2t..S 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
lessly put in the ground or harvested than this, 
and the result is that a considerable loss both in 
yield and quality is sustained. It is thus that 
the crop has come to be called " the lazy man's 
crop." It is too late in the season now to say 
anything more as to the best methods of culti- 
vating it than that the crop deserves and will 
pay well to be put in in the best manner and on 
good soil. In harvesting, too, it will pay for 
good care. No crop suffers more from wet, 
or shells out more easily. The slender attach- 
ment by which the grain hangs, is broken very 
readily when dry, and it is thus best to cut it 
when the dew is still on it and the grain is damp. 
It should be cut with the cradle, and allowed 
to lie until again damp with dew, when it may 
be raked up into bunches, and set up in small 
ehocks, without being bound, as shown in the 
cut. The haulm or straw will always tangle 
sufficiently to make the shocks hang together, 
and biuding would cause much unnecessary 
waste. It should stay in these shocks, which 
are very open and admit air and sunshine, until 
the grain is cured, when it should be thrashed 
immediately. It will not do to stack it or put 
it away in a mow, as it heats and spoils very 
readily, and after being heated its value for 
flour is very much diminished. It should be 
hauled on a bright, windy day, if possible, and 
thrashed as it is hauled, the grain cleaned up 
immediately, and either sold at once, or stored 
in an airy room or granary. The earliest buck- 
wheat flour in the market brings the best price, 
and that ground on a clear, windy, dry day, both 
yields more and better flour then when ground 
in damp, close weather. Buckwheat chopped 
with oats or rye makes excellent feed for horses, 
hogs, or milch-cows, and the bran will increase 
the flow of milk in cows, but at the same time 
it makes poor white butter. 
Building Concrete Houses. ♦ 
Edwin D. Knapp, Tompkins Co., N. Y., sends 
us the following directions for putting up con- 
i I I 1 
* 

Fig. 1. — SIDE OF BOX FOR CONCRETE WALL. 
crete buildings. In his neighborhood there are 
eighteen buildings, including one fine residence, 
several smaller dwelling-houses, and barns. 
The. principle is the same as that described in 
the Agriculturist for March, 1872, but the mate- 
rial used is common lime instead of cement, 
Fig. 2.— BOX FOR BUILDING WALL. 
and the construction of the boxes is somewhat 
different. He says after the foundations are 
ready the boxes are to be set up. They are 
made of strips of 2 x 4 inch stuff, Jen or more 
feet long, as may be desired to fit the length of 
wall to be built. On these strips are nailed 
boards twenty-one inches long, fitting close to- 
Fig. 3. — MANNER OF MAKING ANGLES. 
gether. Asufilcient number of boxes is provided 
to go once around the building. Fig. 1 shows 
the side of the box put together. These sides are 
kept in place by S /Vinch iron rods, two inches 
of which is bent into au angle at one end, and 
a screw and thumb-nut is made at the other 
m 
Fig. 4. — WINDOW-FRAME. 
end. The length of these rods will depend on 
the thickness of the wall. Each box should 
have three rods, and holes are bored in the bot- 
tom of each side to receive them. The sides of 
the boxes are kept in place on the top by strips 
laid across with notches cut to receive the sides. 
These are shown, and also the rods, in fig. 2. 
Care is to be taken in setting the boxes to have 
the sides plumb, and always the same distance 
apart, or the wall will not go up evenly. These 
buildings should not have sharp corners, and in 
the arrangement made for the corners, as shown 
in fig. 3, a beveled piece is fastened (as shown 
at a) into the corner of the box to provide for 
this. "When the boxes are placed properly they 
are filled with the concrete. This is made of 
common mortar of coarse, sharp sand and lime, 
in the ordinary proportions, and is put into the 
box, and the stone is compactly bedded into it. 
The stone may be common field stone, large and 
small together, but too many large stones are 
not advisable ; it is best to break most of them 
if they run all large. It is very important that 
the stone should be perfectly im- 
bedded and packed in the mortar. 
When the window and door frames 
are put in, they should be made with 
beveled sides, as in fig. 4, and the 
ends of the boxes should be tacked to 
them with a close fit. It is not neces- 
sary to make this attachment to the 
boxes at the ends, unless it happens 
to come so ; the beveled sides of the 
frames may be tacked to any part of 
the boxes they may happen to come 
against. It is not necessary to have Fig. 5. 
any skilled labor about these build- block 
ings ; common smart laborers pro- FOK 
perly superintended will do the 
work very well. When the course is finish- 
ed, the bolts are unscrewed and drawn out, 
the boxes come apart, and are set up again 
for another course as soon as the previous one 
is sufficiently set. One to two days are required 
to make it solid. As the walls are carried up, 
the flues for the chimneys are made by inserting 
in the wall the block shown at fig. 5. This is 
made in three tapering pieces. The center one 
has a ring fixed in it by which it is drawn out, 
then the sides are taken out, and the blocks set 
higher up for the next round. These arc made 
large enough to suit the size of flue required. 
A wall sixteen inches thick is sufficient for :■- 
large building, a foot is thick enough for a 
smaller one. If it is desired to finish off Ha- 
waii smoothly, a floating is given with common 
mortar, and a wash to color it may be made by 
taking five parts of water to one part of mo- 
lasses, and thicken with cement to a proper con- 
sistence for a wash, and mineral paints or ochers 
may be added to suit the taste as to the color. 
Double-Trees and Uneven Pulling. 
— • — 
Some months ago the question was submitted| 
to us whether, when one horse of a team was 
pulling ahead of another, either horse was 
necessarily doing more work than his mate. 
This question was so simple that a plain answer 
was easily given, and we gave it, as we believe 
correctly, in replying no. This reply has 
given rise to a large number of communications, 
amongst which was one from the propounder 
of the original question, who we discovered had 
a dispute about the matter, and had agreed to 
refer to the American. Agriculturist for a deci- 
sion. Of course, it was unsatisfactory to the 
defeated party, who felt himself aggrieved, 
which seems not to be exactly the way of sub- 
mitting to the decision of a referee. Had we 
known that we were to be placed in the posi- 
tion of umpire we should have declined it as a 
thankless and useless piece of business. 
The question, as originally propounded, ad- 
Fig. 2. — SrNGLE-TKEE. 
Fig. 1. — DOUBLE-TREE. 
mitted of no contingency or limitation, and was 
therefore answered on its merits as a plain and 
simple one. But it is in practice subject to so 
many complications, that much confusion is 
likely to arise in the minds of those who can 
not easily view a question in several wa}'S at 
once. Now, we 
propose to place 
the matter final- 
ly in such a way 
that the ques- 
tion will be readily understood, and may be prac- 
tically useful. Freed from all those little niceties 
of mechanics, which practically are of no ac- 
count, there are three ways in which uneven pull- 
ing operates, and these wholly depend on the 
position of the holes in the double-tree. If they 
are all in a straight line with each other, as in 
fig. 1, practically each horse will pull equally 
in whatever position the double-tree may be, so 
long as it is free from entanglement. If the 
middle hole is behind the line of the end holes, 
the horse in advance is doing more than his 
share of the work; and if the center hole is 
ahead of the line of the end holes the rear 
horse will do most work ; and lastly, the further 
the center hole is out of line the greater dif- 
ference in draft is occasioned by the unevenness 
of the draft. 
While considering this question, it is wortii 
while to notice the forms of double and single- 
trees, both as relating to the case in point and 
