PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS* CLUB. 393 



ency for plastering, put a bucket full of the mortar in the bottom, 

 spreading it around say two inches thick, lay a board or flat stone 

 sixteen or eighteen inches square in the mortar, and plaster on the 

 clay from a quarter to half an inch thick on up to the shoulder 

 left in digging, being careful to round the corner of the shoulder 

 off, so that the Tveighl of the top will not burst off the plaster. 

 Let the first coat dry twenty- four hours, then put on a second of 

 the same thickness and kind of mortar; now procure two sticks 

 of burr or white oak, or any lasting timber, say six or eight inches 

 over and ten feet long, fiat one side, to lay on the ground down 

 on the shoulder, lay them twenty inches apart across the middle; 

 make your curb twenty inches sqi.iare and four or four and a half 

 feet high, and nail it in between the timbers. Fill in around the 

 curb on the shoulder wath timber, boards, &c.; making it tight, so 

 that dirt will not work through; fill up around the curl) with dirt, 

 a little above the surface of the ground. To drain properly, let it 

 stand a week, and you will have a cistern that Avill hold water 

 enough for any common family. 



To Prevent Mice Gnawing Fruit Trees. 



Mr. Henry Clarke, Dorrville, E. I. — Cut down forest trees when 

 the bark will peel, a trifle larger than the fruit trees, carefully 

 peel off the bark in sections eight or ten feet long, then saw them 

 into pieces as long as the snow falls deep, and place them around 

 the trees. Then make a mixture of clay and cow manure, with a 

 sprinkling of sulphur, like mortar, and apply to the roots. Do 

 this in June; at the end of the year remove the mortar, and, if 

 necessary, apply new bark. This will keep oft* mice, borers, and 

 insects generally. The bark also protects young trees from the 

 heat of the sun while they are young. 



Basement Stables. 



Mr. W. H. Bishop, Toledo, Ohio, asks the judgment of the 

 Farmers' Club as to the healthful ness of stables in the basement 

 of a barn. 



Mr. S. Edwards Todd answered that stables in the basement of 

 a barn are quite as healthy as stables above the level of the ground, 

 if they are kept properly ventilated and cleaned. The great 

 objection to stables in a basement is, there is not sutHcient atten- 

 tion paid to ventilation. Stables in the basement of a barn are 

 always cooler in the summer for stock, and warmer in the winter, 



