302 
SOUTHERN CULTIYATOE. 
It costs 4 ^cnts worth of cement, at 50 cents the bushel, 
ta make a block 20 inches long and 9 inches broad and 
deep. 
This arimcial stone is, in effect, moulded concrete. It 
is more expensive than ordinary concrete, but it is more 
beautiful. Another advantage of it is stated by Gen. 
Paisley : — 'hhe greater convenience of applying concrete 
to the walls of a common building in this form than in 
mass.’^ Also, “If laid out for two or three months before 
they are used the great surface which these stones present 
to the air, combined with their small bulk, enables them 
to set more thoroughly than an equal quantity of concrete 
in mass could do in the same time.” To my mind the 
chief advantage of the artificial stone, is its extreme beau- 
ty. Where parties can afford the expense, the artificial 
stone can be ornamented to the highest degree. All the 
most expensive ornments of carved stone may be made of 
cement in moulds, at little comparative cost and they be- 
come stone in the end. 
As this application of cement is new among us, permit 
me to call your attention to the following authorities 
Gen. Paisley mentions a great number of ornamental uses | 
to which it may be applied. “It . (cement) is capable of 
use for ornaments, as mouldings, rosettes, coats of arms, 
mullions, &c.” — Knapp's Technology, p. 423. 
“rlydraulic may be employed for casting tolerably mas- 
sive objects. This enables it to be employed for architec- 
tural ornaments which then combine great sharpness 
with durability, are very light as compared with similar 
figures of sand-stone and have the advantage of being 
easily multiplied.”— Aiiapp. 
“The numerous casts which we have made, both in bas 
relief and in alta relievo, prove that cement mortar, re- 
ceives and retains impressions perfectly. These casts 
have stood the rough weather of several winters without 
the least accident. Their hardness has been continually 
on the increase and a kind of varnish with which time i 
has covered them, gives so strong a resemblance to stone j 
that the most practised eye mistakes them for it.” 
“Mortar of hydraulic lime may be employed as a plas- ! 
tic substance in a multitude of cases, in which the num- j 
ber of moulds ceases to be an object. Such is the case j 
when we have to prepare artificial stones bearing mould- j 
ings, roses or ornaments of any kind suscceptible of for- 
mation by the rectilinear, or circular movement of a profile 
(calibre.) It is evident that it will answer to set the 
mould in a trench and run the profile along the paste, pre- 
pared and arranged for that purpose. The economy which 
such a process would introduce into our ornamental con- 
structions is indeed incredible.” — Vica,t,p. 110. 
I have found that the cement made here is capable of 
receiving the most delicate impressions. By painting a 
leaf with it, suffering it to harden and then removing the 
leaf the most involved tracery is perfectly impressed upon 
the cement ; a fish pressed upon ashes well packed and 
then the mould thus made filled with cement, is perfect- 
ly imitated even to the impression of the scales. 
Besides the above uses, garden rollers, flag stones for 
pavements, borders for beds in the garden, may be made 
cheaply of cement concrete. This article is also a good 
substitute for Tripoli or Rotten stone in cleaning and pol- 
ishing brass. 
Knapp (p. 424) gives a use of that is wholly new to me. 
“We must notice a discovery of Fuchs and Schetthauer, 
which was lately communicated to the Academy at Mu- 
nich, and which has a reference to a new mode of fresco 
painting. While the fixing of the colors in the antique, as 
well as in modern fresco painting is due to the hardening 
property of caustic lime when exposed to the atmosphere 
the colored surface upon the this new method is converted 
into a silicate of lime. The two elder methods stand, 
therefore, in the same relation to the new ordinary 
to hydraulic mortar. While fresco paintings of the former 
kind are not very durable, except in cases as at Pom- 
peii, where their preservation is due to the entire exclu- 
sion of light and air, and artists have reason to mourn 
over the destruction of the greatest master-pieces ; those 
obtained upon the new principle are capable, not only of 
withstanding the action of water, weak acids and alkalies, 
but also the great changes of climate during the severity 
of a German winter, without injury to the freshness of the 
coloring, and the colors are so firmly attached to the 
ground that they exhibit no tendency to separate from it 
themselves, nor can they be removed by mechanical 
agency.” 
KxVapp is high authority. I find upon repeated trials 
that water colors cannot be washed from cement after the 
colors have once become thoroughly dry. I suggest the 
inquiry whether putting on the last coat with cement in 
plastering and then painting it with water colors, would 
not be a more durable, economical and beatiful finish than 
the usual method. It would certainly have this advantage 
that the surface could be cleansed at any time with water. 
There are several errors in regard to cement which it 
may not be amiss to advert to, in the conclusion of this 
long letter. It is supposed that a cement is valuable in 
proportion to the rapidity with which it “setts.” “I have 
observed,” says Gen. Treussart, “ that mortars of hy- 
drulic limes which sett very quickly did not exhibit great 
resistance.” — p. 125. “Some persons are in the habit of 
concluding upon the future goodnees of a cement by the 
rapidity of its sett; numerous facts have satisfied me that 
this indication is not always constant.” — Vicat. “My 
own experiments have not convinced me that rapidity of 
setting makes cement better eventually than ifit sett more 
slowly.” — Gen. Paisley. 
Another error, is in the quantity of sand used by work- 
men in making cement mortar. I once found a contractor 
building a culvert on a railroad in South Carolina, who 
was using 5 parts cement to 1 of sand. It is an establish- 
ed principle that cement is weakened in proportion to the 
quantity of sand with which it is mixed. Where great 
strength of bond is required, nett cement should be used. 
There are few if any positions in which more than two 
parts of sand to one of cement is allowable. Such is the 
uniform statement of those men who have made this sub- 
ject one of profound study, which they were obliged to 
give it from the magnitude of the public works entrusted 
to them. 
Another error in the use of cement, is the application 
of the second coat of cement after the first has become 
dry. “The only precaution necessary to prevent cement, 
whether pure or mixed with sand from being injured by 
frost is never to allow any part of it to sett completely be- 
fore a second coat is applied, for in this case the joint be- 
tween two such coats is always a weak part and if water 
penetrates into it, will be sure to give way if attacked 
soon after by frost.” — Paisley, p. 74. 
In view of the different uses to which cement may be 
applied, would not an establishment in Augusta for its 
manufacture on the spot be lucrative ? I am now using 
one of Rowe’s Crushers, together with a wire bolt, costing 
S‘10, in making cement. This machine, requiring only 
the power of four horses, could be run by any of the pow- 
ers, water or steam, now in use in Augusta. The burned 
cement rock can be delivered in Kingston at 30 cents per 
bushel. The burned rock is not injured by exposure to 
the air, while the powder is much injured. At the above 
rate, cement can be made in Augusta, at a cost of from 
50 to 60 cents per bushel. If this price be compared 
with the present cost of Northern cement, it will be seen 
that its manufacture would be attended with a handsome 
profit. 
Will you oblige me by mentioning this matter to some 
