THE EMIGRANT'S HAND-BOOK. 73 



lowing was translated from the French for the Southern 

 Agriculturalist. 



In many of the northern departments of France, par- 

 ticularly in Champagne, the name of Pise is often improp- 

 erly given to a kind of unburnt brick or artificial stone, 

 made with the mud of streets or roads, with which is (al- 

 most always) incorporated a little straw ; this mixture is 

 then pressed in wooden moulds, then taken out to be dried 

 in the sun or shade. This pretended pis6 is used for want 

 of other materials suitable for building, and by this means 

 are obtained the most miserable constructions possible, 

 incapable of supporting the lightest roof; which conse- 

 quently require a frame- work to be raised from the foun- 

 dation to the roof, in order to support it. Besides, the 

 repairs to this kind of building, render it really the most 

 expensive of all ; for this kind of brick soon cracks, warps, 

 separates from the wooden frame, and soon falls upon the 

 slightest shock, either outside or within the house. In 

 other countries farther south, as Artois and Flanders, 

 where stone buildings are very expensive, another kind 

 of pise" or unburnt brick is used ; although made in the 

 same way, they are very good, on account of the quality 

 of the earth, which is chalky and compact, and which 

 even without straw does not crack in the sun. These 

 bricks cement so well with mortar, that when an old wall 

 or ohimney is pulled down, it is not uncommon to see it 

 broken into only three or four pieces by its fall. These 

 buildings can therefore be solid and economical, for the 

 only remarkable expense is in the foundations, which 

 ought to be rubble-work, brick or tabbey, raised at least 

 one foot above the earth around. As to the true pise", 

 which we derive from the Romans, it is still much used 

 at Lyons, and in some of the southern departments also 

 in Italy, Spain, etc. It differs essentially from the bricks 



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