84 THE FARMER'S AND 



building eighteen by fifty-four feet, two stories high, adopt- 

 ing the different suggestions now made. Although many 

 doubted the success of the undertaking, all now admit it 

 has been very successful, and presents a convenient and 

 comfortable building, that appears well to public view, 

 and offers a residence combining as many advantages as 

 a stone, brick, or wood house presents. I will add what 

 Loudon says in his most excellent work, the Encyclo- 

 paedia of Agriculture, pp. 74 and 75: 



" The great art in building an economical cottage, is 

 to employ the kind of materials and labor which are 

 cheapest in the given locality. In almost every part of 

 the world, the cheapest article of which the walls can be 

 made, will be found to be the earth on which the cottage 

 stands ; and to make good walls from the earth, is the 

 principal art of the rustic or primitive builder. Soils, 

 with reference to building, may be divided into two classes : 

 clays, loams, and all such soils as can neither be called 

 gravels nor sands, and sands and gravels. Ths former, 

 whether they are stiff or free, rich or poor, mixed with 

 stones or free from stones, may be formed into walls in 

 one of these modes, viz: in the pise" manner, by lumps 

 moulded in boxes, and by compressed blocks. Sandy 

 and gravelly soils may always be made into excellent 

 walls, by forming a frame of boards, leaving a space be- 

 tween the boards of the intended thickness of the wall, 

 and filling this with gravel mixed with lime mortar, or, 

 if this cannot be got, with mortar made of clay and straw. 



" In all cases, when walls, either of this class or the 

 former, are built, the foundations should be of stone or 

 brick, and they should be carried up at least a foot above 

 the upper surface of the platform." 



We shall here commence by giving one -of the sim- 

 plest modes of construction, from a work of a very 



