NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



243 



^caltl) Department. 



Importaxce of Flannel. — The following ex- 

 tract, from Robertson, on Diet and Regimen, should 

 not be overlooked by emigrants to California : — 



•' Sir George Ballingal, in his lectures on military 

 surgery, adduces the testimony of Sir James Maerigor 

 to the statement that, in the Peninsula, the best 

 clothed regiments were generally the most healthy ; 

 adding that, when in India, he witnessed a remarka- 

 ble proof of the usefulness of flannel in checking the 

 most aggravated form of dysentery, in the second 

 battalion of the Royals. Capt. Murray told Dr. Combe 

 that he was strongly impressed, from former experi- 

 ence, ■with a sense of efficacy of the protection afforded 

 by the constant use of flannel next the skin ; that 

 ■when, on his arrival in England in December, 1823, af- 

 ter two years' service amid icebergs on the coast of 

 Labrador, and the ship was ordered to saQ immediately 

 for the West Lidies, he ordered the purser to draw two 

 flannel shirts and pairs of drawers for each man, and 

 instituted a regular daily inspection, to see that they 

 ■were worn. The precautions were attended with the 

 happiest results. He proceeded to his station with 

 a crew of one hundred and flfty men ; visited almost 

 every island in the West Indies, and many of the 

 ports of the Gulf of Mexico ; and notwithstanding 

 the sudden transition from extreme climates, returned 

 to England without the loss of a single man, or hav- 

 ing any sick on board on his arrival. It would be 

 going too far to ascribe this excellent state of health 

 solely to the use of flannel, but there can be little 

 doubt that the latter was an important clement in 

 Capt. Murray's success." 



ilTccIjauics' ?Ilepartinent, ;7lrt0, ^r. 



Sun-dried Brick Houses. — A correspondent of 

 the Artisan thus describes the construction of a house 

 of this description recently erected in Smithtown, 

 Long Island : — 



The house that I have erected, I can assure you, is 

 most substantial and warm. The walls are nine inches 

 thick. The material of which they are built is rather 

 novel to many, as they are built of unburnt brick, 

 nine by twelve inches, and five inches thick. They 

 •were formed in moulds ; the earth of which they 

 ■were made, was dug from my cellar and foundations. 

 The earth thus dug up, after being properly tem- 

 pered, was put into strong moulds, and then pressed 

 ■with a powerful lever press, and then turned off into 

 the sun to dry. They are called pics, or sun-dried 

 brick. 



My main building is twenty-three by twenty-six 

 feet, and twelve feet high. The kitchen is sixteen 

 by twenty-three feet, and nine feet high. The heiglit 

 here set down is taken from the top of the first tier 

 of beams. I dug my foundations two feet deep, and 

 rammed the bottom, then filled in, and rammed, as I 

 filled in, cobble stones the size of a walnut, or less, 

 until the trench was full. Then I built hard- burned 

 brick, one foot high, on which I laid my first tier of 

 beams, and tlicre commenced my pics wall. It took 

 about five thousand pies of sun-dried bricks to build 

 the said house. Had I commenced to build earlier 

 in the season, I should have made all my partition 

 ■walls of the same material ; but as it was, my di- 

 viding walls I have made in the usual manner. I 

 finished the outside first with a scratch coat of lime 

 and sand, over which I put a light coat of cement, 

 which makes the walls impervious to water or damp. 



I plastered upon the wall, inside and out, without 



lathing. The plaster sets remarkably quick and hard. 

 The whole expense of mason work, from foundation 

 to garret, for laying up the walls, building \\]y a cellar 

 six feet in diameter, and three stacks of chimneys, 

 lathing and plastering inside and out, was seventy 

 dollars. There arc ten rooms. I could now make 

 brick enough for such a house for, I think, thirty- 

 Jive or forty dollars. The question will, no doubt, be, 

 as it has been already often asked. Will it stand the 

 frost r Last fall I could only say wo will see ; but 

 now I say, if it stood through la*t winter like a rock 

 in the sea, against which the waves have been lash- 

 ing for ages without effect, so I say of my walls ; if 

 the hard, pelting rains of the past winter, and which 

 were often succeeded by hard frosts, did not affect 

 my house, I think I can risk it in perfect safety for 

 all time to come. 



It will easily be perceived, by what I have written, 

 that there is a great economy in building walls with 

 this material. J. EISIIEii. 



Smithtown, April, 1850. 



Glass W^yter Pipes. — We are glad to know that 

 glass tubes are now coming into a very general use for 

 conveying water. Mr. Wm. T. De Golyer, of Sche- 

 nectady, N. Y., has a patent for making tubes of such 

 a form as to couple different lengths together, and 

 form glass conductors for water, of any length. About 

 1000 rods of glass pipes of different diameters have 

 already been laid down, and Mr. John Matthews, of 

 First Avenue, this city, has tested tlie strength of a 

 pipe one and one quarter inch in diameter, made at 

 the Albany Glass Works, (Mr. ilaycr, 139 Front 

 Street, New York, is agent,) aiul found it capable of 

 standing a pressure of two hundred pounds to the 

 square inch, or a column of water four hundred and 

 fifty feet high. Mr. Wilson, of Hastings, a few miles 

 out of the city, has connected these glass tubes with 

 an hydraulic ram, to stand a pressure of eighty feet 

 high. After the joints were cemented only four days, 

 the water was let on, and the joints were found per- 

 fectly tight. It is well known that glass is anti-cor- 

 rosive, and resists all action of the elements of air 

 and every kind of water : it is therefore indestructi- 

 ble, and when kept from the action of frost, it may 

 be considered as enduring as the everlasting hills 

 By them water is conveyed in all its purity from the 

 fountain, as the interior is too smooth to allow any 

 weeds or vegetable formations to adhere to it. We 

 do not know the price for laying down difterent sizes 

 of pipe, (although they are very cheap,) but Mr. De 

 Golyer or Mr. Mayer will no doubt promptly furnish 

 all necessary information on the sul)ject, if letters are 

 addressed to them, post paid. — iiciuntijic American. 



GRASS LANDS. -THE ADVANTAGES OF 

 RE-SEEDING. 



The difFerencc between crops of grass on old mead- 

 ows and pastures, and those which have been lately 

 seeded, is so obvious as to attract the attention not 

 only of every farmer, but of every person wlio has 

 an opportunity of nuiking the conqjurison. This 

 difference may not be quite so apparent this year in 

 New York, where there have been abundant rains, 

 and where report says that grass looks finely ; but in 

 the west, where we have been travelling for several 

 weeks past, there has been abundant opportunity to 

 make tlie comparison between the two systems. The 

 severe and protracted drought, whicli lias lor several 

 weeks prevailed every where in tlie west, from Buf- 

 falo to the Mississippi River, (which has now fortu- 

 nately been relieved by abundant rains,) has been a 

 severe trial to the old meadow.s and pastures, many 



