342 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[August, 
good strong batten shutters made and hung to all the win¬ 
dows on the inside of first story with proper fastenings 
and back catches; the windows on the east side, 12 
lights, each 9x13; 3 windows in cellar, 6 lights, 10x12, 
with shutters hung at the top on the inside. 
Doors outside, made of narrow clear tongued and grooved 
li w hite pine plank, planed both sides, and strongly nail¬ 
ed to 3 battens each ; four of the single doors and one pair 
of the double doors, each to have a sash of 3 lights 8 by 
14 in. glass, set in, and molded on the outside ; front door 
8 feet by 9 feet high; end door 7 feet by 8 feet high ; all 
other outside doors 3 feet by 7 feet high; inside doors, 
such size as may be required by proprietor, of 1 inch 
boards planed both sides, longued and grooved, and 
strongly battened. Four octagon and circular blind ven¬ 
tilators in the sub-pediments, each 2 feet diameter ; the 
blind slats to be put in to prevent water and snow from 
driving in. Floors to be laid with li in. milled spruce 
plank strongly nailed to the beams ; carriage floors laid 
with 2 inch spruce plank worked; floors in cow and horse 
stalls to be overlaid with spruce plank 2 inches thick, 
tongued and grooved and to incline 3 or 4 inches; a 
suitable plank gutter to convey the urine to the manure 
cellar ; two trap doors from the horse and cow stalls to ma¬ 
nure cellar, made double and strongly secured ; trap door 
in the carriage room to vegetable cellar, 3 by 5 feet, and 
one directly over it of same size ; one in the vegetable 
room 2} ft. by 6 ft.; and one 2 by 21 feet from feed room 
to vegetable cellar, all to be battened and strongly made ; 
also trap doors to let hay from second story to feed room, 
and straw down behind horses and cows. All partitions 
Detween rooms on first floor set with milled spruce plank 
planed both sides and strongly nailed top and bottom and 
in the middle to a 2x4 planed strip ; partitions up stairs of 
boards | thick, milled and planed one side ; partitions to 
fowl room set with 2x4 strips, Id inches between centers, 
for plastering; division between horse stalls of 2 inch 
plar.k, 6 feet high, hip posts to be C in. round, and secured 
to the floor and ceiling; division in the cow stalls, 4} 
feet high ; fronts of all the stalls 4 ft. high ; the outside of 
horse and cow stalls lined up with milled spruce plank. 
Four gates, 41 feet high, in the several stalls. All the bins 
and cribs made of If milled plank planed both sides and 
strongly put up ; the slides anti two ventilators made off 
milled boards planed on both sides with If by 4 in. bands 
on the outside. The stall ventilators to connect with one 
of the semi-pediment blinds for an outlet. Stairs made 
strong with 2 in. strings, If in. steps, lined with milled 
boards on the under side, the sides and top enclosed ; a 
strong step ladder from vegetable room to cellar ; and a 
movable step ladder from carriage floor to vegetable cel¬ 
lar under trapdoor. The manure cellar to be covered with 
common white pine plank, the joints battened ; the out¬ 
side area to incline ; and to have a trap door of sufficient 
size strongly hung—suitable plank bridges to the carriage 
doors ; to be a ledge ladder 10 inches wide from the out¬ 
side, through the horse stall, to the fowl room above, en¬ 
closed with slats, for the fowl entrance to their room, 
which is to be fitted up with roosts made of 2 in. round 
sassafras polas, and laying boxes 4 tiers high and 5 long, 
open in front, the holes 7.in. by 8 in., lids on the back, 
hung by butts and secured with buttons ; boxes 14 inch 
cube inside. 
Large doors hung by 30 inch straps and hooks, second 
size doors by 20 inch straps and hooks, both pairs secured 
by swivel bars fitted to work with ease ; all other outside 
doors and two pairs shutters in hay loft hung by 16 inch 
straps and hooks, and to have good strong thumb latches 
to the doors and iron hooks to the shutters ; three of the 
outside doors to have good 0 inch dead locks with brass 
keys, the other outside doors to have strong bolts ; inte¬ 
rior doors hung by II L hinges, large size, and secured 
by wrought thumb latches ; gates hung by 4 in. butts, and 
secured by Cinch round bolls ; trap doors to cellar and loft 
hung by straps and plates, and all the trap doors to have 
good strong flush Idling rings ; manure cellar trap door 
hung by strap hinges, cellar sashes to hang by butts and 
be secured by bolts. 
Painting.— All the outside of the building and the in¬ 
sides’ of all the outside doors, window shutters both sides, 
all the partitions and divisions in first story, to have one 
good coat of white lead and linseed oil, and one coat of 
best zinc paint and linseed oil put on at proper times; 
the tin roof and leaders to have two coats of Ellery’s 
India Rubber paint. 
The building is to be complete in every part; and if 
any thing is omitted, necessary to complete it accord¬ 
ing to the drawings, it is to be done by the contractor 
without extra charge. 
Contract with Builder. 
Memorandum of an agreement made this first day of 
-, 18G0, by and between-, of the first 
part, and-Builder, of the second part, in 
the words to wit : 
The party of the second part, for a consideration here- 
in-after-named, doth agree for himself, his heirs and as¬ 
signs, to furnish all the materials and labor required, and 
erect and build up for the party of the first part, a Barn 
and Stable combined, according to the specifications 
hereto annexed, with plans and elevations accompanying 
the same, in every part, on or before the —th day of- 
next, accidents by fire excepted. And for the true and 
faithful performance of all the above and singular, on the 
part or the party of the second part, the party of the first 
part, doth agree for himself, his heirs and assigns, to pay 
or cause to be paid to the party of the second part, the 
sum of-hundred and-dollars,* lawful 
money, in several payments as follows: when the building 
is enclosed one third of the full amount ; when floors are 
laid and one coat of paint on tho outside, one third of the 
full amount, and the remaining one third of the whole 
amount when the building is completed and approved by 
the superintendent. 
Any alterations that may be required by the party of 
the first part, shall be made by the party of the second 
part, and the price agreed upon by both parlies before do¬ 
ing the work, otherwise such alteration will be consider¬ 
ed a part of the contract. 
And it is hereby agreed by both of the contracting par¬ 
ties, that any difference of opinion as to quality of mate¬ 
rials, the charge for any extra materials or labor, the 
damage to the proprietor by any failure on the part of the 
builder to complete the structure in the manner, and at 
the time specified, etc., etc., shall be referred to the su¬ 
perintending architect, whose decision shall be accepted 
as final. 
Signed-, L. S. Party of the First Part. 
-, L. S. Party of the Second Part. 
Flushing, N. Y.,-, 1860. 
* The contract was first drawn in this form, but subsequently 
the painting and some other items were assumed by the pro¬ 
prietor, for the purpose of experimenting with paint, etc. The 
whole cost of the structure complete, including alterations, 
architect's fees, etc., was fourteen hundred and eighty four 
dollars and sixty cents. 
Chickens Versus Insects. 
The birds will capture many of these pests of 
the garden, and so will toads. Bottles of sweet¬ 
ened water hung around on trees and bushes and 
vines, will entrap multitudes. Boxes covered 
with glass, or millinet, or oiled cloth, will protect 
melons and squashes from the striped bug and 
his cousins. But the old fashioned method of 
using chickens is one of the best. Bring the 
coops into the garden, and keep them there until 
the chickens are as large as quails : after that 
they will begin to scratch and do other injury, 
and should be put out. Bring in new broods as 
fast as the olhers are removed. If grasshoppers 
invade the garden, large chickens should be kept 
to fight them; and they will do it effectually. 
-■«»—«-—=3 O 03*—-*—«--■ 
Training the Peach Tree. 
The following, translated from the Revue Hor- 
ticole, contains principles applicable to the care 
of Peach trees in any climate. The great ex¬ 
tremes of temperature in this country render 
proper pruning even more necessary than in 
France. Our fervid Summers often induce a 
growth of wood which must suffer severely dur¬ 
ing the inclement months, unless checked and 
hardened by cutting back.— Ed. 
Left to itself, the Peach tree, whether budded 
or not, pushes vigorously for the first two years. 
In the third, its lower branches near the fork be¬ 
come weak, and decay, and vigor is only main¬ 
tained in the extremities of the main branches. 
The evil is not great at first, but it increases 
every year; the upper shoots make less growth, 
and by the Spring of the third year, one-third at 
least of the shoots perish. At the age of eight 
or ten years, a Peach tree that has never been 
pruned, exhibits only a few weak twigs situated 
at the extremities of the strongest branches. In 
violent gales, such as we experience in the south 
of France, the branches, bending under a load of 
fruit, are split from the stem ; the fruit is lost, 
and one may consider himself fortunate if the 
tree survive the mutilation. If the splitting of thu 
tree does not cause its death, yet it leaves it one¬ 
sided, and the portion left is so much more ex¬ 
posed to the action of the wind, that, by its swing¬ 
ing, the fruit is tossed to a considerable distance, 
and is destroyed, 
When the Peach tree is not pruned, its branch¬ 
es droop owing to the weight of the fruit, and the 
cultivation of the ground is consequently much 
more expensive because draft animals can not 
pass under the trees, and the soil lias to be work¬ 
ed by the spade. Now ten good workmen would 
scarcely do so much in a day as one would in the 
same time with a plow drawn by good cattle ; 
and I hold that the great secret of successful 
cultivation consists in obtaining the greatest and 
best amount of produce with the least expendi¬ 
ture of time and money. 
Having pointed out the evil, I now proceed to 
the remedy which with me has proved successful. 
The art of pruning consists in aiding Nature. 
Remove from the tree that which only weakens 
it; induce a flow of sap towards the weak parts ; 
or maintain, in short, a proper equilibrium between 
the production of fruit and that of young wood 
for bearing in the following season, for the Peach 
bears on the one-year-old shoots, and never on 
the older wood. 
My orchard is situated in a plain ; the soil is a 
light, very deep, sandy clay ; the trees are plant¬ 
ed in rows 13 feet apart each way ; the intervals 
are sown with Lucern, but not within 2£ feet of 
the trees; the ground is plowed in Spring. 
Every third year when the roots of the trees are 
uncovered, I put to the foot of each tree some 
half-rotten dung, and over this two good handfuls 
of half-slacked lime. Since I adopted this pro¬ 
ceeding, the trees have made shoots from 30 to 
40 inches long. 
If we leave a Peach tree for a year without 
pruning it must suffer from the cutting necessa¬ 
ry to bring it into proper form. In the second 
year I commence giving the branches their right 
direction. On account of the violent and pro¬ 
longed high winds which prevail in the south of 
France I limit the higlit of the stems to about 2i- 
feet, so that for several years there is no neces¬ 
sity for using a ladder. 
When a young shoot is cut with a very sharp 
knife, gumming does not take place. I am no 
advocate for disbudding, which sooner or later 
induces that disease. 
Supposing we have before us a Peach tree three 
years old, and which has been allowed full liber¬ 
ty of growth. Before touching the tree it is 
necessary to understand why such and such 
branches should be cut; and the form which the 
tree ought to take should be constantly kept ire 
view. 
1st. I commence by removing all the horizon¬ 
tal and drooping branches from the outside of the 
principal branches. I do so because these branch¬ 
es, being most exposed to the air, extend much, 
and cause the tree to lose its form by the weight 
of fruit which they bear. The weight being more 
easily borne on a perpendicular than on a horizon¬ 
tal support, it is well to preserve for the princi¬ 
pal branches those that are the most upright. 
I suppress all the exterior brandies in order to 
give the tree a goblet form. On this form the 
wind acts generally, and consequently it offers 
more resistance and less elasticity than a single 
branch, so that the fruit is not so liable to be 
shaken off. 
2d. The tree being formed, it is no longer nec¬ 
essary to encourage the vigor of the tree or the 
flow of sap chiefly to the extremities of the prin¬ 
cipal blanches, but rather to the branches which 
produce succession shoots ; for the more these 
