OCTOBER: FIFTH WEEK 287 



ners for walls, may readily be constructed by using pieces of 

 sheet iron or tin, held in place by wire or nails or by short 

 stakes, until the concrete sets. A machine may be pur- 

 chased at a reasonable figure which makes hollow concrete 

 blocks. They may be made a few at a time and kept in- 

 definitely. With them almost any sort of building opera- 

 tion may be undertaken. 



Iron Pipe for Many Purposes 



With anything but the very simplest kinds of work it is 

 best to make a detailed line drawing, with exact dimensions 

 of just what you plan to construct. Otherwise you will 

 find yourself making numerous inaccuracies and mistakes. 

 Very often, too, it is possible to make an excavation serve 

 as one side of the form. In making a cold-frame or a root- 

 pit against a bank, for instance, the back and at least part 

 of the two ends may be formed by digging the bank down 

 square and erecting the inner form several inches in front of 

 this. For cold-frames it is possible to buy a cast iron " cap " 

 that fits over the concrete wall and designed especially to 

 make a good, snug fit for the sash. There are permanent 

 wash colors also made especially for use with concrete, with 

 which one may get any desired "tone" to harmonize with 

 buildings or surroundings. 



Along with concrete, one should learn the possibilities 

 of iron pipe. Common water or gas pipe is used, and for 

 most purposes secondhand pipe will answer as well as new. 

 Embedded in concrete, it is practically everlasting. It 

 is ideal to use for inexpensive arches, trellises, supporting 

 columns, etc. Formerly it was necessary to have a set of 

 pipe-tools to fit and thread the pieces into their various 

 positions. Now, however, one may get "split fittings" to 

 hold the pieces of pipe together wherever nothing is to be 

 used inside of them. They are put on with an ordinary 

 monkey wrench; a short bolt which passes between the ends 

 of the pipe, or double bolts, straddling it, being used to hold 

 the fittings in place, so that the only tool necessary is a pipe- 

 cutter or a hack-saw to cut the pipe into required lengths. 



