THE CULTIVATOR. 
Nov. 
346 
THE FARMER’S NOTE BOOK. 
Heating Houses by Hot Air Furnaces. —I saw- 
in a late number of the Cultivator , a very interesting 
communication from Geo. Geddes, on the subject of 
warming houses, in which was illustrated most of the 
many superior advantages of the hot air furnace, when 
rightly constructed, which not only combines the ad¬ 
vantages of the open fire place and the close stove, but 
greatly adds to the benefits of both, without partaking, 
in the least, of any of their evils. My object now is 
to tell my experience, which will verify all Mr. Geddes 
says in favor of his furnace, and perhaps suggest some 
new ideas that may be useful to our farming communi¬ 
ties, who have heretofore seemed to think that such 
luxuries did not belong to them, or they would have en¬ 
joyed them long ago, if it were for no other reason 
than the saving of expense. My furnace is built very 
much like Mr. Geddes’, only the stove is wholly within 
the vault, which has a shut iron door, such as is spoken 
of by nim as an improvement; the vault is as small as 
is convenient for putting up the stove within it, being 
about one foot spare all around; the stove is four and 
a half feet long, twenty-two inches high, and fourteen 
inches wide. The hot air chimney, in which the smoke- 
pipe is enclosed, rises two and a half feet above the 
first floor, in one corner of the dining room, where 
there is an offset covered with a cast iron plate, with a 
boiler hole directly over an elbow in the smoke-pipe, 
which affords sufficient heat to boil water in a short 
time, in cold weather. The hot air chimney then con¬ 
tinues two and a half feet above the second floor, where 
there is another offset, as before, in the parlor above, 
over another-elbow in the smoke-pipe, which turns into 
the smoke chimney. There are nine rooms, five of 
which come in contact with , the hot air chimney, in 
which there is an opening near the floor to each, so 
that the whole are sufficiently warmed, without pipes 
to convey the heat from the furnace below ; the other- 
rooms are bed rooms, and open into these five, and are 
sufficiently warmed, by leaving the door ajar, for all 
comfortable purposes—the hot air, being crowded into 
the main room, finds its way into the bed room sooner 
than it would if every crack and crevice in the bed¬ 
room, as well as the parlor, were called upon to furnish 
a supply of air for an ordinary fire place, or if the par¬ 
lor was heated by a tight stove, which ensures no cir¬ 
culation of air at all. 
The first cost of my whole apparatus, was much less 
than I could have prepared for heating five principal 
rooms, saying nothing about the saving of wood, which 
is considerable, the preparing it for small stoves, which 
is more, the time making fires, the room occupied by 
the stove and wood-box, the dirt which is unavoidably 
accumulated, and the blacking of stoves, &c., which 
are all minor considerations, when we speak of the 
health and comfort, afforded by a wholesome, comfor¬ 
table, summer air, circulating through the whole house, 
both night and day, all winter; and, instead of feeling 
a draft of cold air, which is driven out through every 
crevice, by the hot air rising, and continually forcing 
its way into the room, from the furnace below. I 
have enjoyed these luxuries only three years past, and 
I consider I am fully recompensed for the loss of our 
former dwelling by fire, which required five stoves, and 
more expense for pipe alone, than the whole cost of 
our present heating apparatus, to render life any way 
tolerable, compared with the comforts of our furnace, 
in the winter season. 
There have been numerous failures in the construc¬ 
tion of hot air furnaces; they seldom have heating sur¬ 
face sufficient for the heat required, and generally have 
too much space in the vault around the stove. The 
heating surface should be so proportioned to the heat 
required, as not to require 9 . red heat from every part. 
There is more or less vegetable matter floating in the 
atmosphere at all times, in the shape of dust, which, 
coming in contact with red hot iron, becomes charred 
or scorched, and rendered very unwholesome to breathe, 
which is the cause of the peculiar smell that arises 
from a red hot stove. If the space be too large about 
the stove, there is a loss of heat, occasioned by the cir¬ 
culation of air in the vault, before it is admitted into 
the room above; but if the space be so small, as to 
give a sufficient velocity to a constant current of air, 
in contact with the. stove, more heat will be conveyed 
from the heated surface, which will be kept at a lower 
temperature, compared with the heat imparted, than 
when the space is larger. D. S. Howard. Lyonsdale. 
14th April, 1847. . 
Culture and preparation of Sumac. —I observe in 
the December number of the Cultivator, some remarks 
respecting sumac, which I am induced to notice, having 
while a resident in Montreal, and during the period 
that I filled the Vice chair of the Natural History So¬ 
ciety in that city, been instrumental in causing a prize 
to be offered for an essay on the best mode of prepar¬ 
ing that and many other articles suited to the arts. I 
regret to say the Society was unsuccessful in its object. 
Sumac, strange to say, is imported from Sicily into 
the United States. In the price current, published in 
the New-York Journal of Commerce, of the 14th De¬ 
cember, it is quoted— 
Sumac.Sicily.Ton... .$45 to $48.50 
Do ....American.... “ .... - - 
This latter line looks as if no American was to be pro¬ 
cured, although, as you perceive, the price, $2.25 per 
cwt., is nearly as high as the farmer gets for his wheat. 
Surely if it can be made at little expense, and in large 
quantities, it should not be so sadly neglected. 
The mode of preparing sumac consists in cutting 
down the shrubs during winter, so as to have a thick 
under growth of young shoots; to cut these young 
shoots down in summer when in full vigor, to allow 
them to dry; and then to grind them in a bark mill. It 
is the bark and the young wood which form the drug, 
not the leaves. 
The sumac thus imported into New York, is also 
imported from thence into Canada, for the use of the 
tanneries, although growing along side them. I was 
curious to know the peculiar properties of sumac as a 
tanning material, thus to be procured at a great cost 
and much trouble. I knew that it was used in Great 
Britain; but there of course all tanning materials are 
scarce. I found that sumac renders hemlock-tanned 
leather as light in color as the oak-tanned, and what is 
more important, as impervious to water, and as dura¬ 
ble. The leather is about four-fifths tanned with hem¬ 
lock, and then finished with sumac. 
Sumac can be employed as a yellow dye, but is fugi¬ 
tive, and but little in request, Quercitron bark being 
superior in every respect. Its chief importance, in ad¬ 
dition to its use as a tanning material, being to prepare 
light skins, as morocco and the very finest calf skins. 
Its effect arises from the Gallic acid contracting the 
pores of the skin, thus rendering it hard and water¬ 
proof—-it lightens the color of the hemlock-tanned 
