Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-11-07

- ''AA Wa A'N"SS ~ WV 'iN''
the PeNin Government as if he defeated
him in the iield.-Hmpoa'S Bu:or.
Adobes rs a Building Material.
The early settlers of the Far West,
although fresh from the woodland re-
gions OF the Mississippi Valley, and tho
New England States, We're not slow in
abandoning the ]og-capin. and adopt
ing instead the sun-baked adobe houses
OF their Mexican neighbors. The old
Mexican adobcs are large and clumsy,
being twenty-four inches long. twelve
inches wide, and six inches thick, and
SO heavy that both hands of the mason
are employed to lift and place them,
thus requiring the trowel to be laid
down IN handling each piece. This
was too understandable for the brick
layers, who demanded q more convcn-
lent size, and adopted a dimension
which is still in use. A brick-shaped
piece of nodded earth or clay.
baked in the hot sun, two and
one-half inches thick, five inches
wide, and ten and one half inches long,
is o the common adobe of this coun-
try. There are blue adobes, white
salcratus odobes, and common adobes
Pronounced .dobys''D. Both the
white and blue adobes are made from
beds OF clay found in the lowlands.
These clay beds are more or less I'M
pregnatcd with an alkaline salt. The
common adobes are made from any
loamy o. claycy soil with sufficient adj
hcsivc properties to permit the pieces
being handled when dried or baked.
Formerly Sdobcs We're made at the clay
beds, thus forming the adobe yards to
be found everywhere near the towns
and villages. These 'doby yards"
bear some resemblance to the country
brick-yards OF the Middle States, but
lack the debris of the kilns. the kiln
stacks, the piles of fuel, and the sheds
OF the yards that We're made in rainy
climates. In some of these adobe
yards the common pud-miIl of the old
fashioned brick-yard is occasionally
seen. The adobes made from clay
mixed by these mills, are o consid-
cred nearly as strong rs those made in
the more primitive way OF treading and
mixing the material With the feet.
Adobes are made at the yards az
follows: Selecting u place on the bed
of clay convenient to water. or where
water can be obtained by 4 small ditch
reaching to the nearcs irrigating
ditch, the top soil is shoveled away
where the clay is to be cxcavated.
\ space is cleared Of the salt grass and
rabbit-brush, and levcllcd for a dry
ING floor. The "doby'' maker, with
y boy to assist. digs out one or more
yards OF clay, forms a mound so shaped
as to soak up water. throws or runs
water upon it and leaves it to soak
oyc night. in the morning this clay
is mixed by treading into rather q stii-
fer mass than can be worked through
4 mill.
The "doby'' maker then commences
to mould by forcibly throwing double
handfuls of the mud into the moulds.
levGling them OFT with q sweep of the
hands, and pushing the mould to the
boy who empties it on the drying
floor.
Another mould is filled while the
carrier is emptying the first. and so on.
An average days work is five hundred
adobes, but from eight hundred to Il
thousand are frequently maze by rapid
and skillful workers. After being par
TALLY sun-bakcl, they arc turned up on
edge, and when sufficiently dry are
placed in convenient piles. 1t takes
these adobcs in summer weather, about
Il week TO dry.
The loading, transportation. and UNI
loading OF these adobcs made at the
yards, damages Il large number by
knocking on iAo and edges,
and it is now customary to have them
made where the building is to be erect
cd. The clayis piled at Il convenient
place, and water procured by digging
out Il small Temporary ditch.
Common adobcs are ALWAYS made on
the site where they are to be used, fire.
qucntly from the earth excavated from
the cellar. These are made either bv
foot OF machine. according to the guam
THY required. They are used either for
walls, where they are not exposed to
the weather. In the order OF durabili-
ty, when exposed 10 the weather, the
''wEite salcrs.tCs doby' is all that could
be desired.
In examining carefully the wall of a
house erected twcniT-nine years ago.,
this variety shows no appre;iablc Wear,
while the blue adobcs jntermiXed in
the same wall are more OF less weather.
beaten and worm. This wall has a
southern exposure. "nd has stood the
beating rains from the south and west
since inst erected. In the same dwell
ing the walls facing east and north
show no marks of weather wear. ap-
pearing smooth and in Us good order as
il but recently constructed.-Amcrican
.AgrlcaAh1y2S..
The American Consul at Sheffield,
England, speaking OF the cutlery in