58 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
serve as substitutes for braces, or if of lig'G 
timber, would answer to fasten to rafters as feet to 
sustain the thrust of the roof against the plates. 
We have become accustomed to building with very 
light timber, and our houses and bams are worn 
out and wrecked, before the generation which built 
them has passed away. By making use of heavier 
timbers, and working iuto them such crooked 
pieces for the purposes mentioned, our buildings 
would be many times more durable than they now 
are, and a farmer might then build a barn, which 
would last and be used by his grandchildren. 
The mode in which such crooked timber is 
brought into proper shape for use, is as follows. 
The rough pieces, which are generally the roots, 
limbs, and crotches of trees, are laid upon some 
cross-piece and blocked up firmly, or are held so by 
“ dogs,” which grip the logs. The dogs are bars 
of iron half an inch thick, bent and pointed at the 
ends as shown at figure 7, and in use at a, figure 8. 
The timber is lined on the 
top with a chalk line up- 
pjo. ij. _ D0G on the bark, which has 
been first “rossed”witli 
the axe or adze, and is then notched down to the 
line, as shown in figure 6, at intervals of one or two 
feet—the distance depending upon the difficulty or 
ease with which the wood is split. The slabs be¬ 
tween the notches are split off with the axe, as seen 
at the upper end of the piece shown in the figure. 
1 
Fig. 8.—THE SAW-PIT. 
When all the slabs are split off, the surface is hewed 
smoothly with the broad-axe. This is being done on 
both sides, the timber is laid down, and the edges 
are treated in the same manner. Where there is a 
hill-side, a saw pit may be made, as shown at figure 
8. A few posts are set in the ground a short dis¬ 
tance down the hill, and a timber is mortised or 
bolted upon them. Three or four timbers are laid 
from the bank so as to rest upon the frame below, 
as shown in figure 8. The log is rolled on to these 
cross timbers, and blocked or spiked fast with the 
dogs. A whip-saw is used to bring the timber into 
a finished condition. When the saw reaches one of 
the cross pieces, the log is lifted with bars so as to 
free the timber, and it is moved from before to be¬ 
hind the saw, and so on until the work is complete. 
Where a mill is distant and time can be devoted 
to it, a saw-pit of this kind may be made very use¬ 
ful upon many farms where there ; s timber to be 
cut for buildings, fences, posts, or other purposes. 
Plan of a Saw Mill. 
Several correspondents have requested a plan for 
a saw mill. This is an evidence of the fact that the 
American Agriculturist , while it is still, as it always 
has been, a journal for farmers and others engaged 
in the different branches of agriculture, is also ex¬ 
tensively read by persons occupied in mechanical 
and other industries, many of whom are engaged in 
lumbering and saw-milling. When one of the com¬ 
mon run of saw mills is examined by an expert at 
this business, there is evident a very frequent want 
of convenient and economical arrangement, and a 
great waste of power, both in consequence of the 
bad arrangement and the cumbrous, heavy, ill-con¬ 
structed, machinery used. The old-fashioned over¬ 
shot wheel, which utilizes only 50 per cent, or less, 
of the power, is generally found in country mills, 
in place of iron turbine wheels of the best con¬ 
struction, by which 75 per cent of the actual power 
is utilized, or instead of a well constructed steam 
engine, which can be fed and run at an almost 
nominal expense, by using the sawdust and other 
waste of the mill, and is not stopped by low water 
or freshets. The cheapest is not always the most 
economical. Utility and economy in use are to be 
considered before cheapness in the first cost, and 
there are now so many 
improvements in ma¬ 
chinery, that can be had 
at so little comparative 
cost, that the miller can 
not afford to do with¬ 
out them. As an in¬ 
stance of this might be 
cited the “self-sets,” 
by which, at one move¬ 
ment of a lever, or a 
winch, or in some by an 
automatic movement, 
the log can be set pre¬ 
cisely at the proper 
point to cut a board or 
plank of any required 
thickness, with certain¬ 
ty ; while by the ordi¬ 
nary “setting-bar” time 
must be taken to loosen 
the “ dogs,” move the 
log, adjust it by a 
measure, tighten the 
dogs, and then repeat 
all this at the other end of the log; in the mean¬ 
time the machinery has lost its momentum, and 
time must be given to restore this. The cost of 
the “self-sets” may be saved in a one-saw mill 
in one month, by the mere gain of time. 
The plan here given is for the interior arrange¬ 
ment of a cheap frame mill, to be run by water or 
steam-power. The building is intended to be made 
in a bank or hill-side, so that the upper floor may 
be on a level with the log yard or pond and roll¬ 
way, and the basement may be occupied by lath and 
shingle mills, and the engines, if steam-power be 
used. In this case the boiler would be placed in 
the cellar, and all the waste of the mill would be 
carried through well-lioles, slides, or hatchways, to 
the furnace. The principal floor is shown at figure 1. 
This is open at the front for seven feet in higlit, 
Fig. 1.— PRINCIPAL FLOOR. 
and may be closed by drop doors. The floor should 
be at least 30 feet wide for a mill having all the 
machinery which is necessary to economical work¬ 
ing. The length will have to be in proportion to 
the kind of timber sawed. A carriage of 80 to 36 
feet long, will necessarily require a mill of at least 
double that length, and if any other machinery is 
used upon this floor, additional room will have to 
be provided for it. In the plan here given, the log¬ 
way (a) is at the side. The logs may be rolled in 
to the mill from a skid-way at the side, or may be 
drawn in at the front by means of a “ bull wheel ” 
and chain at the rear of the log-way. The carriage 
(6) is mounted on wheels, and runs on rails, by 
which less power is re¬ 
quired than when the 
slide-ways are used. 
The saw (c) is either a 
gate, a muley, or a cir¬ 
cular saw; where hard 
wood is chiefly cut, the 
first is generally used, 
as being less likely to 
“ run,” than the muley 
or the circular saw, and 
needing less skill to 
work one passably well. 
At cl is the gearing for 
the feed, and at e is the 
board-car and railway 
upon which it runs, 
either to the board 
piles in front or rear 
of the mill, or to the 
planing mill (p) in the rear. The rough edged 
boards from the sides of the logs, are edged on the 
table (/), and the slabs are run upon the board-car 
to the slab-saw (g), where they are cut into 4 feet 
lengths and thrown down the well (A) and slide (i) 
to the floor below, to be cut into laths. The 
edgiugs and thin slabs, when steam is used, 
are thrown down a hatchway to the cellar, where 
they are consumed under the boiler. Figure 2 
is apian of the lower floor, upon which is the slide 
(i) for the cut slabs, the “bolting” saw, and the 
lath-saw (j). In the rear of each of these saws a 
“ horse ” (A, ?,)is provided, upon which the bolts and 
laths are placed as they are sawed. When a bun¬ 
dle (50 or 100) of laths is sawed, they are tied up 
and the bundle placed upon a pile near by. A 
shingle mill may be jflaced at q, and supplied by 
the best of the slabs. The waste from these saws 
goes down the hatchway (to) into the cellar. The 
steam-engine (o) is above the boiler, and the large 
pulley and gears (n) are below the saws. Where 
the mill is run by water-power, this waste should 
be run out upon a truck and railway to a safe dis¬ 
tance, where it is burned every day, so that it may 
not accumulate and endanger the mill by risk of fire. 
The shafting by which these saws are run, should 
go under the floor so as to avoid accident. There 
is now a great economy in purchasing what are 
known in the trade as complete saw mills. These 
are furnished by the manufacturers complete in 
every detail, from the engine and boiler to the belt¬ 
ing by which the machinery is operated ; so that it 
is only necessary to provide a suitable building to 
hold the machinery. There are several manufac¬ 
turers who make a special business of supplying 
the machinery and fittings of saw mills, from whom 
estimates may be procured for outfits of all kinds, 
from the most simple up to the most complete. 
--o i»i tm -• 
No Need for Interior Fences. —The interior 
fences of farms occupy more space and cost more 
money, than the outer fences, while they ore al¬ 
most entirely unnecessary. In the majority of 
cases pasturing the cultivated land costs many 
times more than the little gain derived from it. 
The pasturing of mowing lands, and newly seeded 
stubbles, as a rule, is very injurious, and when, un¬ 
der exceptional circumstances, this is desirable, a 
temporary fence, of portable hurdles, might be 
profitably used. It, may be beneficial to have a per¬ 
manent pasture lot upon every farm, and where 
there is a roughish piece of land, it may be soused. 
But it will be found far more profitable to fence a 
