Norwich bulletin., 1910-08-27

(Written Especially for the Bulletin)
 Tfsere are two practical, everyday
 farm problems lying in wait for us
 small eastern farmers, every time we
 <,pen our woOd-Shed doors of morn
 ing to wit namely, that is to say,
 the fence trouble and the roof puzzle
 If one might judge from the glowing
 and roseate language of the adver-
 risements and circulars and cata-
 lozues concerning patent fences and
 r,atent rooh1gs, he might think that
 both these propositions were real
 for him by the public-s spirited man.
 r1facturers who had foreseen his ex-
 act and individual needs and stood
 ready to meet them to the dot for
 slight consideration
 unfortunzteIy. one cannot judge
 euaIIv from the promises Of inter
 ested makers and dealers He must
 try the things out for himself II the
 average farmers experience with pat
 eut roofs are new-fangled fences IS
 anything like mine. he soon finds out
 that the pictures and promises Tn the
 catalogues resemble only very sllght-
 I~ the actual things on his barn or
 around his pasture They don't work
 zS they ought to; they don't last as
 rF7ex otrrht to - and they cost like
 sin in the end if not at the begin
 ming.
 When was boy - several
 hundred years ago. it seems = we used shingles. as our fathers had done. l
 They the fathers, roofed their build 1 fngs with pine or henloc< or cedar l or chestnut shingles. all split and shaved by hand: preferably with pine | Tn this vicinity. Say, those were shingles Moreover, they fastened
 then to the roof boards with rather | clumsy sQuare-cut shingle- nails,
 which were made of good honest iron
 ard which held 'ern on and really | didn't want to rust Nowadays all shingles are sawed. with surfaces torn | and roughened by the sawteeth, so | that instead of shedding the rain as i the old shaved surfaces used to do, | they absorb ir like so many sponges l Moreover. they are made out of the | poorest possible stock, apparently | from old blocks and short logs. too | kDotty or crooked or "shaky' to make i saEable lumber They are cut green | and punched green. By the time they | get from the mills across country and l ehrouEh the lumber-yards to the user I they are often half rotten When | you get them, you must keep them in | the kitchen behind the stove, if you | don't want them to rot completely be- fore you can put them on the roof.
 Then the nails: instead of the gem Cine iron ones we once used, we can | now buy only steel nails. prediSpOSed to rust and so small that the rust finishes them about as soon as it at Tacks one side If by any chance you get a few shingles out of bunch which will shed water and last a couple of years. then the nails will rust of the under side and let them blow away It seems to make no difference whether you buy cut nails or wire nails, whether they are described as being all iron or mild steel I've never found a penny's diff ference in@the utter WOrthlessneSS of them all They are made to sell, not to use
 Seven years ago my house roof got to leaking so badly that patch ing had to be given up and a new roof put on laid the best pine shingles I could find. ordering (ard paying extra for) two kegs of -cut Iron shingle nails to fasten them with In less than two years shingles were blowing off that roof, each one with its two nai1-heads showing on the upper side, as driven. and only a speck or two of rust on the under side where the metal was eaten com pletely of Resort to an iron expert disclosed the fact that all my iron nails were Of steel, and "darned poor steel at that" said he. After repeat ed patchings to replace shingles that have blown on or routed quite away, I've now had to lay an entirely new roof.
 Note the difference: The old shin- gles I tore off. made of pine hand split and shaved eighteen inches long. l and put on with cut iron nails. had lasted over forty yearsI know when they were laid for I helped lay them; the new roof. also made of pine shin Eie=, but sawed, and fastened with steel nails cost just as much for ma terfai and more than three times as much for labor, and lasted but seven years Some of the best preserved of those ohc 1880 shingles I saved from the rubbish pile and used to cover a shed roof. seven years ago, using some of the old nails to put them with. Those old, twice used. secondhand ', and nails are in better con- ditfon today than any roof I've laid slncs them
 Other farmers in my neiohborhood ( pave had experiences much like mine I 8Dn't happen to know of one who is . rsfng shingles any longer But what S are going to use2 Some are turn ] { nz to slate This is Ia sting and fire i proof It is also brittle and besatIy i I stun to patch when patching is re- 1uired- Moreover it is seldom abso- a Htely rain proof and hardly ever snow f proof It is also brittle and beastly I rood slate and have it properly laid | ,y competent slaters. Tin is all right, e 10 long as t Is kept we'll painted. But 1 | most of my neighbors who have tried | [ are tearing 1t of. they can. and ooking for something more satisfac- cry- It costs too much to keen it l c ID. There is just now much interest f n the galvanized roofings They are leo exueuSIyl a r- if | z