or partitions, they are not only of small cost || unburnt bricks should be placed, and cemented but are less liable to be destroyed by fire. together with the same material, either with The frost has no effect on these walls, and they or without the straw. The first laying of bricks may be easily preserved from the effects of on the foundation had better be laid in water rain. The bricks being non-conductors of lime. moisture and heat, are dry at all times, and cool in summer and warm in winter. The brick may generally be made on the site, so that no carting will be necessary.

A mason who has had some experience in building these walls, informs me that an 18 inch wall is sufficient for a building 30 feet high. That to build a 12 inch wall, the moulds should be one foot square and 6 inches

Process of making Sun-dried Bricks deep-and some of the moulds 18 inches long,

in this country.

All soils are suitable except of pure sand or gravel. The best material is two thirds clay and one third sand, with the straw and water requisite. Lay a floor of boards, which may afterwards be used for roof boards, on which throw the clay and sand to the thickness of about a foot. The mass should then be soaked with water, and horses or oxen be kept moving in the mud two or three hours, until it became well mixed and sticky. With the material for about a thousand brick, about 300 lbs. of straw should be mixed, and the whole be well trodden for about an hour, when it will be fit for use. Have prepared two wooden moulds, the size of the brick you wish. The bottoms of the moulds should be so narrow as to leave half an inch open on each side, which permits the clay to leave the mould easily. A bench should be made and placed close to the material, to enable one man to supply two others, engaged in moulding and carrying away, and turning them out on the ground to dry, on a plot made as level as possible. Three active men thus engaged, will make 300 large brick per day. When moulding, the mould should be washed-then a little sand shook in-then well filled with the material and struck off level, either with a piece of iron or a wooden strike. If the sun is powerful, a little loose sand sprinkled over the soft bricks, will prevent their cracking. If the weather continue dry, they may be raised on their ends the next day. In about four days they may be placed on a board and piled up in the form of a wall, and then covered with another board until required for building. They should thus remain a fortnight before building.

Foundation, size of Bricks, &c.

A solid foundation of burnt brick or stone, should be built above the surface, on which the

for breaking break joints, &c. To build an 18 inch wall, the moulds should be 18 inches long, I foot wide and 6 inches deep, or if smaller brick is preferred, 1 foot long, 9 inches wide and 6 inches deep. And to build a 15 inch wall,or a two feet wall, the moulds should be 15 inches long, 1 foot wide and 6 inches deep. In building a two feet wall, some of the brick should be two feet long and 8 inches wide, which would serve for binders and to break joints.

The partitions of a building may be put up in the same way, but the walls need not be so thick. As one brick is equal to many of the common brick, a mason can build a wall quicker with the large than with the common brick. Wedges are driven into the walls, or wooden blocks, put in at the time of building, to which the trimmings are nailed. A projecting roof for buildings of this description is said to be needful. These buildings may be finished with plaster or cement, and be made of beautiful proportions and appearance. The simplest and cheapest finish, being merely to smooth them off as they are built, and then color them both inside and out, and if the outside be pencilled to represent stone, it will look very well. Good common lime and good sand, make a fine and substantial outside finish.

The cost of these walls can be easily esti mated. Brick 18 inches long, 1 foot wide and 6 inches deep, can be made and put into the wall for 3 cents per brick. So that the outside walls, above the foundation of a house 60 by 40 feet, 18 inches thick and 18 feet high, can be built for $250.

Further information on the subject of buildings constructed of unburnt bricks, is found in the following extracts from the Reports of the U. S. Commissioner of Patents.

REPORT OF FEBRUARY, 1843.

when these articles are cheap, is recommended as affording a more adhesive

Plan of cheap cottages. After select-material for the plaster. The wall may

be safely carried up one story, or two or three stories; the division walls may be 7 inches, just the width of the brick. The door and window frames being inserted as the wall proceeds, the building is soon raised. The roof may be shingles or thatch. In either case, it should project over the sides of the house, and also over the ends, at least two feet, to guard the wall from vertical rains. The exterior wall is plastered with good lime mortar, and then with a second coat, pebble-dashed. The inside is plastered without dashing. The floors may be laid with oak boards, slit, 5 or 6 inches wide, and laid down without jointing or planing, if they are rubbed over with rough stone after the rooms are finished. Doors of a cheap and neat appearance may be made by taking two single boards of the length or width of the doors; placing these vertically, they will fill the space. Put a wide batten on the bottom and a narrow one on the top, with strips on the side and a strip in the middle. This door will be a batten door, but presenting two long panels on one side and a smooth surface on the other. If a porch or verandah is wanted, it may be roofed with boards laid with light joints and covered with a thick paper dipped in tar, and then adding a good coat, after sprinkling it with sand from a sand box or other dish with small holes.

ing a suitable spot of ground, as near the place of building as practicable, let a circle of ten feet or more be described. Let the loam be removed, and the clay dug up one foot thick, or, if clay is not found on the spot, let it be carted in to that depth. Any ordinary clay will answer. Tread this clay over with cattle, and add some straw cut six or eight inches long. After the clay is well tempered with working it with the cattle, the material is duly prepared for the making the brick. A mould is then formed of plank of the size of the brick desired. In England, they are usually made 18 inches long, 1 foot wide and 9 inches thick. I have found the more convenient size to be 1 foot long, 7 inches wide and 5 inches thick. The mould should have a bottom. The clay is then placed in the moulds, in the same manner that brick moulds are ordinarily filled. A wire or piece of iron hoop will answer very well for striking off the top. One man will mould about as fast as another can carry away, two moulds being used by him. The bricks are placed upon the level ground, where they are suffered to dry two days, turning them up edgewise the second day, and then packed in a pile, protected from the rain, and left to dry 10 or 12 days, during which time the foundation of the building can be prepared. If a cellar is desired, this must be formed of stone or brick, one foot above the surHouses built in this way are dry, face of the ground. For cheap build- warm in winter, and cool in summer, ings on the prairie, wood sills, 12 or 14 and furnish no retreats for vermin. Such inches wide, may be laid on piles or houses can be made by common laborstones. This will form a good super-ers, if a little carpenter's work is exstructure. Where lime and small stones abound, grout made of those materials (lime and stones) will answer very well.

In all cases, however, before commencing the walls for the first story, it is very desirable, as well in this case as in walls of brick, to lay a single course of slate; this will intercept the dampness so often rising in the walls of brick houses. The wall is laid by placing the brick lengthwise, thus making the wall one foot thick. Ordinary clay, such as is used for clay mortar, will suffice, though a weak mortar of sand and lime,

cepted, in a very short time, with a small outlay for materials, exclusive of floors, windows, doors, and roof.

The question will naturally arise, will the wall stand against the rain and frost? I answer, they have stood well in Europe, and the Hon. Mr. Poinsett remarked to me that lie had seen them in South America, after having been erected 300 years. Whoever has noticed the rapid absorption of water by a brick that has been burned, will not wonder why brick walls are damp. The burning makes the brick porous, while the unburnt brick is less absorbent; but

it is not proposed to present the unburnt the earth is the principal art of the rusbrick to the weather. Whoever has tic or primitive builder. Soils, with reerected a building with merchantable ference to building, may be divided into brick, will at once perceive the large two classes: clays, loams, and all such number of soft and yellow brick, par- soils as can neither be called gravels nor tially burned, that it contains-brick that sands, and sands and gravels. The would soon yield to the mouldering in- former whether they are stiff or free, fluence of frost and storms. Such brick rich or poor, mixed with stones or free are, however, placed within, beyond the from stones, may be formed into walls reach of rain, and always kept dry. A in one of these modes, viz: in the pisè good cabin is made by a single room 20 manner, by lumps moulded in boxes, feet square. A better one is 18 feet and by compressed blocks. Sandy and wide and 24 feet long, cutting off 8 gravelly soils may always be made into feet on one end for two small rooms, 8 by excellent walls, by forming a frame of 9 each. boards, leaving a space between the boards of the intended thickness of the wall, and filling this with gravel mixed with lime mortar, or, if this cannot be got, with mortar made of clay and straw.

How easy could a settler erect such a cabin on the western prairie, where clay is usually found about 15 inches below the surface, and where stone and lime are often both very cheap. The article of brick for chimneys is found to be quite an item of expense in wood houses. In these mud houses no brick are needed, except for the top of the chimneys, the oven, the casing of the fireplace-though this last might be well dispensed with. A cement to put around the chimneys, or to fill any other crack, is easily made by a mixture of one part of sand, two of ashes, and three of clay. This soon hardens, and will resist the weather. A little lard or oil may be added, to make the composition still harder.

"In all cases, when walls, either of this class or the former, are built, the foundations should be of stone or brick, and they should be carried up at least a foot above the upper surface of the platform.

"We shall here commence by giving one of the simplest modes of construction, from a work of a very excellent and highly estimable individual, Mr. Denson, of Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, the author of the Peasant's Voice, who built his own cottage in the manner described below:

"Mode of building the mud walls of Such a cottage will be as cheap as a collages in Cambridgeshire.-After a lalog cabin, less expensive than pine build- borer has dug a sufficient quantity of ings, and durable for centuries. I have clay for his purpose, he works it up tried the experiment in this city, by with straw; he is then provided with a erecting a building 18 by 54 feet, two frame eighteen inches in length, six stories high, adopting the different sug-deep, and from nine to twelve inches in gestions now made. Although many doubted the success of the undertaking, all now admit it has been very successful, and presents a convenient and comfortable building, that appears well to public view, and offers a residence combining as many advantages as a stone, brick, or wood house presents. I will add what Loudon says in his most excellent work the Encyclopædia of Agriculture, pp. 74 and 75.

diameter. In this frame he forms his lumps, in the same manner that a brickmaker forms his bricks; they are then packed up to dry by the weather; that done, they are fit for the use, as a substitute for bricks. On laying the foundation of a cottage, a few layers of brick are necessary, to prevent the lumps from contracting a damp from the earth. The fire place is lined and the oven is built with bricks. I have known cottagers, where they could get the grant of a piece of ground to build on for themselves, erect a cottage of this description at a cost from £15 to £30. I examined one that was nearly completed, of a superior order; it contained two good lower rooms and a chamber, and was neatly thatched with straw. It is a

Outside coating.

warm, firm, and comfortable building, much more wholesome for either man far superior to the one I live in; and or beast than either burnt brick or stone, my opinion is, that it will last for cen-in consequence of their having less afturies. The lumps are laid with mortar, finity to moisture. Burnt brick are exthey are then plastered, and on the out- tremely porous, and each brick freshly side once roughcast, which is done by taken from the kiln will admit one-third throwing a mixture of water, lime, and of its weight of water. small stones, against the walls, before the plaster is dry, which gives them a very handsome appearance. The cottage I examined, cost £33, and took nearly one thousand lumps to complete it. A laborer will make that number in two days. The roofs of cottages of this description are precisely the same as when built with bricks or with a wooden frame. Cow-house, sheds, garden walls and partition fence, are formed with the same materials; but in all cases the tops are covered with straw, which the thatchers perform in a very neat man

ner."

FROM THE REPORt of 1844.

The only difficulty in the way in bringing mud or unburnt brick houses into general use, is the liability of the plaster to fall off. We feel satisfied that two very successful plans might be practised-the one to build a verandah around the whole building; and the other, by compounding the ingredients which compose the plaster, so as to form a close, solid, and impenetrable surface. A plaster may be formed with an equal proportion of pure clay, sand, ashes and lime, thoroughly incorporated together, and mixed with a portion of fresh bullock's blood, equal to one-half of each of the above ingredients. The blood should be well stirred, to prevent it from coagulating.

The Commissioner of Patents, the Hon. H. L. ELLSWORTH, remarks in his report of Feb. 1844, that numerous experiments have been tried during the past year with satisfactory reTo those who have already built, and sults. The cottage erected in Massachu-are apprehensive that the plastering setts Avenue, Washington, which is two sto-exposed to the action of the changes of ries in height, stands well; appears as hand- the weather will not prove durable, we advise them to make a composition of some as the best brick houses; and is warm the following materials, and apply it, in winter and cool in summer. As in climates while hot, on the outer surface with like ours, the combined effects of rain and a common painter's brush. frost may be supposed to present an objection to the durability of such walls, the following extracts are given, to show the results in Ca

Unburnt Brick Houses.-Houses properly constructed of this material are warmer, more durable, and cheaper than frame, and are destined to take the place of the log shanty, as well as the more expensive wooden walls. They are admirably adapted to the peculiar circumstances of Canadian settlers, as they neither require much skill nor expendi ture to erect them. Those who profess to be the best acquainted with the subject are of opinion that they are best calculated for cottages, or buildings that are not designed to be carried higher than fifteen feet.

Clay or unburnt brick houses are

To five gallons of water, add five quarts of Liverpool or rock salt; boil and skim; then take six quarts of unslaked lime, slake and sift it, put it into half a pound of copperas, three quarters the hot brine; also, one pound of alum, of a pound of pearlash-the last to be added gradually; then add four quarts of fine pure sand; mix the whole together, and apply two coats, as above. Any coloring matter may be added, to give the shade required. If this process be properly performed, it will make the wall have the appearance of slate, and be remarkably durable.

Process of making the brick in
Canada.

The mode of making brick is very simple. The first step is to make a clay pit in an oval shape, and fill it with pure clay. Blue is the best, if procurable.

As soon as this is done, water should || dows excepted) was two thousand two be copiously applied; and after the clay hundred and forty-eight, which, at £1 has been saturated with water twenty-per hundred brick, would equal £22 four hours, a yoke of oxen may tread or 10s. There were eleven toises of stone temper it; and, during this operation, required for the foundation, which cost short straw must be applied, at the rate six shillings per toise for laying into of four common bundles to a hundred wall. About one-half the quantity of bricks. The bricks are moulded quite mortar is used for plastering on mud convenient to the pit, by simply placing brick that is required on lathing; and the mould on the ground, which should the plasterers will do the work for thirty have an even surface, and filling it with per cent, less than on the latter. The the tempered mortar with a common chimneys and inside walls are very frethree-pronged fork. By drawing a quently made of the same material, but straight-edge board across the upper the bricks are much smaller. Any size surface of the mould, and raising the may be used; but the most convenient mould, the brick is formed; which must and expeditious size for building is six remain on the spot until it becomes suf-inches thick, six inches wide, and from ficiently dry to turn on its edge. When they are dry enough to move without spoiling the shape, they may be stacked up to season, and should be secured from the wet by broad boards.

Construction.

twelve to eighteen inches long: the bottom and top of the chimney have of course to be built with burnt brick or stone. The only cement used for laying up the brick, is an equal proportion of pure clay and sand mixed to the consistence of mortar.

C.,) March, 1843.

In constructing this style of houses, Extract from the British American Cultivator, (U. the two following particulars must be invariably observed, viz: The erection of a substantial stone wall, at least two

We received a few days since, a note feet above the level of the ground, and || from a friend of ours, who resides in the a hip or cottage roof projecting over each side of the wall not less than thirty inches. Another very important feature is, to have a quantity of bond timber interspersed through the wall, consisting of 1-inch or 2-inch plank. To give our readers some idea of the costs of such walls, when they are given out by contract, we will illustrate the subject by mentioning the following facts:

Brock district, in which he desires further information relative to the mode of constructing the above cheap, durable and warm houses. We heartily res pond to the call, and take pleasure in not only answering his inquiries, but will give such additional facts as suggest themselves to our mind at the present moment.

The bricks referred to, for the construction of the inside walls and chimMr. William Beason, of the village neys, may be made of almost any size of Yorkville, one mile north of this city, to suit the taste and convenience of the has built a very great number of these builder; but the dimensions we gave in buildings, and has invariably taken them our last are decidedly the most preferby contract at the rate of £1 per hun- able, and are sometimes used for outside dred brick, including making and laying walls when the building is not more the bricks, being six inches thick, than one story high. The whole of the twelve inches wide, and eighteen inches chimneys for two-story houses may be long. He built the last summer, a built with unburnt brick, excepting the number of houses of various sizes, one fire-places as high as the mantle-pieces; of which was for a farmer by the name and the portion of the chimneys that proof Robert Masharfey, of the township of ject above the roof, joining on to it, be York, the dimensions being twenty-made so that it will not admit any water eight feet wide by thirty-eight feet long to reach the clay, (unburnt brick.) and fourteen feet high, exclusive of two The principal object of bond timber feet of stone wall for the foundation. is to attach fixtures to the wall-such The number of bricks in the wall (win-as verandahs, door and window sills,