FOR ALL CLIMATES 37 



boards and the cracks covered with wide battens. Such houses have 

 yielded good results where winters are severe, but personally 1 like 

 the appearance of a building with shingled sides, believe that it 

 lasts longer and know that the side and rear walls are much more 

 apt to be tight than where matched stock or battened common 

 boards are used. 



If boards are to be covered with roofing fabric or with shingles 

 you can save more than the cost of the shingles or roofing by using 

 cheaper boarding in stock. 



Foundations. It pays to make a good foundation for a per- 

 manent building. If set on posts use cedar posts and set three feet 

 in the ground. If you have a cement foundation get small rock 

 and cinders for at least a foot below your concrete and have your 

 cement or concrete wall at least 6x6 inches in which your sills are 

 fastened to bolts fixed in the cement. If you use only a rock 

 foundation get it low enough so that frost will not move it. See 

 paragraph on cement floors in this chapter. 



Portable or Permanent Buildings. Large colony buildings should 

 be built to stay on a permanent foundation. Small colony houses 

 can be made portable. If so built they require stifEer framing 

 and heavier sills to stand moving about. If made to move they 

 require no floor and sills should rest on the ground or on thin 

 boards. Moving the house to new ground once each season will 

 insure a clean and safe earth floor. They should only be used 

 on well drained land. Portable houses for damp or moist locations 

 should have board floors ; or when placed in position for the season 

 should be filled with dry sand to the level of top of sills. 



In buying covering boards or framing stuffl buy such lengths as 

 will cut with the least waste. Eefuse boards with large loose knots, 

 and cracked or split frame stuff. Do not accept badly warped or 

 twisted boards. You can only afford to use cheap lumber when 

 you buy it at so low a price that it makes waste and shrinkage a 

 matter of small importance. If you have to pay the going price 

 for good material, insist on getting good material and have it 

 in lengths that will fit into your building with the least possible 

 waste. You have to pay for the waste. 



When 3'ou buy new windows, paint them before 3'ou put them on 

 and touch them up again afterward. It pays, and makes the 

 windows last longer and holds the putty in place. If not painted 

 the putty will dry and fall out after a brief exposure to the 

 elements. 



Elevated Houses. Some poultrymen, especially those with limited 

 laud area, like an elevated house or poultry house on stilts. The 



