1867.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
97 
is the coal cellar, receiving coal directly from 
the cart. F, is a large Sanford & Truslow's 
Heater or furnace (with extra evaporating pans), 
which sends warm ah' to nearly every room in 
the house, including two Attic rooms and the 
bath-room. (An opening over the bath-room 
admits warm air enough to the Attic reservoir 
to prevent its freezing in very cold weather,) 
i?, S, Ii, indicate the warm air registers from 
the furnace, shown in several of the rooms. 
Attic or Third Story (Fig. 5). — This is 8 
feet high, the full size of the house for 4 feet 
high, then inclined in- 
ward at the sides, under 
the slating. Two Rooms, 
B, B, are finished off; 
the large room D, is also 
lathed and plastered, 
and furnishes a conve- 
nient place for drying 
clothes, storage, and 
other purposes; or if 
Fig. 5.— attic. needed, it can easily be 
divided into several rooms. The 8 dormer win- 
dows furnish abundant light and air. The Reser- 
voir, T, is of plank, lined with tinned lead, 8x8 
x 4 feet. All the water from the upper roof runs 
into this reservoir, and when full, it overflows 
through a pipe down to the filtering cistern. 
Painting, Cost, etc. — The outside color is 
light drab, with dark trimmings; the doors 
throughout the house, inside and out, grained 
Walnut ; the parlor and chamber above white ; 
the halls, sitting, and dining-room, etc., grained 
in oak ; outside of all sashes, dark green ; inside 
grained to match the rooms. Every room from 
cellar to attic is supplied with gas pipes, built 
in the walls. — "Without the land, the cost of such 
a house at this time, all complete as here des- 
cribed, is from §5,000 to $7,000, according to 
the locality, expense of lumber, bricks, etc. This 
includes all the fixtures named— the furnaces, 
double cookiug-ranges, extra style painting, 
plumbing, fancy slate roofing, drainage, waste 
pipes, double filtering cisterns, grape arbor, 
front fence, etc. 
Coal Tar and Asphaltum for Floors. 
By Gilbert J. Green, Hudson, N. T. 
A floor properly made of Asphaltum or coal 
tar, or both combined, so far surpasses all other 
floors for stables, that it has but to be seen to 
be generally adopted. The cheapness of these 
floors, their ease of construction, durability, 
freedom from moisture, and their cleanliness, 
recommend their adoption by all good farmers. 
The way in which I have constructed floors for 
cow or horse stable, as well as floors for barns, 
carriage house, poultry houses, pig pens, or 
other out-buildings and barn-yards, is about as 
follows, varied somewhat to circumstances. 
I first prepare the floor by removing sufficient 
earth to allow coarse sand or gravel to be laid 
upon it to the depth of about two inches, this 
gravel or sand should be free from clay or other 
earthy matter, and be perfectly dry, by being 
exposed to the sun, or dried over a fire. If it is 
summer time, and the floor or stable will not be 
needed for immediate use, I would use nothing 
but coal tar, boiled in a kettle from fifteen min- 
utes to half an hour, this I pour upon the gravel 
hot, and leave until it is cold, I then mix fine 
dry sand with hot coal tar, to the consistency of 
thin mortar, and spread it over the floor to the 
depth of half an inch, I then lake a hot smooth- 
ing iron, holding it with a pair of blacksmith's, 
tongs, and iron it down smooth. If it can re- 
main twenty days without being used, in warm 
weather ; it will make a hard solid floor, that 
may always be kept clean and dry. 
If it is desirable to use the floor at once, I 
would use one-half or two-thirds of Asphaltum 
and the remainder coal tar, this can be used the 
moment it is cold, but it lacks the strength and 
elasticity of a floor made wholly of coal tar, 
still I have known pavements made wholly of 
Asphaltum and gravel that have endured many 
years of severe use, and are still good. 
The cost of such a floor with Asphaltum or 
coal tar at eight cents per gallon, (the usual price), 
will be about three cents per foot, about half 
the cost of plauk,with the floor timber included. 
It will last longer than any hemlock floor will 
in a stable, and can be much more easity repaired. 
A floor of Asphaltum or coal tar, like a piece 
of India rubber, neither attracts or absorbs 
moisture, and is therefore easily cleaned and 
always dry. The edge of such floors should be 
protected by a joist or piece of timber, so that it 
will not be broken off by cattle's feet nor wheels 
of wagons. It is equally useful as a floor for 
pig pens', or any out-buildings, and I believe it 
superior to stone or brick for sidewalks. It is 
smooth but not slippery ! Hard, but still suffi- 
ciently elastic; the sun does not injuriously 
soften it, and frost will not injure it. For pave- 
ments or floors where heavy loads will pass over 
it, it should be thicker than above recommended, 
or else the earth beneath it should be very solid. 
-SECTION OF HE: 
A Good and Cheap Hen-House. 
We have an urgent appeal to publish a plan 
for a cheap Fowl-house, " with all the modern 
improvements." Modern improvements are costly 
as a rule — but nevertheless we may have 
a warm, snug hen-house, which should be neat 
and convenient, and yet not be very costly. 
The accompanying plan is used with entire 
satisfaction by an acquaintance, who is so par- 
ticular in his views, that we may safely com- 
mend it to our readers : 
The house is 10 feet wide and 12 feet long ; a 
passage-way 4 feet wide passes along the south 
side, in which are windows ; this is formed by]a 
partition 3 feet high, (see fig. 1), which extend 
from near the door to the rear, and supports 
the lower side of a sloping floor, which rises to 
the eaves on the north side. Above this sloping 
floor the roosts are fixed and the droppings of the 
birds fall upon the floor, which being sprinkl- 
ed wkh plaster, they roll down, or are easily 
scraped off. There is a ledge at the front edge 
which prevents their going to the floor. Under 
this sloping floor the space is divided by a par- 
tition, making a nest room about G feet square 
and a setting room G x 5 feet, which is also used 
for a store room for grain, eggs, etc. This set- 
ting room is entered by another door, and light 
ed by a pane in the gable end. The nest boxes 
shove through the partition into the setting 
room, but there is no access for the fowls, except 
when setting. At these times hens are moved, if 
r 
I POOR 
H 
W 
w 
w 
DOOR '"' p 
NEST BOXES 
E 
Fig. 3. — PLAN OF HEN HOUSE. 
they happen to be in boxes against the side 
building, and made to occupy those in the par- 
tition. The back end of the 4-foot passage-way, 
(see plan, Fig. 2), is used as a feeding floor, and 
here stands the water fountain. 
We made once a small hen-house, and lighted 
it by placing some of the roof boards, which 
went up and down, ten inches apart, and fasten- 
ing 8 x 10 glass between them, slipping the glass 
into the groves in the boards, which were com- 
mon flooring. The panes lapped about half an 
inch, were fastened by tacks, and little water 
came through. Windows in a fowl-house must 
be protected by slats or by wire. The use of 
plaster on the sloping floor under the roosts is 
very well — nothing can be better; but fine, dry 
road dust, swept up on a hot day, is as good. 
Simple Farm Gates. 
There is almost no end to the devices for farm 
gates, but after all the simplest, strongest and 
lightest, of the old better patterns, are the most 
reliable, and, on the whole, the best. The posts 
should be of locust, or cedar timber, if possible, 
and set very firml}-, being securely braced either 
above or under the ground, and protected by coal 
tar beneath the surface, and by paint above, from 
the action of the elements. The long, hard- 
wood latch, in common use, is probably the best 
for all kinds of farm gates. 
A Light Farm: Gate is described by W. S. 
Gilchrist, Warren County, N. T. — " I send you 
the plan of gates which we have had in use for 
the past ten years, and for that time have never, 
with the aid of paint, required an}' repairs. My 
experience proves that the lighter a gate can be 
made, the longer it will last, besides being much 
more convenient in use. I, therefore, use well 
seasoned pine lumber (cedar if to be had) ; the 
hinge-piece {a) and latch-piccc (!>) of 3 x 3 scant- 
Hug; the rail (c) 3 x 3 also, tapered to 2 inches; 
the slats of 'la-inch seasoned piue or, if to bo 
had, cedar, by all means avoiding the use of 
green or heavy lumber; thebracesof good clear 
6 erf 
LIOnT FARM GATE. 
stuff, and straight grained lumber, 1 x l'|, inches 
of any description; the whole securely nailed 
or pinned. Any one of ordinary mechanical 
