as suffice for the occasion. And although
these sizes are most prevalent, yet tobacco houses are in
many instances built larger or smaller according to the
circumstances of the proprietor, or the size of the spot of
ground under cultivation.

[Illustration: Virginia shed 150 years ago.]

"The most ordinary kinds consist of two square pens built
out of logs of six or eight inches thick, and from sixteen
to twenty feet long. Out of this material the two pens are
formed by notching the logs near their extremities with an
axe; so that they are alternately fitted one upon another,
until they rise to a competent height; taking care to fit
joists in at the respective tiers of four feet space, so
that scaffolds may be formed by them similar to those
heretofore described to have been erected in the open field,
for the purpose of hanging the sticks of tobacco upon, that
they may be open to a free circulation of air during this
stage of the process. These pens are placed on a line with
each other, at the opposite extremes of an oblong square,
formed of such a length as to admit of a space between the
two pens wide enough for the reception of a cart or wagon.
This space, together with the two pens, is covered over with
one and the same roof, the frame of which is formed in the
same way as the walls by notching the logs aforesaid, and
narrowing up the gable ends to a point at the upper
extremity of the house, termed the ridge pole. The remaining
part of the fabric consists of a rough cover of thin slabs
of wood, split first with a mall and wedges, and afterwards
riven with an instrument or tool termed a froe. The only
thing which then remains to be done, is to cut a door into
each of the pens, which is done by putting blocks or wedges
in betwixt the logs which are to be cut out, and securing
the jambs with side pieces pinned on with an anger and
wooden pins. The roof is secured by weighing it down with
logs; so that neither hammer, nails, brick, or stone, is
concerned in the structure; and locks and keys are very
rarely deemed necessary.

"The second kind of tobacco houses differ somewhat from
these, with a view to longer duration. The logs are to this
end more choicely selected. The foundation consists of four
well hewn groundsels, of