ditions. 
READERS SERS ACE 
This department will help in dealing with general con- 
It cannot render personal professional service 
A Substitute for Tile 
I am about to have some work done in the bath- 
room and kitchen, using white Portland cement in- 
stead of tile. Can I make it waterproof with a 
polished. finish like tile? Where can “compo- 
sition” flooring be purchased and how laid? Can 
it be made waterproof ?—K. J. F., Penna. 
—THE best substitute for tile wainscoting in your 
bathroom, at less expense, would be plaster known 
as Keene’s cement, which is obtainable from most 
mason’s supply men. This should be painted and 
finally enameled. For the floor the patent floor- 
ings made from magnesia are quite satisfactory, 
provided they are properly put down. These may 
be laid about three eighths inch thick over a wooden 
floor, and as they are fairly flexible they do not 
need the solid cement foundation required for tile 
work. Incidentally the best color for wear is 
brown, which is obtained by using a filler of 
brown cork. Red is also durable; white, green 
and gray do not last so well. One precaution that 
must be observed in using this flooring is to be per- 
fectly sure that there is no particle of lime, such 
as the usual debris resulting from plaster work, 
on the floor when the magnesia composition is 
laid. It is customary to treat the surface, after 
laying, with oil as a waterproofing and smooth 
finish. In laying the floor over an old wooden 
floor it is perhaps wise to apply it upon a thin 
metal lath nailed to the floor. y all means, how- 
ever, have the work done by some one who knows 
how to apply the material and who will guarantee 
the results. It will not do to have an inexpe- 
rienced mason or plasterer buy the materials and 
put them down. Another excellent floor for kitch- 
ens or bathrooms is “Battleship Linoleum” ce- 
mented down with waterproof cement. This 
would be hardly less sanitary than the magnesia 
compounds or tile. 
How to Make a Driveway 
What is the best way to construct an avenue and 
driveway? Owing to the size of my place, con- 
crete is out of the question, so the material used 
would have to be sand and gravel; but I have 
been told that gravel must have a foundation of 
clay, which is almost impossible to procure here. 
Could I not use cinders or even coarse gravel, with 
a layer of sand on top?—A. N. R., Minn. 
—THE cheapest way to construct a driveway will 
not be the best way. In almost every section of 
the country, except at the sea shore, a fairly good 
road may be made from the natural subsoil. This 
should have a slight crown (i. e., be higher in the 
centre than on the sides so as to shed the water). 
Cinders make an excellent roadway and eventually 
pack almost as hard as concrete. If you can 
get crushed stone, either trap rock or limestone, 
it will also make an excellent top dressing for a 
roadway. Since you have no clay, you need pay 
but little attention to drainage. A sandy road is 
usually in better condition if slightly damp. If 
your soil is a loose sea shore sand, you will have 
to excavate for about eight inches and fill with 
either gravel or cinders to get a foundation. A 
roadway for a private house receives so little wear 
that it can be constructed on principles that if 
applied to a public road would not last at all. 
Do not make the mistake of having too wide a 
road. Twelve feet will be ample unless you have 
a large house and wish the roadway to be in har- 
mony with it. There is very little expert knowl- 
edge required to make a driveway. First stake 
out the road, then remove the sod and roots by 
grubbing or plowing, and then have the road 
enaped by hand. After a few rains the road will 
pack; but it is better to roll it if you can do it. 
If you are troubled with grass or weeds in the 
road, one of the various weed killers on the market 
will control this nuisance. Do not use sand for 
surfacing the road if cinders are available. Unless 
sand contains a certain amount of clay, it will 
never pack. If holes develop in the roadway, do 
not attempt to get rid of them merely by filling in 
more material. First dig out the hole until you 
can get rid of the foundation that is causing the 
trouble and fill in the hole, allowing several inches 
more for it to settle. 
Cutworms! 
The soil in my garden is so infested with cut- 
worms and a long, thin white worm that nothing 
will grow. I have used tobacco dust and various 
other things without success. Hven the soil about 
the roots of flowers and bulbs grown in a plant 
box indoors last winter was found to be alive 
with the thin white worms. What can I do to rid 
the soil of them?—H. 8S. H., New York. 
—WHEN a garden becomes so badly infested with 
insects as yours seems to be, it is practically im- 
possible to obtain satisfactory results from it, no 
matter how thorough and conscientious the efforts 
made to fight the pests. The wisest thing to do, 
therefore, is to plow the soil and, before harrow- 
ing, to apply a heavy dressing of air slaked lime 
or, if available in your vicinity, the so-called gas 
lime. After this, the soil should be harrowed and 
left without a crop for an entire year, receiving 
an occasional cultivation in order to keep down 
weeds and further starve out the insects. Late in 
the fall the land should again be plowed and left 
in rough furrows over winter when the frost action 
will further tend to destroy plant pests. The fol- 
lowing spring another dressing of lime may he 
given and the soil fitted for cultivation. 
Preservative for Wooden Posts 
Is there any wood preservative that can be used 
on fence posts to make them last after being set 
in the ground?—P. P., Vermont. 
—THE decay of cut wood may be retarded or pre- 
vented by various means. The easiest way to pre- 
vent the development of the fungi is to treat all 
wood which is exposed to atmospheric agencies. 
Charring will frequently be found successful. For 
getting ‘longer service out of wood, it should be 
chemically treated by painting with some preserva- 
tive, such as carbolineum or coal-tar creosote. Care 
should be taken, however, that only absolutely dry 
wood is painted. Timber immersed in a solution 
of one part of corrosive sublimate to 150 parts of 
water will be proof again 't the attack of decay- 
producing fungi for many years. The best pre- 
servative is undoubtedly coal-tar creosote which 
can be either painted on the wood or pressed into 
it by various mechanical devices. We would sug- 
gest that you write to the Secretary of Agricul- 
ture, Washington, D. C., for a copy of Farmers’ 
Bulletin No. 387 entitled “The Preservative Treat- 
ment of Farm Timbers,” which will be sent you 
free of charge if it is still available. This Bulletin 
will give you a great deal of information on the 
subject. i 
Working Land on Shares 
Regarding the working of land on shares: if the 
land is used for truck gardening and the owner 
pays for seed, fertilizing and plowing, what share 
of the product goes to the owner and what pro- 
portion to the one who works the land? The lat- 
ter has, in this case, the use of the house on the 
land.—F. A. H., Il. 
—IT 1S impossible to give any set and definite di- 
vision of profits. Such matters must invariably 
be settled as a compromise or mutual agreement 
between the parties involved; and since conditions 
are rarely exactly the same on any two farms, the 
same arrangement is not likely to prove entirely 
satisfactory in any two cases. nalyzing the 
problem, it would seem as though the only way for 
you, or any one else, to solve it would be to first 
decide upon a fair rental for your land based upon 
its actual value. This, of course, will vary ac- 
cording to the location of the land. If near a city 
it should naturally give you a larger return than 
. should prove unsatisfactory. In our opinion, 
if in a typically rural locality. Next you will 
have to estimate roughly the amount you will 
probably have to invest in seed, fertilizers and the 
plowing which you say you are to pay for. With 
the sum of the amounts thus determined, you must 
then compare a fair wage for any person doing 
the actual labor on such a farm, although to this 
figure might be added an approximate amount to 
represent your farmer’s investment in horses, 
tools, etc. This comparison should then give you 
a very fair ratio by which to divide the returns 
from the land. Here, however, you come to an- 
other problem. If your farm were raising only 
grain it would be entirely practical for you to 
take your share of the crop in its original form. 
If, on the other hand, the products are vegetables, 
fruits or other perishable material it would he 
decidedly poor economy to attempt any such ar- 
rangement. It would be much better for the 
farmer to market the entire crop and for you then 
to make the right division of the cash proceeds. 
But in this case your farmer would be carrying 
the considerable responsibility of marketing a 
specialized type of product which should entitle 
him to a slightly increased share in the returns 
above that already determined as suggested. These 
are only general suggestions. 
Root Maggots on Onions and Cauliflower 
What can I do to get rid of the root maggot 
that attacks onions and cauliflower ?—W. ob 
Quebec. 
—THERE is practically no way to fight the root 
maggot in an onion field; the only hope is to pre- 
vent infestation of the field in future years. To 
this end plants that show the presence of the mag- 
got should be pulled out andl destroyed, prefer- 
ably burned, and a rotation of crops made such 
that no two crops of onions or species infested by 
the insect follow one another. 
better to allow two years or even three between 
such crops. A method of protecting cabbage, cau- 
liflower and similar plants from this imsect con- 
sists of cutting out of tar paper, or other durable 
material of this sort, circular or octagonal disks 
four or five inches in diameter. At the centre two 
cuts about an inch long should be made, crossing 
each other at right angles, and from one of these 
another cut all the way to the edge of the disk. 
As the plants are set in the ground one such disk 
should be slipped round the stem of each plant and 
pushed firmly down into the soil. Occasionally 
fine slaked lime or tobacco dust worked into the 
soil around the plants helps to control the pest. 
Building a Cheap Tool House 
I want to build an extra small barn and tool 
house 20x14 ft., with 16 ft. posts. Is this too 
high for the ground plan, and what angle or dip 
should the roof have? What wood shall I use for 
a cheap match floor on the second story; how 
would a prepared roofing material guaranteed for 
fifteen years, do for the roof ?—L. H. H., New York. 
—ProvipeED the structure is well built, there is no 
reason why a small barn of the dimensions given 
ow- 
ever, it would be rather too high to be attractive 
from an architectural standpoint. It would seem 
wiser to attempt to follow the general scheme of 
the other buildings both as to proportions, color 
scheme, ete. The pitch of a Foon should be deter- 
mined with reference to the roofing material. Any- 
thing steeper than 30 per cent. (a one third pitch) 
is usually desired for shingles; a somewhat lower — 
pitch may be used where tin, metal or prepared 
roofing is utilized. We do not see why any stand- 
ard roofing paper would not be satisfactory, pro- 
vided it is in harmony with the other elements of 
your farm enone Of course the best materials for ~ 
oP 
you to use wil end on your local supply. Ordi- 
narily Carolina pine is one of the cheapest sources © 
of matched flooring. Possibly, however, shi 
in either pine or spruce can be obtained, i 
would be satisfactory. 
lap 
this 
t would be even 
s 
