I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



539 



Mr. Fowler's, on the other hand, however 

 light his frame may be, will be found to re- 

 quire considerable material, and that costs 

 money in the prairie country. 



Then, the next advantage claimed in the 

 way of a hollow wall, the saving of inside 

 lath and plastering, outside finish, &c, is, ac- 

 cording to our experience, all erroneous. If 

 such a wall is made hollow, it must have a 

 good deal of additional thickness to give it 

 the requisite strength ; and without which 

 strength it is very apt to crack and shatter to 

 pieces. The idea of laying it up smooth 

 enough inside for a good house, is just about 

 as practicable as to saw the lumber in a saw- 

 mill smooth and good enough for window and 

 door casings, without plaining and jointing — 

 sheer absurdity of course. The same with 

 the outside also ; it can be made neither 

 smooth enough to look well, nor solid enough 

 to turn water perfectly without being troweled 

 down at least ; and to make either a good job, 

 or a good looking one even, it should be hard- 

 finished and blocked off like stone ; and, bet- 

 ter still, to be a right good job, it should be 

 painted outside, although this last, if well 

 hard-finished, may be omitted. The idea of 

 moulding it into fresco, without great outlay 

 in preparing moulds, is also impracticable, 

 as every experienced builder knows. It is a 

 pretty fancy and that is all. 



The inside furring and lathing for plaster- 

 ing is a very small expense, and much the 

 best way for a hollow wall. The less wood in 

 the wall the better, as it weakens it where it 

 divides it ; and, besides, it is apt to shrink, 

 and swell, and cause cracks. 



We fill our concrete walls as we put them 

 up as full as possible with rough, fiat stones, 

 such as abound in a shell state in many of the 

 prairie knobs. These stones we imbed in 

 very thin mortar, so close that they touch 

 each other, if possible. We built a concrete 

 and stone house in this way last season, of 

 pretty good size, and it has stood perfectly 

 well, not a crack in it that we know of. We 

 laid the walls up from the cellar bottom in 

 the same way, and to keep them from ab- 

 sorbing moisture where they came against 

 the banks, we gave them two good coats of 

 coal tar, up to the water table, before filling 

 the earth in around them. The result is a 

 perfectly water-proof wall and dry cellar. 

 Such a coat all over a hard finished building 

 would render it decidedly impervious to mois- 

 ture, but its black colour would not be comely 

 in appearance. 



Our concrete house walls cost us only about 

 one half the price of brick, and about one- 

 third the price of rubble-dressed stone work ; 

 thus being a decided economy in first cost. 

 But comparatively they are not so good as 

 good brick or stone. Still, if they are well 

 put up they are very good. But they are the 

 last kind of a wall that a bungler should at- 



tempt — ten to one he will make both a fright 

 and a failure of it. We see a great many 

 silly things said about this kind of building, 

 in our exchanges ; usually by those who, ob- 

 viously, know little or nothing about them. 

 We seldom notice them, but thought we 

 would not let this one pass in silence. 



Ed. Wisconsin Farmer. 



Grand Exhibition of Mowers. 



On Monday afternoon, June 11th, about five 

 hundred of the substantial farmers of the 

 township of Lawrence, in Mercer county, as- 

 sembled at Hutchinson's Mill, near Baker's 

 Basin, to witness an exhibition of the relative 

 working abilities of several mowinf; machines. 

 The day was fine, and the assembly was com- 

 posed of the substantial farmers of Lawrence 

 township and from the adjoining townships. 



Upon our arrival we found the following 

 machines on the ground: 



Dunham & Staats' Mower and Beaper. 



PennOck's Iron Harvester. 



Champion Mower and Reaper. 



Buckeye do. do. 



New Jersey do. do. 



Kirby's American Harvester. 



Each of these machines were constructed for 

 mowing and reaping. 



After the people had generally assembled, 

 Br. White called them to order. 



Mr. Henry D. Phillips, of Lawrence, was 

 appointed President of the meeting. On 

 motion, E. F. Hendrickson, of Ewing, a com- 

 mittee of three was appointed to get the names 

 of the machines on the ground, and arrange 

 the order of their entry into the field. 



The President appointed E. F. Hendrickson, 

 Samuel JNicholson and John Phillips. Mr. 

 Hendrickson withdrew and Mr. James A. 

 Hutchinson was appointed. 



The following gentlemen were appointed 

 Judges : Jacob Taylor, A. T. Burroughs and 

 Gideon Corwine. 



All the preliminaries being now ready, the 

 machines were unlimbered and hitched to good 

 strong horses and prepared for action. They 

 entered the field, (about three acres in size,) 

 led off by the "New Jersey." This machine 

 was less inviting in appearance and rather 

 smaller in size than the others, but still it 

 moved off with great effect, getting into the 

 ! grass at a fine rate. 



The other machines, all new and in excel- 

 lent order, went into the field with effect, and 

 cut away, right and lelt, turning over sw r arth 

 after swarth. But soon it w r as discovered that 

 there was a difference in the cutting, and 

 especially in the facility of throwing off or 

 distributing the grass. As the work pro- 

 gressed, the farmers began to look at another 

 matter — the lightness of dfcift, the simplicity, 

 durability and convenience in construction 

 and operation. The test was made by two 



