144 
GARDENING AND FARMING 
the ends would be ten feet openings, let them 
be formed by logs of such length as will reach 
from outside to outside — say twelve feet or 
thirteen feet ; and it will be necessary to cut 
the ends that cover the buts of the other logs, 
so that they fit close. Shorten the logs that 
you use where the door is to be, because you 
have a choice as to the best opening. It is 
well to have that in the most sheltered spot, 
or, if there be no shelter, let the door be at 
the south side or end. The rafters may be 
chosen from the most straight branches or 
poles that can be found strong enough to bear 
the weight of whatever is to cover as a roof ; 
and, if you have abundance, the closer they 
are, the less trouble you will have to roof upon 
them. This is the rudest kind of substantial 
house that can be made. But if you make a 
saw-pit, and are pretty handy, or can get the 
assistance of a mechanic who understands it, 
he will be able to make you a house, while 
you may be better employed on your land. 
Still the walls cannot be better made than 
with logs, sawed flat on two sides, but worked 
more or less square and fair according to the 
capacity of the builder. Doors, windows, and 
openings of any kind are as easily left with 
log buildings as with brick ; for, by simply 
shortening them to the lengths required to 
leave the openings, the space is regulated to 
fancy. 
Let no one imagine that they can locate a 
few hundred miles from a town or even vil- 
lage, on an uncultivated and even uncleared 
country, and find people ready to build for 
them in any style of architecture. They may 
be glad to knock up such a house as we have 
described, without having even the means of 
stopping the window holes with glass, and 
being obliged to use wooden shutters when 
they are required to be closed at all. Pre- 
suming, however, that you can saw some of 
the best logs into boards, there will be no dif- 
ficulty in nailing them together to form doors 
and shutters ; and if you please to take the 
pains, you might use boards to cover as a roof. 
In such case, your rafters may be two feet 
apart, but they must be squared a little on 
the top. The boards may then lap over one 
another an inch or two ; they will be found 
very useful where water is scarce, as, by run- 
ning a gutter along the low part of the roof, 
all the rain may be caught in tubs or tanks, 
or conveyed by drains into any pond or other 
contrivance for retaining it. A box, with a 
hundred feet of glass, takes a very small space 
among the luggage, and would add greatly to 
the comfort of a dwelling. A package con- 
taining half-a-dozen sashes might be worth 
taking, because hinges for doors, nails of all 
kinds, screws, small tools, locks and keys, and 
numerous other handy things, might be packed 
between the bars ; but all this depends greatly 
on whether a man is going up the country, far 
from towns or villages, or going, according 
to our advice, to choose land for himself either 
for purchase or renting ; because, in this latter 
case, the less encumbrance he has the better, 
so that he takes out what he cannot buy when 
out, or if to be purchased at all, only at ex- 
orbitant prices. 
We have said nothing about the floor of a 
house. This may be made of wood slabs, or 
logs squared on three of the sides, or boards, 
which are decidedly the best. If boards are 
used, moderate-sized logs should be bedded in 
the ground, about two feet apart, and squared 
with an adze, or, which is far better, cut 
through the middle, that each log or branch 
may make two, with the sawed face upwards, 
that the boards may lie flat. There will be 
no difficulty about pig-sties, and out-houses, 
store rooms, and so forth, as you become used 
to the place, and accustomed to the labour. 
A man soon becomes a carpenter if he has any 
kind of mechanical turn ; and he who really 
knows how to go about it, would begin by 
building the most rapidly-constructed place he 
could think of, for the first make-shift, and 
then set about a proper house in good earnest, 
by squaring and sawing all his timber, and 
building according to the principles of car- 
pentry. When he has made his house to his 
liking, he will turn his first construction to 
account as an out-house, store, barn, stock 
feeding-house, stable, or what not. But if a 
man goes out to build his own hut, or log 
house, he must be sure and take proper tools; 
— not one of your fancy carpenter's tool-chests, 
with fancy moulding planes, and all manner 
of things for joinery work in London ; but 
good substantial saws of sorts, planes, chisels, 
adzes, hammers of sizes, hatchets, and such 
other articles as are used in plain substantial 
building. 
It is not, however, to be forgotten that there 
are houses built complete in London to go into 
emigrant lands, requiring only to be put to- 
gether like a bedstead ; and hundreds of models 
of these wooden houses may be seen any day 
at Thompson's of Limehouse. If time be 
worth much, these would pay for the carriage; 
but still, there is nothing like going out with 
all the money in your pocket, and liberty to 
settle wherever you can get a place the best, 
cheapest, and most to your mind. 
