DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



Dnmrstir JMim, 



Design for a District School-House. — 

 ~\Ve present our readers, in the Frontispiece 

 for this month, a design for a District School- 

 house. It has at least the merit of simplicity 

 in the plan, and as it is a paralellogram, of eco- 

 nomy in construction. An entrance hall, or 

 lobby, opens into a large school room for boys, 

 upon one side, and one for girls on the other. 

 Between these two rooms is a recitation room, 

 which may contain a book case for the school 

 library. 



The exterior is bold and picturesque — the 

 style a modification of the Swiss — and well adap- 

 ted to many sites in our varied rural scenery. 

 The widely over-hanging eaves afford a species 

 of veranda shelter round the whole building. 



This style is exceedingly well adapted for a 

 wooden building, and its details are so simple 

 that any country carpenter of intelligence could 

 construct such a school-house without any fur- 

 ther working drawings. 



As we look upon the rural-church and the 

 district school-house, as contributing more es- 

 sentially to the architectural education of the 

 country at large, than any private buildings, we 

 hope, by presenting from lime to time, various 

 good models, to assist in banishing the present 

 deformities, which pass by these names, from 

 the face of the rural districts. 



University of Albany. — We have great 

 pleasure in calling the attention of our readers 

 to the prospectus of the course of lectures on 

 Scientific and Practical Agriculture, by Pro- 

 fessor Norton, which is to commence under the 

 care of the University of Albany, on the second 

 Tuesday in January. The lectures for the 

 course are fixed at the low price of $10, and 

 there are few farmer's sons, belonging to the 

 thinking class, who would not reap great bene- 

 fit from attending these lectures. In the ab- 

 sence of any state institution for Agricultural 

 Education, the new University wisely takes the 

 initiatory steps, by inviting Prof. Norton— one 

 of our soundest men of science in this depart- 

 to commence with a practical course of 

 es in which the application of chemistry 



to the culture of the soil, will be especially con- 

 sidered. 



Green-houses in Winter — Dear Sir: Very 

 few persons appear to know the value of the 

 sponge in a green-house. I mean for the pur- 

 pose of washing the leaves of all those plants 

 with leaves broad enough to admit of it. I took 

 the hint some five years ago from a neighbor, 

 the most successful plant gi-ower I ever had the 

 good fortune to know. His plants were always 

 so especially fresh and healthy, that I was for 

 a long time puzzled to understand his secret, 

 and he always declared he had no secret. But 

 early one morning I caught him with a pail of 

 clean water, slightly warm, by his side, spong- 

 ing off the leaves of all his choice plants. I 

 said to myself, " I have it." I did more; I 

 went home and practiced it. My plants soon 

 showed by their new aspect, that I was not 

 wrong in believing it the real secret of my 

 neighbor's success. They began to look bright- 

 er, healthier, and grow and bloom better than 

 my utmost care had ever been able to make 

 them do before. And now, strangers always 

 ask the same question when they see my plants, 

 that I used to ask my neighbor. My answer is, 

 " use the sponge." The pores of the leaf get 

 filled with fine dust — and the plant chokes. 

 Syringing does not wholly remove it ; the sponge 

 does. Yours, An Amateur. New-York, 

 Dec. IG, 1851. 



Notes on Pears, &c. — Dear Sir: I send you 

 for publication a few notes on Pears, Plums, 

 Horsechestnuts, &c. Having fruited a large 

 number of pears theprcsent season we naturally 

 had a desire to test their merits, and in order to 

 do so rightly, we took the Seckel, and Yirgalicu, 

 which are said to be the standards f >r quality, 

 as the criterion by which tliey should stand or 

 fall. Those of merit which were in season with 

 the Seckel and Virgalieu [White Doyenne,] are 

 as follows: 



Beurre Moiret, St. Michael, Archangel, 

 Bonne des Zees, Ananas and Doyenne Gau- 

 bault. 



We grew a number of Seckelsand Virgalieus 

 on our own grounds on standard trees, and the 



