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labourers, under judicious direction, in three weeks; and two or three days more might be occupied in a careful inspection and improvement of the various pools and dams; such, for example, as increasing the height of the falls by adding an additional faggot to some of the weirs, and raising a light turf embankment on either shore 10 or 12 inches in height, so as to correspond with the additional elevation given to the edge of the dam.”

Having thus prepared the place for piscicultural operations, the next step is to fit up some hatching-boxes and nurseries for the stock, which should be of the best kinds of trout, such as can be got from Loch Leven, or from some of the best English rivers. This hatching process is so simple that it can be performed by any one who will give a few hours' study to the directions of Mr Francis, Mr Buckland, or any of the writers on this subject. Indeed, so simple is it that Mr Francis has said that he would undertake to hatch a hundred young salmon with the aid of a cheese plate and a tumbler of water.

The next step is to have a regular system of feeding the fish so as to as to secure their rapid growth. A few children may easily collect snails, slugs, worms, grubs, and larvæ of all kinds for this purpose, and distribute their gatherings about noon each day in the

pools and dams.

"Having thus brought our management to this point we will epitomise," says Dr Peard, and take a rapid glance at our improving property. A small stream, scarcely four miles in length, has been altered (on paper) to suit the requirements of fish-rearing. Three hundred and forty-eight ponds and dams have been cut, and have thus increased our available space enormously; one set of hatching boxes has proved amply sufficient for our wants, and, being carefully put up, have since continued in good working order, giving us 6000 or 7000 fry each spring.

"Meanwhile, our first hatch spawned in their season, and the produce added largely to the number of the fry artificially raised; in fact, our small farm by this time contained a stock as large as it could support. Our plan for feeding being based on principles as natural as economical, the fields, lanes, ditches, and hedge-rows yielded an abundant supply of food, and our small collectors have not been ill-paid at 3s. 6d. each per week.

"Had these results really been obtained at the end of the fourth year we should have been enabled to fish the pools and dams for market, and during the summer might have disposed of about 2000 trout, averaging a little over one pound each, which would have produced about £103. And now, in conclusion, let us glance at the expenses of our farm. Let us suppose the construction cost £15; the hatching boxes, with fittings, £6; and wages for portions of three years' feeding, 70; this will give £91 as the total outlay. "We will assume therefore that something about the sum of £100 has been sunk on this petty water property; that the annual expenses are £50, and that its yearly production equals

100. Even at this rate, the farm would yield a clear annual interest of 50 per cent. on the outlay. But are we warranted in believing this to be the maximum of its produce? We think not; nay, we are confident it could be raised to a higher figure-for the number taken from each pond, about five, was very insignificant in comparison to what they might easily have spared. How trout, grayling, and other fresh-water fish can be increased, both in size and number, by mere preservation, many streams in Wiltshire, Hampshire, Shropshire, and other English counties prove. But preservation is only one amongst the ninety-nine points of good water-husbandry, If the science was applied in its entirety, what might not reasonably be

expected from it?"

Such, then, is the scheme of water-farming so enthusiastically enunciated by Dr Peard, which seems to offer so many advantages, and which is well worthy of the attention of our landed gentry. The experiment may be tried not only with the common trout, but with grayling, charr, or any of the other kinds of fresh-water fish, whose ova are distributed at the great establishment of Huningue, under the management of the French Government.

millions of fish were distributed during the first ten years of its existence, and, as was before remarked, it is producing the most beneficial results throughout the Continent.

From this establishment no less than 110

On the whole then, water-farming seems to shew a reasonable prospect of remuneration for the capital employed in it, and beyond this will confer on our population a social benefit the extent of which cannot be easily overrated.

The Country House.

IN

CHOICE OF A SITE FOR BUILDING.

Na great number of instances people begin "to think about building," as the phrase goes, prompted by a liking to some particular site which their walking abroad may have discovered, and which to their mind comprises everything that is delightful and to be desired as a place upon which to pitch their tent. Whether this be the experience of as many as we suspect it is, certain it is that the points connected with a choice of site are of the utmost importance, and should be well considered even before the planning of the house which is to occupy it is gone into. That some deem these points of little or no importance, is evident enough if we examine the sites of some houses, which could not have been worse chosen had the object been to take pains to get a bad in place of a good site. In our experience we have met with not a few houses which were placed in positions the worst possible, both as regards the health of their occupants and the shutting out of pleasant views. It will be well, therefore to glance briefly at the points involved in the choice of a site, what it ought and what it ought not to possess. A shrewd piece of advice has been given on this subject worthy of consideration, and it is to the effect that one should examine the site in the worst, not in the best, weather. There is a large amount of suggestiveness in this, for under the influence of a bright sun and cheerful sky the worst place will have an aspect of cheerfulness, and the converse holds equally true; and one may rest pretty well assured that they have chosen a site which will be very pleasant in fine weather, if in bad it presents but one or two aspects of pleasantness. But while the position of the site with reference to the surrounding landscape is of importance, its position with reference to the land

immediately surrounding it is of no less importance. Hence, the plot of ground on which the house is actually to stand must be considered: if a rising part presents itself, choose that, and by all means carefully avoid, what some seem to think highly of, building in a hole. Some choose a depressed part as very likely to be a sheltered spot, but this is quite a mistake; for, independently of the difficulty there is in draining the house, the chances are all on the side of winds beating upon the house as angrily in its low situation as if it was placed upon rising ground near it. Stronger winds oftener blow through the lowest part of a valley than along its sides, or even sometimes upon their summit. The site of a house is often chosen on account of its proximity to a piece of water, this last being considered as "such a pretty object in the landscape." No doubt water viewed from a house, especially if surrounded with clumps of trees or waving willows near its banks, is a pleasing object, but whether it is good to have it near the house is another question; it is more probably true that distance rather than proximity will lend enchantment to the view; and it is almost certain that actual proximity to water is not a healthy thing. As a rule, it will be found that delicately constituted people rarely are in good health while living in houses in immediate proximity to water. The bad features of the case are intensified if, in addition to being near the water, the house is placed on a level with its margin; and worse still, as is sometimes the case, a little below it. The site of the house will in these cases always be more or less damp, than which there is no greater evil to be encountered in a house. Again, do not build at the foot of a sharply-rising ground or the face of a precipice. Some

have chosen such a site as this from the idea that they would be protected from the north wind, utterly forgetful of the fact, that not only would the site of the house be exposed to all the drainage-water of the hill above, but that chimneys would smoke in nearly every high wind that blew, from its being drawn down or deflected from the surface of the rising ground behind the house.

It is to be noted that while attention is to be paid to the general aspect of the site, the special aspect of the house which occupies it must not be overlooked. The site in its general features may be admirable, it may command the finest view, take in the grand aspect of forest and mountain, or the quieter points of river, lake, or rural scenery; it may occupy the healthiest position, and yet many of the advantages may be lost by not paying attention to the peculiar position of the house or the ground actually occupied by it. It is not enough to have a good site, then; it is necessary also to place the house upon that site in the best position. We have seen a house placed so that all the advantages of a fine view which the site commanded are utterly lost; or so placed that all the cheerfulness was excluded, all the gloominess secured. A little forethought would have avoided all this. Of all the aspects which can be given to a house the south-east is the best-i. e., the best aspect for the rooms which are most frequently occupied in the day-time. This aspect is not only the most cheerful, but it is the healthiest; healthy because cheerful; inasmuch as the cheerfulness is derived mainly from the large amount of light secured by the aspect; and light, or rather plenty of it, is perhaps one of the things most conducive to health. But while the south-east is as a rule secured as the aspect of the majority of the windows of the house, it will conduce much to the pleasure of its occupancy, if one at least of the living or entertaining rooms be provided with a window or windows having a due western aspect. This is by no means so difficult a thing to attain as one might suppose; a very little consideration in the planning of a house will secure it, and it is worthy of being secured even by a good deal of considera

tion, if that was demanded. For the afternoon aspect of a house, which this western look-out will secure, is perhaps as important as a morning one, perhaps more so, as business and the cares and labours of the day give place to the rest and repose of the evening, when good aspect can best be enjoyed; and there is perhaps nothing more enjoyable than the look-out from a sofa or an easy chair upon all the glories of the evening western sky, with its golden sunset, or its shade of clouds. Aspect and prospect are too often confounded, treated of, and considered as synonymous terms, but they are not so they mean indeed very different things. What they do mean, and what are the considerations involved in them, the following remarks by Mr. Repton convey much, and conveying much, are therefore worthy of a place here :

"Nothing is more common than for those who intend to build to consult many advisers and collect different plans, from which they suppose it possible to make one perfect whole; but they might as well expect to make an epic poem by selecting detached verses from the works of different poets. Others take a plan, and fancy it may be adapted to any situation, but, in reality, the plan must be made, not only to suit the spot, but it ought actually to be made on the spot, that every door and window may be adapted to the aspects and prospects of the situation. It was a remark of my venerable friend Mr Carr of York, after four score years of experience as an architect, that to build a house we had only to provide all that was wanted and no more, than to place the best rooms to the best aspects and the best views. Simple as this apothegm may appear, it contains more truth in theory have ever been laid down in books by architects, or and more difficulty in practice than all the rules that the remarks of all the admirers of rural scenery with whom I have conversed. The former never think of aspects, and the latter think of nothing but prospects. I will therefore beg leave to enlarge upon these two subjects.

"I consider the aspect of infinitely more consequence to the enjoyment and comfort of the inhabitant than any prospect whatever; and every common observer must be convinced that in this climate a southern aspect is most desirable, but few are aware of the total difference in the effect of turning the front of the house a few points to the east or to the west of the south, because, although the south-east is the best, yet the south-west is the worst of all possible aspects, for this reason, that all blustering winds and driving rains come from the south-west, and consequently the

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