THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 85 



14. In building the superstructure, as a general rule, timber is 

 made use of which is nearly twice as large as is necessary. It is 

 better to have the frame timber too large than too small. Sills, 

 one foot square, lying on a good stone wall, are more than twice 

 as large as is necessary. And, besides, such large timber is very 

 liable to be affected with the " dry rot." Sills, six by eight, or 

 ten inches square, are sufficiently large for any building that is 

 erected on a wall, whether dwelling-house or barn.* For small 

 building, sills that are six inches square are infinitely better 

 than if they were four times as large. When a tree is a large 

 one, of which it is desirable to make a sill or other timber, let it 

 be slit at the saw-mill of the desired size. A tree will often turn 

 out four good sticks of timber when sawed, besides some boards 

 or plank ; whereas, if it was scored and hewed only one stick 

 could be obtained. Where the plates of a building are supported 

 by studs between the posts, if they are five by eight inches square, 

 they will be sufficiently strong for the roof of any ordinary build 

 ing. As most kinds of timber, with the heart of the tree in the 

 middle of the stick, is liable to check and crack open, often to its 

 great injury, if a tree is slit through the middle for a couple of 

 plates, they will not check. If there is a large seam in the middle 

 of the tree, a plank or two may be sawed out of the middle, and 

 the plates cut out of the soundest wood. 



15. The Roofs of buildings are often made too flat for profit. 

 A flat roof, whatever the materials are of which it is made, is far 

 more liable to leak than a steep roof, and it will leak much sooner 

 than if it were steeper ; and the same roof will be serviceable 

 full ten years longer if built with a half pitch, than it will if built 

 with a quarter pitch.f A roof looks far better, and is more 



* A largo church was recently taken down in this town, tho sills of which were of the 

 best, of white oak, one foot square, and although the outside was as sound and tough as 

 good spoke timber, about one-third of the middle of the sills was nothing but a mass of 

 "dry rot." The rationale is, that the sills could not season only in part, because they 

 were so large. 



f When a building is sixteen feet wide, and the ridge of the roof is four feet higher than 

 the top of the plates, the roof is said to have a quarter, or one-fourth, pitch. When the 

 ridge of the roof is eight feet higher than the top of the plates, and the building sixteen 

 feet wide, it is said to have a half-pilch. 



