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Page 2
Making haste slowly is often the quickest way to desired results.
It is the usual method to erect the dwelling first, and afterward
to subdue and enrich the ground gradually. This in many instances
may prove the best course; but when it is practicable, I should
advise that building be deferred until the land (with the
exception of the spaces to be occupied with the house and barn)
can be covered with a heavy dressing of barnyard manure, and that
this be plowed under in the autumn. Such general enriching of the
soil may seem a waste in view of the carriage-drive and walks yet
to be laid out; but this will not prove true. It should be
remembered that while certain parts of the place are to be kept
bare of surface-vegetation, they nevertheless will form a portion
of the root-pasturage of the shade and fruit trees. The land,
also, can be more evenly and deeply plowed before obstructions are
placed upon it, and roots, pestiferous weeds, and stones removed
with greatest economy. Moreover, the good initial enriching is
capital, hoarded in the soil, to start with. On many new places I
have seen trees and plants beginning a feeble and uncertain life,
barely existing rather than growing, because their roots found the
soil like a table with dishes but without food. If the fertilizer
is plowed under in the autumn, again mixed with the soil by a
second plowing in the spring, it will be decomposed and ready for
immediate use by every rootlet in contact with it. Now, as farmers
say, the "land is in good heart," and it will cheer its owner's
heart to see the growth promptly made by whatever is properly
planted. Instead of losing time, he has gained years. Suppose the
acre to have been bought in September, and treated as I have
indicated, it is ready for a generous reception of plants and
trees the following spring.
Possibly at the time of purchase the acre may be covered with
coarse grass, weeds, or undergrowth of some kind. In this case,
after the initial plowing, the cultivation for a season of some
such crop as corn or potatoes may be of great advantage in
clearing the land, and the proceeds of the crop would partially
meet expenses. If the aim is merely to subdue and clean the land
as quickly as possible, nothing is better than buckwheat, sown
thickly and plowed under just as it comes into blossom. It is the
nature of this rampart-growing grain to kill out everything else
and leave the soil light and mellow. If the ground is encumbered
with many stones and rocks, the question of clearing it is more
complicated. They can be used, and often sold to advantage, for
building purposes. In some instances I have seen laboring-men
clear the most unpromising plots of ground by burying all rocks
and stones deeply beneath the surface--men, too, who had no other
time for the task except the brief hours before and after their
daily toil.
I shall give no distinct plan for laying out the ground. The taste
of the owner, or more probably that of his wife, will now come
into play. Their ideas also will be modified by many local
circumstances--as, for instance, the undulations of the land, if
there are any; proximity to neighbors, etc. If little besides
shade and lawn is desired, this fact will have a controlling
influence; if, on the other hand, the proprietor wishes to make
his acre as productive as possible, the house will be built nearer
the street, wider open space will be left for the garden, and
fruit-trees will predominate over those grown merely for shade and
beauty. There are few who would care to follow a plan which many
others had adopted. Indeed, it would be the natural wish of
persons of taste to impart something of their own individuality to
their rural home; and the effort to do this would afford much
agreeable occupation. Plates giving the elevation and arrangement
of country homes can be studied by the evening lamp; visits to
places noted for their beauty, simplicity, and good taste will
afford motives for many a breezy drive; while useful suggestions
from what had been accomplished by others may repay for an
extended journey. Such observations and study will cost little
more than an agreeable expenditure of time; and surely a home is
worth careful thought. It then truly becomes YOUR home--something
that you have evolved with loving effort. Dear thoughts of wife
and children enter into its very materiality; walks are planned
with a loving consciousness of the feet which are to tread them,
and trees planted with prophetic vision of the groups that will
gather beneath the shade. This could scarcely be true if the acre
were turned over to architect, builders, and landscape-gardeners,
with an agreement that you should have possession at a specified
time.
We will suppose that it is early spring, that the ground has
received its second plowing, and that the carriage-drive and the
main walks have been marked out on paper, or, better still, on a
carefully considered map. There is now so much to do that one is
almost bewildered; and the old saying, "Rome was not built in a
day," is a good thing to remember. An orderly succession of labor
will bring beauty and comfort in good time, especially if
essential or foundation labors are first well performed. Few
things will prove more satisfactory than dry, hard, smooth
carriage-roads and walks. These, with their curves, can be
carefully staked out, the surface-earth between the stakes to the
depth of four or five inches carted to the rear of the place near
the stable, or the place where the stable is to be. Of the value
of this surface-soil we shall speak presently, and will merely
remark in passing that it is amply worth the trouble of saving.
Its removal leaves the beds of the driveway and walks depressed
several inches below the surrounding surface. Fill these shallow
excavations with little stones, the larger in the bottom, the
smaller on top, and cover all with gravel. You now have roads and
walks that will be dry and hard even in oozy March, and you can
stroll about your place the moment the heaviest shower is over.
The greater first cost will be more than made good by the fact
that scarcely a weed can start or grow on pathways thus treated.
All they will need is an occasional rounding up and smoothing with
a rake.
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