Economical Management of Materials, §'c., on the Farm. 371 
building materials and in the ordinary way. That way, 1 
need scarcely observe, does not always secure the best and most 
lasting work, especially if done by some contractors who, if not 
looked pretty sharply after by those who know what good 
sound work is and how it ought to be done, do not alwaj s give 
their employers the best work. 
Of course on some farms the supply of " waste " timber — 
using the term " waste " in the sense I have all along in this 
paper employed it — will be comparatively small, and only 
available therefore as a rule for repairs, or for constructing 
small objects, as gates and the like. When the supply collected 
from various parts is considerable, as in some cases it will be, 
it may be made available for the construction of the less im- 
portant structures, such as outlying stock-houses or shelter-sheds 
in pasture-fields and the like, or for one or other of the many 
kinds of small but useful buildings required from time to time 
on estates and farms, or which improved systems of working 
may demand. On estates where home-timber is grown to even 
but a small extent comparatively, there will be a source of 
supply of round timber useful in the construction of such-like 
buildings, &c., »Scc., a supply which, however, is too often 
made " waste " in the most wasteful of ways. Much of this 
apparently seems bound to be got rid of thus easily and quickly. 
I have not seldom been surprised at the reckless way in which 
the " loppings " or " thinnings " resulting from the cutting 
down of timber have thus been " put out of the way," as if they 
really were things which it Avas a duty — and too apparently a 
pleasureable one — to " get rid of." And yet for by far the largest 
proportion of such " loppings " or " thinnings " a use could have 
been easily found, not merely in the way above indicated, but in 
other ways, the direction of which it only required but a very 
little thoughtful consideration to discover or trace out. On 
this principle, that even the fragments or the waste of waste 
materials should be gathered up so that nothing be lost, very 
little of such sources of supply need or ought to be consigned 
ultimately to the doom of the utterly waste — -consumption or 
burning. But when burning is to be done, why should that 
not be made to serve some useful purpose, in place of being 
wasted away in an open heap of burning materials of which 
the residue- — useful as a manure — is not attempted to be saved 
even by cottagers in whose gardens it might be of some value. 
I have known not seldom the head gardener at the mansion 
driven to his wits' end to find a supply of stakes for various 
departments of garden-work, such as pea-stakes, when in some 
parts of the estate or the home farm a bonfire — so to call it 
— has been going on for days, consuming cartloads of wood 
2 B 2 
