Part 8

Duck Ponds

Ducks and geese need water, yet if they are allowed to go to a nearby stream, many are lost. Poultrymen are building ponds of concrete, attached to the water supply in such a way as to provide fresh water at all times. For building, see instructions under HOG WALLOWS, page 52.

Retaining Wall and Steps

Terraces, if too steep, will not stay sodded, and if too flat, take up room which would otherwise be a part of the lawn. The neatest way is to place a retaining wall along the terrace edge. This wall is built in the same way as the wall to hold the earth in a barn approach described on page 60.

If the wall is over one foot high steps are necessary. A most convenient arrangement is to have the bottom step come flush with the face of the wall, making it impossible to fall over one or two projecting steps in the dark.

In building, insert a stop plank between the front and back forms to prevent the concrete from going to the full height of the wall. The bottom of this plank should be kept at a height above the bottom of the wall sufficient to form the first step.

After the concrete for the wall is placed, remove the section of the form where the steps are to come, and dig out the earth to a depth sufficient to hold them.

The remaining steps are built in the manner described on page 90.

After the concrete is placed, the steps should be closed to traffic for at least one week.

In the background of the photograph on page 72 may be seen a double terrace wall of concrete, each wall 5 feet high.

Concrete Chimney Caps

As a large proportion of fires in residences originate in the chimney, it is well to have this part of the house as nearly fireproof as possible. It can be made entirely so by building it of concrete. If this is not convenient, at least let the chimney cap be of concrete.

These caps are cast in one piece, on the ground, and in any shape desired.

The outside form is a wooden box, with inside dimensions corresponding with the outside dimensions of the desired cap. Usually the cap is 6 inches thick, and has an “over-hang” or “drip” extending on all sides beyond the outside of the chimney.[3] Thus, if top of chimney, over all, is 18 inches square, make outer form 22 inches square, an extra allowance of 2 inches on all sides, thus obtaining a cap that will have an “over-hang” of 2 inches all the way around.

[3] A simple method for building a chimney entirely of concrete is described on page 50.

The inside form may consist of a piece of terra-cotta tile. If more than one opening is desired in the cap, use two pieces of tile or as many as there are to be openings.

Mix concrete 1: 2: 4, the mixture to be a thoroughly wet one. Place in the form, after greasing outside of terra-cotta so that same may be easily removed. Leave undisturbed for two days. Remove forms and place cap in position, attaching it to the brick chimney with a cement mortar, one part cement to one part sand.

Concrete Makes an Excellent Porch Floor

When even a part of a building is subjected to unusual wear, either from use or exposure to the elements, build it of concrete.

Porch floors of wood rot quickly when laid near the ground; and, even if they do not rot, through constant use they become splintered and faulty.

As concrete is a stone which can be made into any shape without cutting, it is particularly well adapted for porch floors of any size and shape. Its lasting qualities under all conditions of wear and exposure have been so often mentioned, it seems useless to refer to them again.

Remove the old wooden floor, first placing props to support the porch roof, with their lower ends resting outside the line of the porch floor. The pillars themselves must also be supported if they are not to be replaced by concrete.

The floor is laid in exactly the same way as a feeding floor described on page 43. As the size is usually small, however, the floor can be laid in a single slab without joints. If a smooth surface is wished for, finish first with a wooden float and then with a steel trowel.

Do not put too much elbow grease into the finishing. If you do, small cracks are likely to come on the surface and spoil the looks of the floor.

No material could be more useful than concrete for the porch of a school house where hundreds of little feet scuff and stamp daily.

A porch of concrete is free from vermin, fireproof, easily scrubbed, and needs no repairs.

Hot-Beds and Cold-Frames

Fresh vegetables may be had during the winter at small expense by every suburbanite, if he builds a hot-bed or cold-frame. By their use early spring plants can also be given a good start. Since the bed must be placed partly in the damp ground, the only material to be considered for this purpose is concrete, which does not rot out and which, being free from cracks and joints, makes the warmest bed in cold weather.

Locate the bed on the sunny side of a building, if possible, on the south side. Dig the pit the width and length of the hot-bed, not less than 3 feet deep. The one shown is 39 feet long and divided into 3 equal compartments. Make box forms of 1-inch lumber to carry the south (front) wall 6 inches and the north (back) wall 15 inches above ground. The end walls slope to the others. If the bed is not near a building, extend the back wall 2 feet higher to serve as a wind-break. Before filling the forms with concrete, test their width by laying on a sash. See that it laps full 2 inches at each end.

Mix the concrete mushy wet in proportions 1: 2½: 5. Fill the forms without stopping for anything. Tie the walls together at the corners by laying old iron rods in them bent at right angles. During the placing of the concrete set ½-inch bolts about 2 feet apart to hold the wooden framing to the concrete; or make grooves in the tops of the walls for sinking the frames level with the top of the concrete, allowing one-quarter inch at each end for clearance. This can be done by temporarily embedding in the soft concrete a wooden strip of the necessary width and thickness. Remove the forms after six days. Divisions may be built along with the walls or later as convenient. One and one-half days were required for two men to build a hot-bed 5½ by 12¼ feet in the clear.

=Materials Required= Screened gravel or broken stone 2½ cubic yards at $1.10 $2.75 Sand 1¼ cubic yards at $1.00 1.25 Portland cement 3½ barrels at $2.50 8.75 ------ $12.75

Tree Repair

Nothing adds so much to the home-like appearance of a place as good shade trees. But trees are like teeth—they need attention. Boring insects often cause decay. The hollow becomes larger. The wind blows the weakened tree down. The “looks” of the place is ruined. It takes at least a lifetime to produce another such tree.

By means of concrete, many famous old trees, seemingly about gone, are now saved. Open up the cavity with a hand-axe. With a mallet and chisel cut out every bit of the rotten wood, and stop the flow of sap by painting the cavity with liquid asphalt. Reinforce small cavities with nails as shown in the photograph, larger cavities with rods, wire and spikes. Carefully fill every crevice with a 1: 3 cement-sand mortar. By slightly trimming the edges of the bark around the filling, once or twice a season, the bark will grow entirely over the concrete.

Rollers of Concrete

Frost coming out of the ground in the spring raises the lawn into humps. If these are not rolled down at once, the lawn is rough all summer.

Rollers were originally made by the farmer from logs of wood. These were abandoned for the more expensive iron rollers, purchased in the nearest town. To-day farmers are again making rollers, but are using concrete. An iron roller with a cylinder from 2 to 3 feet in length will cost from $15 to $20, whereas one of the same size constructed of concrete will cost practically nothing.

Obtain a length of sewer pipe, of the size of roller wished for. A tile from 12 to 24 inches in diameter will usually suit the purpose. Set this tile on end, small end down, on a wooden platform. Through a hole bored in the platform insert a 1-inch round iron bar, long enough to project beyond the ends of the roller a sufficient distance to provide bearings and attachment for the handles. Care should be taken to get the bar exactly in the center of the tile before placing concrete, and to keep it there while the concrete is being placed. Make a wet mixture of concrete (1: 2: 4), and fill the tile with this mixture, up to the “bell” of the tile. Allow the concrete to set for ten days, when the roller may be placed on side, and the bell of pipe chipped off with a cold chisel and hammer. Attach a forked handle, as shown in the illustration. As the axle is a firmly-fixed part of the roller, the fork ends of the handle must be provided with holes, within which the axle can turn.

A roller 18 inches in diameter and 2 feet long will weigh about 600 pounds. If a lighter roller is desired, use a smaller sized sewer pipe; or place several small pipes inside the large one, depositing the concrete around them on the outside. They will form hollow spaces inside the roller and lessen its weight.

By increasing the size pipe, or by using a steel mold and attaching a pair of shafts or a tongue instead of a handle, horse rollers for crushing the clods in the ploughed fields may be made.

Hay Caps and Tarpaulin Weights

With the usual shortage of labor in the harvest season and the frequent occurrence of showers, to secure sweet, unmolded hay it has become necessary to cover the hay cocks with a canvas or muslin cover. The best weights to hold down the covers are made of concrete. Mix the concrete 1 part Portland cement to 2 parts sand, mold them like doughnuts or as cakes with a galvanized wire loop, and set them aside in a damp place for 7 days before using.

Trash Burner or Garbage Receiver

Trash and leaves must be burned without danger to the surrounding property. A concrete burner affords the only safe and inexpensive means.

Dig out the dirt to the depth of 6 inches. For forms choose two barrels, one of which will set within the other with a clearance on all sides of 6 inches. Adjust the height by cutting off their butts. Make an opening through which a metal ash box can be inserted or over which an iron door can be hung. Fill the foundation hole and the forms with 1: 2: 4 concrete. Remove the outside form after two weeks. The fire will later take care of the inner form. After three weeks the burner may be used.

Concrete Posts

When a man buys a farm, he examines first the condition of its general improvements. If the fences are “all run down,” he must take into consideration the cost of repairing or replacing them—a matter of no small importance and expense in these days of high priced labor and lumber. The cheapest fence is not always the one lowest in first cost. Intelligent purchase of fencing materials means buying those which last longest with least repairs.

A railroad probably has more fencing along its right of way than any single property owner, and to avoid damage suits, the fences must at all times be in perfect repair. As fast as their wooden fences rot out and burn down, they are replacing them with concrete. Not only has the lasting quality of concrete recommended itself, but the ever increasing shortage of the lumber supply has made the purchase of good wooden posts impossible, and the cost of poor posts high.

Concrete posts in first cost are seldom more expensive than wooden posts. The life of a wooden post is from 3 to 5 years, while concrete posts last forever. Weather and fire do not injure them. Even forest fires cannot harm a line of concrete posts.

The United States Government, recognizing the importance of this subject, has issued Farm Bulletin No. 403, entitled Concrete Fence Posts. This bulletin can be obtained free upon application to the Agricultural Department, or to your Congressman.

Hitching posts, made in a slightly larger box form, with a bolt and ring inserted in the concrete before it has hardened, add neatness to the house surroundings. Gate posts of concrete, nothing more than heavy fence posts made long enough to take the highest fence, prevent sagging gates, so hard to open. A concrete clothes post is ready for the clothes line and the wash every Monday morning. The weight of the wet clothes does not break them down or cause them to sag. Clothes never have to be rewashed due to dragging in the dirt.

Corner Stones and Survey Monuments

To property owners, as well as engineers, survey monuments which last forever and can be easily distinguished from surrounding rocks, are of the utmost importance. Expensive re-surveys and legal fights can be avoided by making such monuments easily distinguishable, permanent, and in such a way as to avoid confusion with other marks. The use of concrete for this purpose fills all the requirements better than any other material.

Get from the proper public official (usually the county engineer or surveyor) the exact location of corner stones. Drive four stakes in the ground so that strings stretched between every other stake will cross each other directly over the original monument.

Remove the old monument, and, with a post auger, bore a hole deep enough to reach below the frost line (at least 3 feet deep), where the old monument stood.

Fill the hole with concrete mixed 1: 2: 4, rounding the top with the hands so it will extend 3 or 4 inches above the level of the surrounding ground.

While placing the last foot of concrete, imbed a harrow tooth, iron bolt, or gas pipe, with its top just showing above the finished concrete at a point directly under where the strings cross. Protect the monument from damage by stock for one week, by placing a box over it.

Drain Tile Outlet Walls

In developing the lowlands for farm purposes—and such lands are now most valuable—immense sums are being invested in concrete drain tile.

Where drain tile empty into an open ditch, the banks of the ditch around the drain tile gradually wash away, and often two and three lengths of tile become disjointed, allowing the water from them to further cut away the field land. These exposed tile are often crushed by livestock. Moreover, clay and shale tile freeze, crumble, and mixed with the earth from the bank frequently close the outlet. Muskrats, skunks and mink use the tile as a nesting place, and the drain becomes stopped up and drowns out the crops.

All of this trouble is prevented by a small outlay of time and money in building a concrete retaining wall to keep the end of the drain tile from washing out and to protect it.

Choose the dry season of the year, immediately after the laying or cleaning of the string of tile, when little water is in the ditch.

Dig a trench 12 inches wide along the edge of the open ditch 2 feet below its bottom and under the end of the line of tile. This trench should extend along the bank for from 4 to 6 feet, with wings turned into the bank at its ends, sufficiently long to prevent water from getting in behind the wall and washing the dirt out.

Mix concrete 1: 2½: 5—wet enough to tamp well.

Fill the trench with concrete up to the ground level. Should the trench be full of water, place this part of the concrete dry.

Set box forms, made of 1-inch siding and 2 by 4-inch studding. These forms must be high enough to bring the wall up to the level of the top of the ditch banks. At the proper height to meet the string of tile, place a first-class drain tile (at least one size larger than the regular string) through the forms so that the front end will be flush with the outside wall after concrete is placed.

Bore two small holes in the forms above this tile, and place in them well greased pegs of wood. After the forms are filled with concrete, these pegs are removed, the holes receiving the bolts holding a flap gate to keep animals out of the line of tile. Fill the forms with concrete, and smooth off the top of wall with a steel trowel.

Remove the forms after one week, and fill in earth behind the wall to its top.

Spraying Tanks

San José scale and insects are everywhere making fruit growers spray their orchards. To get rid of the continual nuisance of leaks and the handling of warm solutions, orchardmen are building elevated concrete tanks and are heating the spraying solution with steam pipes on the tank bottoms. With such a plant, there is no delay—and time counts in the spraying season.

The tank shown stands on 10 by 12-inch columns, 6 feet clear of the ground. It has two compartments, each 5 by 5 feet by 4 feet deep holding 750 gallons. The side walls are 4 inches thick. Beneath the 4-inch bottom, on all sides, are 8 by 12-inch concrete beams.

Locate the tank convenient to the water supply. Dig the column holes 12 inches square, 3 feet deep, 11 feet out to out on the longer side and 5 feet on the shorter. Have all forms ready before placing any concrete. Fill the holes with concrete and imbed in each hole four ½-inch iron rods 10 feet long so that they will come right for the columns and extend through them. Set up the 10 by 12-inch by 6-foot column forms with their tops level with each other. Join them together with the solidly framed 8 by 12-inch beam forms.

Keeping the rods 1 inch from the corners, fill concrete in the column forms up to the floor beams. Spread 1 inch of concrete over the bottom of the beam forms and lay in two ½-inch rods 1½ inches from each side wall. Bend these rods around those in the columns. Without delay fill the beam forms.

Erect the forms for the tank proper as for WATERING TANKS, page 74. In the bottom of each tank set a 1½-inch flange pipe coupling. Place 1 inch of concrete, then strips of heavy woven wire, and the remaining 3 inches of concrete. Fill the side walls and, 1 inch from the outside, imbed similar wire fencing. Protect the green concrete according to directions under watering tanks.

The materials required are: screened gravel or crushed rock, 4½ cubic yards; sand, 2¼ cubic yards; and Portland cement, 7½ barrels.

Culverts are Permanent When Made of Concrete

The secret of good roads is good drainage. Standing water soaks into the road bed, softens the road surface and causes ruts. To keep well made roads in first-class condition, get the water to the highway drain tile as fast as it falls. This can be accomplished only by means of culverts.

The perfect culvert is one which does not rot or rust out, which does not crush down and clog up the opening, which lasts forever. Concrete is the only material which fills the bill.

The best time to build a culvert is in the dry months of summer. They can be shaped either round or square and of a size depending on the amount of water which must be removed quickly. Usually openings 12 to 18 inches are large enough. Set the culvert as deep in the road bed as possible, but do not place the outlet end lower than the bottom of the ditch into which the culvert drains. To keep the culvert well beneath the road bed, if necessary, make the side ditch deeper at the inlet end. Determine the grade line of the finished culvert bottom. Only a little slope is needed. Dig the trench 6 inches deeper than the grade line and as wide and long as necessary. The width of the trench depends upon the size of the culvert to be built, and its length upon the width of roadway under which the water is to be carried. The concrete walls are each 6 inches thick, so the width of the trench will be 1 foot greater than the clear width of the culvert. Fill this trench with concrete mixed 1: 2½: 5, and, while it is still wet place in the center of it a U-shaped box, turned upside down, of 1-inch boards, the outside of which is the size of the culvert desired. Fill concrete into the space between the sides of the box and the sides of the trench and tamp concrete over the top to a depth of 8 inches. Road culverts should not be less than 18 inches below the surface of the roadway.

To prevent the material of which the road is made from washing down into the culvert, small wing or retaining walls must be built at each end. To do this dig an 8-inch trench 3 feet deep, at each end of the culvert along the end of the culvert barrel. Frame a form, the width and height necessary, against the end of the box or pipe. Make another form, of the same size, but U-shaped, with the opening just large enough to fit over the outside of the concrete culvert barrel. Set this form 8 inches inside the first. Plumb both forms and brace them securely. Nail boards across the ends of these two forms and fill them with concrete. For one week shut off the traffic from passing over the culvert. Allow the forms to remain in place for two weeks. Replace the road material over the culvert and keep the ruts carefully filled until the fill has become solid. Since there are usually many culverts to be built, it is cheaper to use a collapsible form, adjustable to several sized culverts.

The box culvert shown in the illustration on page 108 has an opening 18 inches wide and 16 inches deep. The length is 20 feet. The retaining walls are 8 inches thick, 2 feet high (from the barrel opening), and do not extend beyond the culvert walls. The bottom and the side walls are 6 inches thick; the top, 8 inches. Three men, with a highway commissioner as superintendent, built this culvert in two days.

=Materials Required= Crushed rock or screened gravel 3 cubic yards at $1.10 $3.30 Sand 1½ cubic yards at $1.00 1.50 Portland cement 4 barrels at $2.50 10.00 ------ $14.80

Concrete bridges last forever. With all the bridges and culverts of concrete, tax officials will no longer need to levy bridge taxes.

Septic Tanks

The proper method for the disposal of house sewage is an important question on the farm. Cess-pools, simply pits dug in the ground, are great disease spreaders. The liquids from them seep through the ground, carry germs from the pool to the well, render “the best drinking-water in the country” unfit for use, and often cause the spread of disease.

The modern farmer no longer puts up with such barbaric practice. Cess-pools have long been prohibited in cities, where immense sums of money are spent for the proper disposal of sewage. It is not possible to provide farms with these expensive plants, nor is it necessary. Through the use of an inexpensive septic tank all of the conveniences of the toilet and bath may be installed in the house and the danger from sewage removed.

Septic tanks are nothing but long underground, water-tight cisterns through which the sewage passes very slowly and evenly. Located underground, they are warm and dark—ideal conditions for the development of the bacteria, little germs which eat up the sewage and render it harmless in much the same way as another kind causes cider to ferment. To prevent the bacteria (which live in the frothy sludge) from being disturbed cross-walls, called baffle boards, are placed to break up the current of the inflowing sewage. The purified sewage, merely clear water, may be discharged into the farm drain tile.