Every farm house and farm cottage, where a family of any size occupy the
latter, should have a good, substantial _stone_-walled cellar beneath
it. No room attached to the farm house is more profitable, in its
occupation, than the cellar. It is useful for storing numberless
articles which are necessary to be kept warm and dry in winter, as well
as cool in summer, of which the farmer is well aware. The walls of a
cellar should rise at least one, to two, or even three feet above the
level of the ground surrounding it, according to circumstances, and the
rooms in it well ventilated by _two_ or more sliding sash windows in
each, according to size, position, and the particular kind of storage
for which it is required, so that a draft of pure air can pass through,
and give it thorough ventilation at all times. It should also be at
least seven and a half feet high in the clear; and if it be even nine
feet, that is not too much. If the soil be compact, or such as will hold
water, it should be thoroughly drained from the lowest point or corner,
and the drain always kept open; (a stone drain is the best and most
durable,) and if floored with a coat of flat, or rubble stones, well set
in good hydraulic cement--or cement alone, when the stone cannot be
obtained--all the better. This last will make it _rat proof_. For the
purpose of avoiding these destructive creatures, the _foundation_ stones
in the wall should be brought to a joint, and project at least six
inches on each side, from the wall itself, when laid upon this bottom
course; as the usual manner of rats is to burrow in a nearly
perpendicular direction from the surface, by the side of the wall, when
intending to undermine it. On arriving at the bottom, if circumvented by
the projecting stones, they will usually abandon their work. Plank of
hard wood, or hard burnt bricks, may answer this purpose when stone
cannot be had.
All cellar walls should be laid in good lime mortar, or if that be not
practicable, they should be well pointed with it. This keeps them in
place, and renders them less liable to the ingress of water and vermin.
The thickness of wall should not be less than fifteen to eighteen
inches, in any event, when of stone; and if the house walls above be
built of stone or brick, two feet is better; and in all cases the cellar
wall should be full three inches thicker than the wall resting upon it.
In the cellar of every farm house there should be an outside door, with
a flight of steps by which to pass roots and other bulky or heavy
articles, to which a wagon or cart may approach, either to receive or
discharge them. This is indispensable.
Every out-building upon the farm, let it be devoted to what purpose it
may, having a wooden floor on the ground story, should be set up
sufficiently high from the surface to admit a cat or small terrier dog
beneath such floor, with openings for them to pass in and out, or these
hiding places will become so many rat warrens upon the premises, and
prove most destructive to the grain and poultry. Nothing can be more
annoying to the farmer than these vermin, and a trifling outlay in the
beginning, will exclude them from the foundations and walls of all
buildings. Care, therefore, should be taken to leave no haunt for their
convenience.
With these suggestions the ingenuity of every builder will provide
sufficient guards against the protection of vermin beneath his
buildings.