THE CULTIVATOR 
Cobble-Stone Walls. 
Messrs. Editors —Have you any experience in the 
building of Composition Houses—that is, of cobble¬ 
stone, fragments of rock, Ac. 1 Do you know of any 
houses built of this material in your part of the coun¬ 
try, and are they permanent 1 I would like to build 
a house of this description, if it would not prove too 
much of an experiment. 
What is the relative cost of such a house as compared 
with a wood or brick building 1 Could you send me 
some plans for houses, and at what cost 1 I want to 
build a suburban residence on five acres of ground, 
having an eminence with a pretty slope to the road. I 
don’t want more than seven or eight rooms, besides 
pantry, Ac.; of these, three or four on second floor. I 
want a house somewhat ornamental—not costing more 
than two or three thousand dollars. Please answer mo 
at your earliest convenience, and oblige A Subscri¬ 
ber. New Albany , Ind. 
We have seen many cobble-stone houses erected, and 
have also employed this mode of building. If the 
lime and sand are good, so as to harden well, it forms 
very substantial walls. The mortar should become so 
good as to be nearly or quite as hard as the stone 
in a year or two. The sand should be therefore coarse 
and clear from earth or impurities ; we have known it 
to succeed well when even approaching the character 
of fine gravel. The lime should not be more than a 
sixth part. 
The distinguishing feature of this mode of building, 
is that it is really a mortar wall , the stone being used 
merely for filling up. After a straight and level base 
or commencement is made, a thick layer of mortar is 
spread along on the wall, a cord stretched horizontally 
a few inches above it, and then stones of nearly equal 
size are thrust into this line of mortar, so as to form a 
regular row, touching at the sides, and even at the top 
with the stretched cord. A second layer of mortar is 
deposited, and another row of stones laid, and so on till 
the wall is completed. 
As the stiffness of the wall depends 
on the hardening of the mortar, it is 
never safe to build more than ten or 
twelve inches in height in a single 
day; and in moist weather the work o 
must be suspended. After the mor- 
tar has dried a. few hours, it is hard 
enough to cut out and dress off with 
the trowel, so as to form a neat pro- Cobble- 
jecting line between the rows of stone, section, 
as usually seen in cobble-stone walls, and as repre¬ 
sented in the annexed cuts, Fig. 1 showing a cross sec¬ 
tion, the white open space 
between the stones repre¬ 
senting the mortar,—and 
Fig. 2 exhibiting the usual 
appearance of the face of A ,, ,,, 
the wall. the face. 
The stones may be from two to three inches to six or 
seven in diameter—even larger may be worked into 
the body of the wall. For the facing, those are select¬ 
ed which are of as uniform magnitude as possible. 
Very neat walls are made by selecting for facing the 
rounded stones found on the shores of lakes, Ac., worn 
globular and preserving perfect uniformity of size by 
placing or guaging them in a ring. Such walls have 
almost the appearance of beads or embroidery—perhaps 
too much so for the massiveness which should charac¬ 
terize a true architectural appearance in a stone wall. 
The whole surface might however be covered with ce¬ 
ment. Cobble-stone walls are usually built from four¬ 
teen to eighteen inches in thickness. They are one of 
the cheapest kind of stone erections, provided the stone 
and sand are near. We have known houses built about 
as cheaply of wood, where the stone was gathered from 
adjacent fields, and the sand dug from the cellar. 
The volume of “ Rural Affairs ” contains many plans 
of dwellings, and among them our correspondent may 
find just the thing to suit his wants. 
Horticultural Notes. 
Doyenne d’Ete Pear. —An intelligent fruit raiser 
writes lately, “We picked our Doyenne d’Ete pears 
yesterday, and sold them to-day at four dollars per 
bushel. This pear is infinitely superior to the Made¬ 
leine.” 
Shading the Trunks op Chehry Trees.—D r. 
Kirtland stated before the committee of the Ohio 
Pomological Society, that a row of bearing cherry 
trees on his grounds, standing on the north side of an 
Osage Orange hedge, where the trunks were complete¬ 
ly shaded from the sun, exhibited superior healthiness 
to all others. He recommended shading the trunks, 
where they had been trimmed up bare, by strips of 
thin boards, six inches wide, two of which are to be 
nailed together so as to half enclose the tree. Others 
recommended half rolls of peeled bark—and straw 
matting, such as green-house men use, might be add¬ 
ed to the list. 
Protecting Raspberries. —At the same meeting, 
A. McIntosh remarked, while the various sorts of 
raspberry were under discussion, that all,—the Ant- 
werps, Fastolf, Franconia, Ac.—needed some protec¬ 
tion in winter to flourish well—and he therefore be¬ 
lieved the common native Black Cap the most profit¬ 
able. D. 0. Richmond remarked that he was largely 
engaged in growing such fruits for market,* and he 
found it very little labor in protecting an acre of such 
fruits for winter, and the improved crop well paid the 
expense. He could make the largest profits on the 
finer cultivated sorts. 
Dwarf Pears. —F. R. Elliott gives his experience 
in the last number of the Horticulturist, but leaves 
out the main part of the story, namely, which sorts 
succeeded finally. Nine or ten years ago, he planted 
about two hundred sorts as dwarfs. Only about a hun¬ 
dred or one hundred and ten sorts remain, which is a 
larger number than we should have expected from 
such an indiscriminate planting. Of these, twenty 
sorts have grown vigorously ever since. Now, what 
was especially wanted, was a list of that twenty—al¬ 
though a skillful pomologist might doubtless make out 
the list from the knowledge derived elsewhere, ordi¬ 
nary cultivators would like to compare results. The 
injudicious use of bad stocks, and of the many sorts 
unfitted to the quince, and neglected cultivation, lead 
hasty and uninformed persons to reject dwarfs totally. 
F. R. Elliott predicted fourteen years ago, that in ten 
years dwarf pears would be only among the things that 
had been; which has proved true of most varieties, 
but the farthest possible from the actual result with a 
few select sorts. 
