FARM BUILDINGS. 637 



to be preferred when they can be obtained), and well cemented. Boards should never be 

 used for flooring a cellar, as they soon become damp and moldy, making such houses very 

 unhealthy to live in. Mr. Gardner, in his treatise on Farm Architecture, expresses the 

 following opinion on this subject: 



&quot; By careful draining, it is possible to make a soil naturally wet fit to live upon. 



Where any doubt exists, the entire site should be thoroughly under-drained. The 

 foundation-walls should be solid ; that is, laid in cement and mortar. 



An enterprising rat with a large family on his hands will destroy more in a single winter 

 than the whole extra cost of the mortar. 



Pointing the face will not answer; it will stop nearly all the holes, but add nothing 

 whatever to the strength of the masonry. 



There are several good reasons why the first or principal floor of a house should not be 

 too high up in the world. From the picturesque stand-point the lowly estate is decidedly 

 preferable, especially as the underpinning is usually treated. But other reasons for keeping 

 the living-rooms well above the surface of the ground are too important to be disregarded. 



A free circulation of air and plenty of light underneath the first floor are indispensable 

 to the best sanitary condition. These can be most easily secured when at least half the cellar 

 or basement story is above the ground. 



The porch and the main entrance-hall may perhaps be upon a lower level. 



For warmth and dryness, the cellar-wall above the ground, commonly called the under 

 pinning, should be hollow two thin walls of stone or brick, or one of each.&quot; 



With respect to improving cellars of old buildings that are dark, damp, and moldy, 

 the same writers says: 



&quot;Dig a trench around outside nearly to the bottom of the wall, or at least until the 

 stratum of earth is reached that holds the water, and girdle the foundation with a drain of 

 horseshoe-tiles,having one or more free outlets. Refill the trench with sand, gravel, or cin 

 ders, and cover the top with several inches in depth of clay and loam pitching sharply away 

 from the house, and lay a shallow, open gutter of concrete or cobble-stones to catch the 

 water from the roof, if there are no eave-spouts. 



If the cellar is not deep enough for the modern furnace or steam-heater, and the walls 

 do not extend below the cellar -bottom, build a new wall of bricks or stones two or three feet 

 inside of the old, and below the cellar-bottom, leaving a sort of platform for bins, barrels, 

 and boxes around the edges, and dig the rest two feet deeper. By this means the old 

 foundations are not disturbed, and the whole can be done in cold or wet weather. 



When the old house rests so closely upon the earth that no sunlight enters the cellar 

 through the narrow windows, and the cellar cannot be raised without great expense, nor the 

 earth be removed around it, then build semicircular areas of bricks about the windows, and 

 make the windows themselves large enough to admit plenty of fresh air and sunlight under 

 the house. Darkness is the first station on the road that leads to dampness, decay, disease, 

 and death. This is true of the new house, as well as of the old.&quot; 



The present custom of constructing cellars smaller than the area covered by the house, 

 and also of placing the building higher up from the ground, is a great improvement upon 

 the old-time method of extending large, deep cellars underneath the entire building, and set 

 ting the house so low that it was nearly on a level with the soil. Very large cellars, which 

 are unnecessary, are thus prevented from becoming the storage of waste materials, which, by 

 a slow process of decay, would render the buildings above them exceedingly unhealthy ; but 

 by being elevated higher from the ground, more light and better ventilation are secured. 

 The cellar should, however, be of the same dimensions as the house in one direction for the 

 purpose of securing a good ventilation. 



It is a good plan to remove the turf from that portion of the earth which is to be covered 



