The Republican journal., 1885-09-17

4
space 1t has been sometimes argued
that a cheap shinglc is the more ec0nom-
ical, because the interest upon a high
cost quality, in a long term of years. will
run up so high that the interest alone
would pay all the cost of re-shingling
with lower cost grade of shingles, but
as the rate OF interest declines, that ar
gument loses much of its force.
OF late years, the tendency has been
towards better quality of material for
roofs. In cities, copper, slate and tin
are used to large extent. and in many
country places slate and tin are gaining
in popularity, from year to year. But
some very good houses are covered with
first quality shingles that are prepared
by painting or soaking in some kind of
wash that is intended to increase their
lasting qualities, y tiTst-class pine shin
gle shaved from sound heart wood, and
then soaked in oil and painted with a
good coat OF oil paint, Will last SO long
that the man who lays it will hardly be
| likely % ever have the roof to relay.
MI j, j. Thomas of Mon Springs,
! y. y, is d strong advocate of crude pc
troleum tOr preserving a shnged roof.
| He buys the petroleum by the barrel.
| and uses 10 quite protusely. rndeavoung
! IT, make the wood take M all lhe oil it
! will Lime wash has long been used 10
| ID limited extent for preserving shingles.
| hut Time is far inferior 1n Nil for this pur-
/ pose Lime II used freely, will tor il
| lime. keen a roof clear ut moss and lch-
! ems, which have Tendency to cause de
! cay. Lime wash Iu winch sal! Il freely
| 4srd. AIll keep the shingles 4HrhlE
! lamp A ordinary weather. SO that thet
I t III NOT ohrra aud split. as whrn rN-
~sivelN Ifv. LG' sal is art to .i.st uut
/ le nails and let the shingles he blown
uu by winds.
\ reader ot tie Farmer. iu PantucEet.
! Il J., wishes TO learn If there is not some
/ place where he rau pu} shingles tHat are
already prepared hy soaking In lime wa
/ Ter or salt, or both coublned lie thinks
/ that shingles might he dipuad IN lime
wafer. or in some way Inc prepared and
coated with Wnjte-W8sh Hy machinery.
at the mills where they are made. cheap
er than the work can he done by hand.
He learns that I'D England. where there
: much less heat and still less sunshine
thau we have here i'll New England such
| lime wash is used OV sheep farmers
quite freely for coating sheep-shed roofs
| 10 keep them cool in summer, and They
| think with much advantage But our
New England farmers should remember
! that the English farmer does not like
most ot our farmers. own his farm build
ngs, and it is less ot an object with him
TO bulid with special regard to perma-
nency. our Pa"tucket correspondent.
Who Las a tine, wel-tnishel residence in
a THRIVING suburban town. where prop
ertE is likely to rise rather than fall, can
afford, we beieTe, to dress The wood
work OF his dwelling house with some
thing much better than cheap white
wash Nhlte"ash. at best, is not very
| durable, and It Is not a very good preser-
vative, unless applied quite often, and
that makes work 1t may be true, as
our correspondent writes, that a white
washed roof would be cooler in summer
on account Of the lighter color. but this
would be disadvantage in winter,
when we want The sun to melt the snow
on the roofs as soon as possible after it
falls.
We find, by turning 10 our back vol
umes of the New England Farmer that
whitewash has been considerably used
by our readers foI dressing the covering
OF cheap buildings, sometimes with salt
and sometimes without. In the wear
1869, a correspondent of the Country
Gentleman. also described his method of
preserving shingles by dipping them in
boiling pitch made of gas tar and rosin.
well boiled down 4 lively hand, he
said, could prepare 2O0O shingles in
day. 4 roof covered thirteen wears, an
peared perfectly sound. and bid fair TO
last thirty years longer. The boiling
pitch filled all the weather-checks and
worm holes, and kept the water from
penetrating the wood. He did not find
it necessary to dip the upper third of the
shingle, which is covered by two thick
nesses of the prepared wood.
DR.. Sias Brown, who previous to his
death, resided in Wilmington, Mass.
used to prepare shingles by simply soak
ing them a short time in boiling hot
whitewash, and then laying them aside
for awhile to dry before laying. He had
roofs twenty-five years old, covered by
cheap shingles, prepared 10 this way
Whlch looked TO be good for many years
longer
Another correspondent of the Farmer
recommended wash of lime, salt and
sand, or fine wood ashes, put on in the
ordinary way OF whitewashing and
claimed that such Il coating would rem
der roof much safer from fire. Old
roofs, be claimed, would be greatly bene-
fitted by such a dressing, as it would
fill all the little cracks and checks, and
at the same time make warped shingles
lay down fiat again. Now, either of
these methods would doubtless be wor-
thy of trial for low priced shingles to
cover cheap building, but we would
not recommend such washes for use up
on good dwelling houses. Whitewash
that looks quite respectable when dry,