594 



EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



I'orosity was found to be increased with larger proportions of sand. " Be- 

 cause porosity is not essential, because it tends to increase the solubility, and 

 because strength is a very desirable quality, we believe cement tile should be 

 made in the proportion of 4 : 1 or stronger." 



The danger of inexperienced men making tile of inferior quality is pointed 

 out, and the necessity of discarding all such tile is emphasized. 



Adobe as a building material for the plains, J. W. Adams {Colorado ^Sta. 

 Bui. 11. 'i, pp. 8, figs. 5). — The advantages of adobe construction are discussed, 

 directions given for the preparation and use of adobe as a building material, 

 and descriptions presented of a cow barn, a henhouse, and a smokehouse or 

 storeroom recently built with it at the Cheyenne Wells substation. 



"An adobe house, properly built, will cost no more than a sod house and yet 

 be as permanent, attractive, and comfortable as it is possible to build a house. 

 They do not settle after they are dry. Mice do not work in them if they are 

 protected at the foundation. They are superior to concrete or cement block 

 houses in that they are nonconductors of heat and cold. They never sweat or 

 become frosty on the inside, and rain does not wet the walls through as it does 

 in many concrete houses. The labor required to build an adobe house is no 

 more than that required to build a similar house of sod or concrete." 



A homemade refrigerator {Survey, 26 {1911), No. 12, p. /i34). — In an article 

 quoted from the Fresh Air Magazine directions are given for a homemade 

 device in v/hich a bottle of milk may be kept cool by packing it in sawdust and 

 for a similar device which requires only a small quantity of ice. 



RURAL ECONOMICS. 



An agricultural survey: Townships of Ithaca, Dry den, Danby, and Lan- 

 sing, Tompkins County, New York, G. F. Wauren, K. C. Livermork et al. 

 {New York Coriiell Sta. Bill. 295, pp. 385-569, table 1, figs. 55).— This bulletin 

 is a summary of an exhaustive survey of the conditions that surround the 

 business of farming and the people on farms in 4 townships of Tompkins 

 County. N. Y., giving detailed statistics and pointing out the merits and defects 

 of the various systems of the distribution of profits, capital, and expenses on 

 the farm, the economic significance of the size of farms, distance from market, 

 value per acre, labor, forms of tenure and their relation to crops grown and 

 crops sold, soil, livestock, cattle and cattle products, systems of farming, age, 

 and the increased earning capacity of educated farmers, together with sugges- 

 tions for meeting some of the most important needs. 



The relation of the size of farms to profits, receipts, expenses, and labor is 

 illustrated by the following table: 



Relation of the size of the farm to receipts, expenses, and labor — Farms 

 operated by oivners. 



a Total amount paid for labor, value of board of laborers, value of unpaid labor by members of the family, 

 and the farmer's labor estimated at $320 for the year. 

 6 Profit after deducting expenses, interest on capital at 5 per cent, and all labor as defined above. 



