370 
Utilisation of Waste Substances and 
pieces of work which can be done wholly bj the use of round 
timber. Some men have quite a clever knack of fixing upon 
the piece, both in size and shape — the latter especially — and to 
assign to it that precise position which gives not only the 
strongest but the neatest and most striking combination possible. 
Gates, fences, outbuildings of a simple kind, can all be made, 
if not in the best, certainly in by far the most picturesque way 
by the use of round timber. Even in general work, therefore, 
there is a wide field for the utilisation of the timber, including 
" round," which on so many farms is greatly neglected, and in 
not a few allowed to go utterly to waste. 
T/ie use of " waste" or tvhat is considered tcorthJess, timber in the 
construction of sundry buildings of the jPrtrm.— Here the widest 
field exists for the exercise of skill in planning and construction. 
It is not by this meant that there is any real difficulty in 
carrying out plans by which waste timber can be made service- 
able in the way above indicated. On the contrary, some of 
the methods open to use are so simple in detail, that even 
labourers wholly inexperienced in construction will within a 
very brief space be able to grasp and thoroughly understand 
what has to be done, and be able very quickly and efficiently to 
do it. What is meant by the skill in design is simply the 
ready choice of round timber calculated to make the neatest 
design. Some men, as above stated, have an extraordinary knack 
of putting together round timber to form almost any desired 
construction they may require, and this also of the strongest. 
It may of course be said that there is nothing to be gained by 
using timber only or principally for any of the buildings of the 
farm. It is more perishable than the ordinary building materials, 
is more liable to be burned, and, taking everything into account, 
is not so very much cheaper, so as to offer any great inducement 
to use it. All this is very true, although circumstances will 
materially modify the conclusions here come to. Still the point 
I am aiming at is not to show — although in some points it 
could be shown — that timber-work in sundry buildings is 
cheaper or better than brick or stone ; but that the timber 
being there, or being assumed to be there in abundance, and 
obtainable at the cheapest of rates, much being otherwise 
" waste," or allowed to become so, it Avill be the truest economy 
to use it. And beyond all doubt it can be so used that it will 
be almost fire-proof, and just in so far as it approaches this 
condition, so also it approaches the condition of being able to 
withstand " wear and tear." Used in conjunction with other 
materials by methods presently to be noticed, timber, or rather 
" composite " structures in which timber plays an important 
part, will hold their own against those built with the ordinary 
