1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
175 
Supply of Farm Eiabor. — We again 
take occasion to direct attention to tlie advei-lisement 
of the American Emigrant Company. It contains a 
well timed proposition for supplying farmers in all sec- 
tions of the country wilh labor, in a feasible and prac- 
tical manner. The object of the company is to disperse 
all through the interior of the country the laboring 
people v\ho are constantly arriving at New York, and in 
order to accomplish this, it sends under the care of a con- 
ductor, companies of newly arrived immigi'ants, varying 
from 20 to 50 in number, to designated localities. These 
companies are composed of men and women of such 
description and qualification as are required, and pre- 
viously ordered by persons living in the neighborhoods 
to which they are sent. The immigrants so sent out are 
delivered at any specified point to a person appointed to 
receive them on behalf of those who have ordered them, 
and will have contracis made wilh them either to work 
for a specified term (if that be desirable), or at all events 
for a sufficient length of time to repay all the cost attend- 
ing their transportation. Thus every section of the 
country can be supplied promptly and certainly with 
labor just as cheap as it is to be had at the sea-coast. 
The company has established a widely ramified system 
of agencies in Europe and is exporting large numbers 
of German, Swiss, Swedish, and Danish laborers as vvell 
as British, and is thus prt-paied to furnish help of almost 
any nationality that may be desii'ed. It is also engaged 
now in the work of establishing agencies through the 
various States of the West to facilitate the dissemination 
of workmen in the interior. It is of the greatest pi ac- 
tical importance that some such plan sliouki succeed, 
and as we know the company is one of character and 
capacity, we have satisfaction in commending its opera- 
tions to the farmers of our great land. 
Fire-Proof Sliingles.— A -wi-itcr in the 
Boston Cultivator says he had always noticed that the 
staves of an old soap barrel, or pork tub, made very 
poor kindling-wood and so he argued that potash and 
salt would tend to keep his roof from kindling. Being a 
blacksmith, this was a matter of some iinpoitance. So, 
in preparing his shingles, he took half a bushel of lime, 
haif a bushel of refuse salt, and live pounds of potash, 
and water enough to slake the lime and dissolve the 
alkali and salt. He mixed these up in an old trough, or 
box. Then he set a bundle of shingles into the mixture, 
nearly up to the bands, leaving them soaking for full two 
hours. Then he turned over tlie bunch, and put in the 
other side, for the same length of time. As exposure to 
rain and sunshine will, in time, takeout the strength of this 
mixture, it should be applied, fresh, once in 3 or 4 years. 
The Cornell UniTersitj'.— Hon. Ezra 
Cornell, of Ithica, has offered to the State of New 
York, to endow an institution of learning, to be called 
by his name, with $500,000, and 200 acres of land on cer- 
tain conditions, the principal of which is, that the grant 
of land made by tlie United States, for the benefit of 
agricultural and technical education, be given to this 
University. This very munificlent proposition has been 
accepted by the Legislature, subject to the condition that 
the People's College to which the U. S. fund was origi- 
nally, but conditionally given, complied with conditions 
then imposed within thirty days, a result which has not 
been attained. Mr. Cornell is widely known for his busi- 
ness ability, for his liberality, and as an ardent friend of 
agriculture and education. The trustees named in the 
bill, are men who will can y out his views, and accom- 
plish the objects of the endowment, which are as staled in 
the bill, "the cultivation of the arts and sciences and of 
literature, and the instruction in agriculture, the me- 
chanic arts and military tactics, and in all knowledge." 
Wild BiiclfTVlieat. — In January the ques- 
tion was asked, if the wild buckwheat was poisonous. 
N. Engle, of Wabasha Co., Minn., says, it is not, but if 
ground, " is worth about as much as the same weight of 
oats as food for cattle. Mine fatten on it." On the other 
hand, J. R. Comstock, Clayton Co., Iowa, says, that he 
once fed four horses on oats, which were mixed with 
wild buckwheat in the proportion of about one-third of 
the whole. One horse was killed, another made sick, 
and the other two did not eat up their feed. These two 
accounts diflfer so widely, that we must conclude, that 
they either do not refer to the same thing, or that, while 
cattle may cat it, horses are injured by it. 
4iialvanizecl Iron. — L. A. Lcland, St. Jo- 
seph Co., .Mich. The term "galvanized " is a technical 
term, applied to iron that has been couted by a film of 
2lnc. Treated in this way, wire, and other articles made 
of iron, are in no respect altered, save that the thin cov- 
ering of zinc etTectnally prevents them from rusting. 
The suggestion of using galvanized iron wire for a cloth- 
es line, was first made in the Agriculturiat long ago, and 
^las been copied by various papers without credit. 
Erecting Gravel Wall Houses. 
The delay in fulfilling a promise which we 
made some months since has caused no little 
inquiiy among our readers in regard to the 
details of building gravel-wall houses. As we 
then said, we have no personal experience in 
building concrete walls, and so we have applied 
to an old friend and staunch farmer who has. 
He sends us the following minute instructions, 
Which come in good time for those whose plans 
are formed and who can give their own personal 
supervision to the work during the dry weather 
between June and October. Mr. Edwin Hoyt, 
of Fairfield Co., Conn., writes: 
The Plan.— The first thing is the plan of the 
Iiouse. This should have been well studied, 
and every thing definitely decided upon. Plain 
working drawings must be made of cellar, ground 
and chamber floors, with elevations of the sides. 
Every door, chimne}', and window should be 
positively located before any of the wall is laid, 
for it is essential in making the " curbing" that 
the bolts, cleats, etc., are so arranged as not to 
interfere with the window and door frames. It 
will be found, moreover, a great convenience if 
the windows in one story corres|)ond in size and 
position exactly with those in the other, espe- 
cially where stone window caps are used, so 
that the curbing, which must be cut to let the 
caps project, will not need to be altered. 
It will be observed that the system of building 
which Mr. Hoyt uses, and considers superior to 
every other, is that of laying the concrete between 
curbing boards in place, that is, where it is to 
remain — the curbing being lifted, as soon as one 
course hardens, and set for an other. 
TiiE CtJRBiNa — This consists of an inside and 
an outside board for each side of the house — 
that is four pairs, for common square houses. 
Each board is 30 inches wide — and the full 
length of the wall, of 14 inch stuff, tind is 
composed of strips, 5 inches wide, fastened to- 
gether so as to break joints. 
Care should be taken that joints do not break, 
in contiguous strips, at or near the same place, 
and that no more than two strips should break 
joints at the same section of the curb-boards. 
Cleats should be put wherever joints break, and 
nailed with wrought nails, well clinched, put- 
ting two nails in each strip. 
It will be no disadvantage to make the boards 
very stiff, and it may even be necessary to put 
cleats thicker than specified. They should be' 
from five to six feet apart, just as it happens. 
Care should be taken not to have a cleat come 
where a window, or chimney comes. The ends 
of each curb should be perfectly square, and the 
outer curbs exactly IJ inches longer than the 
length of the wall. The cleat, at one end of 
each, should extend one inch beyond the end, 
and at the other, it should be flush with the 
end. These end cleats are 10 inches wide, to 
give requisite stiffness. When the curbing is 
put up all around, the projecting cleats will 
form " gains," into which the plain ends of the 
other boards will fit, forming tight square 
corners. The inside curbing should be ar- 
ranged as follows : — Two of the curb-boards 
should be 1 j inches shorter than the inner face 
of the wall, and the other two should be 3 
inches shorter (that is if the curbs are of IJ 
inch stuff), and the end cleats should be about 
6 inches from the ends. The cleats next to the 
end ones, on the outside boards, must come op- 
posite these, and all the other cleats opposite. 
The outside and inside curbs must correspond 
in pairs — and be so marked. If the inside curb- 
ings be made accurately of the length prescrib- 
ed, when put together, two opposite corners will 
be short, just the thickness of the curb-boards. 
This square space must be filled by a stick, li 
inches square and two feet long, which, when 
the curbing comes to be moved, may be drawn 
or driven out, to enable the boards to be slipped. 
Having the curbing cleated and nailed to- 
gether, bore holes i inch in diameter through 
the cleats, exactly 5 inches from the bottom. 
The holes are for the rods which connect the 
inside and outside curbing, and are of i-inch, 
or 1-inch iron. They should each have an eye 
of 14 inches inside diameter, turned on one end, 
and a thread for a nut cut on the other. The 
nut should have a " tail" to it, to turn by hand. 
Bore a Miole into the upper end of each cleat, 
to receive a spike-nail. A 3x3sttid is cut in 
pieces, 8 inches longer than the width of the 
wall. Through these pieces spikes should be 
driven, so that when placed on the ' tops of 
the curbs, and nails inserted in the holes 
before mentioned, the curbs will be exnclly the 
right distance apart. 
If the rods, and cleats at Ihe top, are four 
feet, or more apart, there should be clamps 
between, to keep the boards in place. For this 
purpose, take 3x3 inch studs, and saw into 
pieces of suitable letigth, and into each end 
frame side pieces, just as for a "bolster" to a 
lumber w.agon. They must be one inch further 
apart than the width of the wall and curbing. 
Oak boards, one inch in thickness, will be 
sufficient, if they have a good shoulder on the 
outside. The side pieces should be long enough 
to pass two of the 5 five-inch strips, and well on 
to the third. The clamps will, when put on, 
have a play of one inch. This is to receive an 
inch piece, say 15 inches long and 5 wide, 
made necessary by the fact that when the curb- 
ing is filled, the pressure is so great, that the 
clamp cannot be lifted up, wlien you wish to re- 
move the boards; but by faking a hammer and 
driving out the inch piece, it at once relieves 
the clamp. It is best to have enough of these 
rods, cleats, etc., that the wall may be kept in 
its place. The corners of the outside boards 
should be held by two iron clasps, one at the 
top and one at the bottom, say two to three 
inches from either edge. They should be made 
of ox-shoe iron, (and heavier would be better,) 
and should be made exactly at right angles. 
One end should be fastened to the board with a 
staple, the other end should be made with a 
hole, so as to receive an iron pin. If these iron 
clasps are made an e.xact right angle, and the 
curbing boards made square at the ends, when 
the corners are brought together, they will fit 
snug, and cannot get away. If the corners 
are snug, rest assured, the curbing boards are 
level or plumb. If the joint at the corner is not 
a fit, then some thing is out of true somewhere. 
The Cell.ui walls should be built of stone. 
Do not build any " gravel wall" below the sur- 
face of the ground. It is better to have a good 
foundation and water tabic. There are many 
cheap houses of this material, with brick founda- 
tions ; but it is best to build well. Do not spoil 
the house to save a few dollars. 
It is not necessary to use cement in building 
the walls. Use good lime, and not too much. (I 
used 16 of sand to 1 of lime.) With good gravel 
and care, the material will give satisfaction. 
Having the curbing ready, set the floor joists 
and fill up between them with concrete. The 
outside boards may be used for this purpose, but 
will require some care to keep them in place, and 
this must be done by outside braces. The inside 
must be built up as one would lay a wall- 
Having leveled up to top of the floor timber, set 
