246 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



to send out for propagation anything inferior. Even 

 Mr. Burbank has given us worthless rubbish as well 

 as superb achievements. 



In my chapter on House Building I did not discuss 

 concrete, and for this reason, that it belongs here 

 among our new home arts, to illustrate the additions 

 which have been recently made to the interests of 

 country homes. I myself wish that we could rein- 

 state the simplicity of log house days, with large 

 fireplaces and a general homefulness we do not find 

 in the modern house. We can do something even 

 better than this where our soil is sandy and some- 

 thing even more beautiful. In Florida I found that 

 I owned about two hundred acres of good building 

 sand. Mix four of sand to one of cement, and you 

 can turn half of the whole State into concrete blocks. 

 More to the point is it that you and your family can 

 make the blocks at odd times, and store them for 

 use. 



Two thousand blocks, sixteen by eight by eight, will 

 build a fine bungalow of four rooms and a kitchen. 

 Not counting your own labor and your family's la- 

 bor, your house will not cost you beyond five hun- 

 dred dollars. The floors and roof of Southern pine 

 may also be of your own cutting. My boys use a 

 machine that cost less than forty dollars and with 

 it turn out between sixty and eighty blocks a day. 

 All of these are hollowed by a simple device that 

 lessens their weight and adds strength while lowering 

 cost. The work is attractive to young people and 



