372 
Utilisation of Waste Substances and 
highly useful to him. This, no doubt, is a very bad example 
of careless and reprehensible indifference to waste of the most 
wasteful kind. Yet it has been perpetrated before now, and 
may be perpetrated again. When done, no better evidence 
can be given of the want of care on the part of some one who 
has the control of a certain department, and of the utter lack of 
unity of purpose between the heads of the different departments, 
I may, indeed, say of the absence on the estate or farm of the 
principle of making the most of things and the avoidance of 
waste of all kinds — a principle which, known to be established 
in one department, is found soon to permeate through all the 
other departments, and hy consequence leading, so to say, and 
influencing the action of all their " heads," so that they are sure 
to work in unison, having but one object in view, namely the 
interest of the estate. What then I have here classed as the 
waste timber of the estate can be largely increased in amount 
and value, if from no other, certainly in not a few instances from 
this source now noticed. And where those are not sufficient 
for the purpose of erecting what may be called comparatively 
large structures, the supply may be supplemented by such longer 
and larger pieces, as may be absent from the collected waste, 
from the stock of home-timber cut for sale or for use on the 
estate. For the majority of the structures required, no great 
supply of such extra timber will be necessary-. This will be 
confined, as a rule, with few exceptions, to the vertical timbers 
or posts of the structure ; the collective waste will generally 
provide a sufficiency of the smaller pieces required. 
I have said that the best method of using waste timber in 
the erection of structures is the " composite." The main feature 
of this is the employment of non-combustible materials made 
into a species of concrete or hard-setting lime. Better still 
is the employment of a true concrete, faced with Portland 
cement as the binding or setting material. Properly set together, 
it is surprising, even by the employment of the least valuable 
of the two materials here named, how strong and durable a 
building can be obtained, and at a comparatively trifling cost ; 
this more especially when the various materials, other than the 
timber, can be obtained on the estate or farm. I do not here 
wish it to be understood that I advocate the employment of 
timber in conjunction with other materials for the construc- 
tion of buildings of the farm, save those of the simplest and 
most unpretentious character. These may be confined chiefly 
to odd or extra and outlying buildings, as shelter-sheds, &c. 
It could, however, be very easily shown, as already hinted at, 
that even superior structures, such as cottages, could be erected 
on this plan, which not only in point of pleasing appearance, 
