20 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



DAMP WALLS. 



BY S. D. B., N. YORK. 



It is a common objection to stone buildings, and sometimes 

 also to those of brick, that the walls are damp and the air 

 within unwholesome. The fact that this is not always the 

 case, is evidence that it never need be so. My attention has 

 just now been called to this subject by reading, in an English 

 architectural work, directions for cementing the sides and top 

 of foundation walls so that water may not be absorbed from 

 them by the superstructure. This is precisely what any one 

 would propose, who believes that moisture will penetrate 

 eight or twelve inches through a brick wall, or " soak up" as 

 many feet from the earth. Absurd as this belief is, there are 

 many, whose opinions are regarded as law, who still assert it. 

 It might be pertinent to ask such persons why, if the walls 

 have such an avidity for moisture, they are so ready to part 

 with it, from their inner surfaces? Why huge granite or 

 marble blocks afford less security against this all-penetrating 

 fluid than thin barriers of brick ? Or why cements, which 

 are entirely secure against the passage of water under pressure, 

 offer no obstacle to moisture from absorption? The reply to 

 each of these questions will be found in the answer to another, 

 Why itoES a pitcher " sweat"? 



The remedy for damp walls, then, is not in making them 

 impervious to water so much as in placing a non-conductor 

 of caloric between the interior of the house and the outer 

 air, or the cold masses of stone which draw out the heat from 

 the rooms. One inch of confined air is better for purposes of 

 warmth than two feet of solid stone. Walls plastered upon 

 the brick must always be subject to dampness. Even hollow 

 walls, finished in this way, will show where the " headers" 

 are inserted for binding. On the other hand, even a cellar 

 may be so furred off at the sides and provided with double 

 hollow floors as to be warm and dry. 



An appreciation of these facts may suggest to some of the 

 readers of the Magazine, improvements in their domestic or 

 farm economy, which in consequence of their careless acquies- 

 cence in a false notion, may not have before occurred to them. 



