girl can apply as well as any one.
First, look the brick over and note whether it is straight and true,
and whether the edges and corners are sharp. Strike it, and see
whether it gives a clear, ringing sound. Then weigh it and soak it in
water for twenty-four hours. Weigh it again, and if it is more than
one fifth heavier than it was before soaking, it is not of the first
quality.

After the clay has been dug, it must be "tempered," that is, mixed
with water and about one third or one fourth as much sand as clay, and
left overnight in a "soak pit," a square pit about five feet deep. In
the morning the workmen shovel the mass over and feed it into the
machines for forming the bricks. The mixing is better done, however,
in a "ring pit." This is a circular pit twenty-five or thirty feet in
diameter, three feet deep, and lined with boards or brick. A big iron
wheel works from the center to the edge and back again for several
hours, through and through the clay. A method even better than this is
to put the clay and sand and water into a great trough, in which there
is a long shaft bristling with knives. The shaft revolves, mixes the
clay, and pushes it along to the end of the trough. This is called
"pugging," and the whole thing--trough, shaft, and knives--is a "pug
mill."

In the old days bricks were always made by hand. The moulder stood in
front of a wet table whereon lay a heap of soft clay. He either wet or
sanded his mould to keep it from sticking. Meanwhile, his assistant
had cut a piece of clay and rolled it and patted it into the shape of
the mould. In making bricks, there can be no patching; the mould
must be filled at one stroke, or else there will be folds in the
brick. To make a good brick, the moulder lifts the clay up above his
head and throws it into the mould with all his force. Then he presses
it into the corners with his thumbs, scrapes off with a strip of wood
any extra clay, or cuts it off with a wire, smooths the surface of the
brick, puts mould and brick upon a board, jerks the mould up and
proceeds to make another brick.

[Illustration: IN A NEW JERSEY BRICK MILL

_Copyright by Underwood and Underwood._

This man is moulding a fire-brick to its final shape.]

No matter how expert a moulder may be, brick-making by hand is slow
work, and in most places machines are used. In what is called the
"soft-mud" process, the clay is pushed on by the pug mill to the end
of the trough. There stands a moul