Hints on the Care of Tents
By R. F. Andrews
PROPER care will prolong the value and usefulness of a tent; neglect will make it worthless in a very short time. Many a tent has been made to leak like a sieve in the very first month of its use, sometimes ruined the first time it has been rained upon, by neglecting to slacken it. After being wet, a tent contracts—shrinks; it should always either be let down a little from the top or the poles should be moved so as to ease and relieve it from the strain at the lower part of the circle. If this is not done, the canvass will shrink from the rope to which it is sewed, and forever after it will leak. Placing the poles slanting as it may need (in a continued rain) or letting it down from the top, will keep it from injury. Sometimes both should be done. To save it from mildew, raise the wall early in the morning, so the tent can be dried before the scorching sun comes down upon it. In case of strong, heavy winds, the top should be let down. This will save it from being wrecked and torn from circle to top. A good tent master will not sleep so soundly but that he will be ready to care for the tent entrusted to him if a rain or wind comes up in the night. When a tent has been slackened up because of continued rain, and becomes dry again, it should not be allowed to stand loose and flop in the wind. The guy-ropes should all be drawn up, the wall poles stood erect, and the top drawn up. This will make it look much better, and be more inviting. A free circulation of air by keeping up the walls will make it last very much longer. Therefore a tent master should not neglect to tie up the walls early each morning, and if the wall tied up is not thoroughly dry, just as soon as the part that is left down becomes dry, it can be tied up, and the part that is wet let down. Let the air circulate through the tent. A little common sense is an excellent thing to mix into the care of a tent, as well as other things.—R. F. Andrews, in The Nebraska Reporter.