barn, supported, as they always are, by 
girths, beams, braces and siding, so that they 
cannot bend in any direction. For how does 
the “ breaking load" ou the cud of a vertical 
post break it '< Evidently in one of two ways: 
either by springing or bending it laterally till 
it splinters on the convex side, and “cripples” 
or crushes together on the concave side ; or by 
absolutely crushing the timber into itself 
straight down—practically, ulwaysin the first, 
and never in the second way. Anil so prac¬ 
tically for bain purposes a 20-foot post, kept 
from lateral flexure by girths, etc., (every 3$ 
feet, say), is as strong as a 13-foot post simi¬ 
larly supported. “ Practically,” I say, for in 
barns of either bight we always use (for me¬ 
chanical reasons) posts and all vertical tim¬ 
ber and lumber immensely stronger than are 
required for any vertical strain that ever 
comes upon them. For a 30x40-foot barn with 
13-foot posts, no one uses less than 8x8 
main posts, 4x4 girths, and inch hoards for 
vertical siding. Use now exactly the same 
kind of material in a barn 45x100 feet and 20 
feet from basement to eaves, (as large as it is 
profitable to build, probably, and as large as 
our farms ever require), and compute the ver¬ 
tical strength of the timber and lumber. By 
the figures of my Michigan critic a 5x5 post 
20 feet high, unbraced laterally, will sustain 
3.4 tons. But the “ tensile” strengths of 
posts vary as the area of their cross-sec¬ 
tions ; that is, the strength of a post 8x8 inches 
would be to that of one 5x5 inches as 04 to 25 
and ttie 8x8 post would therefore sustain 8.7 
tons unsupported laterally from fiesnre. Sup¬ 
port it midway notv in both directions at right 
angles by girths, and, as we have seen, it will 
sustain 34 times as much, or over twenty- 
eight tons. Support each half midway later¬ 
ally again, and its strength is again more, than 
Crippled and equals over ninety tons ; support 
each quarter laterally so that the girths shall 
be only 34 feet apart and the strength is 
again more than tnppled. and equals over 2,0 
tons. 
Nearly the same astonishing figures are 
reached “ from the other end” so to speak. 
Haswell, Tract wine, the American Cyclope¬ 
dia, and half a dozen other authorities give 
the “breaking load” or 44 crushing weight” of 
posts of several of our hard woods and of yel¬ 
low pine and pitch pine as over four tons per 
square inch ot section. This holds true when 
the laterally unsupported length of the post is 
not more llutn five times its diameter (of round 
posts) or “ side ” (of square postsj- Now, in 
an 8-iucb post, five times the “ side ” is 40 
inches or 3J feet, the supposed distance be¬ 
tween the girths of our barn posts. And four 
tons to the square inch of a section will give 
4x64 or 256 Ions; nearly the same as before. 
5$CC0NQ SlQRY, 
“VILLA.” (SEE FIRST I'At!K KOK DESCRIPTION.) 
Now, in a barn 45x100 feet we have, say, six 
“bents” and each bent lias four main posts; 
21 in all, and their combined “tensile strength” 
will resist a “crushing load " of over six thou¬ 
sand tons. But the strength of the inch siding 
is yet to be added, firmly nailed as it is to the 
plates, girths and sills and parts of It to posts 
and benches. The area of a cross-section of 
the siding is more Hum double the area of the 
cross-sections of all the posts, and therefore 
the siding may he set down as able to bear a 
crushing weight at least equal to that borne by 
the posts, and we shall have as the combined 
vertical “ tensile strength” of the barn the as¬ 
tonishing sum of more than 12,000 tons, or 
twenty-four million pounds, as the weight 
which, if evenly distributed would crush down 
the vertical timbers and lumber of this barn. 
But “The wealces' spot’ mus’ stau’ the strain ” 
uml euglueers and architects always divide the 
“ ultimate strength ” by some number called 
% (ho " factor of safety" and for a “ dead load," 
us in this ease, four is deemed ample. Dividing 
then by four we have 3,000 tons as the “ work¬ 
ing strength” of the vertical limbers and lum¬ 
ber, whereas the actual load they ever have to 
sustain is never over 300 tons—barn, contents 
and snow on roof all told. And be it remem¬ 
bered the timbers, etc., were supposed to be of 
the same size, and same (really less) propor¬ 
tionate number as those universally used iu 
barns of about oue-eighth the cubic contents. 
It thus appears that though “a very little study 
etc." might lead us to suppose we must “ quad¬ 
ruple the size of all vertical timbers" a more 
thorough knowledge of the principles involved 
THE FURAL NEW-YORKER. 
aud of the requirements and existing facts o 
the cases considered in my former articles, and 
of the practical application of the former to 
the latter, will show that within the existing 
limits of our American agriculture, no ma¬ 
terial increase will be required. A similar 
computation will show the same to be true 
of the horizontal and roof timbers involved in 
the 2nd Axiom, and I hope to find time to give 
it in a future article with diagrams and definite 
computations. 
The above computations arc made on the 
suppositions that all posts, etc., arc supported 
laterally, so as to be absolutely free from later¬ 
al “ sag ” or “ flexure,” which is not strictly but 
ouly approximately true, especially of some 
interior posts. But abundant allowance is 
made at almost every step of the figuring, iu 
the “factor of safety,” and in the final di¬ 
vision by ten, to reach the “ actual load.” 
My use of the word “ axiom,” against which 
the writer protests, was fully explained at the 
outset. After defining the word, 1 said, “Some¬ 
times. however, our attention must be called to 
it (a given truth) before it is seen to tie ’self- 
evident.’ This Is the ease with some of the 
axioms of barn-building, to which I propose to 
call attention just what I did. no more, no 
less, by means of a single simple diagram for 
each briefly and simply explained, not argued 
or debated. 1 beg pardon for adding that con¬ 
stant use of “ axioms " for fifteen years of my 
life iu the school and college recitation rooms, 
both as pupil and instructor, had not left me 
ignorant of the meaning of the word. I chose 
to use it rather In Its original sense, as sho^s 
by the Greek word from which it comes—a 
thing “worthy” of tuilief. And I have no¬ 
ticed that many of the “ axioms " of science,— 
natural, physical, political and intellectual as 
well as mathematical—arc not ouly not seen to 
tie “self-evident" till attention is called to them, 
but are constantly disbelieved, or at least dis¬ 
regarded in practice. 
Summit Co., O. 
Jwra Copies. 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL FARM. 
Mr. Augustus Hewlett is a near neighbor of 
ours. lie is sinty years of age, and has earned 
the reputation of being “ the best farmer on 
this part of the island.” There is no pretense, 
no fancy farming, no “highfalutin " anywheru 
to he seen. The buildings arc commodious and 
substantial. They have been built with an in¬ 
telligent design simply to subserve, in the 
most economical, labor-saving manuer, the 
Uses for which they were intended. Every¬ 
thing—the henneries, barns, Bheds. roads, veg¬ 
etable and flower gardens, fences—show that 
there is just that aniouutof work employed 
which is necessary to keep all iu that grade of 
systematized odder which will bring the most 
profitable results from the capita! invested. 
Many good fArmers have hobbies, so that from 
u walkover their farms U is easy for a stranger 
to tell in what department of farm industry 
the owner is most heartily interested. Not so 
here. Work, and a sufficiency of it, is given 
where most needed, am) the remotest part of 
the farm fares as well as that which is seen by 
visitors or the passer-by. Let us first remark 
upon the 
Orchard. , 
The apple trees are about twenty years of 
age. and not more than twenty-five feet apart. 
Every two years the soil, which is a sandy, 
somewhat gravelly loam, Is covered with from 
three to four iuches of eoarso, salt-meadow 
hay and drift. This preserves the moisture 
during droughts, and prevents all weeds aud 
grass from growing. Fowls (all Black Cochins,) 
arc permitted to scratch iu this hay and de¬ 
vour the worms and insects which there accu¬ 
mulate. The earth thus scratched bare oue 
day will be covered the next by the fowls, 
which know that their food Is to be found most 
plentifully under the bay. Thus the entire cov- 
erihg Is turned over, so to speak, as often per¬ 
haps as once a week; the soil Is exposed to 
the air and fungoid growth to a harmful ex¬ 
tent prewanted. Tbi* hay, of course, under¬ 
goes a slow decomposition, so that at the end 
of tiie second year it is plowed under, supply¬ 
ing all needed manure to the trees, when it is 
at once replaced by a fresh covering of the 
same material. Mr. Hewlett, whose satisfac¬ 
tion with his method* is not so great as to lead 
him to exaggerate their good results, esti¬ 
mates that iu a scries of years a one-acre or¬ 
chard so treated will yield as much fruit as a 
three-acre orchard in grass. About young 
trees growing here and there he lays shingles 
or the bark of trees, six inches or more wide, 
covering a circle six feet or more in diameter. 
This is intended to serve as a mulch in place 
of hay, which the fowls would at ouce scratch 
away, as they are permitted to roam whitlier- 
soe’r they will. 
The round-headed borer (Sapcrda bivittata), 
the great cueuiy to apple trees here, is pre¬ 
vented from depositing its eggs by the use of 
linseed oil, in which a small quantity of lead 
is mixed—just enough to show color, iu imita¬ 
tion of the color of the hark. It also forms a 
thin, glazed coating, rendering the paint more 
durable and effective than if the oil alone were 
used. A baud is painted around each trunk, 
begiuuing just beneath the earth, a foot wide. 
Mr. TL does not believe that the borer is kept 
away because the paint or oil is offensive to it, 
but because it effectually conceals tbe bark 
from the recognition of the moth. Whitewash 
would prove just as effectual, he thinks, if 
applied often enough. But the showers of 
May and June, when the eggs arc deposited, 
oft times wash off the lime, exposing the bark 
in places which may escape notice. He has 
used this oil for twelve years, and has never 
known it to harm the trees. Of course, the 
bark, when rough and scaly, must be scraped 
off before the paint is applied. 
Hennery. 
This is two-thirds under ground. The floor 
is cemented—the nesLs either ou the lloor or 
elevated only a foot or so above it. It is warm 
iu winter, cool in summer, while the more uni¬ 
form temperature is favorable to the hatching 
of eggs and the comfoi t of the sitting hens. 
He raises, as we have said, but oue breed, viz., 
the BJaek Cochins. Ho values them for all 
purposes, but especially for their quiet way6, 
aud because, though having the run of the 
garden, they do uot, like many other breeds, 
destroy strawberries, tomatoes aud tbe like. 
Iu order to avoid the necessity of cleaning the 
floor of the house ovory few days, wheat chaff 
is thrown upon it to the depth of three or four 
inches. The hens scratch about in this, keep¬ 
ing the droppings and the chaff well mixed, so 
that it is from two to three w’eeks before it be¬ 
comes sticky or any unpleasant odor arises. 
Then it is placed in barrels aud used in the 
drill as a manure for potatoes, and a very ex¬ 
cellent manure it has proveu to be. 
Sweet Potatoes. 
These are with Mr, Hewlett a profitable and 
a very easily raised crop. Furrow’s are plowed 
nearly five feet apart aud filled with manure. 
This is then covered rather deeply, aud a wide, 
oval ridge formed nearly a foot high in the 
middle. Dibble holes are made every two feet 
apart and tilled with water. The roots are 
thus puddled to within an inch of the collar, 
about which dry earth is strewn to serve as a 
mulch. Cultivated in this way, he can raise 
more sweet than Irish Potatoes to a given area. 
About the first of September the family begins 
to oat them, waiting until curiy frost before 
harvesting the bulk of the crop. Nansemond 
is tbe variety he cultivates—has tried Peabody 
and deems it worthless, because it is not a sweet 
potato except in name. 
Vraniut: l’ear Trees 80 Years Old. 
There are upon the good farm of which we 
arc w riting, a number of old pear trees between 
80 and 90 years of age, that bore very inferior 
varieties of fruit. Four years ago, Air. H. be¬ 
gan to top-graft them. The old branches were 
sawed off horizontally about 20 feel from tbe 
ground, and they were thou grafted by what 
we have many times referred to aud described 
as “ bark grafting," Many of the stocks were 
as largo as from three to live inches in diame¬ 
ter, so that any other style of grafting would 
have bceu quite impracticable. The bark, a6 
soon in the spring as it will separate from the 
wood, is cut vertically the same as iu budding. 
The cion is then beveled rather abruptly, so 
that when inserted between the bark and the 
wood and pressed down half an inch or more, 
it will make an augle with the. stock of about 
25 degrees. From three to half-a-dozen cions 
were iuserted iu each stock, according to size, 
and the whole covered with grafting wax- hast 
or baudages of any kind are not needed. 
Grafted iu this way not one don In 35 failed. 
It Is worthy of note that in some instances the 
entire heads were cut off at the same lime, so 
the “ pumping ” process: was left to he carried 
on by the growth from the cions alone and 
such suckers as appeared here and there. 
Four yeais ago this summer the first of these 
old fellows wa6 grafted to Bartlett. Last sum¬ 
mer (i. «■., the third year), it bore three-and-a- 
half bushels of pears. Another was during 
tbe same Beason grafted to Louise bonne de 
Jersey. ThU bore moderately last year. The 
JUNE 28 
others have since been grafted to Lawrence 
and Mt. Vernon. 
-- 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
Additional Strawberry Note*. * 
Duncan. —Lust year’s remarks as to this, 
need not be changed owiug to this season’s ob¬ 
servation. Medium size, good flavor, quite 
prolific, moderately firm and tbe earliest sort 
we have tested. 
Ducuicsse. —Average rather larger than Dun¬ 
can. Ripens nearly with it. More prolific. Not 
easy to separate the calyx from the flesh. 
Forest Rose. —Fruit averages large; of an 
obtuse-conical shape; of superior quality. 
Ripens through a longer term than most 
other varieties. The fruit-stems are strong, 
often holding up from six to ten large berries. 
Berries firm, light red in color. Vines vigor¬ 
ous, though complaints were made last year 
that they rust and burn. 
Crescent Seedling.— Our report of this 
berry will not support the many flattering 
things that have been said of it. It is mar¬ 
velously prolific; there is no doubt about that, 
but a majority of our vines are so weakened by 
overbearing that they lose their leaves and the 
berries wither. The berries average small, 
and the calyx clings. We have just couuted 
(June 15) 126 berries, ripe aud unripe upon 
one plant. But they arc sour even when 
over-ripe. Under field culture or iu malted 
rows, no doubt the Crescent will proven profit¬ 
able market berry, since productiveness and 
firmness are alone required for that purpose. 
Sh artless. —Probably no other of the newer 
berries was more praised than this, last year. 
It is with us one of the latest. The plants are, 
under high cultivation, over-vigorous. The 
quality of the berry is fine, the size among the 
largest and the shape of all sorts, as our en¬ 
gravings (on page 408, Ibis number of the 
Rural) will show, the specimens for which 
were picked June 15 when the berries were 
still growing us fast and ripening as well as 
at any previous time. Whether it is a char¬ 
acteristic in other soils or uot we cannot say, 
but here the peduncles shoot out, as we have 
said, like runners, so that a covering or mulch 
Is the more desirable. Tbe berries are firm, 
the plants fairly productive. All things con¬ 
sidered, we place tbe Sharpless as first among 
the newer Strawberries. 
Goluen Defiance. —Rather late. Plants of 
sufficient vigor. Iu bearing a long time. Berry 
plump aud of good flavor and perfect shape, 
which is constant. 
Proutv’s Seedling. —Berry very shiny, nar¬ 
rowly oblong, light red, quite fk’m, of fair 
quality; plant prolific, forms few runners, ri¬ 
pens the same sized fruit for a long time. A 
good sort for family or near market. 
Cham won .—We have heard this variety so 
praised that we are unwilling to judge it from 
our plants, which were set out last fall. We 
may say, however, that the few berries borne 
are of goodly size and late iu ripening. 
Mr. II. Marvin, of Michigan, seut us last fall 
a dozen plants of an unnamed seedling, which 
were planted October 3. It seems to us, from 
a test necessarily not iu any way conclusive, 
that it is a very promising seedling. Tbe bei- 
ries arc many and largo, of perfect shape and 
excellent flavor. 
Glendale, Windsor Chief, Cinderella, we can 
not yet report upou. President Lincoln, Beauty 
and Great American have again done but poorly 
here. 
Of all the above-mentioned, we should at 
this time and for this place arrange them in 
the following order of merit for family use: 
Sharplcss. Prouty’s Seedling, ForeBt Rose, Mar¬ 
vin (unnamed) Seedling, Golden Defiance, Dun¬ 
can (for earliness), Duehesse (also for earli- 
ness), Crescent Seedling. 
Sterling, Kerr’s Prolific, Harrington Market, 
Belle de Ly ons, Captain Jack are for this place 
in no respect superior to older sorts. These 
five varieties we have 1 airly tested, aud shall 
now discard as unworthy ot cultivation. 
Pioneer. —The portrait of Pioneer, one of 
Durand’s seedlings, is from an average-sized 
berry which we begged from Mr. Peter Hen¬ 
derson, who plaeeB it first in his list among the 
cream of all Strawberries. We asked him wliy 
he placed it first, and his reply was, as we 
stated last week: “ Because, while it is as good 
aud as large as Monarch, it is the earliest berry 
1 am familiar with,” or words to that effect. 
This is high praise, aud we hope the berry will 
merit it, wherever grown. Mr. Durand is said 
to have devoted years to the crossing and cul¬ 
tivation of strawberries, and to have raised 
thousands of seedlings. It were a pity If 
nothing better than the Great American aud 
Beauty were to reward him for his labors. 
Chari.es Downing. —Ou the 13th inst., diu • 
lug a visit to the Rural Farm, we called upon 
a ueigbbor, Mr. Peter T. Hewlett, a respected 
farmer aud horticulturist, eighty-six years ot 
age. The family showed us a bed of Charles 
Downing Strawberries, about thirty feet square, 
made last spring, in April, Onions had beeu 
grown there for six years previously. Old 
farm manure was spread over aud spaded uu- 
• 8ee Rural New-Yorker of Sept. 7, last, for illustra¬ 
tion of those various not here sUowa 
