144 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
ECONOMICAL DWELLINGS FOR PLANTATION LABORERS—(Fig-. 50.) 
'i o the Hon. J. S. Skinner :* 
My dear Sir —I have availed myself of the earliest 
. pportunity, which a pressure of business would allow, 
o prepare a brief description of the buildings erected in 
1843, by my father-in-law, the late Yirgil Maxy, Esq. 
as quarters for the field hands arid their families, em- 
1 loyed on his farms at West River, Maryland, which I 
5 romised to furnish you with when I last had the plea¬ 
sure of seeing you in Washington; and I now have the 
honor to transmit to you, at the same time, drawings of 
one of these buildings, (the two being essentially alike.) 
exhibiting it in plan, side and front elevation, and in per¬ 
spective. For these very artistical drawings, I am in¬ 
debted to Mr. J. G. Bruff, of the Topographical Bureau, 
Washington. They are in some respects inaccurate, as 
will be seen from the text. 
The perspective view presents a very exact picture of 
one of these houses, and the plans I trust will be readily 
understood. One of the buildings is surrounded by 
groups of large and venerable locust trees, with a pump 
of pure water near the front door. The other stands in 
the vicinity of a beautiful grove, and numerous young- 
trees have been recently planted around it, as well for or¬ 
nament as for protection from summer’s heat and winter’s 
cold; while a copious and never failing spring of cool 
and delicious water gushes out of a ravine hard by. Both 
houses are so situated that the down fall water drains from 
them in all directions. 
Ground Plan—[Fig. 51.] 
Explanation. —(Reference to Ground Plan and Second Floor.) 
A. kitchen—B. living room—C. cooking stove—D. Franklin stove— 
E. E' B ' dormitories—E' and E" family rooms—F. drum—a. lat¬ 
tices for venti lation—b. closet—c. stairs—d. pipe of drum. _ 
* Famished for the Cultivator, by Mr. Skinner. 
Second Floor—[Fig. 52.] 
The house (to which the drawings, refer) is 34 feet 
square, on the ground plan, from outside to outside; and 
from the bottom of the sills to the top of the plates, is 16 
feet high. The sills rest on stone walls, (laid in cement) 
sunk 2 feet below the surface of the ground, and rising- 
one foot above it. The rooms on the ground floor have 
a pitch of 10 feet including the joists—the upper rooms 
are therefore 6 feet high to the eaves or top of the plates, 
and rise to the height of 10 feet along the roof. The 
large room E" and the open space adjoining it, have a 
uniform pitch of 10 feet. All the rooms on the second 
floor are lathed and plastered over head. Those on the 
ground floor have no ceilings, below joists. 
The sills and posts are of white oak—the former, 12 
inches square, the latter, 8 by 7 inches. The plates are 
of white pine, 8 by 7, and the rafters of the same mate¬ 
rials. The frame has no braces, the exterior covering¬ 
rendering them unnecessary, and at the same time im¬ 
parting to it great strength and rigidity. This covering 
or siding consists of 2 inch white pine plank, (commonly 
called ark-stuff, and costing at Port Deposit, about $8 
per M.) jointed and spiked vertically to the frame. The 
joists are covered on the exterior with narrow slats or 
buttons of the same materials. The roof is rather flat, 
covered with white pine shingles, and projects from the 
walls about 30 inches all round. It is also provided, as 
will be seen from the drawings, with a simple kind of 
barge-board, cut in a rough way from pine planks. 
The ground floor is formed of cement. The space with¬ 
in the sills and foundation walls is filled with clay, hard 
rammed, to within about 2 inches of the top of the sills. 
On this sub-stratum, the cement is deposited. It con¬ 
sists of a mixture of 10 parts, irregular brick fragments, 
