8 
T HE G A R D E N :Sl A G A Z I N E 
August, 1916 
Strength and if the walls are more than fif- 
teen or twenty feet in length they have 
expansion joints which prevent cracks. 
Experiments with combinations of stone, 
brick and cement are always interesting 
but in doing so avoid confusion. Keep to 
a definite scheme of arrangement. 
KINDS OF BRICK 
Alany are the kinds of brick that are to- 
day brought upon the market. The large 
majority are made from clay moulded into 
the proper shape and burned, although 
there are some in which lime and sand are 
the ingredients. Bricks are generally known 
as common, face, fire and paving; but 
the common and face varieties are the only 
ones of interest to the garden builder, the 
classification of these being: “soft-mud,” 
“stiff-mud,” “dry-pressed” and “re- 
pressed.” The soft-mud and stiff-mud are 
in the common class while the dry and 
repressed are almost always face brick. 
“Soft-mud” means that the clay is 
mi.xed with water until it is plastic after 
which it is pressed into forms and burned. 
The hand-made bricks are all of this fash- 
ion. The “stiff-muds” are machine-made, 
the clay being ground and only enough 
water added to make a stiff mud, whence 
the name. This mud is forced through a 
die and cut into the proper lengths. Some- 
times the die is the size of the ends and at 
other times it is the size of the long side. 
Generally the “soft-mud” makes a better 
brick. The repressed bricks are soft-mud 
ones repressed to give a face brick. Face 
bricks are also “dry-pressed” into which 
class fall the finest grades such as “hy- 
draulic-pressed ” and “moulded.” 
All the above varieties are burned in a 
kiln and the bricks forming the arch, which 
being nearer the fire, are the hardest. The 
ones next above are “red” or well burned 
and the top bricks are salmon or “soft” 
and should not be used for a wall requiring 
much strength. The coloring results from 
iron, lime and magnesia found in the clay. 
The bright reds are from clay with a good 
percentage of oxide of iron, the browns are 
from magnesia while the presence of the 
latter with iron gives a drab color. The 
dry-pressed bricks have color artificially 
added. 
Naturally the different varieties are 
suited for different purposes. For the or- 
dinary wall in the garden, a hard-burned, 
common brick will answer and even the 
soft (commonl is possible for a low wall with 
a coping. The common bricks vary in 
color more than the face bricks but fine 
results are obtained by selection and 
placing of each unit in the wall. Common 
bricks are for the most part local. New 
York using the Hudson River, New Jersey 
the Hackensack and so on while face bricks 
are shipped all over the country. 
DECORATIVE BRICK 
If you have a very fine wall to construct, 
with decorative qualities sought, some of the 
well-known makes of face brick such as 
“tapestry,” “rug,” “wire-cut,” or the like 
can be bought. That is to say if you care 
to spend a bit more. There are all sorts 
of surface textures, rough, smooth and 
medium with a good range of colors. \Yry 
fine face brick may be had for Si8, $20, or 
$24 a thousand. The common bricks run 
as low as S9 a thousand. 
A good mason will lay two thousand bricks 
a day in a plain dead wall and such a wall 
8 or 10 inches thick will use up 15 bricks 
to each square foot. For a 12 or 13 inch 
wall count on 22^ bricks and 30 for a 16 or 
17 inch one, adding 7^ bricks for each addi- 
tional 4 inches of wall thickness. 
Making the Best of It — STEPHEN F. HAMBLIN, fc;. 
V. When You Have a Brook Bed 
[Editor’s Note. — Each article in this series deals -with a difere^it commonplace problem. While it may be possible sometimes to remake a 
soil to fit certain preconceived desires in planting, it is generally much more practical {and unquestionably better gardening) to find the plants 
that really belong to the soil and conditions, and use them. This method gives more lasting results and an atmosphere of fitness.] 
W HO would start out to plant a 
garden in the bed of a brook? 
Yet that is a favorite spot for 
our teacher Nature, and won- 
ders are often accomplished by her there. 
If a stream runs through your garden the 
wisest thing to do is to let the planting 
alone, partly because you never could 
improve on the arrangement that Nature 
has found most satisfactory after centuries 
of e.xperimentation, but also for the reason 
that much digging in the brook bed may 
start the soil to washing away with the 
spring freshets. But more likely than not 
the brook is altogether too inclined to carry 
its banks away, or perhaps you wish to 
change its course; then considerable plant- 
ing will be necessary. 
The volume and force of the water are 
one factor, but the quality of the soil is of 
greater importance to the plants. Brook 
beds vary from a steep incline of solid rock, 
a sharp slope of stones laid over marl and 
clay, to fiat reaches of level water in a 
basin of pure sand, deep peat, or fertile 
silt, with current so sluggish that the brook 
is a part of a marsh. We shall suppose that 
the orook that we are considering has con- 
siderable fall, and that the soil contains 
enough loam and humus to grow the usual 
water-loving plants. There are few quiet 
pools and these are small, so such true 
aquatics as Water-lilies are ruled out. 
The first thing to do is to be sure that the 
banks are secure. It may be necessary 
to lay up the sides on the sharp curves with 
large flat stones, or lacking these, with logs 
and roots, but these will decay in time and 
wash away unless the plants hold them. 
To hide this framework and hold the soil 
along the margin stout herbs or shrubs 
should be planted right in the shallow water; 
the bank above the water line should be 
planted also, but this is an easy matter. 
Sweet Gale (Vlyrica gale) and Button- 
bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) are suf- 
ficient to stand in the shallow water, for 
Elder, Dogwoods, and plenty more shrubs 
will hang over the water from the bank, 
perhaps so many that the brook will be 
hidden. It will be better to use few shrubs 
and depend rather upon plenty of herbace- 
ous plants. 
We must remember that the water is 
always in motion; a good part of our plant- 
ing, unless it is suitable, will be washed 
away; and what is water-covered during the 
spring will be moist sand-bars in August. 
.As the soil is not a soft ooze, many water- 
loving plants must be omitted. 
Early in the spring the Marsh Marigold 
(Caltha palustris) will open the season for 
us with a shower of gold. Spring floods 
do not frighten it, often it blooms entirely 
covered by the running water, as cheerfully 
as if it smiled in the sunshine. A sister 
plant, also blooming early, is the Lesser 
Celandine of Europe (Ranunculus Ficaria), 
truly amphibious, and bearing its yellow 
buttercups right in the water, though rooted 
on the shore. 
The spring months are the season for the 
native Arums, but all are more curious 
than showy. Two that are adapted to a 
life in shallow running water are the Golden- 
club (Orontium aquaticum) and Arrow 
Arum (Peltandra virginica). The leaves of 
the first float on the water, the Arrow .Arum 
stands erect and as a foliage plant is more 
showy, but the Golden-club has showier 
flowers, like the florists’ Calla with the 
white spathe removed. 
Many species of Iris will grow upon the 
banks, but the Yellow Flag of Europe 
(Iris Pseudacorus) does not mind being 
submerged in the spring; by the time the 
yellow flowers appear the water has receded 
and left the plants on the water margin. 
Among such erect plants as these the 
Forget-me-nots are safe from the current. 
Our Brook Forget-me-not (Myosotis laxa) 
is very slender and from the slender matted 
foliage the tiny pale blue flowers appear 
