148 ICE-HOUSE. [No. 



represents the whole building cut down through the 

 middle, omitting the centre post,) the ends of the 

 straws would present a compact face as they do after 

 a cut of a chaff-cutter. But there requires some- 

 thing to keep the straw from bulging out between the 

 posts. Little stakes as big as your wrist will answer 

 this purpose. Drive them into the ground, and fasten, 

 at top, to the plates, of which 1 am now to speak. 

 The plates are pieces of wood which go all round 

 both the circles, and are nailed on upon the tops of 

 the posts. Their main business is to receive and sus- 

 tain the lower ends of the rafteve, as at mm and n n. 

 in FIG. 2. But to the plates also the stakes just men- 

 tioned must be fastened at lop. Thus, then, there 

 will be this space of four feet wide, having, on each 

 side of it, a row of posts and stakes, not more than 

 about six inches from each other, to hold up, and to 

 keep in its place, this wall of straw. 



245. Next come the rafters, as from 8 to n, FIG. 2. 

 Carpenters best know what is the number and what 

 the size of the rafters ; but from s to m there need 

 be only about half as many as from m to n. How- 

 ever, carpenters know all about this. It is their every- 

 day work. The roof is forty-five degrees pitch, as 

 the carpenters call it. If it were even sharper, it 

 would be none the worse. There will be about thirty 

 ends of rafters to lodge on the plate, as at m; and 

 these cannot all be fastened to the top of the centre- 

 post rising up from o; but carpenters know how to 

 manage this matter, so as to make all strong and 

 safe. The plate which goes along on the tops of 

 the row of posts, b b b, must, of course, be put on in 

 a somewhat sloping form ; otherwise there would 

 be a sort of hip formed by the rafters. However, 

 the thatch is to be so deep, that this may not be of 

 much consequence. Before the thatching begins, 

 there are laths to put upon the rafters. Thatchers 

 know all about thi^, and all that you have to do is, to 

 take care that the thatcher tie the straw on well. The 

 best way, in a case of such deep thatch, is to have a 

 ttrong man to tie for the thatcher. 



