180 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[Mat, 
planted and each tree started into growth re¬ 
pays all its cost of discomfort. Many of the 
SOD HOUSE—INTERIOR. 
most cheerful and congratulatory letters we 
receive come from such habitations, and only 
reeently one came from a sod house in Nebras¬ 
ka, written by a lady who cheerfully described 
the earthen floor of her cabin, and remarked 
that if she and her young children were to 
choose, she and they would many times rather 
keep the earthen floor than miss the Agricul¬ 
turists monthly visits to them. Doubtless 
there is sunshine in that cabin whatever there 
may be outside of it, and the incident helps to 
recall to us the remembrance of several such 
homes upon the unbounded prairie from 
whence we have seen neatly dressed children 
issue, singing and frolicing on their way to 
school, or from which we have heard the 
sounds of music as we rode past. But while 
all this and sometimes the reverse is often true, 
there is a practical sense in which the sod house 
should be considered; for if the floor is wet, and 
the roof leaks, and the walls are suspiciously 
unsafe, the most cheerful-minded woman will 
lose her good-nature and contentment, and the 
chief support of the household being withdrawn 
disorder and discomfort reign therein. The 
choice of situation for the dwelling is the first 
consideration. This should be a spot from which 
the ground slopes in every direction. There 
If the ground slopes towards the dwelling in 
any one direction there is danger that some 
heavy rain may swamp 
it completely, and if 
the cabin is a “ dug out ” 
the basement will be 
filled with water. Fre¬ 
quently this danger is 
not discovered until the 
misfortune occurs, and 
then it is too late. In 
building up the sods the 
joints should be broken, 
especially at the corners 
of the building, or 
cracks will open as the 
structure settles. In 
winter time these cracks 
will be found incon¬ 
venient. As these build¬ 
ings are only intended 
to be temporary, the 
stables and out-houses 
should be placed as near to them as may be; 
and for protection against the few severe 
storms that may occur hi winter, when it may 
general, it is far from wise for a new settler to 
ignore the fact that his neighbors frequently 
know more than he does himself, and that it is 
the part of wisdom to receive advice, and in¬ 
deed to ask it, especially if the settler is from 
a foreign country and is unused to the ways 
and the necessities of his newly-chosen locality. 
A Shetland Grist-Mill. 
At the present time some American farm¬ 
ers consider themselves the most unfortunate 
of their class, that they work harder for less 
profit, and enjoy fewer of the comforts of 
life than any farmers elsewhere. It may 
probably tend in some degree to dispel such a 
mistaken idea to consider the position of farm¬ 
ers elsewhere. With this view we give an en¬ 
graving of a farmstead and grist-mill in Scal¬ 
loway, one of the Shetland islands. The 
grist-mill, which is shown in the foreground, 
would be impossible to match in this country 
for poverty and wretchedness. It contains 
but one pair of stones, which are turned by a 
horizontal wheel consisting of pieces of board 
SOD HOUSE—EXTERIOR. 
be unsafe to be at a distance from the house, 
a shelter of sods or some other material should 
be made to protect the passage from the house 
A SHETLAND GRIST-MILL. 
should be no hollows near, for in the spring and 
early summer these hollows often become 
lakes of water, and every level spot is saturated. 
to each out-building. Such a convenience 
might have saved life during the winter of 
1872-’73 which -was lost for want of it. In 
fixed to an upright shaft, and the movable 
stone is fixed upon this shaft, making but 
sixty revolutions per minute. There are no 
bolts in the mill; the only grain ground is 
oats, and each farmer who carries his grain 
thither grinds his own grist, which runs from 
the stones upon the floor, from which it is 
swept up and taken home in the bags in which 
it was brought. If this process is rough and 
inconvenient, the farming upon these islands is 
equally rough and surrounded with hardships. 
Oats are the staple, or rather the only grain 
which ripens, and sometimes this crop fails to 
mature, or the season is so unpropitious that 
it can not be gathered, but remains in the 
shock far into the next season before it can be 
dried sufficiently to thrash, or is sometimes to¬ 
tally lost. The herbage is scanty but nutri¬ 
tious, and sustains the very diminutive ponies, 
which are tne only horses upon the islands, a 
few very small cows, which give three quarts 
of milk per day during a short season, and 
very short-wooled sheep, some of which are 
not much better than goats. The winter 
lasts six months, and the agricultural opera¬ 
tions of the inhabitants are supplemented by 
fishing, which is rendered hazardous by the 
frequent storms. We doubt if there is one 
farmer in our highly favored countiy whose 
position would be bettered by changing places 
with the most prosperous Shetlander. 
