212 New and Cheap Method 



our choice fruit supplies might be enormously increased over the 

 greater part of England and Ireland. 



I first became acquainted with Tail's method from hearing of its 

 advantages in building cheap houses for the working classes of Paris, 

 and thus wrote of it at the time in the columns of the Field : 



"The providing of decent dwellings for the working classes both 

 in town and country is a very important question, which the French 

 are creditably endeavouring to solve, as may be seen by several of 

 their model houses shown in the park of the Exposition. They are 

 very pretty and convenient, though not so well planned nor half so 

 cheap as houses of a nearly like, but better pattern, now building 

 for the Emperor by contract. I succeeded in discovering these the 

 other day in an outlandish boulevard near the Bois de Vincennes, 

 and found them most interesting, particularly as regards the con- 

 struction of the walls, which are not of brick or of stone, but simply 

 of what is called ' concrete,' and which is really nothing but rough 

 stones, say from the size of a bean to that of an egg, mixed with a 

 little Portland cement and sand. The coarse gravel or stones are 

 found on the ground, mixed in a rough way by the commonest and 

 cheapest kind of labourers, and pitched immediately afterwards in 

 between two boards set to the size of wall required. This rough- 

 and-ready cement or leton sets into a firm wall in the course of 

 twenty-four hours, then the framework of boards between which 

 the material has been placed is elevated and readjusted, the ready- 

 made material is thrown in again, and so they knock up those really 

 useful houses in a very short time without the aid of bricklayer, 

 stonemason, or any of the usual complications of building. Each 

 family is provided with two rooms, a little kitchen (better and more 

 roomy than the one in the park), a water-closet on the English 

 principle, according to the Emperor's wish, and a snug little cellar 

 below ground. The doors, windows, and all woodwork have been 

 cheaply made by machinery -, gas and water are laid on, and the 

 floors are of the same kind of concrete as the walls, laid thinly be- 

 tween the iron joists, and boarded over, of course. The plan is the 

 Emperor's own, and is very simple, the only apparent deficiency 



