422 OF STRAW, ITS VALUE, AND USES. 



it is only 2 s. per L. 100, whereas thatched barns and out- 

 houses are called hazardous, and charged 3s.; and all 

 other thatched buildings, and the goods and merchandize 

 therein contained, are called doubly hazardous, and charged 

 at 5 s. per cent. Thatching is still much used for cottages, 

 being warmer than tiles, and slates are often at a great 

 distance, and very expensive, especially with sarking.* 

 Probably a good slate roof, is in every case the cheapest 

 at last, but it is not so for the farmer, who often builds 

 cottagt s at his own expence. Some late improvements in 

 regard to tiles, however, may contribute to render them 

 more general, and to make thatching unnecessary.^ 



In Somersetshire, wheat is seldom threshed with the 

 gtraw, but the ears are cut off, and the straw, bound in 

 sheaves, and tied very tight, is used for thatching. J 



* It may just be noticed, that there are many slate roofs, without sark- 

 ing deals. The slates are hung with a pin on laths, and rendered, as it 

 is called, with lime, in the same way as tyles. This is the usual practice, 

 even with the best houses, in some of the western counties, and is much 

 less expensive, than the common method of nailing them to sarking. This 

 method, however, does not answer so well in high and moist situations. 



f A French architect, (M. Costola), recommends tiles of a square, 

 instead of an oblong form, and that the hook that fastens them, shall be 

 at one of the angles, so that when fastened to the laths, they may hang 

 down diagonally, and thus every tile is covered one-fifth part on the two 

 sides, by the superior row. It has also been discovered, that tiles are 

 greatly improved, and rendered impervious to water and frost, by being 

 rubbed over with tar, before they are laid on the roof. 



J The circumference of the sheaf, at the bond, should be six feet, 

 which costs five-pence per gheaf, including the threshing of the ears. A 

 good acre of wheat will produce three do2en sheaves, value 8 s. 6 d. per 

 dozen, and each sheaf should weigh fifty-six pounds. This would make 

 pnly 91 seven-elevenths stones, of 22 Ib. each, to the acre, but the heads 

 and part of the straw are cut off. By this method, the firmness of the 



