THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



117 



tion bat attended with more trouble than my 

 method, as they require watering much oftener. 

 A nurseryman, near Boston, once said to me, 

 " never water a tree after it is planted out" This 

 rule will not always answer in our soil, if it 

 does in Boston ; but many trees are certainly 

 injured by improper watering, and I should, 

 therefore, say, when you water a tree put something 

 about it to check evaporation and keep the ground 

 from " baking" and in my opinion tan is the 

 best material for that purpose. I have also put 

 tan about strawberry plants newly set out, with 

 decided advantage — not only protecting them in 

 dry weather, but keeping the fruit clean and 

 preventing them from being 11 winter killed." — 

 The only objection which I know to its use on 

 strawberry beds, is that it prevents many of its 

 runners from taking root. This, with rare kinds 

 which it is desired to increase rapidly, is an ob- 

 jection to covering the whole space between the 

 plants, but it may be obviated by putting it a 

 few inches about each plant, leaving the re- 

 mainder of the ground uncovered. I set out a 

 large bed with about two hundred of Hovey's 

 seedlings in August and September last, with 

 tan about them, and did not lose a single plant. 

 They were every one in fine order in the spring, 

 and did not even wilt during the severe drought 

 this summer, although they were not watered 

 at all. 



Yours, respectfully, S. D. P. 



New Haven, Aug. 11, 1843. 



CURE FOR SPAVIN. 



Mr. E. D. Worbasse, of New Jersey, writing 

 to the Editor of the Cultivator, says, "The fol- 

 lowing I have found would cure a bone spavin 

 in its first stages, if properly applied. Add to 

 two table-spoonfuls of melted laid, one of can- 

 tharides, made fine or pulverised, and a lump of 

 corrosive sublimate, as large as a pea — all melted 

 up together, and applied once a day till used up, 

 confining it to the callous. This quantity is for 

 one leg, and may be relied on as a cure. It 

 w r ill make a sore and the joint will be much 

 weakened while applying the medicine. No 

 need of alarm ; it will all be right when healed 

 up." 



A HINT TO HOUSE OWNERS AND 

 BUILDERS. 



No portion of a house is so important to its 

 preservation as a good roof ; and yet, strange to 

 say, although a poor uncivilized Indian can 

 with common bark, cover his cabin or wigwam 

 so effectually as to prevent a leak, the generality 

 of " modern roofers," with the aid of a choice 

 of materials — tin, copper, zinc, &c. — seldom are 

 found ingenious enough to prevent a roof from 

 leaking. The leaks most common to newly 



built houses are found about the chimneys, or 

 wherever the material of which the roof is 

 made, comes in contact with brick work. This 

 arises from not properly covering the edge of 

 the roofing. In tin roofs, the usual custom is 

 to carry the sheets of tin some foot or six inches 

 up along-side the brick work, and to putty, or 

 plaster, or cement the seam ; but after a short 

 time, either by shrinking of the rafters and other 

 wood work of the roof, or a settling of the chim- 

 ney, this putty, cement, or plastering, is found 

 to show a crack, by the tin being drawn from 

 its position, and the water enters and runs down 

 under the tin. 



In other cases the upper edge of the tin is 

 bent and inserted in the brick work, but the 

 shrinking and settling above alluded to, produce 

 the same result ; the tin is drawn from its posi- 

 tion and a leak is sure to follow. This causes 

 more putty and plaster, and "paint skins" are 

 also resorted to, but after a few showers and hot 

 days they all prove ineffectual. Ask a roofer, 

 and he will tell you " these leaks can't well be 

 prevented ; it always has been so and always 

 will be, as long as wood shrinks or chimneys 

 settle." 



Now, a very simple plan cannot fail to prove 

 a complete protection against leaks. When the 

 chimney is built, let the mason be instructed to 

 insert between the second and third tiers of bricks 

 above the roof, a strip of sheet lead, say six 

 inches wide, leaving about four inches projecting 

 outward, the other two inches being firmly ma- 

 soned in the brick, and leave it there. Then 

 the roofer, when he is completing his work, will 

 carry the sheets of the roof up the side of the 

 chimney nearly to this lead, which he will then 

 bend down over the upper edge of his work, 

 and batter it smoothly and snugly down. There 

 must be no soldering or nailing the two together. 

 With this arrangement the shrinking of the 

 wood work of the roof may draw the tin or 

 other metal of which the roofing is composed, 

 or the chimney may settle, but no leak can oc- 

 cur there in consequence. 



If this plan is to be applied to houses already 

 built, the hood of lead can be inserted in the 

 brick work of the chimney by cutting out the 

 pointing and plastering of the brick, and secur- 

 ing the lead with new cement. 



Any man who builds a house and desires to 

 have a tight roof, should insist upon having this 

 lead hood inserted firmly in the work that rises 

 above the roof, so that when the roof is put on 

 there is a covering ready to be bent down over 

 the roof work, when it joins the brick or stone 

 work of the house. — N Y. Com. Advertiser. 



NOVEL METHOD OF WORKING BUTTER. 



A correspondent of the American Agricul- 

 turist, writing from Montpelier, Vermont, says, 



