The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-10-24
Adobes as a Building Material.

although fresh from the woodland re-
gions of the Mississippi Valley. and the
new England States, were not slow in
abandoning the log caoin, and adopt
ing instead the sun-baked adobe houses
of their Mexican neighbors. The old
Mexican adobes 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 more cOnven-
lent size. and adopted dimension
which is still i'm 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 now tie common adobe of this coun
try. There are blue adobes, white
saleratus odobes, and common adobes
pronounced ''dobys). 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
common adobes are made from any
loamy or clayey soil with sufficient ad-
hesive properties to permit the pieces
being handled when dried or baked.
Formerly adobes were made at the clay
teds, thus forming the adobe yards to
be found e:erywhere near the towns
and villages These ''dOby yards"
bear some resemblance to the country
| brick-yards of the Middle States, bet
lack the debris of the kilns, the kiln
stacks, the piles of fuel, and the sheds
of the yards that were made in rainy
climates In some of these adobe
yards the common pud-mill of the old
fashioned brick-yard is occasionally
seen. The adobes made from clay
mixed by these mills, are not consid-
cred nearly as strong as those made in
the more primitive way of treading and
mixing the material with the feet.
Adobes are made at the yards as
follows: Selecting a place on the bed
of clay convenient to water. or where
water can be obtained by small ditch
reaching to the nearest irrigating
ditch, the top soil is shoveled away
where the clay is to be cNcavated.
A space is Gle red of the salt grass and
rabDit-brush, and levellcd Cor dry
ing floor. Tho t'doby'' maker, with
a boy TO assist. digs out one or more
yards o. clay, forms mound so shaped
as to soak up water. throws or runs
water upon it and leaves it to soak
over night. In the morning this clay
is mixed by treading into rather sti.-
s., than oon ho xynYEaA krpunh
| a mill.
The "doby" maker then commences
to mould by forcibly throwing double
handful of the mud into the moulas,
leveling them off with a 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 a
thousan are ire iuently maze by rapid
and skillful workers. After being par
tia sun baked, they are turned up on
edge, and when sufficiently dry are
placed in con- enient piles. 1t takes
! these adobes in summer weather, about
one week TO dry.
The loading, transportation, and I'M
loading OF these adobes made at the
yards, damages 4 large number b;
knocking oil the corners and edges,
and it is now customary TO have them
made where the building is TO be erect
ed. The clay is piled at a convenient
place. and water procured by digging
out small temporary ditch.
co rmon adobeS a. e always made on
the site where they are to be used, fire.
quently from the earth excavated from
the cellar These are made either by
foot or machine. according to the guam
tity required. They are used either for
the inner side OF walls or Tor division
| walls. where they are not exposed to
tine weather. In the order of durabili-
| ". when exposed to the weather, the
..white saleratus DOLBY" is all that could
/ be desired.
In examining carefully the wall of q
house erected Twenty-Five years ago,
this variety shows no appre liable wear,
| while the blue adobes intermixed in
| the same wall are more or less weather.
beaten and worn. This wall has a
southern c <posure. and has stood the
| beating rains from the south and west
sin l.rst erected. In the same dwell
| ing the walls facing eat and north
show no marks of weather wear. APP
pearing smooth and in as good ooder as
| if but recertly constructed.-Amertc an
| AgricuLturiS;.