Mason-work (continued.) Polished hanging steps, ordinary sizes, per lineal foot 0 Polished plats of hanging stairs, single measure, per square foot 1 Travis-boarding, for riding-horse and work-horse stables, dowelled, 14 travis-boards, grooved and tongued and beaded, 1 inch deal lining, grooved and tongued, for end Hardwood high hay-racks, with turned rollers, 2 Fir sparred low hay-racks for work-horse stable, Mangers for riding-horse stable, Corn-boxes for work-horse stable, Including per square foot 0 0 8 per ditto 006 per ditto 005 per ditto each 0 8 0 per lineal foot per ditto 006 when pieced, per ditto 0 1 0 per ditto per ditto each 14 inch deal beaded outside doors, with 3 backbars, per square foot 0 inch deal beaded inside doors, with three 1-inch backbars,. Sparred calves' cribs, Facings, keps, skirting, and coping, reduced to 4 inches broad, Ogee copings for travises, 1 inch beaded coping for lining, Rain-spouts of wood, out of the solid, ... Conductors from rain-spouts, Small doors for feeding-holes of byres, Racks for centre of courts, Corn chest for work-horses, Stout 5 barred gates, 9 feet wide, for courts, 4 ... ... 5 Rails, harness-pins, and saddletrees, Luffer-board ventilators, 6 feet long by 4 feet wide, Octagonal stathel-frames for stacks, 15 feet diameter, pump for liquid-manure tank, with 6 feet pipe, Stock and plate-locks for outside doors, 10 inches long, 18-inch cross-tailed hinges, ditto 9. ... per pair 0 per ditto 1030000 2002000 002200 ditto ditto 0 per lineal yard 020 each So 8 0 0 0 10 5 0 0 7 30 or ... 14s. ... per 24 ... Crooks and bands for outside doors, feeding-hole doors in byres, Stanchions, inch diameter, per ditto 0 5 Cast-iron window sashes, Plaster-work. B 0 0 5 est 3-coat plaster, . 2 1 per ditto White-lead, coloured grey, stone, or slate-blue, 3 coats, per sq. yard, 0 0 8 (222.) There is a simple rule for determining the pitch which a roof should have for the various sorts of slating. In blue slating the rule is, that the roof should be in height of the breadth of the building. Suppose that a building is 18 feet inside in width like the middle range of the steading, the walls are each two feet thick, which gives a breadth of 22 feet over walls. Deduct 6 inches on each wall for an escarpment on its top, upon which the scantlings or couple-legs rest upon the wall-plates, and of 21 feet gives 7 feet for the height of the roof above the walls. Old fashioned houses have a pitch of the square, that is, the height is equal to half the breadth, which, in the supposed case, would be 10 feet. In grey slating the pitch is fixed at 1 foot below the square, or the height would be 9 feet. In tiling, the pitch may be lower than even in blue slating, and it is determined according to circumstances; and even blue slate roofs are made as low in the pitch as of the breadth, that is with large Welsh slates. Taking the rise at 7 feet, the scantlings should be 13 feet long each, and the balk, of course, as long. Taking the rise at 94 feet, the scantlings should be 14 feet long. (131.) and (132.), p. 187. (223.) A liquid-manure tank can be constructed at little cost. An excava tion being made in clay, a lining should be built all round. The lining may be either of rubble masonry, of stone and mortar, or of brick and mortar. If the subsoil is not of a retentive nature, a plastering of Roman cement will suffice to render the building retentive. A 9-inch wall, or a brick in length, will make a lining of sufficient strength to contain the liquid. The tank should be covered over in any of the various ways I have mentioned in (76.), and paved in the bottom with flags or bricks secured by cement. A cast-iron pump should be inserted at one end of the tank when it will be ready for use. (224.) The cost of constructing such a tank, with brick in length and cement, will be somewhat as under, exclusive of drains :— 019 cubic yards. Cutting the bed of the tank, at 3d. per cubic yard, L.0 7 6 Building wall, including bricks and mortar, Plastering and cement, Covering with flags, . 6 8 0 0 16 0 2 15 0 L.10 6 6 Such a size of tank is said to be sufficient for a farm of from 150 to 200 acres. A receptacle of a more simple and inexpensive nature might be constructed, which would answer some of the ends of a more complete tank. It might be made under a shed, and composed of walls of clay, and covered with slabs of boarding. The expense of such a receptacle would be somewhere as under, the dimensions being as in the preceding case: Cutting the clay, at 3d the cubic yard, Clay and carting, Boards, and expense of covering, L.0 7 6 0 14 0 0 5 0 Such a tank, however, would suffer in frost or drought. L.1 6 6 A cask sunk into the ground, with open channels to it, forms a sufficient tank for a cottager.* 17. OF THE FARM-HOUSE. "Do you but mark how this becomes the house." LEAR. (225.) In alluding to the farm-house at all, it is not my intention to give a full plan of one, as I have given of the steading; because its internal arrangements are generally left to the fancy of architects or of its occupiers, and with little regard to their adaptation to a farm. Any specific plan which I would recommend of a farm-house, would therefore, I fear, receive little attention from either landlord or tenant. But the part of it which is exclusively devoted to labour, has so intimate a connection with the management of the farm, that I must give my opinion upon it. The part I mean includes the kitchen and dairy, and their accompanying apartments. Now, it may frequently be seen in the plans furnished by architects, that to give the farm-house a fashionable and airy appearance, the working portion of it is too often contracted and inconveniently arranged. The principle of its construction should be, to make this part of the house thoroughly commodious in itself, and at the same time prevent its giving the least annoyance to the rest from noise or disagreeable effluvia, which cannot at all times be avoided in the labours of the kitchen. Both objects would be accomplished by placing it independent of the main body of the house, and this is best effected by a jamb. Whatever may be the external form given to the house, the relative positions of its two parts may easily be preserved, whether in the old-fashioned form of a front tenement and back jamb, or the more modern and beauteous form of the Elizabethan style. (226.) The ground-plan which I recommend of the kitchen and the other parts of the farm-house in which work is performed, may be seen. • Prize Essays of the Highland and Agricultural Society, vol. xiv. p. 280. |