AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS AND RURAL ECONOMY. 133 



the pressure of the wall until it is dry. Care is to be taken in placing all of the stone around 

 the windows and doors to have them permanently fixed in their places, so as to form a solid 

 jam. The flooring -timbers are placed and anchored into the walls in the same manner as 

 they are in brick buildings. As this kind of wall is somewhat uneven for the reception of the 

 flooring timber, a piece of scantling, say 24 by 6 inches, should be placed and levelled upon 

 the walls, and be firmly bedded with mortar to receive the joists and other flooring timber. 



The exterior of buildings constructed as above can be finished, if desired, with either 

 " stucco" or mastic, and the expense of the whole stated to be not far from the cost of common 

 wood dwellings, or from $1.25 to $1.50 per square yard of the wall all finished. This price, 

 however, must vary some with the price of lime in particular vicinities, and with the facility 

 with which the sand and other materials could be obtained. 



On the Drying of Fruit. 



"We recently noticed," says the American Agriculturist, "a simple apparatus for drying 

 fruit at the residence of a farmer in Dutchess county, a description of which may furnish a 

 hint to others. Upon the south side of his kitchen is a ' stoop' some ten feet high. Just 

 below the roof is arranged a shelf or platform, the full size of the stoop, and resting on small 

 rollers upon each side; a sort of railway is formed, each rail consisting of two narrow slats 

 or boards nailed together, but kept separated about an inch from each other by short bits of 

 board placed between them at short intervals ; these railways are nailed up against the two 

 sides of the stoop, and project out eight feet from the roof. Upon these the drying platform 

 is supported by a number of wheels or pulleys, formed by sawing off sections of a round stick 

 after a three-quarter inch auger-hole has been bored through its centre ; these are arranged 

 in the opening between the two slats forming each side rail, and are held in place by wooden 

 pins put through the side pieces. The wheels or pulleys stand a little above the surface of the 

 rails, and over them the platform moves easily. Plums, cherries, apples, and other fruits are 

 spread upon the platform, and during drying days it is rolled out upon the projecting supports, 

 exposing the fruit to the sun. At evening, or upon the approach of rain, the platform is 

 easily shoved back under the roof. Such an apparatus can be constructed in a sicgle day; 

 it will last for years, and be amply sufficient to dry a large quantity of different kinds of 

 fruit annually. 



"A similar apparatus might be arranged upon a garret floor, to be shoved out through a 

 temporary opening under the eaves trough. In this case the inner portion of the platform 

 should be held by pulleys over it to prevent the outer end from tipping downwards. If this 

 is clone there will be no necessity for projecting supports." — American Agriculturist. 



At a recent meeting of the New York Farmers' Club, the following remarks respecting 

 the drying of fruit were made by Solon Robinson, Esq. : At the West, where apples and 

 peaches grow in such luxuriant abundance as to be utterly valueless in a grain State, a very 

 rude kiln is in common use. They are built in this way : parallel walls of stone are built 

 about a foot high, and covered with flat stones, the joints plastered with clay, and the flues 

 between the walls connected at one end with a short chimney to carry off the smoke of fires 

 built at the other end. Upon these flat stones, when heated, the fruit is spread until dry. 

 I have known these kilns built, where there were no stones, all of clay. A smooth log is laid 

 down as a mould for the flue, and the clay built over it, and then it is withdrawn, and so on 

 a succession of flues, which are all covered and smoothed off on the top, and thereon the fruit 

 is placed to dry. It is sometimes badly burnt. There is another rude kind of drying kiln 

 at the West. A wooden house, say six feet square, has such a flue as I have described, or a 

 stove with the mouth open on one side of the house, for convenience of firing, with the pipe 

 or flue carried out on the opposite side. This heats the air inside of the house very hot. 

 Then one side of the house is filled with drawers that pull out like a bureau. These are made 

 only two inches deep, with basket-work bottoms to hold the fruit and let the air pass through. 

 This plan is better than the kilns I described, but not perfect. The North American Phalanx 

 in New Jersey had a drying kiln built in the form of a large brick chimney, with drawers in 

 three stories of the building, that operated very well in drying fruit, green corn, beans, okre, 



