Two hundred feet south of the north line of the home lot a street or lane was to run due west from the gate on the main road.  This was to be the teaming or business entrance to the farm.  Commencing three hundred feet from the east end of this drive, the structures were to be as follows:  On the south side, first a cold-storage house, then the farm-house, the cottage, the well, and finally the carriage barn for the big house.  On the north side of the line, opposite the ice-house, the dairy-house; then a square with a small power-house for its centre, a woodhouse, a horse barn for the farm horses, a granary and a forage barn for its four corners.  Beyond this square to the west was the fruit-house and the tool-house—­the latter large enough to house all the farm machinery we should ever need.  I have a horror of the economy that leaves good tools to sky and clouds without protection.  This sketch would not be worked out for a long time, as few of the buildings were needed at once.  It was made for the sake of having a general design to be carried out when required; and the water and sewer system had been built with reference to it.

I told Nelson that a barn to shelter the horses was the first thing to build, after the house for the men, and that I saw no reason why two or even three buildings should not be in process of construction at the same time.  He said there would be no difficulty in managing that if he could get the men and I could get the money.  I promised to do my part, and we went into details.

I wanted a horse barn for ten horses, with shed room for eight wagons in front and a small stable yard in the rear; also a sunken manure vat, ten feet by twenty, with cement walls and floor, the vat to be four feet deep, two feet in the ground and two feet above it.  A vat like this has been built near each stable where stock is kept, and I find them perfectly satisfactory.  They save the liquid manure, and thus add fifty per cent to the value of the whole.  Open sheds protect from sun and rain, and they are emptied as often as is necessary, regardless of season, for I believe that the fields can care for manure better than a compost heap.

I also told Nelson to make plans and estimates for a large forage barn, 75 by 150 feet, 25 feet from floor to rafter plate, with a driving floor through the length of it and mows on either side.  A granary, with a capacity of twenty thousand bushels, a large woodhouse, and a small house in the centre of this group where the fifteen horse-power engine could be installed, completed my commissions for that day.