368 Notes, Communications and Reviews. 



local methods of construction which, though interesting and 

 valuable, are not capable of much extension, sometimes because 

 the material utilised is more or less local, but more often 

 because the necessary manipulative skill required is even more 

 local than the material. As an instance, the chalk-walled 

 cottages of Winterslow, near Salisbury, are mentioned, and the 

 Essex clay-lump cottages, though not mentioned in the Report, 

 furnish another example. The Committee are inclined to 

 advocate concrete construction, either re-inforced or in blocks, 

 but in either case it must be remembered that unless several 

 houses are to be built, the outlay on machines, moulds, or 

 forms makes concrete anything but a cheap construction. 

 Special reference is made to the saving to be effected by 

 building flat roofs of re-inforced concrete. The writer recently 

 witnessed the construction of such a roof on a three-bedroomed 

 cottage. It was composed of 4 in. of concrete, re-inforced 

 with ordinary barbed wire at 6 in. intervals. The cost 

 represented an advantage of 25 per cent, over an ordinary 

 tiled roof, and an actual saving in money of 10?. 



Building by-laws come, of course, under consideration, 

 but the Committee recognise the fact that they are framed not 

 to harass the landlord anxious to execute improvements, but to 

 defeat the machinations of the jerry-builder. They express a 

 desire, however, for greater elasticity in the interpretation of 

 them, so that special cases might more easily be met. 



As regards farm buildings, this section of the Committee's 

 Report is of less general interest, and need not be examined 

 here in great detail. The Committee advocate very strongly a 

 timber construction, and in several directions they advise a 

 breaking away from conventional design, in order to effect 

 economies. It is not an uncommon thing on County Council 

 holdings to see a cow-shed for four or six cows constructed in 

 9 in. brickwork, with feeding passage, &c., and the Committee 

 rightly maintain that however good the theorj" may be, the 

 practice of such construction cannot be justified. 



The evidence of certain witnesses examined by the Com- 

 mittee is printed, and that of Mr. Swaine, of York, is of 

 especial interest, as he has made a study of re-inforced concrete 

 construction as applied to cottages, and his mention of a house 

 built l)y himself at a total cost of 80/. leads one to hope much 

 from this material. A series of model plans of houses and 

 buildings of various sizes, designed to suit varying require- 

 ments are appended, and the whole Report will well repay the 

 most careful study by those concerned in the provision of 

 houses and buildings for small farmers and rural labourers. 



C. S. O. 



