HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



95 



The reservoir is about eighteen hundred feet from the Home, 

 and the water is conducted thither by a six-inch iron main. 



The buildings of the Home consist of one large main 

 building, one hundred and twenty-five feet long by sixty 

 feet wide, and two lateral buildings, each one hundred and 

 twenty-five feet long by thirty feet wide. All the build- 

 ings are three stories high, and are built of the best qual- 

 ity Horseheads brick. The walls are double, consisting 

 of two eight-inch walls, wnth a space of two inches between. 

 Under each building is a thoroughly dry cellar, eight feet 

 high. The barracks, or smaller buildings, are located one 

 on each side of the main building, and distant sixty-five feet 

 therefrom. Their rear ends are situated opposite the centre 

 of the main building, so that they project just half their 

 length in front of it. A wide covered veranda runs com- 

 pletely around each. The first floor of the main building 

 is used as the dining-hall and kitchen. The ceiling is six- 

 teen feet from the floor, and is supported by iron columns 

 which stand on brick piers built in the cellar. In the 

 dining-room will be placed twenty-two tables, at which five 

 or six hundred soldiers will take rations. At the rear of 

 the dining-room is the kitchen. Here are three enormous 

 coffee-pots, of bright copper, which will hold about one 

 hundred and seventy-five gallons. Here also is a splendid 

 cooking-range of the most approved style, twelve feet long, 

 with three fires and three ovens, and all other improve- 

 ments that could be imagined. There are also four enor- 

 mous jacket-kettles for cooking meats and vegetables, soup- 

 kettles holding two hundred and sixty-five gallons, and a 

 water-tank. On the east side of the kitchen, as in all the 

 other rooms, there is a hose-attachment, through which a 

 stream of water can be thrown into an inch-hose in case 

 the kitchen should take fire. On the other side of the 

 kitchen is a sink ten feet in length, where the dishes wdll 

 be washed. The water from this sink will be drawn off 

 into a tank outside, where the grease will be skimmed off 

 for soap. The two upper floors of this building and all 

 floors of the barracks are used for dormitories, each having 

 rooms at the front for the officers in charge, and rooms 

 in the rear for wash-rooms and water-closets. 



There is no useless ornamentation on the buildings. They 

 are plain and neat, there being no sacrifice of the space or 

 material for mere purposes of adornment. The windows 

 liave stone lintels and cap-pieces. In the centre of the 

 lateral buildings three windows on each floor are grouped, 

 the lintels and cap-pieces being of white stone. An arched 

 piece of ornamented work, consisting of gray and blue stone 

 set into the brick-work in concentric semicircles, springs 

 from the side of the top group, and the whole is sur- 

 mounted by a peaked wing of the roof, producing a pleas- 

 ing effect without elaborate ornamentation. The present 

 barracks accommodations are estimated to be sufficient for 

 five hundred men, and with this number in the dormitories, 

 the air space for each man will be six hundred cubic feet. 

 In the rear of the main building is an addition, one story 

 high, in which are the bakery and ovens. 



Fifty feet in rear of the main building is a one-story 

 brick building, which contains the laundry, the bath-rooms, 

 engine-room, and boiler-room. From this latter point the 

 main sewer starts. It is a twelve-inch vitrified pipe, into 



which all the pipes from the dormitories, bath-rooms, water- 

 closets, etc., lead. The flow of water is so strong that the 

 sewage is instantly swept away, and is carried by this main 

 pipe to the Conhocton River, into which it empties at a dis- 

 tance of twelve hundred feet below the buildings. There 

 is thus no danger of malarial diseases from sewer-gas, and 

 the perfect sewage and drainage make the location of the 

 home all that can be desired for salubrity. Adjoining the 

 boiler-room is a brick shaft nine feet square at the base and 

 eighty-six feet high. Into this runs the main foul-air duct 

 from under the centre of the main building. All the foul- 

 air ducts run into this main one, and the noxious vapors are 

 drawn into the high shaft by a pow^erful upward current of 

 air. This current is caused bv the heated iron smoke-stack 

 from the boilers running up through the centre of the shaft, 

 and also by a coil of two hundred feet of steam-pipe at the 

 top of the shaft. The powerful draft thus created sends 

 the foul air far above the buildings, where it is speedily 

 dissipated and rendered innoxious. 



The buildings are heated by steam -radiators, direct and 

 indirect, the pure air coming in from the outside of the 

 building through ducts and carried to the building over 

 stack-radiators, thus heating the pure air on its passage 

 to the rooms, which it enters by the usual style of " regis- 

 ter." Two low-pressure boilers supply the steam for heat- 

 ing purposes. The cooking is also done by steam, which is 

 supplied from a fifteen horse-power boiler. Attached to this 

 is a ten horse-power engine, which is used to do the laundry 

 work. The steam-heating apparatus was put in by E. H. 

 Cook & Co., of Elmira. 



The buildings are lighted with gas, which is manufac- 

 tured from crude petroleum in a building seventy-five feet 

 in rear of the boiler-room. The light is clear, white, and 

 brilliant, fully equal to the best of coal gas and decidedly 

 superior to the average. 



On the farm there is one good dwelling-house, the old home- 

 stead, several tenement-houses, and several barns, which can 

 be used for the storage of grain, etc., raised on the ground. 



THE OFFICERS AT THE HOME 



are E. C. Parkinson, Superintendent ; Daniel O'Driscoll, 

 Post- Adjutant ; and A. H. Nash, Secretary. 



These gentlemen are veterans of the w^ar, well qualified 

 by experience in camp and field to take charge of such an 

 institution, and the excellent order that prevails shows that 

 they do their duty faithfully and intelligently. The work 

 of organizing an institution like this is peculiarly arduous, 

 and requires an amount of forethought and executive ability 

 that few can appreciate.* 



CHAPTER XX. 



GRAPE-GKOAVING AND WINE -MAKING. 



The Grape District — Grape Culture — Wine Companies — Process of 

 Wine-Making — Marketing Grapes. 



THE GRAPE DISTRICT. 



In the production of grapes and wine Steuben is the 

 banner county of the State. The section of Steuben 



* For much of the matter of this chapter credit is due the Steuben 

 Farmer's Advocate of Jan. 31, 1879. 



