$70 Method of constructing Houses with Earthen Watli* 



and lastly, thfe house I now live in. This has been builf- 

 about twelVe years, and is a sufficient proof of the utility of 

 the practice: the house being as close, warm, and dry in 

 the walls, as" if built of any materials whatever. 



With regard to the expense of the walls of this sort, as 

 labour is the principal part of the expense, and as in some 

 places labour is dearer than in others, the best mode of esti- 

 mating it at different places will be from the quantify that a 

 man should do in a day, and which I have found* to be \\ 

 yard superficial, in the common day's labour of ten hours. 

 At this piace the expense may be estimated as follows : 



£. s. d. 

 Labour to making facing composition, fitting in 

 and ramming to a 1 6-inch wall, where the earth 

 is at hand (labourer's being is. lod. per day) 



per yard superficial . . * . . 2 2f ' 



Value of lime used in the composition rammed 

 into the face of a yard superficial (lime being 



8c?. per bushel) 3 



Lime and labour to rubbing up and finishing the 



outside face' of the wall . . . ♦ < o 3 



Total finished and faced on one side 2 8 



If a wall to a garden or otherwise, and finished and 



faced on both sides* then add 8 



*• I,, ., 



Total for walls finished on both sides 3 4 



At this place the value of a yard of brick-work is more 

 than ten shillings, of walling only 14 inches thick, the 

 bracks being 425. per 1000; and lime 8d. per bushel ; con- 

 sequently tlje economy of the pise must appear; and the 

 same difference will be found in any other place where lime 

 and bricks bear the same price, and proper earth can be 

 found at hand. But as attempting this sort of work, where 

 it is not applicable, or improperly doing it so as to lead to 

 failure, mav prevent its introduction where it would be use- 

 ful, I shall endeavour to point out any precautions that 

 have struck me, and every thing that has appeared to make 

 against it. 



Many persons have supposed, and it has been asserted, 

 that almost any earth will do: but such is certainly very er- 

 Toneous ; for proper earth cannot in all places be found ; and 

 it being difficult to describe it, or to be sure when it is 

 found, it seems adviseable, before the entering on any con- 



siderablef 



