56 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
inch between them. The box is then complete. 
Two will tit lengthwise into a 36-inch wagon-box, 
and if the wagon-box is 14 ft. long, 24 boxes will 
cover the bottom of it; 24 more may be placed up¬ 
on the lower ones, making a load of 43 bushels. 
For a hundred boxes there will be needed 20 boards, 
or 240 feet of face measure of lumber, and 200 bat¬ 
tens of 12 feet long, or 300 feet board measure. 
Sixpenny nails should be used to nail on the lath. 
As the corn is husked, or the potatoes or apples 
gathered, the boxes should be filled. The empty 
boxes are placed upon the field, where they will be 
needed, from the wagon, and the full ones are then 
picked up and loaded. Thus half the boxes are 
being filled, while the other half are being carried 
off and emptied. When out of use they should be 
piled carefully away in the tool-house. They may 
be piled away iu the root-cellar, filled with pota¬ 
toes, one above the other, very neatly and com¬ 
pactly. If there are several varieties grown, each 
may be thus kept separate from the others, by 
chalking the names of the variety upon the ends of 
the boxes. The cost of 100 of these boxes would 
be about $15 for lumber and nails, and 5 days’ 
work in cutting the stuff and putting it together. 
With care they may be made to last many years, so 
that the yearly cost is a trifle, which will be repaid 
turist has already given directions for building a 
cheap kind of kiln, known as the intermittent kihi, 
(Sept., 1871,) and now, in response to several re¬ 
quests, presents plans and directions for permanent 
_kilns. Lime is one of 
those necessaries, for 
which a cheap supply 
never fails to create a 
large demand. A per¬ 
manent kiln of some 
kind is the cheapest 
method of producing it. 
One of these kilns, as 
shown in fig. 1, may be 
built in a hill-side. Au 
excavation is made in 
the hill about 15 feet 
deep and 14 feet in dia¬ 
meter at the top, gradu¬ 
ally tapering in the form of au inverted cone, until it 
is 5 feet in diameter. From thence the excavation is 
carried straight downwards for about 4 feet. In 
this excavation the walls of the kiln are built of 
sand-stone, trap-rock, or hard brick, or some re¬ 
fractory material, that will resist the necessary heat. 
Commencing at the bottom, the ash-pit, A, is built 
up square with upright walls, the floor sloping for¬ 
Fig. 2.— FRONT OF ARCH. 
Fig. 5.— ELEVATION OF IMPROVED PERMANENT KILN. 
many times over by the saving in time and labor in 
handling the crop each season. 
Permanent Lime-Kilns. 
In many places where limestone underlies the 
country for miles, and rises in bare cliffs on every 
hand in the midst of forests and timber, furnishing 
abundant fuel, lime is often a scarce article. The 
reason for this is that the lime is burned in kilns 
of the poorest and most temporary character, and 
Fig. 1.—SECTION OF PERMANENT KILN. 
those who produce the lime make no money, while 
its use is seriously restricted. A knowledge as to 
the building of lime-kilns is much needed. Scarce¬ 
ly a week passes without a request is made for in¬ 
formation as to the building of them. The Aarwul- 
wards, and an open front, as shown in fig. 1. At 
the top of the ash-pit the wall is gradually drawn 
in a few inches on each side, to prevent the lime 
from clogging the throat. Across the pit, the bear¬ 
ing bars, 6, 6, of cast iron, 3 inches by 21, are built 
into the walls in such a manner that they may be 
drawn out when required. Upon these the draw¬ 
bars, e, rest. These are round wrought-iron rods, 
11 inch in diameter, with spaces of 1 inch between 
them. They should 
have an eye upon the 
near end, so that a bar 
may be inserted with 
which to draw them out 
with a twisting motion 
when they are held by 
the pressure of the lime 
upon them. Above 
these bars a strong 
wrought-iron frame, 3 
inches wide, seen at d, 
is built into the wall, 
through which the fire 
may be lighted, or a bar 
inserted to loosen the 
lime when choked in the 
throat. An arched opening, 6 feet high, is made 
at the front of the kiln, iu which a man can stand 
upright, to draw the lime or to light the fire. This 
archway is seen at E. In fig. 2 a front view of all 
these parts is given. Above this arch the wall is 
carried up double, being filled in with loose rubble. 
In front of the kiln a shed is made and roofed with 
Fig. 3.—PLAN OF IMPROVED PERMANENT KILN. 
board. In this the lime is stored and protected 
from the weather. To start a kiln, some kindling 
wood is thrown down upon the fire bars, and a sup¬ 
ply of fuel, either wood or coal, is placed upon 
this to a depth sufficient to start a good fire. Some 
limestone in small pieces is then thrown upon the 
fuel, and the tire'is lighted. The iron frame is then 
closed with bricks and plastered with clay, or an 
iron damper is fixed to it and closed. When it is 
well started, more fuel, then more limestone is 
thrown on, until the kiln is filled, and as the mass 
burns down, this is repeated, the kiln being kept 
filled to the top. A circular path, or platform, is 
made around the top of the kiln, from which it is 
filled from wheelbarrows or from dump-carts. In 
feeding such a kiln as this, the proportions are six 
of limestone to one of fuel. One cord of wood is 
equal to one ton of coal. After this kiln is once 
started, it needs no re-kindling for months together; 
as the materials sink down, they are replenished at 
the top of the kiln in the proportions mentioned. 
As soon as the lime is sufficiently burned at the 
bottom, which may be tested by drawing two or 
three of the bars, it may be drawn regularly every 
twelve hours, by taking out a few of the draw-bars 
and allowing the burned lime to fall into the ash¬ 
pit, from which it is pulled with an iron hoe or rake 
into the shed to cool. The bars are then driven 
back into their places again, and left until the next 
drawing. An improved perpetual kiln, suitable for 
a large and permanent business, is shown in figs. 3, 
4, and 5. Fig. 3 is the ground plan. It is 18 feet 
long and 13 feet wide, with a draught chimney at 
each end. A central flue, seen between the chim¬ 
neys, with openings at the top, through which the 
fire reaches the lime, passes through the kiln from 
end to end. Lateral flues of the same character 
reach from the sides to the central flue. These are 
seen at a, a, a, figs. 3 and 4. Between the flues are 
Fig. 4.—SECTION OF PERMANENT KILN. 
the withdrawing holes, 6, 6, 6, figs. 3 and 4, furnish¬ 
ed with bars similar to those already mentioned. 
The fire and withdrawing holes, and the ash-pits 
beneath, are closed with iron doors after the fire is 
started, except when it is necessary to replenish it 
