1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



287 



Several of the ])lows exhibited are furnished 

 •with various mould-boards, &c., easily changed, 

 so as to adapt them to different qualities and con- 

 ditions of soil. This enables the farmer to have a 

 plow suited to all circumstances, at much less cost 

 than would be necessary to supply himself with a 

 separate plow for each sort of work. 

 For the Committee, 



MiNOT Pkatt, CiMirman. 



For the Kcto England Farmer. 



PAINTINQ AND SHELTER FOR BUILD- 

 INGS. 



I recently met with a statement, the purport of 

 which was somewhat startling to me, viz. : That 

 "it required from five to ten per cent, of the orig- 

 inal cost of a house once in five or six years to 

 paint it." This was more than I had generally 

 supposed the cost of painting to be, but it set me 

 to thinking upon the matter. It costs nearly 

 double to keep an unsheltered house painted, that 

 it does one that is sheltered. The force of the 

 winds cause rain, hail and sleet to batter with 

 great force upon an unsheltered house, and wheth- 

 er it l)e painted or not, does far more damage to 

 it tlian if surrounded by houses, as in a city, or 

 well protected by trees in the country. It is a 

 prevailing opinion upon our sea-coast that the 

 saltness of the sea winds slacks the paint and 

 causes it to come off much sooner than it would 

 in localities remote from its influence. This may, 

 in a small degree, be true. But I think in this 

 case the general absence of protection to the build- 

 ings is more to be regarded than the saline action 

 of the wind. Let us look at this question respect- 

 ing the cost of painting and see if we can afford to 

 do it. 



If a plain two-story house of ordinary dimen- 

 sions costs three thousand dollars, and put the es- 

 timated cost of painting at five per cent, on this 

 outlay once in six years, we have an outlay of one 

 hundred and fifty dollars every six years. As we 

 are not in this estimate painting for the looks of 

 things, but for economy, and only using paint to 

 preserve the house from decay, we will see what 

 the cost of covering the house will be at the out- 

 set. We will call the house thirty-two by forty 

 feet, which is as large as can well be built for the 

 price we have named ; posts seventeen feet ; roof 

 three-fifths pitch. It will require about eighteen 

 thousand of first quality shaved shingles for the 

 walls, costing five and a half dollars per thousand, 

 labor and nails added will make up the cost about 

 one hundred and twenty-five dollars, or twenty- 

 five dollars less than the cost of painting. If these 

 estimates are correct, who is going to paint for the 

 profit of it ? Cut down, if you please, the cost of 

 painting one-half of the above estimates, and how 

 then stands the account ? Paint once in six years 

 will cost seventy-five dollars, and the shingles cost- 

 ing one hundred and twenty-five dollars. On the 

 sides of a house they will last forty years. 



Here Me have a very simple question in arith- 

 metic — paint for forty years, five hundred dollars, 

 and shingles for same period one hundred and 

 twenty-five dollars, or three hundred and seventy- 

 five dollars less. If economy is our object, paint 

 must go by the board, or some cheaper method 

 must be resorted to. I should, by all means, keep 

 windows and frames, doors and casing, corner- 



boards and other trimmings, well painted, as it is 

 very expensive rei)lacing them. If I did not like 

 the looks of a dingy, weather-beaten house, I 

 would resort to some of the many washes made 

 of lime as their basis. Any desired color can 

 readily be had. Pi-operly made, and Avell put on, 

 they will last almost as long as paint. 



In the beginning of this article I have alluded 

 to the effects of shelter upon paint and buildings. 

 No man wlio claims to be governed by economy, 

 can overlook the fact that proper shelter for his 

 buildings is of great importance. 



Plant evergreen and other trees at proper dis- 

 tance from your buildings, (none less than thirty 

 ty to forty feet,) they will last longer, and if paint- 

 ed it will save you fifty per cent, annually in that 

 article. This is not all. Every one is aware that 

 a house exposed to the full force of our New Eng- 

 land winter winds is a very uncomfortable house 

 to live in, and that the fires are continually crying 

 out for more wood, and the household how cold 

 it is. Place around such a house the protection I 

 have spoken of, and how great the change ! The 

 wind is broken of its force, and greatly mollified in 

 passing the barrier we have reared, so that, by the 

 time it reaches the dwelling, this roaring, bluster- 

 ing monster is almost entirely shorn of its strength. 

 If we are farmers, and have domestic animals un- 

 der our care, could they speak, no doubt their 

 first utterance would be of gratitude for our 

 thoughtfulness for their welfare in shielding them, 

 as well as ourselves, from the furious blasts of 

 winter. Whether we paint or not paint, can we 

 afford to have our buildings unprotected by trees, 

 if exposed to the full force of the wind ? 



Dorchester, Mass. o. K. 



The Python Again. — All hopes of hatching 

 the eggs of the great serpent at the Zoological 

 Gardens in London are now at an end. The fre- 

 quent removals of the blanket in uncovering the 

 eggs, and the occasional partial uncoihngs of the 

 snake, caused too numerous sudden changes of 

 temperature for the proper development of the 

 young. The effects of these disturbances attained 

 a climax in the lengthened period of the snake's 

 absence in shedding her skin, during which the 

 eggs became completely cold. The necessity for 

 their removal \\ as not only apparent from the bad 

 state they were in, but the impoverished condition 

 of the python, diminished in bulk by at least one- 

 third of her former dimensions, and her long ab- 

 sence from food, thirty-two weeks, naturally led to 

 anxiety as to her ultimate safety, if she were al- 

 lowed to hopelessly continue her sitting. The 

 snake behaved spitefully during the operation. 



The Rhode Island Society. — We have be- 

 fore us the "Transactions of the Rhode Island So- 

 cety for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry, 

 for the year 1861." It contains many interesting 

 papers, and among them several containing remi- 

 niscences of leading inventors and mechanics who 

 have taken an active part in the manufacturing 

 interests in that State. There is, also, a paper on 

 Hog Cholera, by Dr. Edwin Snow, of Provi- 

 dence. The pamphlet contains 150 pages, and is 

 handsomely printed. 



