HOME GARDENS FOB SMOKY TOWNS. 353 



or " scrim," is retailed at ?>\d. per yard, and is one yard wide. 

 If I am rightly informed, it may be bought in wholesale 

 quantities at about 2d. per square yard, i.e., one farthing 

 per square foot. This fabric is made of coarse unbleached 

 thread yarn, very strong and open in structure. The light 

 passes so freely through it that when hung before a window 

 the loss of light in the room is barely perceptible. When 

 a piece is stretched upon a frame, a printed placard, or even 

 a newspaper, may be read through it. 



The yarn being loosely spun, fine fluffy filaments stand 

 out and bar the interstices against the passage of even very 

 minute carbonaceous particles. These filaments may be 

 seen by holding it up to the light. 



The fabric being one yard wide, and of any length re- 

 quired, all that is needed for a roof or side walls is a skele- 

 ton made of lines or runs of quartering, at 3 feet distance 

 from each other. The cost of such quartering, made of 

 pitch pine, the best material for outside work, is under 

 one penny per foot run; of common white deal, about 

 three farthings. Thus the cost of material for a roof, sa^ 

 a lean-to from a wall-top to the side of a house, which would 

 be the most commonly demanded form of 30 feet by 10 feet, 

 i.e., 300 square ieet, would be 



. d. 



110 feet of quartering (11 lengths) at, Id 9 2 



300 square feet of canvas, at li 6 3 * 



Nails and tacks, say 1 



16 5 



The size of the quartering proposed is 2 by 1 inch, 

 which, laid edgewise, would bear the weight of a man on 

 a plank while nailing down the canvas. The canvas has 

 a stout cord-like edge or selvage, that holds the nails well. 



I find that what are called "French tacks" are well 

 suited for nailing it down. They are made of wire, well 

 pointed, have good-sized flat clout heads, and are very 

 cheap. They are incomparably superior to the ordinary 

 rubbish sold as " tin tacks" or "cut tacks." The construc- 



* See foot-note, page 365. 



