SHEDS 



of the plate directly above the doorway. To keep it and the 

 roof from sagging, special provision must be made either by 

 putting in an exceptionally strong plate at this point, by 

 building up a small wooden truss, or by making a truss of 

 wood and iron as shown in the illustration. (Fig. 10.) 



The doors themselves should be very solidly and sub- 

 stantially made. It is a matter of good practice to have as 

 few doors as possible. In the average machine shed one 

 8-foot door and one 12 or 14-foot door are sufficient to meet 

 requirements. A door wider than four feet should not be 

 swung on hinges under any circumstances, as it is sure 

 to pull out the hinges or to sag very badly. Sliding doors of 

 good construction are to be recommended in preference to 

 hinged doors (Fig. 12). It is entirely possible to make a 

 good close-fitting door of this type and there need never be 

 any trouble in its operation. 



The use of other buildings for the storage of farm imple- 

 ments is not a desirable procedure except in certain instances, 

 such as keeping wagons in the driveway of cribs, leaving 

 the spreader at the end of an alleyway of a barn for con- 

 venience in loading, etc. In general, other buildings are 

 much more expensive than a machine shed and those por- 

 tions of them devoted to the storage of farm implements 

 could in most cases be more profitably used, especially when 

 the very small unit floor-space cost of a machine shed is taken 

 into consideration. Then, too, if a special place is not pro- 

 vided for the implements, the farm animals may come in 

 contact with them, causing injury of the animals or damage 

 to the machines. 



REPRESENTATIVE TYPES OF SHEDS 



The Simple Shed Type. The needs of the average farm 

 for a cheap, easily built implement shed are met by this build- 

 ing. Illustrations of this type of shed are shown in Figs, i, 2 

 and 3. The framing consists of 6x6 posts set on a light 

 i :2y 2 15 mixture concrete foundation at intervals of eight 

 feet, the plate consisting of two 2x6's. Short diagonal braces 

 can be set in underneath between the plate and the post in or- 

 der to give the plate further support. The rafters for a span 

 of 18 feet should be at least 2x6 and better 2x8, set not less 

 than two feet apart on centers. The wall covering may con- 

 sist of vertical siding, either 10 or 12-inch boards, with the 

 cracks covered by ogee battens. For horizontal siding, 



Thirteen 



