176 
AMEBICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[JXJNE, 
the window and door frames. These should be 
nailed to studs, which should he nailed to the 
floor timbers, and placed plumb. When plumb, 
the top should be staj'ed to the floor joist, by a 
good stiff stay at each side of the frame. Where 
the space, from window to window, or door, is 
too long, place in a stud with a straight edge, 
exactly flush with the inside of the wall. 
These sticks are of great use to keep the 
wall plumb and to nail the mop-board, 
pictures, etc., to. It will not do any injury to 
put in straight edges, as many as you choose, 
on the inside of the wall, but none outside. 
The window and door frames should be set in 
1 § inches from the front face of the wall, and a 
beveled strip should be sawed out and nailed on, 
so as to come out flush with the outside, and give 
a beveled corner, instead of a square one to the 
concrete. This, also, is a guide for the outside 
curbing, which can be tacked to the frame. 
Having the windows and doors set, make 
moulds for the chimney flues; they may be 14 
inches wide and 4 inches thick. Take two- 
inch strips for the sides, and nail on inch boards. 
Let the strips be 24 feet long, and bore a hole 
at the top of each, through which an old broom 
handle may be run, to draw up the mould by. 
The moulds should be about 22 or 23 inches 
long. They are drawn up each time before the 
curbing is loosened for the next course. 
The first course will be 20 inches high, or the 
whole width of the curbing boards. The mortar 
should be made thin, so as to pour from a pail, 
and all the stones possible worked in. It is 
better to lay the stones in, in some order. After 
the first course, the boards should be raised but 
15 inches, letting the rods rest on the top of the 
last course. The inside board can be tacked to 
the window studs, pieces in the wall, etc., as 
above stated. When the boards are raised, turn 
up the nuts, having a stick in one hand just the 
length your -wall is thick, place this in between 
the boards and turn up the nuts. Five inches of 
the board must remain lapping on the last course. 
A good plumb and level should always be at 
hand. Three or four courses per week will be all 
that it is advisable to lay. Never loosen up the 
curbing when there is appearance of rain. If you 
wish to use stone window sills, leave a place, and 
put them in afterward. The caps should be put 
in when you come to them. The curbing board 
can be cut out, so as to let them project out, far 
enough to receive the stucco. After you have 
passed the window, nail the pieces in again. 
Make the staging strong, and fill the first story 
from the outside. It will be necessary to have 
a scaffold on the outside to raise and adjust the 
boards. The scaffold poles will require to be 
well stayed. Drive stakes into the ground to 
fasten the stays to. This scaffold can be used 
by the carpenters, to cornice, &c. Also for the 
masons, to put on the stucco. 
The Stucco should be put on by some per¬ 
son who understands the business. This is one 
of the most important things, for the good looks 
of the house. It is not necessary to ‘ fur ’ out for 
the wall. Plaster directly upon the ‘ gravel wall.’ 
Pains should be taken to “ anchor” the timbers 
the same as in brick houses. Do not hurry 
too fast, and work only in fair weather. A wall, 
twenty-five or six feet high, can be built in two 
months. Use care in moving the curbing 
boards, and be exact with each course. Those 
studs, or straight edges, put into the inside of 
the wall, should be “ anchored.” This can be 
done by nailing on pieces of boards, to run back 
into the wall, 8 or 10 inches; make the ending in 
the wall the largest. A person with ingenuity 
will take my ideas, and go on with little trouble. 
Tim Bunker on the Pickle Fever in 
Hookertown. 
Mb. Editor :—“ I knew it would be so,” said 
Mrs. Bunker, raising the gold-bowed spectacles 
from her e 5 'es, as I came home from holding 
court one night, “ I knew it would be so. That 
paper is just like a whispering gallery, Timothy. 
Every thing you do and say in Hookertown is 
echoed from one end of the land to the other. 
Since you have been gone, three letters have 
come about pickles, and Seth Twiggs and Jake 
Frink have been in, and I guess Mr. Spooner 
has a touch of the fever, for he preached Sun¬ 
day about the ‘ Lodge in a Garden of Cucum¬ 
bers.’ ” 
I had not more than got done supper when 
Seth Twiggs made his appearance in a cloud of 
very blue smoke, and he hadn’t got the first 
question fairly out before Jake Frink and Kier 
from the White Oaks, knocked at the door, and 
Dea. Smith and Jeremiah Sparrowgrass fol¬ 
lowed. Think’s I to myself, I guess I shall 
have a meetin’ to-night, whether the minister 
does or not. It was lecture night, and I sup¬ 
pose the deacon stopt in on his way. I am 
afraid he didn’t hear the bell, for he didn’t 
start when it had done tolling. 
“ Now,” said Seth Twiggs, bringing his pipe 
down on his knee with an emphasis that would 
have smashed it if it had been worth anything, 
“Du ye really think three hundred dollars can 
be made on an acre of good Hookertown mea¬ 
dow, in pickles ?” 
“Is it clean cash?” asked Jake Frink with a 
dubious look. “ Them fellers as deals in pickles 
is apt to be kind of sharp.” 
“ Du ye think there is any chance for us up in 
White Oaks, ’Squire, to go into pickle business?” 
inquired Kier Frink, the hopeful son of Jake. 
“ Fellow-citizens,” says I, “ don’t all talk at 
once, and I’ll try and answer your questions. 
“ I’ve got three letters come in to-day’s mail, on 
the pickle business, and I haven’t had time to 
digest them yet. The policy of going into the 
cucumber trade depends altogether upon the 
facility of a market. You might grow cucum¬ 
bers well enough in Iowa, but if you had to 
send them to New-York to market, it wouldn’t 
pay very well even at two dollars a hundred. 
A man must be within a short distance of a 
pickle factory if he purposes to deliver his crop 
from his own market wagon, or within easy 
reach of the factory by rail or steamer. Steam¬ 
boat carriage is better and cheaper than railroad. 
Twenty-five cents freight on a barrel, probably, 
would not interfere with reasonable profits. 
The pay of the pickle men is as good as that of 
any other class of manufacturers. There are 
few in the business; their profits are supposed 
to be large. It is ready pay and clean cash, if 
you make that bargain with them. Pay as you 
go is the rule in pretty much all kinds of busi¬ 
ness now. That is one of the advantages of the 
war. A good many other folks besides the 
rebels have found out just where they stand.” 
“ Where can we get seed ?” asked Dea. Smith. 
“ That is one of the most important things in 
the business. I do not know of any one who 
makes a business of growing the seed to sell, 
but almost every farmer who has a pickle patch 
grows his own seed, and thinks it a little better 
than any thing else. If a man is going into the 
pickle business, it will pay him to visit West¬ 
chester County. He can hardly go amiss of 
farmers who have pickle patches in Yonkers, 
East Cliffiter, West Chester, West Farms, and 
other towns. He can inquire for Noadiah 
Tubbs, who will tell him all about it. If he 
does not want to be at that trouble, he should 
send to the nearest good seed store. I have 
raised fine cucumbers from just such seed.” 
“ Do you salt the cucumbers before you sell 
them ?” inquired Sparrowgrass, with a refresh¬ 
ing greenness. 
“No, Sir. That is the manufacturer’s busi¬ 
ness. He wants fresh picked cucumbers to 
make pickles out of. Of course you do not 
want tight oak barrels, like whiskey casks, to 
pack your cucumbers in. The farmer generally 
buys up a lot of cheap flour bari'els, when he is 
in town, at the baker’s or grocer’s, or at the 
hotel, and these, with a little coopering, will 
answer his purpose for a single season. They 
are sent to the purchaser or consignee, by rail or 
boat, full of cucumbers, and sent back empty 
by the same conveyance. The owner’s name 
or initials should be put upon them.” 
“ What sort of a bargain docs the farmer make 
with the pickle man ?” asked Seth Twiggs. 
“That is just as he can light upon chances. 
If he is near the factory, he agrees to deliver at 
so much per thousand. If he sends by other 
conveyance, he agrees to deliver them at the 
nearest depot, or landing, or to pay the freight 
clear through, as the case may be. The terms 
will vary according to circumstances. Some 
prefer to send their crop to a commission mer¬ 
chant and run the risk of the markets.” 
“ How about sorting ?” asked Kier Frink. 
“ They commonly have a shed or hovel for 
this purpose where all the cucumbers are brought 
as fast as picked, and are assorted into three 
sizes, the largest for eating, and the two smaller 
for pickles. The ‘ nubbins ’ and ‘ yellow boys ’ 
will have to be thrown away or the pickle man 
will do it for you. If picked regularly, however, 
there will not be many unmerchantable.” 
One of my correspondents wants to know if 
night soil is good manure for this crop. He 
says: “I have got 261 one-horse loads of night 
soil, about three-fourths of it is composted with 
muck, the other fourth is almost the pure article. 
Shall I plow in the former and put half a shovel 
full of the latter into the hill. My land is a 
clay loam—is that right ?” 
The trouble with the pure article is that it is 
quite too strong, and would be likely to rot the 
seed unless great pains were, taken to mix it 
with the soil at the time of planting. I should 
prefer the compost in the hill, and either com¬ 
post the rest or spread it, and plow it in. Such 
a quantity of night soil ought to put four acres 
in good condition. As to the preparation of land, 
look at Diah Tubbs’ views in back numbers of 
the Agnculturist. A sandy loam is considered 
the best for all kinds of vines, but heavy crops 
are grown on clay lands. With night soil good 
pickles can be raised on any well drained land. 
He also wants to know who are reliable men 
engaged in this business. In Wilson’s Business 
Directory he will find a list of pickle dealers, 
the most of whom have factories either in the 
city or out of town. Provost & Wells have a 
factory at West Mt. Vernon, and Broadmeadow 
& Stout at Dobbs’ Ferry. The business is in 
very few hands, and judging from the large ad¬ 
vance made upon the raw article, must yield a 
fair profit. Probably there is room for the en¬ 
largement of the business and for nerv men to 
make a living. Every man must judge for him¬ 
self whom to deal with, and whether the pickle 
business will pay. 
Hookerlownt Conn., ) Yours to command, 
3/ay lOt / i , 1885. j Timothv Bvnkes Esq. 
