1882.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
May 1 to Nov. 1. A variety of Ice-Houses, simple 
aud cheap, as well as more expensive ones, are de¬ 
scribed in the recently issued book on “ Barns and 
Out-Buildings,” advertised elsewhere. In the Sep¬ 
tember American Agriculturist for 1880, we described 
a very good one costing less than $30, built by a 
farmer (C. H. Warner, of Lima, N. Y.), whose ice 
cost him less than 50 cents a ton, interest and wear 
of the house and putting in the ice included. 
A New Jersey subscriber sends us a sketch of 
one very similar, indeed patterned after Mr. 
Warner’s, of which we present an engraving here¬ 
with. It stands on level ground, and he has planted 
shrubby trees around it, partly for shade and partly 
for ornament. Some of these are shown. This 
house is 13 feet square, with sills and plates 8x8 
inches, of hewn logs, and 8x8-inch corner posts, 8 
feet high. Studding is set in as needed. Rough (or 
planed) boards are nailed horizontally within and 
perpendicularly without, and the cracks battened 
with narrow strips. The wall space is filled with 
sawdust. Dry wheat chat!' might be used in the 
absence of sawdust. The roof is of single boards, 
with a ventilating opening at the top. The doors 
are single, with short cross boards inside to hold 
the ice up. The ice is" packed in solid, except a 
space of 6 or 8 inches all around filled with saw¬ 
dust. When full, a foot or so of sawdust is put on 
top of the ice. The flooring is of inch boards laid 
on a bed of cobble stones. More minute directions, 
if desired, can be found in the number above named. 
Wood as Fuel, 
Weight and Heating Power of Different Kinds 
Compared, etc.—Some Practical Lessons. 
More fuel is required during January than in 
any other month in the year, and a few items may 
be interesting as well as useful. Another article 
(“Keeping Warm”) describes the production of 
heat. Carbon (pure coal) is the chief source of all 
heat used for domestic purposes and for driving 
machinery by steam power. This carbon is mainly 
derived from wood, hard coal, and peat. Coal is 
most used for producing steam power, but taking 
the whole world together, wood is much the most 
extensively used fuel. Por the present purpose 
we may consider all wood as essentially composed 
of carbon or charcoal, and water (mainly as sap). 
All woods heated away from the air yield watery 
vapor, chiefly, leaving nearly pure charcoal, w'hich 
when burned leaves more or less mineral matter 
as ashes. Of green wood one-third to one-half or 
more of its weight is water, partly depending upon 
the time of cutting. In Schuller’s experiments— 
100 lbs. Cut in January. Cut in April. 
AshWood contained 29 lbs. water.38 lbs. water. 
Sycamore “ 33 “ “ .40 “ “ 
White Pine “ 52 “ “ . 01 “ “ 
A practical lesson for this month is here indicated. 
All kinds of wood cut in January contain from 15 
to 35 per cent less water than after the sap is in 
motion in April; and considerable earlier in the 
southern portion of the country. It is well to now 
cut down the trees designed for fuel, even if work¬ 
ing them up is delayed to the following months. 
As wood seasons naturally in the air, it loses one- 
sixth to one-third its weight of water, but still 
retains one-seventh to one-fourth its weight of 
moisture. A considerable part of the latter may be 
expelled by kiln-drying, and most of it if the kiln 
heat be raised to 313°, or boiling water temperature. 
Some careful tests made by one of our Western read¬ 
ers showed that Jive cords of Beech and Maple just 
cut weighed as much as eight cords of the same wood 
■when thoroughly air seasoned. The above teaches 
Two Important Practical Lessons. 
First .—To haul and handle green wood requires 
a very large waste of strength. In handling five 
cords of green beech wood for example, we have 
loaded, hauled, and unloaded, three or more tons of 
useless water, which a few month’s seasoning would 
have removed. 
Second, and still more important: WTien wood not 
thoroughly seasoned is used for fuel, its water or 
sap must be expelled before its carbon comes into 
play to produce heat. This takes place gradually 
on the outside, or on one side, as little of the carbon 
comes into action at a time. But as stated in an¬ 
other article, the escaping vapor conceals or carries 
off a very large amount of heat, sometimes almost 
enough to use up all the heat produced by its car¬ 
bon. It is safe to say that on the average, a cord 
of green wood will not supply for use one half as 
much heat as would be yielded by the same wood 
after thorough seasoning. 
A cord of wood is 128 cubic feet as it lies piled 
up. The dimensions of a cord is usually 4 feet 
high, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long, (4X4X8=138). 
4 feet high, 3 feet wide, and 10 2 / 3 feet long make a 
cord (4x3Xl0 2 / 3 =138). But allowing for the inter¬ 
stices in fairly piled wood, we may reckon a cord to 
actually contain about 73 cubic feet of solid wood. 
Thoroughly dry wood weighs about as follows: 
Pounds. 1 cubic ft .1 cord. 
Hickory.62 lbs. 4,464 
White Oak.53 3,816 
White Ash.... 49 3,528 
Red Oak .45} 3,276 
White Beech.. .45 3,240 
Apple Tree... .43 3,096 
Black Birch ... 4:1 3,096 
Black Walnut..42} 3.060 
Hard Maple....40 2,880 
Pounds . 1 cubic ft . 1 cord. 
Soft Maple.37 lbs. 2,664 
Wild Cherry....37 2,664 
White Elm.36} 2,628 
Butternut.35} 2,556 
Red Cedar.35 2,520 
Yellow Pine_34 2.448 
White Birch.. .33 2,376 
Chestnut.32 2,304 
White Pine_26 1,872 
The average amount of dry charcoal obtained from 
a Cord, by careful experiments ranged as follows : 
Hickory.1,172 lbs. 
White Ash. 888 lbs. 
White Oak. 826 lbs. 
Apple Tree. 779 lbs. 
BlackWalnut. 687 lbs. 
White Elm. 644 lbs. 
White Beech. 635 lbs. 
Red Oak. 630 lbs. 
Red Cedar. 624 lbs. 
Hard Maple.617 lbs. 
Black Birch.604 lbs. 
Chestnut.. .590 lbs. 
Yellow Pine.585 lbs. 
Wild Cherry.579 lbs. 
Soft Maple.551 lbs. 
Butternut.527 lbs. 
White Pine.455 lbs. 
White Birch_ .. .450 lbs. 
Numerous tests have been made with different 
kinds of wood to ascertain how long one pound of 
each would, in combustion, maintain 10° of heat in 
the same room. These ranged from 6 hours for 
Butternut, Soft Maple, and White and Black Birch, 
up to 6 hours and 40 minutes for Hickory, Ash, and 
Apple. The variation is less than would be expect¬ 
ed, but in this case, each kind of wood is taken 
thoroughly dry, so that the experiments are essen¬ 
tially the result of burning an equal amount of 
charcoal from different woods. 
Relative Value of a cord of various seasoned 
woods, taking into account weight, heating pow'er, 
etc., and calling Hickory wood worth $5 a cord :— 
Hickory.. .$5.00 
White Oak. 4.05 
White Ash. 3.85 
Apple. 3.50 
Red Oak... 3.45 
W’te Beech 3.25 
Black Walnut.. $3.25 
Black Birch_ 3.15 
Hard Maple_ 3.00 
White Elm. 2.90 
Red Cedar. 2.80 
Wild Cherry.2.75 
Soft Maple. .$2.70 
Yellow Pine. 2.70 
Chestnut_ 2.60 
Butternut ... 2.55 
White Birch. 2.40 
White Pine...2.10 
We find no record of careful experiments to test 
the relative value of two woods extensively used in 
some parts of our country viz., Cottonwood and 
Basswood or Linden. The Hickory named above 
is what is known as the Shell-bark Hickory (Carya 
alba). The “Pig-nut Hickory” (Caryapordna), is 
of nearly equal value. The “Western Hickory” 
(Carya sulcata) weighs about 25 per cent less than 
the Shell-bark, and its relative value per cord is 
estimated at $4.05, or the same as White Oak. 
In travelling on the upper Missouri where Cot¬ 
tonwood is the chief fuel obtainable, with oc 
casional supplies of Ash, we found the experienced 
steamboat men would take on Ash wood at $3 to 
$3.50 per cord in preference to Cottonwood at $1.75 
to $2.50. They also, when obtainable, tried to keep 
some Ash on hand to get up greater steam-power 
when having to ascend particularly rapid currents 
in the river. 
Information About Southern States. 
Various pamphlets and other documents are is¬ 
sued from time to time with a view to attract set¬ 
tlers to the Southern States. Some few of these 
are published by State authority, others by land 
companies, and still others by individuals who act 
as Real Estate Agents. The publications of the 
last named sometimes remind us of the glowing 
descriptions of Martin Chuzzlewit’s Eden, but taken 
as a whole, these documents need not mislead, and 
are useful to intending settlers. We have several 
papers on the Resources and Capabilities of Texas, 
by Col. Wm. W. Lang, of the Southwestern Im¬ 
migration Company, one of which gives a very use¬ 
ful map, and what appears to be a fair account of 
that immense State. The most valuable publica¬ 
tions of this kind, because made with no other ob¬ 
ject in view than to present the facts, is a pamphlet 
on the Climatology of Florida, by our old friend 
and correspondent, Dr. Charles J. Kenworthy, of 
Jacksonville, Prest. Florida Medical Association, 
etc. This was originally a paper presented to the 
Florida Medical Association, which caused it to be 
published, with matter added by the author, for 
distribution. Probably few persons know Florida 
from one end to the other better than Dr. K., who 
has visited nearly every point on both shores in his 
yacht, and exDlored its many streams and lakes in 
every direction. With all the zeal of a sportsman 
he has gone over every part of the State, mak¬ 
ing observations as a man of science. The re¬ 
sult is a pamphlet of 70 pages, full of information 
of the greatest value to those who look towards a 
residence in Florida for the benefit of their health. 
Made by a medical man to a body of his medical 
brethren, it is entirely unbiased by any local in¬ 
fluences, and gives just the information needed, not 
only by those who seek fora suitable place in which 
to settle, but by physicians Who advise their pa¬ 
tients to go to Florida. The pamphlet does not in¬ 
dicate how it may be obtained, but we suppose it 
may be had at the Jacksonville book stores. 
For Land Seekers and Emigrants. 
The February number of the Amei-ican Agricul¬ 
turist will contain an illustrated article on the 
various land grants in the West, Northwest, and 
Southwest, which invite emigration. It will be from 
the pen of Mr. David W. Judd,who has been visiting 
these large tracts of lands with a view to procur¬ 
ing just such information as those of our readers 
may require who contemplate moving westward, 
and either purchasing or locating (under govern¬ 
ment acts) lands along the great railway thorough¬ 
fares which are so rapidly opening up the country. 
The article will be published in German as well as 
in English, with a view to extensive distribution in 
Europe. Those desiring extra copies of the paper 
to send to their friends, would do well to order 
them in advance. 
Weeds.— Many years ago the writer was re¬ 
quested by the late Dr. Darlington to revise his 
“Agricultural Botany,” and it appeared with the 
title of “American Weeds and Useful Plants.” 
Out of regard to the venerable and beloved author, 
his original plan of the work was followed in the 
edition. This plan is less popular than is desirable, 
aud in a measure deprives it of its usefulness. 
Since that edition was published, many new plants 
have made their appearance as weeds, and the 
writer has for some time been aware that the work 
must either be revised or be replaced by anew one, 
and he has been for some years collecting materials 
for the purpose. He would ask the aid of the 
readers of the Aniei-ican Agriculturist, who can 
greatly assist by reporting the recent advent of any 
new weeds, or the invasion of cultivated grounds 
by plants not before considered as troublesome. 
While in the older States nearly all the weeds that 
annoy the cultivator are introduced from abroad, 
this is not so generally the case in the newer States 
of the Far West, where the indigenous growth is 
often troublesome. We will be glad of infor¬ 
mation from any quarter upon the weeds of the 
farm and garden, and would especially call atten¬ 
tion to the agressive grasses which, in some local¬ 
ities, injure meadows and pastures and lawns to a 
great extent without at first arresting attention. 
The assistance of friends on the Pacific Coast, 
whose growing season begins while it is mid-win¬ 
ter on the Atlantic slope, is especially asked. 
Specimens are desirable, aDd it is not necessary, as 
many suppose, that they be 6ent in the fresh state. 
If first dried between the folds of a newspaper, 
