CHAPTER XXIX. 



ROOT HOUSES AND VEGETABLE PITS. 



IN the North, we have to protect our gathered 

 crops and to store them safely for a profitable 

 market, but we do not need an expensive 

 barn or cellar for that. A root house or vegetable 

 pit will do instead. 



This is the way to make one : in a warm, sandy 

 or gravelly soil a pit is dug from one to two feet 

 deep and sixteen or more feet wide, the length 

 depending upon the crop you have to store. 

 The sides of the pit are lined with one or two 

 planks placed edgewise and held in place by 

 stakes driven into the ground. Stakes are then 

 driven into the bottom of the pit through- 

 out its entire length; these support the ridge- 

 pole four or five feet above the floor of the pit. 

 Boards are laid from the edge of the pit to the 

 ridge-pole to form a sort of gable roof. The 

 support of these is strengthened by another girder 

 carried by stakes driven half way between the 

 margin and the ridge-pole. Then longer boards, 

 from twelve to fourteen feet in length, are laid 

 from the edge of the pit to the ridge-pole, slightly 

 overlapping each other, and nailed lightly in 

 place at the top ends. The pit being only a 

 temporary structure, the boards are not se- 



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