CHAPTER XIX 



HOW TO BUILD 



IF you find an "abandoned farm" on which the buildings 

 are worth more than the whole price asked, as frequently 

 happens, you are all right. Even if the buildings are some- 

 what dilapidated, you can fix them up for a few dollars. 

 But in buying small plots of ground, larger farms have to 

 be broken up. If you buy from the resident owner, he may 

 sell you five acres off" his larger tract, and keep his house 

 to live in. Certain it is that if a farm of 100 acres is sub- 

 divided into twenty five-acre farms, at least nineteen new 

 houses must be built, although sometimes an old barn can 

 be made into a fair residence. 



If you can do no better, it is possible to start by tenting. 

 An outfit large enough for a family of six would be about as 



follows : 



1 wall tent with fly, 10 X 14, for sleeping 

 1 wall tent with fly, 10 X 14, for dining 



1 old cook stove (to be erected outdoors) 



2 floors, 10 X 14, at $5 each 



Brown tents, at least for the sleeping rooms, are best; 

 they last longer, are cooler, and do not attract the flies; 

 though indeed we need not have house flies if we keep the 

 horse manure covered up they are all bred in that. If 

 the tents are in the shade, the cost of the cover or fly can 

 be saved in the dining tent ; but it is necessary in the living 

 tent, because wet canvas will leak when touched on the inside, 

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