clear, the first story 9 feet 6 inches, the second story 8 feet, with 2 feet breast.

The building is well framed, having sills 4×6 inches; first tier of beams, 3X9 inches; second tier, 3×8 inches; all placed 2 feet from centres, with one row of herring-bone bridging to each tier. Hip rafters, 4×7 inches; jack rafters, 3×7 inches, 2 feet from centres; perline plater, 4×10 inches; studs for the two partition walls running through the building, 3×4 inches, joist 16 inches from centres; the other studding of wall strips, 16 inches from centres; the doors being double studded.

The outside wall or enclosing is of pickets or stripes, common or refuse stuff, about 4 inches wide, constructed as follows: After the sills are placed in their proper places, and leveled, a course of pickets is nailed on to the sills, about half an inch back from the outside line of the sill; then another course on the top of that, breaking joints with the first course, and on a line with the outside face of the sill, (that is, projecting half an inch over the first course ;) the third course the same as the first, and so on to the top, each course projecting over or receding from the one next below.

Roof covered with box boards laid close, joints broken; covered with single cross tin, soldered, and well painted. The windows are hung in boxframes, with double weights, cords, and pulleys. The outside doors two inches thick, four paneled each; double faced, with glass in the upper panels; the lower panels with mouldings. All the other doors, except those of the pantries, 1 inch thick, double-faced, four paneled, with mouldings. The pantry doors single-faced, to correspond with the room doors, the other side bead and butt. All are trimmed with neat mineral knob locks, and hung with good butts. The house has neat marble pattern mantels, good white pine plank floors, well-worked, and smoothly laid; stairs well put up, on strong carriages, moulded and returned nosings; moulded rail; fancy turned balusters; newel level rail and balusters at the top, of St. Domingo mahogany, rubbed smooth and varnished.

The cottage has a cornice entirely around it, with an observatory on the top, as seen in the elevation. The first and second stories of the building are plastered with a scratch coat and brown coat, down to the floors; the first story hard finished; the second skimmed for white-washing, the exterior walls requiring no lathing. The outside of the building is stuccoed in the best manner, blocked into courses, and colored in imitation of stone work.

The entire cost of such a house as is here specified will not exceed seventeen hundred dollars. Much more than this sum may be expended, it is true, if the owner is so disposed; but some builders have estimated that it might be done for even two or three hundred dollars less.

SLAKING LIME AND PREPARING MORTAR.

BY SAMUEL CLEGG, JUN.

To bring caustic or quick-lime into a fit state to be mixed with other ingredients to form mortar, it must be reduced to a "hydrate," when it is called slaked lime, and the process of reducting is called "slaking." It is pretty generally admitted that the induration of mortars depends upon their absorption of carbonic acid from the atmosphere; and it seems to be essential to this reunion of carbonic acid with the lime, that the latter should have previously combined with its equivalent, or about one third of its weight, of water.

Stuccoes made with hastily prepared lime remain soft and powdery for a long period; but those prepared with well-slaked and tempered lime soon absorb carbonic acid, and become hard often to a considerable depth from the surface. The presence of water being necessary, is further confirmed by the fact, that if dry quick-lime be placed in a jar of carbonic acid, no absorption whatever takes place.

There are three methods of slaking lime, viz.: 1st, by subjecting it to the slow and continued action of the atmosphere; 2dly, by throwing over it a proper quantity of water; and, 3dly, by immersion. The first method is only suited for the fat limes, which should be broken up into pieces not larger than a walnut, or a perfect division will not be effected, and even then the centre of a lump will often remain in a caustic state. This process must not be conducted in too damp an atmosphere, and must be stopped directly the slaking is complete, by putting it into sacks or casks, and placing it in a perfectly dry place, or by covering up the slaked heap with sand, if the lime is to be used in a day or two. For plasterers' work this method is perhaps preferable to any other mode of slaking, as it makes the lime stronger, but it takes a long time in cold weather.

Quick-lime slaked by the addition of water, is the mode usually used in practice, and is at once the most certain and convenient. Rich limes subjected to this process slake with a hissing noise and the disengagement of much heat. The poorer and more valuable limes exhibit these phenomena in a less degree, and about in the proportion of the foreign matter mixed with the lime; and with some of the hydraulic limes no ffect will appear to be produced by the water until some hours have elapsed. In this mode of slaking, care must be taken to throw on the necessary quantity of water at once; none must be added during the effervescence, or the lime will be numbed, fall to powder imperfectly, and continue gritty. Equal care must be taken not to "drown" the lime with too much water. Thus drowned, it loses the greater part of its binding qualities, and is especially the case with rich limes.

Slaking by immersion is accomplished by placing the lime broken into small lumps into a basket, plunging then the basket into water, withdrawing it when the surface begins to boil; the lime is then turned out into casks or heaps, and covered up, that the vapor may complete the slaking. Lime thus slaked may be kept for months, if sheltered from moisture. The rich limes, when slaked and brought to a thick pulp, give from two to three volumes for one; the weather and hydraulic limes do not give, under the same circumstances, more than from one to one and a quarter, or one and a half at most. All limes become effete, or difficult to slake, after having been acted on by the air. This fact is more especially remarkable in the hydraulic limes. Spontaneous extinction is suited only to fat limes. The ordinary method of slaking suits all kinds;* and slaking by immersion is suitable only for the hydraulic limes, and is the only method by which they can be kept long or much carried about, without sensible alteration.

The substances mixed with limes to form mortars are sand, ashes, and burnt clay. To enable lime to harden by the absorption of carbonic acid, it is necessary to divide it as minutely as possible, or so as to expose as much surface as possible to the action of the air. The addition of any of the above substances effects their division, and their action is simply mechanical. Sands

* Hydraulic limes are refractory in slaking. It is, therefore, the practice to break up the lumps, and to cover the heaps over with sand after the water is showered over it, by which means the heat is confined, and the process is usually complete in about eighteen hours. These limes may be slaked at once by using boiling water.

are of the greatest value, and are, with very few exceptions, the only substances specified to be mixed with lime to form ordinary mortar; sharp angular grains from quartose, granitic, or schistose* rocks are the best of these. Mortar may be likened to minute rubble masonry, the grains of sand forming the stones, and the lime the cement. The grains must be in close contact, and consequently must present only flat surfaces, and not rounded ones, (for a rubble wall of boulders would have no solidity ;) in other words, the sand must be sharp. A mixture of coarse and moderately fine sand is advisable, as the finer grains assist in filling up the interstices between the coarser, which otherwise would be filled up with lime. Equally important is it that the sand should be clean, that is, unmixed with clay, animal or vegetable matter; and when rubbed between the fingers, it should not soil them, which is a good test. If the sand be otherwise good, this hurtful dirt may be removed by washing; by placing the sand in a shallow tank or tub with a double bottom, the upper end being pierced with holes, and forcing water by means of a pump through the sand, until it runs over the top colorless. Roaddrift, in England, or the powdery matter scraped off the surface of roads, is often used by small builders to mix with the lime. When washed and obtained from flint, it is frequently pretty sharp, and may be used for light works; but unwashed, as it is too often employed, it is quite worthless; indeed, mud would be quite as efficacious as many specimens of matter called mortar, used by the class of men alluded to. Sea-sand, before being used in the construction of houses, should be got in large quantities beforehand, and spread out in beds of ten or twelve inches deep, and left to be well washed by the rain, or by fresh water thrown upon them, or by the method described for road-drift. The presence of saline matter causes mortar to absorb moisture at any time from a damp atmosphere, and to throw out a humidity to the surface of the walls. In hydraulic works, sea-sand need not be washed, as the salt does not appear to be injurigus to mortar. Pit and other land sands, plentifully spread over the surface, or at a little depth, are generally very excellent; the only care necessary in their selection is, that they must be sharp and clean.

If cinders, scoriæ, burned clay, or such porous substances, be employed, the lime transfers itself into their pores, and produces a more intimate cohesion. These are, therefore, very useful inert substances to mix with lime. They must, however, be very pure and dry, and rendered pretty fine by grinding. In the case of burnt clay, or brick or tile-dust, they must be thoroughly burnt, and free from vitreous particles; burnt clay and cinders from a smith's forge give to mortar slightly hydraulic properties.

The purest limes require the greatest proportion of sand, and those which contain foreign matter, require less almost in proportion to the extent of impurity. Sir Charles Pasley says, "I have ascertained, by repeated experiments, that one cubic foot of well-burned chalk lime, fresh from the kiln, weighing 35 lbs., when well mixed with 3 cubic feet of good river-sand, and about 1 cubic foot of water, produced about 34 cubic feet of as good mortar as this kind of lime is capable of forming. A smaller proportion of sand, such as two parts to one of lime, is, however, often used, which the workmen generally prefer, (although it does not make, by any means, such good mortar,)

* Schist is often used as synonymous with slate, but it may be very useful to distinguish schistose and a slaty structure. The hypogene or primary schists, as they are called, such as gneiss, mica schist, and others, cannot be split into an indefinite number of parallel laminæ, like rocks which have a true slaty cleavage. The uneven schistose layers of mica schist and gneiss are probably layers of deposition, which have assumed a crystaline texture.-Lyell's "Principles of Geology."

because it requires less time and labor in mixing, which seems trouble to the laborers; and it also suits the convenience of the masons and bricklayers better, being what is termed tougher, that is, more easily worked. If, on the other hand, the sand be increased to more than the above proportion of 31, it renders the mortar too short, that is, not plastic enough for use, and causes it to be too friable, for excess of sand, prevents mortar from setting into a compact adhesive mass. In short, there is a certain just proportion between these two ingredients which produces the best mortar, which, I should say, ought not to be less than three or more than three and a half parts of sand to one of lime; that is, when common chalk lime or other pure limes are used, for different limes require different proportions."

FORSYTHIA VIRIDISSIMA.

THIS very beautiful shrub, which, with the handsome Weigelia Rosea, was introduced by Mr. Fortune from China, proves to be perfectly hardy in this latitude. We condense from a late number of the Horticultural Journal (England) some observations on this plant, by J. Saul, Esq., of Washington, D. C.: "When Mr. Fortune introduced it to the garden of the Horticultural Society from China, he spoke in high terms of its beauty; and I question much whether any thing more handsome can be found among all his introductions, not excepting even the lovely Weigelia Rosea. It has qualities which the latter does not possess, and which must ever render it one of the most valuable of hardy plants. From specimens which I had an opportunity of inspecting in England, I entertained a doubtful opinion of its merits. What was my surprise last March, however, when I beheld a magnificent bush of it in the nursery of A. Saul & Co., Newburg, N. Y., covered with myriads of its deep yellow blossoms. The nursery in question is situated in the highlands of the Hudson, with that noble river flowing by their base, and open to a cold breeze from the north, especially in winter, during which time the constitutional hardiness of plants can be well tested. The soil in which it grows is a gravelly loam; the plant is about five feet high, very bushy, and it appears to have been planted two or three years. During the summer of 1850, it made shoots from three to four feet long, which, though strong and green, were well ripened in the autumn. About the middle of March it commences opening its blooms, which had been thickly set over the wood of the previous year, and by the end of the same month it is one complete mass of deep yellow. The Gardener's Magazine of Botany says: Unfortunately the flowers are too delicate in texture to bear exposure to rough wind, as they are readily bruised, and soon show the effects of rough treatment.' So far from this being correct, I know of no plant whose blooms will bear an equal amount of rough treatment uninjured. The subject of my remarks here was fully six weeks in bloom, during which time it encountered one or two falls of snow and much wet weather, yet the blooms did not appear discolored in the least, up to the time they dropped off. The plant was in an open and exposed situation. It will be found very useful for winter and spring forcing."

We hope soon to see these beautiful shrubs adorning our homesteads, as we understand the Messrs. Saul, and most of our nurserymen, have them on sale at about fifty cents each.

VOL. IV.-40.