Octobci, 1858. 
AMERICAN AGKRICTJLTGRIST. 
297 
■S'i’WVPW® 
1 
1 
1 
©--- - 
V 
1 
1 
P— -Parlor, 18x20 ft. 
B —Bedroom, 12x14 ft. 
0 1 _ 
bw —Bay Windows. 
5—Covered Porch to Living 
D— Dining and living-room, 
H— Hall, (front). 
1,2—Closets. 
room. 
11x18 ft. 
bh —Hall, (back). 
3—Balh-rooin. 
6,6—China closets 
If—Kitchen, 13x17 ft. 
V —Veranda. 
4—Child’s-room. 
7—Back stairs. 
L —Library, 12x13 ft. 
W— Wood-house. 
8—Pantry and store room. 
Plan of a House- 
We give, this month, the ground plan of a house 
which will be suggestive, at least, to such of our 
readers as contemplate building. It is none the 
less interesting to us that it is, with slight modi¬ 
fication, the plan of the dwelling of one of our 
stated distant editorial contributors. He assures 
us that, after the experience of five years, he is 
so satisfied with its working, that he would not 
make any essential alterations in it. 
The veranda, in front, is nine feet wide, and, 
being furnished with settees, and shaded by honey¬ 
suckles and the American Ivy, furnishes a pleas¬ 
ant resort throughout almost every day in Sum¬ 
mer. The hall is spacious, and opens, through 
folding-doors, into a parlor on one side, and a li¬ 
brary on the other. When these doors are thrown 
open, the view across the suit of rooms, from one 
bay-window to the other, is quite agreeable and 
striking. The wood-work of the parlor is paint¬ 
ed white, and the walls are covered with light- 
colored papei. The hall is oak-grained, and fur¬ 
nished with oaken chairs and table, and stair¬ 
case. The library is finished in butternut-wood, 
oiled and varnished. The book-cases, of which 
there are four, are built into the walls on two op¬ 
posite sides. The walls are painted a soft pearl 
grey. The stair-case in the hall, is left open, un¬ 
derneath, allowing a free passage into the dining 
room and back-hall. 
The living room is used also for a dining-room. 
With piano, sofa, easy chairs, book-case for chil¬ 
dren, and engravings on the walls, it is made one 
of the pleasantest apartments in the house. This 
is the center of the home. The bed-room is pro¬ 
vided with two ample closets, numbered 1 and 2, 
and with a bath-room, number 3. A child’s room 
number 4, also adjoins it. No. 5, is a covered 
porch for entering the living-room. No. 6, is a 
“china-closet,” on each side of the passage from 
the living-room to the kitchen, which passage is 
inclosed with two doors to shut out offensive 
odors and noises from the kitchen. No. 7, is the 
flight of back chamber stairs, with stairs to the 
cellar beneath. No. 8, is the pantry and store¬ 
room. Behind the kitchen is the wood-house, a 
part of which is so arranged as to be used for a 
kitchen in the Summer. Every room in the house 
is supplied with a fire-place, to be used in the 
Spring and Fall. In Winter, the house is warmed 
by a furnace, and is ventilated by the fire-places 
and by Arnott’s chimney-valves in the chimney 
breast near the ceiling. 
--- - —» ■ - 
Fire-Proof Ash and Smoke Houses. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Your plan of your ash and smoke house on page 
?33 (August No.), I like in the main; still, I will 
give a description of my own as one that is fire¬ 
proof from deposition of ashes, beyond all contin¬ 
gency. One or two on your plan have been 
burned, to my knowledge, from the breaking of a 
string, and the falling of a ham into the fire be¬ 
neath. The burning fat makes a great flame which 
sets on fire the roof; and as other strings burn 
off all the suspended hams drop intc the fire, and 
the entire structure with its meat is soon in vivid 
conflagration. 
My building is of brick, six feet square ; the 
whole bottom McAdamized (covered with small 
stone), grouted, and two layers of brick laid on 
and cemented. As the bottom is raised a little, 
water has no access to the ashes, and consequent¬ 
ly they are not leached . 
Thickness of wall, one brick; hight to the 
plates 6 feet. After laying two courses of brick, 
Ileft a space 1^ feet high by 14 inches wide—to 
take out ashes from—making the door out of 
heavy hotter iron, with a handle riveted on. This 
door is without hinges, but is kept in place with 
a fixture on each side—like an old fashioned door 
catch, or letter L—which is fastened into the wall 
during the erection. This door, passing down 
the outside of the wall, can be taken out and put 
back readily. 
Over this is another door of the same material, 
H feet square—and 4^ feet from the ground— 
hung by two hinges on the upper end—the hinges 
being fastened on a bar of iron four inches wide— 
and on this bar, over the door, the brick are laid 
for carrying up the wall to the requisite hight. 
When shut, the door remains in place from its 
own weight, shutting down neatlj' on a stone sill. 
As the ashes are being emptied, this door is 
thrown up and kept in place by a button fastened 
to the wall above. 
Inside, there is a brick partition 4 feet from 
the rear end—carried up 4£ feet—thus leaving 
a space for ashes 4 feet by 6—and 4£ feet high. 
Lying on top of the partition is a stone 3 
inches thick—and extending into the outside 
walls 2 inches, thus covering the entire 
surface of the ash house By dividing a brick 
lengthwise for one course, and beveling off the 
edge of the next, the stone, thus fitting into the 
wall, is not visible from the outside. At the re¬ 
quisite hight, plates were put on the wall, leaving 
out one brick at each end of the plates for the es¬ 
cape of smoke. Rafters were put on, and the 
roof shingled the same as any other building. 
Hooks, on which to hang the meats, were driven 
into the rafters and inside edge of the plates. So 
you see I have a fire-proof ash house. For en¬ 
trance to the smoke house, I made a wooden 
door (iron would have been better) and when 
smoking meats, used an old bake kettle in which 
I made the fire, setting it close to the partition ; 
and having an old cast-iron chimney-back, I set 
one end on the floor—and the other against the 
dividing wall—the kettle being under—so that if 
a ham should fall down, it would not fall into the 
fire. Meats smoke as well the back side in front, 
only it takes a little longer. For smoking meats, 
I use corn cobs and a little green hickory, making 
two or three fires daily. 
Most people crowd the smoking process too 
fast. Smoke only in moderate weather. If the 
meat is frozen, the pyroligneous acid will not 
penetrate, and the labor is worse than lost. G. 
Erie Co , Ohio, Sept. 6. 1858. 
-■*> < --- - - 
We Don’t —If anyone knows why a woman 
should teach or do any other good work, for half 
what a man would receive for the same service, 
let him give the world the benefit of his knowl¬ 
edge ; but if none can give a good reason for this 
disparity, then all should unite ta remove it as 
injurious and unjust. 
Passion is like an unruly horse, when its driver, 
Prudence, has become blind. 
