Economical Management of Materials, ^'c, on the Farm. 3Gi) 
considerable proportion of this waste timber wholly unfitted for 
use in construction. But there need be no waste actually per- 
petrated for all that. If for nothing else, even the very worst of 
it will be useful for firewood. And not merely in the farm- 
buildings, where steam-engines are employed, and cooking for 
live-stock carried on, is there a large demand for this, but also in 
the farm-houses and cottages. Yet again in this department have 
I known of instances where firewood — for the house, however, 
chiefly, if not wholly — has actually been bought at and carted 
from the neighbouring town or village. And this where cartloads 
of it literally lay rotting and wasting away in the very vicinity ; 
and of course adding to the general untidiness of the farm- 
buildings ! On the other hand, I have known large stores of 
excellent firewood obtained by the trifling labour of some of the 
younger servant girls, who, when taking their little strolls about 
the place, carried with them baskets which almost invariably 
they got filled, and that, moreover, when one could not easily 
or readily see materials lying littering about. Indeed, I have 
known also some of the " wee toddlin' things " of the household 
help one to some purpose in this little industry, so fond were 
they all of " sticking," as it was called. But, failing this source 
of supply, a trifle by way of extra-wage given to the engine- 
driver, or some other of the more intelligent of the men about 
the place, will always secure a goodly supply of this article so 
necessary in all households and, under the usual system of work- 
ing, also on farm-buildings. It is only the labour which has to 
be paid for, the material is there ; and however trifling may be 
the amount which represents the saving thus effected, still it 
will go to swell the aggregate. More than this, it will carry 
with it its lesson to those who might otherwise be wholly indif- 
ferent to saving of any kind. When a man finds that he actually 
adds a trifle, be it literally no more than this, to his weekly 
wages by using up what he has always looked upon as " out- 
and-out waste, worth no one's while to look at or after," he will 
be more apt to look at it in a very different way from that in 
which he at one time indulged. 
The simplest way is of course to use it in repairs. This, 
however, is not always so easy in the case of home-grown 
timber. This is generally, we may say invariably, in the 
"round," as it is technically called, and, unlike the squared 
and dressed-up pieces of foreign timber, is not so readily 
adapted to the work on hand, which, speaking generally, is 
constructed of squared timber. A natty handy fellow can, 
however, soon get into the way of using round timber, and that, 
too, with the display of considerable taste when used in con- 
junction with squared timber. There are, moreover, many 
VOL. XVI. — S. S. 2 B 
