IN this country with its almost exhaustless resources of forests, including the finest assortment of woods for building found on any continent, the choicest kinds can be procured at reasonable figures.

The woods best adapted for the framing and finishing of all exterior portions, as well as for the superstructure itself, are PINE, spruce, and hemlock, their abundance, improved methods of manufacture, and moderate cost, rendering them the most desirable woods for houses of moderate cost. As far as health is concerned, we think there can be no house better adapted to its promotion than one built of wood. However, the obstacles to health in brick and stone buildings are not insurmountable, and a full discussion of these materials will be found in another chapter.

A building of wood cannot well be made as warm as one of brick or stone, but can, in the following manner, be made warm enough for all practical purposes. For an ordinary eight-room, two-story building we will imagine three rooms and a hall in first story, the same number on the second floor, and a rear part with kitchen, pantry, and back staircase, and cellar under this, and on second floor of rear part a servant's room and bath-room. The sills should be eight inches square, the floor joists for first floor two by ten inches, and framed into the sills even with the tops of the same, so that when the floor is laid it will just come evenly over the sills, to prevent rats and mice from gaining an entrance, for these pests are one of the most annoying disadvantages in most wood dwellings, as they are generally constructed.

Now proceed to put up the outer walls of the house of two by four scantling, with ledger boards one by five inches cut in for second story floor joists to rest upon, and plates doubled and spiked down on top of scantling for rafters. Cover the outside of frame with good, sound boards, dry, or nearly so.

The frame should either be dry, or after being put into the building should have a chance to dry before plastering is put on. Boards should be planed, as you cannot make them lay down even with each other if of uneven thickness. On the inside, between the outside studding, nail on furring strips one inch square with the face one and a half inches from outside of studding, and to these lath in the ordinary manner, and put on one good coat of rich, brown mortar; this is known as back plastering. We know of no way so well adapted for making a warm house as this.

If your frame is not dry, or if studding is wet or green, they might shrink and leave small crevices for air between furring strips and studding. We might observe right here that it is of vast importance to have the timber for floors and partitions well dried, either for wood buildings or brick and stone.

This back plastering will cost from ten to twelve cents per square yard, including lathing; and considering the great benefit of a warm, dry house, it should be put in most good houses at least. This arrangement leaves an air-space next to the outside boarding, and one next to inside plastering, thereby effectually excluding dampness and wind.

Another thing that should be done to help overcome the disadvantage of wood buildings, as compared with brick and stone, is to render them comparatively safe from total destruction by fire. As usually constructed, walls are so many flues on the outside, leaving free access for draughts of air to fan a fire and spread it with lightning rapidity from cellar to garret, so that when discovered it is beyond control.

Such walls also allow vermin to pass up and in between the ceiling and floors, if they once get in below. We overcome this danger, in a measure at least, in the following-way: On the level of the second floor, either run the flooring in between studding, or nail or cut in horizontal pieces between each studding, and over these fill in a couple of inches of mortar or a course of brick laid in mortar. This closes the passages between plaster and boards effectually, so that there is no draught should the house catch fire by any means on an outside wall. How many times this arrangement alone would have kept a fire burning so slowly that it could have been discovered and put out before it had worked its way up to the roof. This is one of the precautions that can be taken to reduce the risk of fire in wooden buildings. Still, most of our brick dwellings, so far as their internal construction is concerned, are exceedingly inflammable; and if a fire is once well under way, it usually ruins everything inside.