PAIRIV^ 
j PRICE mix CENTS 
( S‘4.50 l’Elt YEAR. 
NEW YORK, AND ROCHESTER, N. Y., MARCH 23, 1872 
VOL,. XXV. NO. t‘2, 
WHOLE NO. 1150. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1372, by D. D. T. MOORE, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.] 
For roofing, use saturated tarpaper, which 
in manufactured expressly for it, and for 
sale in all Western towns. The cost is about 
one-fourth that of shingles; it is not as 
good, but will last several years, when you 
cau lay your shingles right over it. 
If you build in the spring or early sum¬ 
mer, you can omit the olapboards until the 
fall: but don’t omit tho veranda. An archi¬ 
tectural gentleman in the Rural onoe went 
into ecstacieaover blinds. We have nothing 
make a very convenient house, and not de¬ 
void of beauty. 
Plan, Fig. 1, is a room 12 by 14; V, veranda. 
Plan, Fig. 2. K. living room, 12 by 14; 13, 
bed-room, 8 by 9; P, pantry, 8 by 8; W 8, 
wood-shed; V, veranda. 
Plan, Fig. 3, L, living-room, 12 by 13; K, 
kitchen, 12by 14; D, dining-room, 9Y. ; by 12; 
D, 13, B, bed-rooms, 9 by 8 and 8 by 8; S P, 
summer pantry, 8 by 8; P, pantry, 8 by 8; 
W, wood-shed ; V, V, veranda. Tho sum¬ 
mer pantry can bo used in winter for a place 
to keep meat, and as a store-room. Being 
away from the kitchen fire, It will keep 
fresh meat a long time, in suitable weather. 
The cost of the last design, (the third ad¬ 
dition,) will not exceed #1,500, and could 
probably bo built for less, if one would do as 
much of the work as possible himself. 
Nebraska, 1872. Frank D. Howell. 
follow. There is hardly any one coming 
here who could not procure lumber suffi¬ 
cient to build a small ‘’shanty,'" but is de¬ 
terred from doing so, for, says lio, “I will 
be able in a few years ” — remember, the 
corn-growing and pork-producing farmer of 
the West accumulates fast when once start¬ 
ed—“to build me a good, respectable house, 
and I hate to waste material upon some¬ 
thing that will be nearly useless then.” It 
PRAIRIE HOMES, 
HOW TO BEGIN, ADD TO AND FINISH THEM 
In looking over the several different de¬ 
signs for dwelling houses in the Ritual 
New-Yorker, I do not find anything just 
suited to meet the wautij of a large number 
of its readers. I mean “the poor man of 
the West;” and the greatest part of our 
western immigrants are poor men, indis¬ 
putably. Leaving the crowded cities, and 
over-populated districts of the East, to find 
a homo on the beautiful and boundless 
prairies of the West, the immigrant’s first 
and indispensable want is a house—some¬ 
thing to protect his wife aud little ones 
from the sun and rain; not a costly villa, or 
even a commodious farm house, (which he 
may have in prospect for the future as the 
reward of industry and perseverance), but 
simply a house to live in. 
Hero the pioneer in tho backwoods has a 
decided advantage. For, with the help of 
his ever willing neighbors, or, mayhap, ouly 
his own sturdy sous, he has but to fell the 
m'marchs of the forest and roll them up, 
and, with a roof of elm or hemlock bark, 
until such time as he cau manufacture his 
own shingles, he has a house at once warm 
NOTES FOR BUILDERS, 
FIG. 1.—PLAN. 
robuttiug to show; it is a blind subject; but 
we think the crowning glory of any house, 
large or is a veranda, or, as the girl 
culled It, ,>ur folkses’ stoop.” So much 
nO. 1.—ELEVATION. 
is to help this class of builders that our de¬ 
signs are intendod. 
Figure 1 represents a simple cottage of 
only one room, which can be erected at a 
very trilling expense, even here, where lum¬ 
ber is high and scarce, it is 12 by 14 feet, 
and 7feet between joists; it will take mate¬ 
rial as follows800 feet of inch boards, at 
#30 per thousand, $21; 4 sills, 0 by (5, and 4 
beams, G by 0, HI rafters aud 12 joists, $B; 2 
panel doors, at $2.50 each, and 3 windows, at 
#1.50 each, $9.50; nails and paper for roof¬ 
ing, $10. Total, $40.50. 
Hero is a cost of about fifty dollars; and 
any man of ordinary ingenuity cau do all 
tho work himself, with the aid of a. carpen¬ 
ter to case the windows and case and hang 
tho doors. Let him first frame the sills 
and lay them upon the foundation in prop¬ 
er position; next frame the beams, and lay 
them upon the sills ; then securely nail two 
boards perpendicularly at each corner of 
the sills. Use sixteen feet boards, cut in 
the middle; this will make the building 
seven feet in the clear; now cut four stanch¬ 
ions seven feet long, and with the aid of one 
person you can raise the beams one end at 
a time, slip under the stanchions, and nail 
the top of the boards, that had been pre¬ 
viously fastened to the sills, securely to the 
beams, and you are ready to proceed with 
the planking, Which any one can do who 
cau saw off a board and drive a nail. 
boarding is, that any one can build with I 
planks; but it will require a profession- | 
ai carpenter to build a studded house. | 
Figure 2 will make a very convenient I 
house for a small family. The inside can L 
be finished with paper or plaster, to suit J 
tho taste of the occupant. O 
Again, wo will suppose that “ the lapse 
of years has brought round the time” 
when our friend wishes to again enlarge his 
house. If ho has followed our former plans, 
he will do so, as shown in Fig. 3. This 
consists of an upright part, added to his 
former erections, lie now, of course, has 
means sufficient at his command, and will 
call in the aid of a practical architect. He 
can build this last part two stories high if 
he wishes; but wo would advise a low house 
in a prairie country. Wo think this will 
FIG. 3.—PLAN. 
Our correspondent does not tell us the 
size of his family aud how much room he 
requires in the house. Even with this 
knowledge we do not think we could do 
what he asks us. Beside we do not know 
his locality, nor the cost of material where 
lie is located. He had better employ some 
architect or builder, at or near home, to do 
his business. 
fig. 2.— PLAN. 
and comfortable; besides, it is just as good 
as his neighbors. 
Hut here, in the sparsely timbered regions 
of the West, the luxury of a log house is not 
to be thought of. Tho ffrst settler is quite 
too often, for the good health of himself and 
family, forced to take refuge in a “dug- 
out,” which, for tho enlightenment of your 
Eastern readers, I will describe; for it is a 
true saying that “one-half the world don’t 
know how the other half live. A “dug- 
out ” is made by simply digging a square 
excavation in the south slope of a bank or 
hill, six or seven feet deep in the rear, and 
building up the front, leveling up the sides 
with sods plowed from the prairie. Then 
it is roofed first with polls, then small brush 
and hay, and lastly ten or twelve inches of 
dirt, packed down hard. Th is makes a habi¬ 
tation—I can’t call it a house —usually 
warm, but more or less damp and un¬ 
healthy. Yet. as uncomfortable and dirty 
—for it is dirt in the front, and dirt iu the 
rear, dirt above and beneath—as this might 
seem to dwellers iu fine houses and costly 
mausions, let me say I have seen whole 
neighborhoods — and some of these settlers 
could count their wealth by thousands—liv¬ 
ing in just such holes in the ground, seem¬ 
ingly happy and contented. 
In the accompanying engravings we have, 
perhaps, given a plan that may seem advis¬ 
able for some of your prairie readers to 
Chimney Without Draft.—T would like 
to ask a question for imformal ion with re¬ 
gard to a chimney without a draft. Can 
anything bo done to remedy it? The chim¬ 
ney is a very small one; the ’’ouse is situ¬ 
ated on a side hill, sloping to the soul h ; Lho 
stove below stairs draws decently well, but 
the one above smokes so badly that the 
family cannot do anyhing witu it, while 
there is wood in it, and coal does not burn 
so as to bake at all, or cook very much. 
Does the having a stove below make auy 
difference with the draft ubovo? Will the 
stove draw better wilh a pipe running di¬ 
rectly back to the chimney, or with a pipe 
running up four or five feet above tho 
stove?—A Subscriber, So. Manchester, Ct. 
A chimney-due should be small at the 
base, aud increase in size at the top, ay as to 
secure draft. The stove-pipe used should 
be smaller t han the ehimney-due; your pipe 
may run too far Into the chimney; or it or 
the flue may by filled up; or the chimney 
may not be high enough. An experienced 
builder of chimneys, in your neighborhood 
(if there is such an one), cun advise better, 
after examination, than we cau at this dis¬ 
tance. Better consult one. 
R.dpn Evans 
