Guy-lines made of six-thread manilla rope are put in at the four corners of the eaves, and at every seam along that tabling, making five upon each side.  Work an eyelet, or put a grommet, in the doubled cloth of the seam; knot the end of the guy-line to prevent its pulling through:  tying the rope makes too bungling a job, and splicing it is too much work.  The six guy-lines in the body of the tent should be about nine feet long, the four corner ones about a foot longer.  The fiddles[19] should be made of some firm wood:  pine and spruce will not last long enough to pay for the trouble of making them.

The poles should be nine feet and four or five inches long.  If they are too long at first, sink the ends in the ground, and do not cut them off until the tent has stretched all that it will.

In permanent camp a “fly” over the tent is almost indispensable for protection from the heat and pelting rains.  It should be as long as the roof of the tent, and project at least a foot beyond the eaves.  The guy-lines should be a foot or more longer than those of the tent, so that the pins for the fly may be driven some distance outside those of the tent, and thus lift the fly well off the roof.

CLOTH FOR TENTS.

For convenience we have supposed all of the tents to be made of heavy drilling.  Many tent-makers consider this material sufficiently strong, and some even use it to make tents larger than the United States army wall-tent.  My own experience leads me to recommend for a wall-tent a heavier cloth, known to the trade as “eight-ounce Raven’s” duck,[20] because drilling becomes so thin after it has been used two or three seasons that a high wind is apt to tear it.

The cost of the cloth is about the same as the value of the labor of making the tent; but the difference between the cost of drilling and eight-ounce duck for a wall-tent of four breadths with a fly is only three to four dollars, and the duck tent will last nearly twice as long as the one of drilling.  For these reasons it seems best not to put your labor into the inferior cloth.

Before you use the tent, or expose to the weather any thing made of cotton cloth, you should wash it thoroughly in strong soap-suds, and then soak it in strong brine; this takes the sizing and oil out of the cloth, and if repeated from year to year will prevent mildew, which soon spoils the cloth.  There are mixtures that are said to be better still, but a tent-maker assures me that the yearly washing is better than any thing applied only once.  Some fishermen preserve their sails by soaking them in a solution of lime and water considerably thinner than whitewash.  Others soak them in a tanner’s vat; but the leather-like color imparted is not pleasing to the eye.  Weak lime-water they say does not injure cotton; but it ruins rope and leather, and some complain that it rots the thread.