132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



watchfulness and renewal of paint (which is, in fact, a minute 

 coating of earth and oil), will last many years. Old timber- 

 houses of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in many parts 

 of Europe, are still habitable. It is needless to say, how- 

 ever, they were substantially built, and most of them filled in 

 between the timbers with mortar. This device has never been 

 adopted with us, nor, though picturesque, is it commendable 

 in our climate ; the fierce suns of our summers occasioning 

 such a shrinking and swelling of the wood as displaces the 

 masonry, and opens gaps between it and the timber. If wood 

 is adopted, it is an excellent provision against cold, as well as 

 against heat, to fill in between the studding with brick, as in 

 many of the old colonial houses. In lack of this, the heavy 

 sheath ing-paper should be used under the exterior covering ; 

 or, what is still more effective, the walls may be back-plas- 

 tered, — that is to say, lathing should be cut in between the 

 studding, and a rough coat of plaster applied, in addition to 

 the final wall of plastering, some three inches removed from 

 it, and set up in the usual way. Such precautions are espe- 

 cially desirable upon the exposed sides of a house. We do 

 not take enough account of difference in exposures ; the very 

 trees should teach us a lesson, — the bark is thickest upon the 

 north side. 



In many parts of the country concrete houses have latterly 

 come much into favor, and there is a great deal to be said 

 for them. They admit largely of home-work and unskilled 

 labor, the chief matters of importance being, that the lime or 

 cement should be the best, the sand sharp and coarse, while 

 the filling may be of pebbles, small bowlders, or, still better, 

 the debris of a quarry. The rougher the exterior is left, if 

 only uniform in surface, the better the effect. 



An advantage urged in favor of the concrete house, is, that 

 it admits of plastering directly upon the interior surface, thus 

 operating a great saving of labor and of space. I should, 

 however, hardly count such a procedure wholly safe, except 

 there were a wide projection of the eaves, and a twelve-inch 

 course, in best water-cement, laid throughout the building, 

 two feet above the ground. 



The popular idea with regard to a stone house in the coun- 

 try is, that it involves great cost in the shaping of the mate- 



