Thursday, January 20, 2022

1799 Garden Design - The Rural House & Yards by Pennsylvanian John Beale Bordley (1726/27-1804)


John Beale Bordley (1726/27-1804) . Essays & Notes on Husbandry & Rural Affairs. Printed by Budd and Bartram, for Thomas Dobson, at the stone house, no 41, South Second Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1799

Design of the Rural House and Yards

The whole yard and its buildings, should be in view from the mansion; and that they be construdted at a proper distance, neither too near nor too far from the mansion. The food should be near to the housed live slock, for readily distributing it. The yard ought to be compact; and the doors of the buildings, and the gates of the yard, seen from the mansion.

It is not to save ground that compactness is here desired; but that the attentions due to the live stock may be performed in the readied and best way. A yard containing cattle always housed, is never to be littered with straw, but all litter carelessly dropt on it, is to be raked off, for security against fire dropt on the way to the boiling house; and the beasts are not suffered to stroll about wasting dung and urine. When let out and watered, they are to be instantly returned to their stalls, regularly in detachments, one set after another.

The homestead includes this yard; together with its stockyard, the garden, nursery, orchard, and some acres for occasional use: such as the letting mares, or sick beasts run in, at liberty. The farmstead should include:

Mansion
Pigeon-house
Kitchen, Oven, and Ash Hole
Poultry-house and yard
Wood-yard
Laboratory
Milk-house
Ice-house.
Cloacas
Family yard
Pump
Watering troughs
Sow and Pig Sties
Cow-house
Boiling-house
Hogs
Granary
Stercories
Barn
Sheep-house and yard
Stable, for farm
Bridge and vault
Chaise-house and stable
Bees
Waggon and cart-house
Implements of husbandry house
Workshop