Re-inforced Concrete for Farm and Estate Purposes. 123 



cottage buildiiig is concerned, construction has become too 

 expensive to make it possible for the landlord to get a reasonable 

 return on his outlay. In those parts of the country where 

 " mud "cottages were the usual type erected during the earlier 

 part of the last century, the want of cottage accommodation 

 is apt to be particularly felt, for these old houses are being 

 condemned and destroyed daily, and in spite of rural depopula- 

 tion there are not enough of the better type of cottage to 

 supply the demand in many localities. Consequently it 

 happens not infrequently that Local Sanitary Authorities, or 

 their officers, are impelled to overlook cases of overcrowding, 

 and fail to make closing orders in cases of houses unfit for 

 habitation, simply because they know that they would be 

 driving labour out of a district where, perhaps, it can very 

 ill be spared. 



It is possible that on the large agricultural estates the need 

 for farm labourers' cottages is not very pressing, for it is 

 recognised that cottages form a necessary part of the equip- 

 ment of the holdings, but in the villages there is often a 

 demand for houses, far exceeding the supply, on the part of 

 postmen, shop assistants, carpenters, and others, who are not 

 able to pay an economic rent and for whose adequate housing 

 nobody seems to feel any responsibility. Again, the successful 

 development of the Small Holding Movement in many places 

 resolves itself into a question of cost of equipment. Given 

 land worth thirty shillings per acre to an ordinary farmer, 

 the rent to a small holder may easily have to be doubled by 

 the time that house and buildings have been provided. 



Obviously what is required is a construction more perma- 

 nent than the "mud and suid " buildings of a century and 

 more ago, and less costly than the bricks and mortar which 

 succeeded them. The problem has been very prominently 

 before the public of late, and the inquiry here reported was 

 undertaken to find out to what extent Ferro or Re-inforced 

 Concrete, now so extensively used in large constructional 

 works, is being employed for farm and estate purposes ; to 

 investigate some of the systems of construction in use ; to 

 ascertain the cost of it comparative with other methods ; and 

 to consider the possibility of the profitable extension of its 

 use. 



As rtegards the first of these points, the results of the investi- 

 gation seem to indicate that whilst the use of ferro-concrete 

 is not confined to any particular localities, yet its employment 

 for farm and estate building works is very far from being 

 general or extensive. This is no more than might be expected, 

 for this method of construction is still more or less in its 



