12 
AMERIOAI^ AaRIOULTUEIST. 
[Januaky, 
Wood-House and Wash-Koom. 
Multitudes of farmers and others have a very 
good dwelling that answered all purposes when it 
was first built, hut they now want more room in 
the form of summer kitchen, washing-room or 
laundry, store-room, etc. The present kitchen has 
baking and cooking, washing, ironing, etc., and in 
Fig. 1.— SIDE VIEW OF WASH-HOUSE. 
many cases this is the only available room, and in 
the absence of others serves as dining and sitting- 
room. It is generally desirable to have the wood- 
house and wash-room connected directly with the 
dwelling, or built as part of it, yet some will prefer 
to have them separate; while in other instances 
the addition of these to the present buildings would 
entail considerable expense, and many undesirable 
changes, such as shutting out the light from one or 
more windows, placing the stove in an inconveni¬ 
ent position, increasing the number of doors too 
greatly, etc. The building here presented will sup¬ 
ply or suggest one remedy, in the form of a detached 
building, which, however, may be so near as to 
afford ready passage to the old house. The build¬ 
ing here shown is sixteen by twenty-six feet. It is 
enclosed either with matched or battened stuff, 
planed and painted. This is cheaper than clap¬ 
boarding, and is warmer and more durable. The 
outside entrance is to the wood-room, from which 
another entry is to the wash-room. The wood-room 
is fourteen by sixteen feet, and is large enough for 
most houses. A charcoal bin is shown. If hard 
coal is the principal fuel, the room may be consid¬ 
erably smaller. The coal bin, or bins, if coal is the 
chief fuel, should have outer doors for filling direct 
from the wagons. If wood only is used, it should 
be neatly piled along the end of the room. There 
should be a door at least three feet wide at the 
most accessible place for a wagon, for throwing in 
the wood. The floor should be supported by strong 
sleepers or joists, though if the wood is to be 
worked up under shelter, it is better to dispense 
with the floor, and simply fill in bard earth a few 
inches above the outside, to have it always dry. 
The wash-room is twelve by sixteen, and should 
Fig. 2.— INTERIOK OF WASH-HOUSE. 
contain a stove, stationary wash-bench, tubs, wash¬ 
ing machine, portable clothes-driers; and if a 
churning power is used, it may be placed in this 
room, or in the wood-room and be connected by a 
band or lever or other gearing to churn. If the posts 
of the building arc twelve feet, with seven and a 
half feet walls below, a nice, large, commodious 
room may be placed above, and serve an excellent 
purpose as a workshop for repairs and making 
tools, doing odd jobs, etc. In this case it will, of 
course, have a work-bench, grindstone, a general 
assortment of common tools, and a lathe, scroll- 
saw, etc., will be convenient additions. The stairs 
can run up from any convenient place, say in front 
of and four feet from the entrance door, for more 
readily carrying up long sticks, boards, or other 
timber, as needed. An upper window is useful for 
taking in long timber. A portion of this chamber 
may be used as a meal-room, a place for drying 
clothes during inclement weather, and for a gen¬ 
eral store-room or catch-all. It may have a bed¬ 
room or two for extra help. And last, though not 
least, place a bell upon the building, protected 
from the elements by a small belfry, and a rope 
should connect it wdth some convenient point 
in the wmod-room. There are steel triangles, now 
obtained quite cheaply, which answer for bells. 
So arrange it, that the water may be poured from 
the tubs and machine direct into the drain, without 
leaving the room. The wash-room may be used for 
pearing apples, pitting and drying fruit, trying lard, 
making soap, and many other important things. 
I do not give any estimates, as but few would 
perhaps build of this exact size ; besides being a 
mere skeleton building, the amount and cost of 
material is easily obtained. At present prices this 
building would cost, complete, about one hundred 
and thirty-five dollars. Ageicultueai. Builder. 
Drying Barrow for Stable Bedding. 
In cities and villages, often in the country, bed¬ 
ding straw for horses is scarce and high, and quite 
an item in the expense of keeping. Much of the litter 
is merely dampened, and if well aired and dried, 
may be used several times. A simple, convenient 
A RACK BARROW. 
and effective arrangement for this purpose, is a light 
wooden frame, placed upon a skeleton wheel¬ 
barrow, the handles being about seven feet long. 
At each corner of the frame a wooden post 
is placed, twenty inches high. Two inches 
from the top of each, a nail driven to support 
a second light skeleton frame when needed. 
Wheel the barrow to the stable, and fill the lower 
frame with the soiled bedding, put on loosely, 
nearly up to the nails. Then rest the second frame 
on the nails, throw on the rest of the litter, wheel 
out into the sunlight for drying and airing, and by 
night, even that badly soiled, which would other¬ 
wise be thrown away, is in good condition. In 
stormy weather the barrow may be wheeled into 
some out-building or shed. The stables are thus 
rendered purer and more healthful. This simple 
cheap arrangement pays for itself in two months. 
Do Trees Increase Rainfall? 
GKO. GLBNDOK, JR., OP VIRGINIA. 
An old theory, that dies hard, and is constantly 
reappearing in our newspapers, is, that “ forests 
increase the rainfall,” and that felling forests has 
been attended with decrease of rain. Statistics 
from -Jamaica have been much u*ed, but do not 
prove the old theory. The former copious rains 
there now fall in the sea north of the island, wdiere 
there are no forests to attract it—resulting per¬ 
haps from a change in the Gulf stream. That for¬ 
ests preserve moisture in the soil, and water in the 
springs ; that mountains covered with timber pro¬ 
tect lowlands from destructive freshets, is true, and 
cannot be too strongly impressed on the ])ublie, but 
it is not necessary to mix error with truth, and try 
to make people believe that by planting a few trees 
tl:.ey can change the climate of a whole continent. 
In Virginia the drouths for the last ten years 
and more, are disheartening to farmers, and they 
talk of the good old times before the war, when 
seed time and harvest never failed, lamenting the^ 
dry seasons that now prevail in the well-wooded 
mountains, as well as in the low country. Yet, the 
whole country is growing up to trees, the “old 
fields” being quickly covered with pines. On my 
own farm, a field that was in corn eleven years 
ago, is now an almost impenetrable thicket. Surely 
if trees affect rainfall the Virginians may well 
say, “Down with the trces,for they bring drouth !” 
We really know but very little about the causes 
that bring about an increase or diminution in 
the annual rainfall. Two French philosophers, 
Fautrat and Sartriaux, found that about one-twelfth, 
more rain fell over a piece of forest than on the- 
adjoining country. This fact went the rounds of the- 
papers as proof that the foliage of trees attracted, 
rain, until it was pointed out that the experi¬ 
ments extended from February to July—about halt 
before the leaves opened, and half afterwards, and 
that the trees received quite as much rain when, 
entirely bare as when covered with foliage, and 
even one-sixth more in March when there was no 
foliage to invite rain or condense the vapor. 
A few years ago when spending some time in 
Utah, I noticed that Great Salt Lake was rising. 
Some fences,'once on dry land, were under w<ater, 
and the rise of water was said to average one foot 
a year. The inhabitants said the annual amount 
of rain was increasing. Some attribute it to the 
orchards and shade trees they had set out, forget¬ 
ting that for every tree planted, a hundred or more 
were cut down on the mountains. Others thought 
it was due to plowing and cultivation; others 
were sure that the iron rails of the Pacific Railway 
brought electricity and rain from the East! A like 
increase of rain prevailed, and perhaps still pre¬ 
vails in Western Kansas and Nebraska. Forgetting 
their destructive drouths the papers asserted that 
rain followed civilization, with its clearing, plow¬ 
ing, and harrowing This was certainly a pleasant 
view of the subject to an incoming population,, 
and for those who had lands to sell. 
On the contrary, early settlers in Illinois found 
navigable rivers that are now dried up, or mere 
disconnected puddles. A writer in 1874 says : 
“ Formerly the Fox River ivas a deep and flowing 
river all the year round. To-day, and during the 
drier portions of the last four summers, its vast, 
deep, and broad bed was, and is, nearly dry.” Aa 
there were no forests to destroy in Illinois, may not. 
the claim be true that cultivation means drainage,, 
and drying up of the country—the reverse of what, 
is believed to obtain in Western Kansas? 
The amount of water which air can hold in solu¬ 
tion depends on the temperature. A wind from 
the Atlantic expands in rising over the land; its tem¬ 
perature consequently falls, and rain is precipitat¬ 
ed ; going westward, more water falls, until the 
wind crosses the Rocky Mountains, a dry wind. 
The winds from the Pacific deposit rain and snow 
on the low lands, and on the western mountain 
slopes, passing beyond into Nevada, as dry as air 
can well be. In crossing the Sierras from Nevada 
into California, in a wagon, I have been repeatedly 
struck with the great difference a few miles of 
country make in the vegetation. Once when cross¬ 
ing into California with a small party of miners, on 
reaching the summit they all would shout, “ see- 
that flower,” “ see that bush,” pointing to well- 
known Californian plants. Then as we rolled 
downwards, singing and laughter showed how 
happy the men were in the home memories sug¬ 
gested by this mountain flora that cannot flourish, 
on the moisture lacking eastern side of the Sierras. 
The great Utah Basin, bounded on the east by 
the Rocky Mountains, is cut off from the Atlantic 
moisture by the Rockies on the east, and the Paci¬ 
fic’s evaporation by the Sierras on the west. The 
vast tracts lying between the Missouri River and the 
Rockies, rising slowly but constantly, has neces¬ 
sarily a diminishing rainfall as we go west, and 
higher. The rise is so gradual as to be impercepti¬ 
ble, but the grasses become shorter, the soil drier,, 
farms and homesteads fewer in number until agri- 
