BOOK REVIEWS 



695 



North Carolina pine or hemlock for the 

 spruce, according to what kind happened 

 to be most available and cheapest in the 

 local market, equally satisfactory results 

 would be obtained. 



For the roof and siding it would, of 

 course, be found desirable to substitute red 

 cedar or cypress for the white cedar shin- 

 gles in some localities, and they would 

 serve the purpose equally well. 



When you build, the architect you employ 

 may not agree with this specification in all 

 its details and if he does not the difiference 

 of opinion will probably be caused by some 

 substantial consideration, but under most 

 conditions the following list taken from 

 the De Vries house specification will as- 

 sist you in securing the most satisfactory 

 materials for even the parts of the house 

 of seemingly small importance ; 



Framing — Spruce, including lathing, 

 joints, headers, studs, roof rafters, sheath- 

 ing and rough flooring. 



Exterior Walls — White cedar, 20 inches 

 long, 12 inches to the weather. 



Roof — White cedar, 16 inches long, 4^ 

 inches to the weather. 



Windows — White pine sills, casings and 

 sash; jambs comb grained southern yellow 

 pine. 



Exterior Cornice — White pine. 



Porches — White pine including hood 

 over front door. 



Flower Boxes — Cypress. 



Stoops — Cypress. 



Exterior Doors — White pine. 



Exterior door jambs — White pine. 



Exterior and interior door thresholds — 

 Quartered white oak. 



Floors (under floor) — North Carolina 

 pine. 



Floors (finished) — North Carolina pine, 

 second and third floor rooms ; North Car- 

 olina pine, porches ; maple, kitchen and 

 pantry; white oak, main rooms. 



Stair — Quartered white oak, main stair 

 from first to second floor; strings, treads 

 and risers of other stairs are hard maple. 



Handrail — Main stair quarter sawed 

 white oak; birch, cellar and attic stairs; 

 (balusters cypress). 



Interior Finish — White oak, first floor, 

 unless one exception is made for special 

 work; cypress, pantry and kitchen; white- 

 wood, hall, living room and rooms on sec- 

 ond floor. 



Drainboard in Kitchen — Ash. 



The selection of materials with which 

 to build is followed by the equally import- 

 ant, though less generally understood, se- 

 lection of mediums that will give to these 

 materials the best possible results in good 

 looks. This includes the selection and 

 proper application and use of paints and 

 stains for both interior and exterior work. 



On the whole this subject is one in which 

 the architect has a far smaller range of 

 choice than he has in most other matters. 



The selection is limited to the products of 

 a certain number of firms and these he 

 must experiment with until at last he finds 

 the product best fitted for the needs of the 

 particular house and the one which experi- 

 ence has shown will give the best satisfac- 

 tion in wear and which shows the smallest 

 tendencies to become worn out or shabby 

 in the course of time. 



A series of articles to be printed in 

 American Forestry in the near future will 

 illustrate the typical well-designed house in 

 various other sections of the country with 

 a discussion of the most economical and 

 satisfactory materials for use in their erec- 

 tion in at least as much detail as has been 

 done in the present instance for a house in 

 the New England states. 



Dynamite For Planting Pecans. 



"For several years we have used dyna- 

 mite to blast our tree holes," says G. P. 

 Gill, President New York-Georgia Pecan 

 Company. Pecans are our specialty. We 

 have learned from experience that these 

 trees planted in blasted holes do much 

 better than in spade-dug holes. It is 

 our conclusion that a pecan tree planted 

 in a dynamited hole will in the course 

 of several years catch up with in growth 

 a tree planted several years previously 

 in a dug hole; that is, assuming that 

 both trees an' in the same kind of soil and 

 have the same cultivation and care. I re- 

 gard this d£ important because every pecan 

 grower des'res to get his grove into bearing 

 as soon as possible. Nut trees are slow 

 growers at best ; anything that will hasten 

 rheir growth and convert them into money 

 makers sooner is naturally a good idea. 



"There has never been any question about 

 the advisanihty of blasting tree holes in 

 1 ery hard i .'1. but there has been consider- 

 able doubt expressed as to whether it pays 

 to blast soi'. that is not very hard. Our 

 soil is of tne lighter type. We have found 

 it has paid us many times over to blast." 



Nurseryman Recommends Blasting. 



James S. McGlennon, Florida, a nursery- 

 man, also writes that he is frequently asked 

 whether he recommends dynamite for 

 making tree holes. As there seems to be 

 so much interest in the subject, he says : "I 

 would not think of planting a tree or shrub 

 without blasting the soil unless it were one 

 of the open soil types that would not need 

 any breaking up. I feel that even a com- 

 mon gooseberry bush will mature enough 

 earlier and bear enough heavier to warrant 

 the expense if the planting is to be done 

 in any of the hard soil types." 



Attention is directed to American For- 

 estry's list of books on Forestry, on page 

 703 of this issue. In this list is a compre- 

 hensive collection of titles and authors at- 

 tractive to all interested in the bibliography 

 of trees and related subjects. These and 

 many other books may be ordered through 

 the American Forestry Association. Prices 

 quoted are by mail or express, prepaid. 



BOOK REVIEWS 



Wood and Other Organic Structural Ma- 

 terials, by Charles H. Snow, C. E., Sc. D. 

 McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New 

 York. Price, $5. 



Designed for engineers, architects, stu- 

 dents of technology, teachers of manual 

 training and* those who use structural ma- 

 terials, this book takes for its purpose the 

 presentation of general and physical char- 

 acteristics of a group of these materials. 

 Among those considered are woods, paints 

 and varnishes — with their associated oils, 

 pigments, gums and resins — glues, creo- 

 sotes and India rubber. The work is com- 

 prehensive. In its subdivisions it treats of 

 the uses of wood, the reasons for prefer- 

 ring wood to other materials, the value of 

 forests and forestry, wood protection, fire- 

 proofing and preservation, and many other 

 subjects of related character. The author 

 is dean of the school of applied science at 

 New York University. He has given ex- 

 haustive study to his subject and has pro- 

 vided a vast amount of information of 

 value, based on the premise that practical 

 knowledge of the properties of structural 

 materials will greatly influence students 

 in the works which they may design and 

 construct. 



Botany of Crop Plants, by Wilfred W. Rob- 

 bins, Ph. D. P. Blakiston's Son & Co , 

 Philadelphia. Price, $2. 



This is intended as both text and refer- 

 ence book. Its compilation has grown out 

 of a course of instruction extending over a 

 number of years. Mr. Robbins is professor 

 of botany at the Colorado Agricultural Col- 

 lege and much of his material has been 

 used in college freshman classes as a text 

 from which to make assignments and as a 

 guide and reference in the laboratory. The 

 book is intended to give a knowledge of 

 the botany of the common orchard, garden 

 . and field crops. In its preparation the 

 writer had in mind non-agricultural as 

 well as agricultural schools, because of the 

 growing tendency to tie up botany more 

 closely with economic interests and to draw 

 more upon economic plants in citing exam- 

 ples and in choosing subjects of study in 

 the laboratory. 



Clearing and Grubbing, by Galbert P. Gil- 

 lette. Clark Book Company, New York 

 City. Price $2.50. 



In this book, just from the press, will 

 be found not only very much valuable in- 

 formation by an authority on a subject 

 which has heretofore been treated, in a 

 way, as somewhat beneath the consideration 

 of engineers, but also a compilation of all 

 the important facts from state and govern- 

 ment and current periodical publications on 

 clearing and grubbing operations. It is 

 the only book of its kind in print. A slight 

 conception of the importance of the sub- 

 ject may be had when it is remembered that 

 of the 400.000,000 acres of farm land now 

 under cultivation, it is conservatively esti- 



