This section is from the book "A Manual Of Home-Making", by Martha Van Rensselaer. Also available from Amazon: A Manual of Home-Making.
A farmhouse is more difficult to plan than either a city or a suburban dwelling, because it must provide for so many needs. The city or the suburban house is merely a home; it is supplemented by an outside place of business and by outside markets. The farmhouse, on the other hand, must be not only a home, but also the business center and to a limited extent the store and the market. This means that, planned as compactly as may be, a farmhouse is necessarily larger in floor area than a suburban house for the same family need be. Much thought and planning are, therefore, required in order to arrange this larger area in such a manner that wasteful methods of work will be avoided.
 
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