Adobe as a Building Material for the Plains 5 
places, otherwise there will be holes, or flaws, in the wall when ti i mm eel 
As soon as you have made one layer around the wall, if the weather is 
hot and dry, you may be able to start around again placing a layer on 
top of the first, being careful to make the mud fit down on the fiist 
clear out to the edge of the wall to prevent flaws. When you have a 
layer about 12 inches thick let it stand until it is firm but not dry. 
Select a board with straight edges fourteen to sixteen feet long and as 
wide as the thickness of the wall. It the wall is to be more than 
twelve inches thick, two boards of the proper width may be cleated to¬ 
gether to make the required width. Pay the board on top of the wail 
with one edge against the posts, get upon the board and trim straight 
down each edge of the board with a hay knife (See illustration). When 
the walls are trimmed all around in this maner they are ready for 
another layer of mud. Continue until the walls are the desired height. 
Never allow a layer to become hard before it is trimmed or you will 
have a hard job. 
The rapidity with which this work may be pushed depends upon the 
weather. If the weather is hot and dry, you may be able to make an 
average of six inches per day from start to finish. Some days you 
may put a foot and then let it rest a day or two. If the weather is cool 
or damp the work will go correspondingly slower. In early spring 
or late fall, the work is very slow, and one should not attempt to build 
adobe in winter. 
Keep watch of your walls. If they are not drying rapidly, you had 
better lay off a day and allow the walls to dry. It is a very good 
plan to build two or theree feet and then let it stand a week or so and 
then build two or three feet more and so on until the wall is done. 
The frames for doors and windows may be put in place and the 
mud built to them. But, a better way is to trim the openings for doors 
and windows, and fit frames into the openings as soon as the walls are 
as high as the frames are to be. These frames should be of two-inch 
stuff. The top of the frame should be as wide as the thickness of the 
wall and should extend into the wall a little. When the frames are in 
place you may build over them with the adobe. The walls will shrink 
in drying and draw away from the frames a little, leaving a crack. 
These cracks may be plastered up with a trowel. 
If the roof is to be of shingles or iron, it will be necessary to 
anchor the plates to the wall to prevent the roof blowing off. This 
may be done by putting fourteen-inch bolts through short pieces of 
two-by-four and planting them in the walls as you build so the top 
of the bolt will just reach through the plate. If adobe or sod roof 
is to be used, the weight will be sufficient to prevent blowing off. 
The roof should be leak-proof to prevent water running down the walls 
and softening them. 
