1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



147 



superiority of this article on the roofs, or in 

 the lumber yards. Shingles still abound in 

 both places, and prices of them are higher 

 than ever. We sincerely hope the plastic 

 roofing has, or will prove a decided success ; 

 that it will be cheap, permanent, and in every 

 way effective. 



The various ways of preserving shingles 

 are not enough. We want some combination 

 of materials that are as "cheap as dirt," and 

 as common as the air we breathe, or the 

 ground upon which we tread, and which will 

 require little skill to mingle or apply them. 



There is great encouragement that this may 

 yet be accomplished, so that the farmer may 

 cover his building with an imperishable mate- 

 rial, do it principally with his own hands, and 

 at one-half the present cost of shingling ! 

 This encouragement comes to us in part, from 

 the wonderful achievement in constructing the 

 Suez Canal, one of the most stupendous 

 ^orks of art ever undertaken by man. The 

 "walls of the canal are of stones, twenty feet 

 long, two feet wide, and about one foot thick, 

 made there, upon, and of, the sands of the 

 desert, and united by a peculiar cement. And 

 in part, from the success attending the efforts 

 of a company of gentlemen in Boston, in ce- 

 menting all sorts of earths and stones into a 

 solid mass of great strength. While the pro- 

 cess of mixing is going on, the materials are 

 so plastic that they are formed into any desir- 

 able shape, such as beautiful soapstone stoves, 

 whetstones, medallions as smooth as polished 

 ivory, emery wheels, side walks, stable floors, 

 and numerous other valuable articles. 



It does not seem improbable that this 

 device may be carried so far as to furnish 

 coverings for buildings, and even underpining, 

 where stones cannot be had short of heavy 

 cost of transportation. The heavy, awkward 

 "tile" has long been used in England as a 

 covering for roofs, and has the rare merit of 

 being both permanent and effective. Why 

 may not these gentlemen furnish a thinner 

 and lighter material, and at the same time 

 secure all the advantages of the English tile .'' 

 We believe they will do it. 



These remarks have been suggested at this 

 time by reading an article in the Country 

 Oentleman, entitled : — 



Neal's No-Patent Roofing. — Eighteen years 

 ago I made a flat root over the central portion of 

 my dwelling, in the following manner : I tirst laid 



jointed fiooring boards upon the joists, and cov- 

 ered this surface with roofing paper. Then I 

 poured upon a section of the roof a small quantity 

 of raw coal tar, spreading it evenly with a hhingle, 

 to the depth, perhaps, of a sixteenth of an inch. 

 Upon this I then sitted common road dust, putting 

 it on evenly to the depth of half or three-fourths 

 of an inch, that is, as long as the dust continued 

 to be wet through to the top by the tar. It took 

 me but an hour or two to go over the whole roof — 

 18 feet by 18 — in this manner. My first applica- 

 tion was made in May, and about six weeks later 

 I went over the whole surface ag;un in like man- 

 ner, finishing up with the fourth applicarion in 

 September. 8ince the application of the first coat- 

 ing of tar and dust, lo the present time, the roof 

 has not leaked a drop and looks good for a cen- 

 tury at least to come. Since the firt.t year it has 

 been like a firm sheet of stone, about half an inch 

 thick, on which the family can sit, walk, run or 

 dance, without injury to it. 



Let me also tell you how I made it water tight 

 around my brick chimneys, extending through the 

 shingled portion of the roof. I thoroughly mixed 

 a quantity of the tar and dust into a thick paste, 

 and with a trowel applied it as a collar around the 

 chimneys, extending it about four inches out on 

 the roof and as high up the side cf the brickwork, 

 and compactly filling the space with the mortar. 

 The -collar clung, as first placud, a perfect defence 

 against leakage till the roof required renewal, and 

 then the ends of the shingles beneath it were per- 

 fectly sound ; the tar and dust mortar itself resem- 

 bling a species of soft stone that could be easily 

 and smoothly whittled with a knife. 



Mt. Gilead, O. D. B. Neal. 



EXTKACTS AJSTD BEPUIES. 



FEEDING BEES. 



Will you please inform me through your paper 

 if bees can be fed in winter, and if they can, how ? 

 What book on bee culture is the best ? Which 

 hive is the best ? W. Browning. 



Keene N. H., Jan., 1870. 



Remarks. — Bees can be fed in winter, but ex- 

 perience is needed to do it successfully. It is gen- 

 erally considered poor policy to attempt to winter 

 a swarm that has not laid up a sufficient store of 

 honey for the winter season. Various plans are 

 adopted for feeding bees. Honey or a syrup made 

 by dissolving refined sugar in just water enough 

 to make a syrup about as thick as molasses are 

 much used. Sometimes a piece of empty comb is 

 filled by letting the syrup drip from a tin dish in 

 the bottom of which holes are punched for this 

 purpose. Place this in the chamber if you have a 

 chamber hive, or if an old fashioned hive, bore 

 through the centre of the top with an inch and a 

 quarter bit or auger, remove the chips and trim 

 off the splinters with a knife. If the bees come 

 up drop in a little of the feed ; then place the 

 comb-filled with the feed on the top of the hive 

 and cover it with an inverted box or peck measure. 

 Others put the syrup in tin pans of convenient size, 

 on which is a cover of thin wood, pierced with 

 holes, or sawed into, so that the bees feed without 

 getting stuck in the syrup. This cover must be 

 fitted to the tin dish with a small space around the 

 edges, and float on the syrup. 



We cannot say which is the best book on bees. 



