"what will it cost?" 129 



And now, having answered the question of " What will 

 it cost to clear and fence one acre ? " let us look at the 

 next query : "What will it cost to build a house?" This 

 is a question difficult to answer, for the same reason that it 

 is difficult to give the exact size of the proverbial "piece 

 of chalk." 



A poor man, one who is actually pressed by poverty, 

 can do as many of our now wealthy settlers did — build a 

 log house. No matter where or what land you may select, 

 there is sure to be plenty of timber growing on it. 



With the aid of a negro laborer — who can be hired for 

 from seventy-five cents to one dollar a day, according as 

 he is "found," or "finds himself," in food — a strong man 

 can cut down the logs, " skin," " notch them," and put up 

 a single-room house, ready for the roof, in one week. The 

 boards for roofing can be rived out in two days more, from 

 pine or cypress logs. The rafters can be made with young 

 saplings, stripped of bark, and the laths to support the 

 shingling boards from still smaller saplings. There are a 

 number of houses so constructed in every new vicinity. 

 The roofing boards can be held down on the lathing by 

 cross-pieces fastened by withes, but nailing is far better. 

 Good riven cypress shingles, four and a half inches wide 

 and eighteen inches long, can be had for four and a half 

 dollars per thousand, delivered, within three miles. They 

 make the best roof and will last a life-time. Unplaned 

 boards for flooring can be had at the saw-mills for one dol- 

 lar per hundred feet, hauling extra. The cost for a room, 

 sixteen feet square, would be less than three dollars. A 

 chimney can be put up against the house on the outside. 

 The cheapest ones are built of sticks about two inches 

 square and thirty inches long. They are simply laid across 

 each other, forming a square, reaching above the roof, and 

 are plastered inside and outside with clay or with mortar. 



