many of their preconceived ideas, and adapting their practice to agree with the peculiarities of our climate. When the public shall have learned that the culture of grapes under glass is only a plain and simple pursuit or pastime, which any one of ordinary capacity can comprehend and successfully carry out, then we shall have made a decided and important advance. ”

“ In constructing country houses there are several prime conditions to be observed, such as adaptation, accommodation, and expression. By adaptation is meant not only the arrangement of the main structure, as to form and material, to suit the locality and character of the grounds, but a fitness as respects the real wants—the habits and condition—of the occupants and the purposes of a country home. Nobody wants a modern city house planted down in the open country, nor should any sensible man seek a refuge from the bare streets of the city in the little less bare streets of a country village. ”

“ The failure to receive the sun's rays the entire day would not deter us one moment from the erection of a horticultural building. Those who grow fruit where all conditions are most favorable to success, do not enjoy the same pleasure nor attain the same skill as those who battle with difficulties; success easily acquired has not the same value as success which is reached by persistent effort against adverse circumstances. ”

“ There seems to be a general consciousness of the fact that, in the struggle for wealth and the greed for wide possessions, as well as [Pg 8] in the inherent difficulties of our situation—thrown as we have been upon a new and vast continent—we have too long neglected the culture of the Vine, one of the most ancient and useful arts of life; an art which has, in all ages, been the fruitful source of comfort and luxury, of health and happiness, to the masses of mankind. ”

“ The cost of a house depends on a well-studied plan; this plan does not consist alone in the arrangement of rooms, windows, doors, etc., but involves a careful study of the anatomy of construction. One may save by a proper distribution of timbers, as well as make a very great saving by the arrangement of rooms. Good management is of the greatest importance, not only as a matter of economy, but as securing the best class of workmanship, and the most judicious use of materials. Good or bad management produces the same results in building operations as in war or any other pursuit. ”

“ THE COLD PIT.
Many who have not the advantage of a green-house, wish to preserve over the winter their half-hardy plants which have ornamented their garden during the summer. These are generally consigned to the cellar to dry up and be forgotten. In the darkness they loose their leaves, and when in spring they are again brought to light many are dried up and dead. Properly constructed cold pits offer superior advantages for the protection of many plants of a half-hardy nature, and indeed some that are usually considered tender here find a congenial location. ”

“ They hasten gladly to these rural scenes with the opening Summer, and they leave them with regret when the exigencies of business require their presence in the city,—when the Summer suns have ripened the luscious fruits, and the flowers fade with the frosty kisses of the cold, and the passenger birds fly Southward. ”

“ Mistakes are frequently made in the erection of structures for the growth of plants which, notwithstanding all the skill and art of experienced gardeners, render it impossible to arrive at satisfactory results. One of the most common of these is the excessive height of the roof. Men of experience in the construction and use of glass houses, have satisfied themselves that the lowest elevation which the uses and purposes of the building will admit, is the best. The difference in temperature between the floor and roof of a house twenty feet in height, will vary from ten to fifteen degrees. ”

“ A competent business superintendent has a great deal to do with the cost of a house; one that understands all the tricks of every building trade, that knows the market well, and the value and quality of all building materials, and where inferior workmanship [84] and materials can be used to an equal advantage with those of first class. To slight work and yet do it justice; to give it all the strength and endurance necessary, requires one of skillful acquirements. ”

“ One of these which may be noticed is a neat fountain in the centre; always a pretty feature wherever it can be introduced. Another is a rustic niche or alcove in the north wall, built of rough stones, over and through which the water constantly trickles into a basin. Its full beauty will not be seen till it has acquired age, and become covered with mosses and ferns. Fortunately for the plants and for good taste, there is no shelving in this house. Beds are formed of brick, with a neat coping, in which the pots are set. ”

“ Thus it is impossible that there should ever be majesty in a cottage built of brick; but there is a marked element of sublimity in the rude and irregular piling of the rocky walls of the mountain cottages of Wales, Cumberland, and Scotland.
"And if the nobility of this confessed and natural [119] masonry were more commonly felt, we should not lose the dignity of it by smoothing surfaces and fitting joints. The sums which we waste in chiselling and polishing stones, which would have been better left as they came from the quarry, would often raise a building a story higher. ”

“ If we canvass real estate thoroughly, we shall find that property sells first, and at the best prices, which has ever so humble a cottage on it, a starting point in which one may temporarily reside, and lay out his plans of future operations; for the construction of a country place is of all things one with which to make haste slowly. With those actively engaged in business, and to whom time is every thing, there is no disposition to add the labor and annoyances of building ”

“ The principal advantage of the Polyprosopic roof, is its portability, that is, it can be made in sashes, and transported to any portion of the country, thus obviating the necessity of painting and glazing in the hot atmosphere of the interior, or loss of time from storms, etc., on outside work. The fixed roof house can be sent anywhere primed, but the glazing and second coat of paint must be done after the erection of the building; either house we think equally well adapted to growing purposes, but as a matter of beauty and economy we give the preference to the fixed curvilinear roof. ”

“ For it must be remembered that when we renew our building operations, which have been nearly suspended for the last four years, in consequence of the unsettled condition of the country, we shall have to provide not only for the current increase in population, but for the deficiencies which result from the past four years or more, when comparatively few houses were erected. At the present time the rent of a convenient and respectable house, suitable to the requirements of a family having a fair income, and occupying a desirable position in society, is an excessive item of cost. ”

“ The American people are rather disposed to be self-reliant, and we may, therefore, safely predict that, when we take hold, in real earnest, of the business of grape culture, either under glass or in the open air, we shall do it with our customary determination and energy, and that success will just as surely follow as it has in other cases where imported ideas have been improved upon and superseded. ”

“ When an architect says a house can be built for a certain price, it is to be understood that materials delivered on the ground shall not exceed an average cost, that the payments made are to be in cash, and that he manages the work. To hold an architect responsible or blame him for blunders in the cost of work that he designed and did not superintend, is manifestly unjust, yet it is a frequent occurrence. ”

“ There is still much to be learned in the matter of [Pg 16] exotic grape-growing in this country, and, in fact, in the management of conservatories, orchard-houses, and all descriptions of horticultural buildings, and all classes of plants cultivated under glass. Whatever progress may have been made abroad, where experiments are carried on upon a large and costly scale, and often with eminent success, is of little or no value to the American horticulturist. Our climate is very different in its character and conditions from that of Europe, and especially that of humid England. ”

“ Our architectural series would be by no means complete if devoted entirely to dwellings; and as the resources of an extensive professional practice in the arts which embellish and beautify our country may be largely made use of, we present here a design for another class of buildings.
A school-house is not a building which every one contemplates erecting, and yet a large proportion are, or ought to be, interested in developing in structures of this class such architectural principles as shall make their impressions in early life, and influence future tastes. ”

“ All gardeners know the difficulty of rooting cuttings as warm weather comes on. When the thermometer marks 80° in the shade fires are laid aside; and if the rooting of cuttings is attempted, the sand or soil in which they are planted will be 10 or 15 degrees lower than the atmosphere, or the opposite of the condition required for success.
The advantage possessed by the gutter or tank, as a means of bottom heat, over smoke flues or pipes, is in its giving a uniform moisture, cuttings scarcely ever requiring water after being first put in, and then only to settle the sand about them. ”