Caution on Keeping Tents Tight in Rain
By I. Sanborn
Those having the management of our large tents should be very careful not to keep them stretched too tight in time of rain, because ropes and cloth will take up about two feet in becoming thoroughly wet. If therefore the tent is properly tight when the rain commences, and the center is not let down after it gets wet, the result will be that everything will become so tight that it will open the stitch-holes in the cloth where it is stitched to the ropes running to the center, and it will leak along the ropes in a heavy shower. Our Wisconsin tent did not leak a particle till after we left it stretched too tight one night last summer, when it rained all night. Since then it has leaked some along the ropes in a heavy shower. If those using new tents will observe this caution, it will save their tents from becoming leaky.