THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 51 



all be shovelled on the second floor ; and the best corn thrown 

 into the cribs from above. The most convenient way to get the 

 corn out of the cribs is, to have a little door at the bottom of the 

 cribs, on the inside, when the ears will come out as fast as they 

 are shovelled away ; and not more than two or three bushels 

 will come out at one time. In dry weather, let the doors be 

 kept open for the purpose of drying the corn. The frame may 

 stand on a smoothly-built stone wall, or on stone pillars, or on 

 pillars built of brick, or on wooden posts, covered with tin or 

 zinc, to prevent the rats and mice climbing up the posts. Rats 

 will jump sometimes three feet high ; and if there is nothing but 

 stone, or zinc, or tin, for them to ascend upon, they will not be 

 able to enter a building. When an abutment is made at either 

 or both of the doors, it should be at least four feet from the 

 building ; and a plank bridge, hung on hinges on one side, and 

 the other side kept turned up against the building by a weight 

 attached to one end of a rope, which passes over a pulley, and 

 the other end attached to the bridge. The lower end of a flight 

 of stairs may be kept up in the same manner. 



BALLOON FRAMES. 



50. In localities where hewn timber is scarce, every expedient 

 must be resorted to in erecting buildings, in order to save un 

 necessary expense. Necessity and economy are the ostensible 

 authors of the well-tested principle (which is no longer looked 

 upon as an experiment which will most certainly fail) which has 

 been for a score or more of years, successfully applied in erecting 

 buildings of every description, which have received the sarcastic 

 and technical appellation of " balloon frames" They are erected 

 without a stick of frame timber, or posts, or beams ; without 

 mortises, or tenons, or braces ; and if erected in a workmanlike 

 manner, the most incredulous need not hesitate to adopt this 

 mode of building a most elegant house ; for they will stand as 

 firmly in a violent tornado as any framed building ; and could be 



