THE RURAL N K W-VOK KER 
March 21, 
HALF A CENTURY OF CONCRETE. 
I do 7iot know what became of 0. S. 
Fowler’s house, asked about on page 42, 
but I do know about the house I built of 
concrete in 1859. I am living in it still, 
and it is just as good and perfect as the 
year in which it was built, and is good 
for years to come, for all I can see, if 
it is properly cared for. Mr. O. S. 
Fowler published a book on concrete 
houses and their construction. This 
book I purchased and studied the Win¬ 
ter before I started in to ereet my 
house. About the same time that Mr. 
Fowler built his concrete house a Mr. 
Barrett, of Ohio, built one of concrete. 
He also wrote a book on “Concrete 
Houses and Their Construction.” This 
book I also bought and studied well. I 
liked his curbing board construction and 
method of holding them in place, and 
adopted his plan in the erection of my 
house. Both of these books I have lost, 
so cannot give the name of Mr. Barrett 
or the town in which he lived. My 
house is 41x36 feet and 26 feet high, 
made with three stories, and has 18 
rooms, three halls and two baths. Con¬ 
crete houses erected at the present time 
are mostly of large blocks, 7nade from 
gravel and cement. This is an expen¬ 
sive way of building a concrete house. 
In building my walls not a pound of ce¬ 
ment was used. Lime, gravel and cobble 
stones only were used. By experiment¬ 
this wooden box was drawn up and 
there was the flue for the chimney. All 
the brick used was only to top out the 
chimneys above the roof. No studding 
was ysed for plastering on the inside 
of the walls; the mortar was put right 
on the inside of these walls, so there is 
no space or places for rats, and the 
walls are as dry as any studded wall 
house. 
I make this full statement of the con¬ 
struction of this house to show how 
cheaply concrete houses may be con¬ 
structed and no cooler house in Sum¬ 
mer or warmer in Winter can be made. 
A house can be built of concrete by 
using curbing boards as I had for much 
less money than the concrete blocks can 
be made, which will have to be laid up 
into the walls after they arc dry and 
hard. The greatest difficulty now in 
building toiletcte houses is there are no 
parties sufficiently experienced in their 
construction to be had to do the work. 
I studied Barrett's and Fowler's works, 
and being young, energetic and some¬ 
thing of a mechanic started in and built 
the walls myself, and by the dimensions 
it will be seen that it is no “baby house.” 
My carpenter said before I began to 
build the walls there would not be a 
plumb corner or a side but would bulge 
out. Others said it would crumble down 
the first heavy rain that came, and I was 
a fool for building a house of such ma¬ 
EDWIN HOYT’S CONCRETE HOUSE. 
ing with the lime and gravel I had to 
mix together 1 found that 16 barrels of 
gravel to one of lime made the hardest 
and firmest block, so 1 used this propor¬ 
tion of gravel and lime to make the 
grout or mortar, which was poured into 
the curbing boards. In this was worked 
in all the cobble stones that could be 
put in and covered with the mortar or 
concrete. These stones were such as 
were picked from our fields when plow¬ 
ing and preparing them for our Spring 
crops. These stones were from'the size 
of a coffee cup to a foot in diameter. 
1 did the work of making the curbing 
and filling it in myself (for no one 
knew how to construct such houses 
then) with the help of one man who 
was hired by the month for $13 and 
board. 
In the construction of these walls I 
used 35 barrels of lime at $1.37 per bar¬ 
rel. Calling my labor $2 per day (a large 
price for that time) and my helper $1 
per day, it cost me in labor $248 to build 
the walls. The cost of erecting the 
walls, including the lime, was less than 
$300. It made a fine place to dispose of 
nearly 100 loads of cobble stones, which 
would have had to lie buried or depos¬ 
ited in some place on the farm. I hired 
masons from New Haven who were ex¬ 
perienced in stuccoing brick houses to 
put on an outside stucco finish; this cost 
just $100. The chimneys were made by 
putting a wooden box 4x18 inches in 
the' curbing box and working the mor¬ 
tar around it. When the mortar was 
set and the curbing boards loosened up 
terial. I went into the house December 
24, '!859, and Mrs. Hoyt and myself cel¬ 
ebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary 
September 30 last in this same house. 
No one would know the house was 
built of concrete if not told. If I was 
to build again I would put in a little 
cement with the lime, but not much. 
It is more expensive than lime and the 
wall is not materially better. It would 
perhaps cause the concrete to set a little 
quicker. The curbing boards were 20 
inches wide and raised 15 inches for each 
course, which left five inches on wall be¬ 
low to hold the bottom of board in place. 
We filled in the boards three times a 
week as a rule, sometimes four. The 
picture here represented is a photograph 
of my house. It is all right, and con¬ 
crete is the coming material for country 
houses and barns, notwithstanding car- 
penters, bricklayers and makers, masons, 
etc., are not in favor of this material 
for house building. edwin hoyt. 
New Canaan, Conn. 
R. N.-Y.—As stated on page 161, the 
original Fowler house fell in ruins, not 
even the ruins now being left 
The Bookshelf. 
Farm Machinery and Farm Motors, 
by J. Brownlee Davidson and Leon Wil¬ 
son Chase. This book covers very im¬ 
portant ground, and provides informa¬ 
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welcome addition to the farm library. 
Published by the Orange Judd Company, 
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The ABC of Bee Culture, by A. I. 
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First Lessons in Dairying, by H. E. 
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farm conditions, as distinct from those 
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First Principles of Soil Fertility, 
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Paper 3 Rooms 
at the cost of one 
Brighten up those dingy rooms 
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Write today forfree book of sam¬ 
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PENN WALL-PAPER MILLS, 
Dept. F, Philadelphia 
PEACH 
Trees clean, healthy—bright as a dollar, 
the best we have ever grown. Large blocks 
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JAPAN PLUMS 
More than 30,000 trees—1 year old ; some 
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APPLE TREES 
A fine lot including YORK IMPERIAL. 
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Let us estimate on your list of wants. 
Catalog and wholesale price list free. 
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STEWARTSTOWN, PA. 
The chapters on manure, its value, pre¬ 
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especially valuable, while there is much 
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tilizers. Published by the Orange Judd 
Company, New York; 265 pages, freely 
illustrated; price $1 net. 
There was a spell of very damp weather 
in February and most all of the tobaeco in 
Ibis section was taken down and stripped 
and stored in the tobacco cellars. Now the 
farmers are waiting for buyers. There are 
some small lots sold, the prices range from 
5 and 2 to 9 and 2. The hot beds are 
made up and being sown to secure the 
earliest possible plants to set out in the 
open ground as soon as the weather per¬ 
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PEACHES 
We grow millions of poach trees. Special prices 
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Conklin; Crosby; Engles; Elberta; Fitzgerald: 
Mills Chili: Reeves; Salway: Triumph; Wonderful 
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GREENING’S BIG NURSE UJ KS, 
150 Monroe St. Monroe, Mich. 
pKACH TREKS—4 cts. each, Elberta, etc: free 
*■ catalogue of all kinds of Nursery Stock. Wood¬ 
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CAl/FORJV/A P/f/VET 
Best of hedge plants—grows anywhere, easily pruned, 
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and placed on 
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York Co.. I’a. 
the windows in the living 
E. D. K.. 
ALFALFA grass seeds 
m m ■ Northern Grown and of strongest 
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Running Water in Your Home 
Plenty of It—Whenever 
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A good water supply robs the 
housework of its drudgery and 
helps to make life on the farm 
worth living. Stop and think a 
minute. Wouldn’t you like to have 
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stock ? 
Make your house a home and have 
things convenient for your family. 
You can do so easily, by installing 
The Kewanee System of Water Supply 
With the Kewanee System, there is no 
elevated or attic tank to leak, freeze, over¬ 
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Instead, a Kewanee Pneumatic Tank is 
placed in the cellar or buried in the ground. 
It is protected from all extremes in weather, 
will furnish a fresh, usable supply of water 
under strong pressure during all seasons 
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Pump the water from your own well, cis¬ 
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good pumping power. 
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It is not an experiment. There are over 
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32 Broadway, New York. 404 Equitable Bldg., Baltimore. 
820 Marquette Bldg., Chicago. 710 Diamond Bank Bldg., Pittsburg. 
