1861 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
333 
Tim Bunker on Painting Buildings. 
COST OB’ PAINTING—HINTS ON COLOK, ETC.— 
STONE HOUSES—NEW ARGUMENT FOR 
SHADE TREES. 
Mr. Editor : Cleanliness is said to be next to 
.godliness. It certainly looks better to see a 
farmer’s house and barn all nicely painted, and 
it makes the paying of the bills rather easier, to 
know that paint is the cheapest outside cover¬ 
ing for all wooden buildings. So I am going to 
paint up, this Fall, notwithstanding the war. I 
rather guess I shall have something left to pay 
the bills, after the war taxes are paid. It is only 
five years ago that I painted up every thing I 
had on the farm, even to the ice house, and the 
■pig sty, and I suppose they might now stand 
^another year without much damage. But as I 
'.was ■coming home from Shadtown last week, 
Mrs. Bunker took occasion to remark that she 
’■thought the gable end of the house looked a lit- 
’•tle dingy and bare. At any rate, it did not look 
: so well as Mr. Slocum’s house, and she thought 
if a poor minister could afford to keep the par¬ 
sonage in so neat trim, that Timothy Bunker 
■could afford a new coat of paint. 
Now I half expect she was joking, for she 
knew well enough that I had paid the bills for 
painting the Shadtown parsonage, because Josiali 
and Sally, being young folks, had enough other 
use for their money. I didn’t say much, but I 
rather thought to myself, “ guess Mrs. Bunker’s 
getting jealous of her daughter.” 
But you see she is not going to have any oc¬ 
casion to think that an old bride is not just as 
good as a young one, though it is her own 
daughter, and all in the family. What made me 
more ready for painting was the fact that Jo. 
Dennis, the painter, was out of a job, complain¬ 
ing of the war, hard times, and nothing to do 
in his line. Now I like to see industrious peo¬ 
ple busy, earning money, and so I set Jo. at work. 
I find I learn something about painting every 
ftime I do up the job. It requires from five to ten 
per cent of the first cost of a building every fifth or 
s ixth year to keep it painted. This amounts 
■to a heavy tax, such as we should think oppres¬ 
sive if it was imposed upon us by the Govern¬ 
ment. I have been thinking that a great many 
■could save this expense by building with stone. 
In most parts of the country stones are plenty— 
granite, sand-stone, marble, that split easy, and 
are of handsome color. In many places, near 
good quarries, it would not cost any more to 
build of stone than of wood. Barns, and out¬ 
houses especially, might be made of stone, 
wholly or in part, to great advantage. Deacon 
Smith built a stone barn, ten years ago, and it 
keeps hay just as well as his old one, and has 
some advantages over wood. He claims that it 
is a great deal warmer‘in Winter, and of course 
It takes less fodder to carry his cattle through. 
It is cooler in Summer, and more comfortable 
for such animals as he keeps in the stable. It is 
more easily made rat-proof The walls are 
made of split granite laid in mortar, and will 
never need any repair or paint in his day, or in 
that of his grand-children. The first cost was 
only a third more than wood, and he thinks the 
interest on this difference is more than made up 
in the saving of fodder, repairs, and paint. 
We have a few stone houses in Hoolcertown, 
some of them the natural color of the granite, 
and some white washed, and they are the 
warmest and most comfortable houses among 
us. If I were going to build again, I should 
certainly use stone, for both house and barn. 
But most of us have built of wood, and we 
must do the best we can with the houses we 
have. There is one good thing about it, we can 
change the color of our houses as often as we 
please, and come out in a new fashion, while 
the stone house maintains the same aspect. 
“What color are you going to put on?” asked 
Seth Twiggs, as he looked over the gate and 
mingled the smoke of his pipe with the steam 
of the boiling oil. 
“ It won’t be blue I’ll warrant you,” said Jo- 
tham Sparrowgrass, without waiting for me to 
give neighbor Twiggs a civil reply. 
“ Guessjt’ll be horse color,” observed Jake 
Frink, who still remembers the cured horse- 
pond, and thinks every thing I do must have a 
shade of horse in it. 
When I was a boy, it was’nt much of a ques¬ 
tion as to what color a man would paint his 
house. I don’t think there were a dozen houses 
in Hookertown of any other color than white. 
It was claimed that white was the natural color 
of the lead, it was the least trouble to make, 
and looked best in the country, where it was so 
easy to surround the house with trees and shrubs. 
I have always noticed in journeying, that the 
more green you have around a white house, the 
better it looks. In the last twenty years a 
great change has come over the taste of the 
people, and somehow they seem to paint other 
colors a good deal more than white; yellow, 
drab, light brown, lilac and grey. This may be 
owing somewhat to an improvement in taste, 
but I guess fashion has quite as much to do 
with it. A man paints his house to please his 
neighbors rather than himself, and if brown is 
the rage he paints brown. I am saved all 
trouble about the color, for Mi’s. Bunker likes 
white and nothing else, so white it shall be. 
Our trees and shrubs have got so well grown, 
that white makes an agreeable contrast, and 
then it has always been white, and some of my 
friends might not know the house if it was any 
other color. The artists and architects make a 
good deal of fuss about blinds upon the outside, 
and the green color. But there is no substitute 
for a green Venetian blind upon the outside. It 
bars the heat, and lets in the breeze in Summer, 
and is always agreeable to the eye. Houses are 
built for comfort rather than for show, and I 
think comfort should be studied more than any¬ 
thing else. If we can make taste go along with 
it, that is so much clear gain. 
It makes a good deal of difference about the 
season of painting. In the heat of Summer, the 
oil seems to strike all into the wood, and the 
lead washes off sooner. If I could have my 
choice of weather, I would select the clear days 
of Spring or Fall, with a north-west breeze, if 
any. Then, with good materials, the paint 
dries gradually, makes a good body, and will 
be a great deal more durable. 
There is one thing I have just learned about 
painting, and it must be true as preaching. 
Paint upon a building well sheltered by trees, 
will last twice as long as paint in an exposed 
position. The gable end of the house, to which 
Mrs. Bunker called my attention, is almost bare, 
while the lower part has still a fair coat of paint. 
The reason is that the upper part of the house 
is fully exposed to the raking winds, while the 
lower part is partially protected by the barn 
and the shrubbery. On the west side of the 
house is a covered piazza. The paint sheltered 
by this, is almost as good as when it was first 
put on, five years ago. In violent storms the 
wind moves from forty to sixty miles an hour, 
and the rain is driven with this velocity against 
the sides of the house. Of course, there must 
be a good deal of mechanical violence done by 
this continual battering of the rain drops. A. 
friend, who has three sides of his house shel¬ 
tered by trees, is of the opinion that a coat of 
paint will last twice as long as upon the fourth 
side, which is without any protection. Trees 
break off the winds, and are of as great advan¬ 
tage in preserving a house as they are in warm¬ 
ing it in Winter. They should not stand too 
near a dwelling, so as to make it damp and un¬ 
healthy, but at a distance of thirty feet or more, 
they are a great comfort and ornament. In sav¬ 
ing both paint and firewood, the evergreens 
have a great advantage over the deciduous 
trees. Their foliage is so thick and fine, that 
they break the force of the winds more com¬ 
pletely, and sift out the cold. 
This will be a new argument for planting 
trees around farm buildings, and one of the 
strongest that can be brought forward. A man 
will save enough in paint in five years, to pay 
for his trees and the cost of planting them. 
Yours to command, 
Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
Hookertown, Oct. 10th, 1861. 
----—o©—-. —-- 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Give the Boys Tools. 
Yes, give them tools—not merely the needful 
implements for cultivating the garden—but give 
them a few good carpenter’s tools, with a bench 
on which to use them. Let their first attempt 
be upon a chest in which to keep the saw, ham¬ 
mer, bit-stock and bits, planes, square, rule, 
chisels, gimlets, awls, screw-driver, etc., with a 
separate hand box to set in, containing apart¬ 
ments for screws, and different sized nails, brads, 
etc. Let the middle partition of the box be a high 
board having a convenient handle cut out of the 
top to carry it by. The next attempt may be 
on a house or clothes chest, regularly dove-tailed 
together, and provided with a “ till ” in one or 
both ends. Our “ blue chest ” made while a 
small boy, will ever remain as one of the “ house¬ 
hold treasures.” A hand-sled, set of trucks, or 
wheel-barrow will soon follow, after which some 
of the more useful farm implements, such as ax, 
hoe, or fork handles may readily be made, or 
sundry carpenter jobs attended to, such as put¬ 
ting new siding or shingles upon the house, set¬ 
ting glass, making and attaching water gutters 
to the eaves, etc. We could mention instances 
where persons without serving an apprentice¬ 
ship, but with a fondness for and readiness 
in handling tools which frequent use begets, 
have constructed most of the implements upon 
the farm, not excepting the ox-cart and hay 
wagon. Others have built a barn, finished off 
rooms in the house, painted the buildings out¬ 
side and inside, doing the work at a leisure time 
when there was little else requiring attention. 
Therefore we say again, give the boys a set of 
tools to amuse themselves with, and the money 
will be well invested. . An Old Boy. 
Remarks.— All right; give the boys good 
tools, and a place to work in. But “ Old Boy” 
puts them ahead too fast. Before setting them 
to work upon a tool chest, let them develop 
their skill by constructing all sorts of boyish 
toys, blocks, rude boats and ships, and sundry 
playthings. Let them begin as soon as they can 
handle the simplest tool without cutting their 
fingers. A gimlet and piece of board is about the 
best safe implement to start with. Early practice 
will develop mechanical skill and taste, which 
will be of great utility all through life.— Ed. 
