1876.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
99 
strip is laid upon the sill with the smooth edge 
even with the outside, and nailed down to it with 
tenpenny nails, and another strip is nailed in the 
same way even with the inside edge. The ends of 
the strips are sawn otf 
square. Then other strips 
are nailed upon these, un¬ 
til eighteen or twenty 
inches high. Then cross¬ 
pieces are nailed on to 
bind the walls together. 
Thus there are two walls, 
smooth upon the outsides 
and uneven inside, and 
with an air space, wider or 
narrower as the case may 
be, in between them. 
Figure 2 shows the char¬ 
acter of the wall. The 
ends of the strips are 
overlapped at the corners. 
But to save the cost of 
lathing the walls, the 
strips may be laid so that 
the edge of every alter¬ 
nate one projects half an 
inch beyond the one next 
to it, both upon the inside 
and outside, if desired. 
This leaves a rough sur¬ 
face, upon which the 
plaster may be directly 
laid without any lath. 
The window and door¬ 
frames are built in as the 
wall is laid, and when the 
top of the first story is 
reached, the joists are 
laid and built in, so that 
the whole is remarkably solid. The outside may 
be covered with dressed boards, or plastered and 
“ rough cast.” As the work can be done by any 
person who can drive a nail, a house of this kind, 
in some localities, will cost but very little, and no 
skilled labor is needed but to make the doors and 
windows, and to fit the roof. 
An Awl for Mending Harness. 
shoemaker’s hemp are gathered into one cord, and 
well waxed. The loose cord is then rubbed over 
the knee in one way with the palm of the left hand, 
while one end is held in the right hand. As the 
cord is twisted by this rubbing, it is rolled up into 
a ball, or gathered into a loop by the fingers of the 
right hand, until it is all twisted, when it is again 
waxed. In this manner of sewing, no bristles are 
needed for the ends of the threads, as it is not 
necessary to pass it through the holes in the leather. 
-■< » ■ i wr - - 
Revolving Milk Shelves for a Dairy. 
MILK SHELVES AX BEACON FAltJI DAIRY. 
Hollow Walls for Houses. 
A double wall, with an air space of two or three 
inches in the center, is a greater obstacle to the 
passage of heat (and consequently of cold) than a 
solid wall, although that be much thicker. When¬ 
ever it is desirable to have a house, greenhouse, or 
other building, impervious to heat or cold, or 
dampness, it should be built with hollow walls. 
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Fig. 1.— HOLLOW WALL OF BRICK. 
There are many methods of securing this hollow 
air space in walls. In brick, stone, or concrete 
houses, it is made by what is known as- “ furring” : 
that is, fastening strips of wood upon the inner 
side of the walls, and lathing and plastering upon 
them. In frame-houses, the spaces are made by 
lining the inside of the house with paper, felt, or 
board sheathing, upon which the lath and plaster is 
laid, by building up brick set on edge with mortar 
between the lathing and the outside covering. 
But where the wall can be built hollow, it is far 
the best plan to do so. A hollow brick-wall may 
be built as in the section illustrated at figure 1. 
Fig. 2.— HOLLOW WALL OF EDGING STRIPS. 
There are two walls, each half a brick thick, with 
a space of four inches between them. This takes 
very little more material than a wall of one brick 
thick, but is stronger when tied in the manner 
hereafter described, and is warmer and drier than 
greater thickness solid wall. The outside and in¬ 
side walls are tied together by cross bricks placed 
here and there, and laid two inches upon each wall. 
Thus there is a space of two inches upon the wall 
left at each end of the “ tie ” brick. This is filled 
in by a chip taken from the end of a brick, and not 
quite two inches thick, so that when it is laid in the 
empty space, there is half an inch or so between it 
and the end of the tie brick. This breaks the con¬ 
tinuity of the outside and the inside of the wall, 
and makes the air space as nearly perfect as possi¬ 
ble. There should be a sufficient number of “ tie ” 
bricks built in the wall, to bind it together substan¬ 
tially. This may safely be left to the judgment of 
the mason, but under ordinary circumstances, a tie 
to every three courses of brick, and for every three 
or four feet in length, would be ample for strength. 
Some years ago we saw a very ingenious method 
of building a wooden house with double walls out 
of what is a waste material, and which can be pro¬ 
cured for nothing in those localities where there 
are saw-mills. When boards are sawn from the 
tne boards fit for sale and use. These u edgings” 
are generally thrown out of saw-mills that are run 
by water, or in which the saw-dust suffices for the 
fuel, and may be had in many places for carting. 
These strips may be used in building by first laying 
the sills and lower beams in the usual manner, but 
not making any mortises for the studs. Then a 
A convenient awl for repairing harness may be 
made in the following manner. Take a broad- 
pointed awl of the common sort, grind the point to 
an angle, and cut with a fine file, or what is better, 
a fine saw for metals, such as is furnished with the 
common scroll-sawing machine for brackets, a nar¬ 
row slot or groove, deep enough to car- 
ry a waxed end. The cut should bo j|I||||k 
made as shown in the engraving. This Jp/f III 
groove should be smooth upon the III j 11 
edges, so as not to cut the thread. To I : If 
work with this awl, it is forced through 1 Jiff 
the leather in the usual manner, and a 1 ml 
waxed thread is drawn through, so that 1| "jj 
half of it is upon each side of the article |m ||| 
to be stitched. The awl is then with- Sl| ||| 
drawn. It is then pushed through || 
where the next hole should come, and 1 j I 
the thread upon the near side is carried 
through with it, as before. The awl is 1 
then withdrawn, leaving a loop of the f 
thread upon the further side of the | 
leather or strap. The other thread is !; 
passed through the loop, and the looped ' 
thread is drawn back again, so that the ; 
two threads are crossed about the cen- ; 
ter of the hole. Then this is continued, ' 
until the work is finished. It will be 
noticed that the sewing is in fact like 1 
that of a sewing machine, and after a 1 
little practice it will be found that the harness 
stitching may be done without dropping AV ' h ' 
the first thread from the awl, but the thread will 
be drawn back again, after the other one has been 
put through the loop, and in drawing the threads 
tight, the awl will be slipped along the first thread, 
to get sufficient slack for the sewing. To make the 
thread for sewing harness, six or eight strands of 
On a recent visit to Beacon Farm, we saw a new 
arrangement of shelves in the dairy, which has 
been drawn and engraved for the benefit of our 
readers. The whole affair is so well shown in the 
illustration, that little description is needed. It 
consists of an eight-sided central shaft, provided 
with an iron pin at the bottom, which works in a 
socket in the floor beneath ; the upper part is car¬ 
ried through the ventilator in the upper floor. 
Right arms are mortised into the shaft to support 
the shelves, of which there are six. Strips are car¬ 
ried from the upper part of the shaft over the 
edges of the shelves, as a further support to them. 
The shelves, which arc about 15 inches apart, are 
made of lattice-work, thus furnishing ventilation 
to the bottoms of the pans. The lowest shelf is 
sis feet in diameter, and about two feet above the 
floor. The whole frame work revolves upon the 
pin at the bottom, and is readily moved around as 
the pans of milk are placed upon the shelves. 
This arrangement makes a great economy of space. 
The pans are not shown upon the shelves, so that 
the structure may be seen, although at our visit 
every shelf was fully occupied. The side shelves 
seen in the engraving have been before described ; 
(hey too are very economical of space. The whole 
of the shelves are well painted in pure white. 
Cattle Killed by Rifle Bullets.— A singular 
case of lead poisoning has occurred on a field in 
Scotland, which adjoins a rifle range. Four cows 
which pastured in the field died, and on searching 
for the cause, a quantity of spent bullets from the 
rifle range were found in their stomachs. As rifle 
shooting is now becoming popular and frequent 
in this country, those farmers whose cattle graze 
upon or near the ranges, should exercise caution. 
