all that the ordinary man
can do. Creosote is the best preservative because of its
penetrating power and the way it acts upon the fibres of
wood, and in the end is cheaper than a good many other
things which have been used to preserve timber. In fact,
various forms of creosote are best-known preservers of
organic matter. There is no advantage in using charcoal at
all and I presume suggestions have been made for using it
because we know that charred wood is more durable.
Linseed-oil is good; ordinary white-lead paint will be
better, but neither of them is as effective as creosote, and
both are more expensive. You will find that carbolineum and
other patent preparations are recommended very highly; they
are good but expensive and the difference in price between
these patent preparations and ordinary creosote is much
larger than is justified by their increased value. Creosote
can be procured in large or small quantities from a number
of concerns. I think we have been getting it for about ten
dollars per barrel of fifty or fifty-three gallons.

Creosote

may be purchased in large or small quantities from various manufacturing
companies, such as the Barret Manufacturing Company, 17 Battery Place, New
York City, and the Chattfield Manufacturing Company, Carthage, O., handle
it in large quantities.

Openings

Build the pen as if it were to have no openings, either doors, windows, or
fireplaces. When you reach the point where the top of the door, window, or
fireplace is to be (Fig. 229) saw out a section of the log to mark the
place and admit a saw when it is desired to finish the opening as shown in
the diagram and continue building until you have enough logs in place to
tack on cleats like those shown in Figs. 229, 230, and 231, after which
the openings may be sawed out. The cleats will hold the ends of the logs
in place until the boards _U_ (Fig. 232) for the door-jambs,
window-frames, or the framework over the fireplace can be nailed to the
ends of the logs and thus hold them permanently in place. If your house is
a "mudsill," wet the floor until it becomes spongy, then with the butt
end of a log ram the dirt down hard until you have an even, hard
floor--such a floor as some of the greatest men of this nation first crept
over when they were babies. But if you want a board floor, you must
necessarily have floor-joists; these are easily made of