EXCELSIOR 
I ^.1.00 i’KU VEAll. 
I Sinsle No., Eight Cents 
NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER, N. ¥ 
If Park How, Now York 
82 tlulTalo St., Rochester 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, MARCH ID, IR70 
iEntered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1ST0, by I). D. T. Moore, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court, of the United States for the Southern District of New York.] 
by the Ohio Farmer. Prepare the glue 
thick; immerse a slick about half the size 
of the screw and put it into the hole; (lien 
immerse the screw and 
drive it home as quickly 
as possible, 
Stone Coating for 
Wood. — The following 
is a German recipe for 
coating wood with a 
substance as hard as 
four of linseed oil, niclt- 
l|I "-"jj mixture, while hot, is 
:,| j^ '/’ ' I'rax-dan 
, i 
Stains for Wood.— Tlu; 
Manufacturer a ml Bttild- 
riOTJSb]. ersa.ys “ pine wood may 
be stained the color of 
mahogany by mixing linseed oil with burnt 
sienna, which you may buy from almost any 
house painter, ground in oil and put up in 
small tin cans; to imitate rosewood, you 
take burnt umber or Van Dyke brown, and 
put in darker or lighter veins with lampblack 
and burnt sienna, but lie careful to put, it on 
thin, so ns to stain the wood only and not to 
cover it with paiut. You may also stain it 
with water-color, but then you have to oil it 
afterward, before varnishing; our method 
dispenses with one operation, ns it combines 
the oiling and staining.” 
The Partition* of Japanese lionet!* are of 
evidently understood me to recommend that tirely, he avoided by proper ventilation, by 
the blinds be always closed. Far from it; leaving a window open at the top and bot- 
might as well dispense with windows as to tom. I suggest that Mr. Frost give ns, 
keep the I Hinds always 
shut. Wc use blinds 
hung on hinges, (as all 
blinds should be,) and on 
rooms (kitchen, bed - 
rooms, Ac.,) constantly 
in use, the blinds are 
seldom closed. 
Mr. F. also says: — 
“ Wc claim that when 
blinds are left oil' noth¬ 
ing is sacrificed in ap- /s 
pearanee ; for strange x ijg| 
indeed if that ‘ tidy 
housewife ’ cannot in- 
vent, some kind of cur- 
tains that will equal in V S i$| 
appearance a wooden j -"'vlBflB 
frame painted of one j|j| 
color with oil and load.” (qr . fr raajjj 
1 would as soon think 
of dispensing with the ;l S2j 
veranda as with blinds, 5 
both from an ornamental jjKj 
and useful point of view. IJgE 
1 doubt not the ability of 
the “ tidy housewife ” to 
invent a curtain hand¬ 
some in appearance, but 
the many conn try houses J 
without blinds disclose 
inside the glass simply a green 
xthiittinn 
nrm 
romrmn 
A FARM-HOUSE 
ECONOMICAL NOTES, 
Figurattvely speaking, I hare built ibis 
house out of th£ Rural's wood-pile; or at 
least I meant fo build it so, that all of the 
grace, and refinement, and tender home in¬ 
fluences that Domestic Economy pleaded so 
eloquently for, should cluster around and 
cling to it, and take up their abode in it for 
ever and ever. 
There is an individuality about a farm¬ 
house just as much as there is about a farmer. 
We tell a successful farmer by a general 
something, (it may be the papers lie reads, 
or the cattle be keeps,) but we cannot an¬ 
alyze it. If wo see a farm-house with a 
geranium or a canary bird in the window, 
(not. the kitchen window,) and the chimneys 
blackened by constant use, (not the kitchen 
chimneys,) we know that out of some such 
home some day will walk the Coming 
Farmer; but if we see none of these signs, 
we know that a woman’s life is wearing out 
in a round of drudgery that has nothing 
nobler in it than the buckwheats for break¬ 
fast. or the pies for dinner. 
In the above design, A is the parlor, 
10x21; 11 the library, 14x10; (I feel almost 
like apologizing for its presence at all. The 
farmer of the period, however kindly he may 
take to the refining influences of literature, 
does not recognize the need of a separate 
apartment for it. He will probably show 
you where he planted his Early Rose, or his 
plot of Norway Oats, or where lie keeps Ids 
Chester Whites, Iml never his library;) D is 
the living-room, 10x10; E, bed-room, 10x10; 
F, bath room, 0x8; O, closet, 4x0; 11, pantry, 
8x12; I, kitchen, 14x18; 0, back stairway, 
with cellar stairs under; K, store-room, 
8x11; 4, cistern; M, wood shed, 16x16; N, 
kitchen sink; O, outside cellar stairs; P,P, 
piazzas. The building should be built ol 
brick, with rough dressed quarry stone for 
facings. It will cost about six thousand 
dollars. c. M. b. 
Ill :t n it I n <• t it red Mn h n res. 
J. P. Schencic of'Ohio, writes us:—“Last 
year I purchased five barrels of superphos¬ 
phate of iime from a Cincinnati manufactory, 
a part of which I used on potatoes, a part on 
corn, (both in the hill) and a part on wheat, 
the last sown broadcast and harrowed in. 
The results were no perceptible difference 
in the crop where the phosphate was used 
and on the adjoining land where none was 
used; so I have about come, to the conclu¬ 
sion thal, good burn-yard manure is equal, 
pound for pound, with the superphosphate, 
mid it don’t, cost $45 per ton.” 
Fancy Wooilen Fence, 
L. L. Pierce sends ua the accompanying 
design for a limey fence, which he says suits 
him the 1 test of any he has seen, lie says:— 
“ I «et siont: posts two and a half feet into the 
ground, (to keep clear of frost three feet is 
better) twelve feet apart, two feet eight inches 
above ground. Put on two by four-inch 
rails, top and bottom, as for a common picket 
fence; fasten with iron hooks; have them 
Straight and plumb; have the slats three- 
eighths of an inch thick and seven-eighths 
wide; put on the slats, both bevels, and nail 
with four-penny nail. Now put on a base 
or bottom board, seven inches wid>, as high 
as the top of the bottom rail, and a strip three 
and a half inches wide at the top. Then put 
in the pilaster, or casing, in front of post; 
then the cap, made of two-inch plank, eight 
and a half inches wide, to project over the 
front f'e.vif ami a half inches, with two brack¬ 
ets under it on each pilaster in front of posts. 
Brackets made of one and three fourths inch 
stuff, and seven inches long, are about right. 
Lay the. lattice about two and a half inches 
apart. The projection of the Cap, and the 
brackets under it, give a very flue look, and 
yet it is not expensive. Hang small gates on 
inside of all fences next the street. Have the 
top of fence just two feet tcu inches above 
the ground, leaving about three inches bc- 
| tween fence and soil. Pitch the cap to the 
to throw off the water.” 
through the Rural, his mode of construct¬ 
ing curtains whereby light and air may he 
admitted, the house rendered as ornamental 
and useful as by the use of binged blinds, 
and flies kept from soiling Hie glass, Ac. 
L. D. Snook. 
COTTAGE CRITICISM 
In the plan given in the Rural for Feb. 
19th, for a “cheap cottage,” it seems to me 
that there is some waste ut material. The 
walls which, in Unit plan, inclose but seven 
hundred and sixty-eight (708) square feet, 
might ns well inclose one thousand and 
twenty-four (1,024) square feet, with but little 
difference in roof, and the house at. the same 
time be made warmer. This last considera¬ 
tion is, in our climate, (Central Iowa,) one of 
no little importance. Wc are learning here 
to build our houses compactly, securing the 
greatest amount of room with the least pos¬ 
sible outside surface to tempt our wild prnil'ie 
winds. With the thermometer at 18° below 
zero, and a gale blowing from the Northwest, 
we realize that rooms open on three sides to 
the storms of whiter are difficult to warm 
sufficiently for comfort. 
As to the superfluity of parlors in farm 
houses, the remark qardly applies to this 
part of the Country! Our farmers find fre¬ 
quent use for such a room, though, Owing 
to the fact, that our Iowa climate is, os cer¬ 
tain patientloss M. D.’s have, complained, 
“fearfully healthy,” funerals are exceedingly 
rare. At all events, 1 am sure the extra 
room would appear, on consideration, an in¬ 
dispensable necessity, as parlor, bed-room or 
laundry. 
One other suggestion I wish to make. It 
is well to consider, in planning a house, that 
the same roof which covers a building of one 
Story, will shelter as well, one of two or more 
stories. M, 
Grinnell, Iowa. 
PRESERVING SHINGLES 
A correspondent of the New England 
Farmer furnishes that paper with the form¬ 
ula of a preparation which it is believed will 
preserve shingles sixty years: 
Take a potash kettle, or a large tub, and 
put into It one barrel of lye of wood ashes, 
five pounds of white vitriol, five pounds 
alum, and as much salt as will dissolve in 
the mixture. Make the liquor quite warm, 
and put as many shingles in it as can be con¬ 
veniently wet at once. Stir them up with a 
fork, and when well soaked, take them out 
and put in more, renewing the liquor as nec¬ 
essary. Then lay the shingles as usual. 
After they are laid, take the liquor that 
was left, put lime enough into it to make 
whitewash, and if any coloring is desirable, 
add ochre, Spanish brown, lampblack, Ac., 
and apply to the roof with a brush or an old 
broom. This wash may lie renewed from 
time to time. 
Salt and lye are excellent preservatives of 
wood. It is well known that leach-tubs, 
troughs, and other articles used in the manu¬ 
facture of potash, never rot. They become 
saturated with the alkali, turn yellowish in¬ 
side, and remain impervious to the action of 
the weather. 
front about an incl 
"CHAM bcf! 
U X/4' 
FARM LABOR, 
The price of this is a serious consideration 
with farmers this year. The indications arc 
that it will not Tall in proportion to the prices 
of farm products. During the first years of 
the war it did not rise as quickly as produce, 
and farmers got a year or two the start, of 
the laborers. It is, perhaps, no more than 
even justice that labor should remain high a 
year or two longer than farm crops. But 
homesteads are yet comparatively cheap in 
this country, and the supply of labor from 
the Old World does not locate in the Eastern 
and Middle States, but passes West aud 
South, and becomes proprietary. The en¬ 
terprise of our people lias opened new terri¬ 
tory faster than it could be occupied. Labor 
lias risen steadily in price in Europe ns well 
as here, during the last decade, and we can¬ 
not expect again former cheap rates, but the 
pressure will bear down prices to some ex¬ 
tent, and fanners must call to their aid ma¬ 
chinery and good management to balance 
the remainder. The tenant system will work 
to better profit than Unit, of boarding the 
help in the farmer's family, for while it se¬ 
cures steadier and better labor, it enables the 
farmer to pay, in a large measure, with tlie 
products of the farm. Grain is cheap, but 
dairy products, beef, pork, mutton and fruit 
have paid well. Perin Tone. 
iflAKfl EM, 
£ HAMS EM 
CHAMBER 
1 4 X rC 
CHAMBER 
■CHAMBER 
EXTRACTS FOR BUILDERS 
A New Chrome Yellow, it is said, is ob¬ 
tained by dissolving twenty parts of nitrate 
of strontia in boiling water, and adding a 
solution of three parts of bichromate of 
potash in a sufficient quantity of water. A 
dark yellow precipitate of chromate of 
strontia will be the result, which is a very 
permanent paint. 
To Make Screws Hold when driven into 
soft wood, the use of glue is recommended 
BLINDS ON COUNTRY DWELLINGS, 
PLAN OF SECOND STORY. 
paper, and in summer can be readily folded 
into compact bundles at the corners of the 
buildings, thus leaving nothing but the roof 
and supports. No matter how complicated 
the structure, not a nail or spike is anywhere 
used. The parts are all dove-tailed together, 
and fitted so nicely as to leave scarcely a 
trace of the seam. 
GROUND PLAN. 
damask and window an opaque curtain to 
darken the room nr rooms when not in use? 
These curtains would serve the same pur¬ 
pose as blinds, but their adjustment is at¬ 
tended with great trouble. 
In regard to the air being of a disagreea¬ 
ble odor in a darkened room, 1 would say 
that it can in a great measure, if not en- 
In the Rural of February 36th, Mr. E. C. 
Frost begs to disagree with me in regard to 
using or allowing blinds on a dwelling. By 
referring to my former article it will be ob¬ 
served that I stated that a country residence 
without blinds, to my optics, presents a 
cheerless, unfinished appearance, 1 did not 
refer to city residences or lmpitals. Mr. F. 
fv ■ , 
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