rut DE TERRE IN SOUTH AFRICA. [TO THE EDITOR Or
ma "anaemia.")
Sra,—The following account of an experiment in pint de terre as carried out by a correspondent in South Africa may interest your readers :— " I had to build some place to keep the ear in, and wanted to put up
• place as economically as possible. I got estimates for asbestos walls and roof on a frame, but they were too expensive. Then I thought of a plank building with asbestos roof, but it Is not substantial and too risky for fire. At last I turned to phut de terre ' as spoken of in the Spectator. Deal is very expensive here at all times, and of course especially so now. I made my shuttering out of yellow wood (a local wood in the forest seven miles off), which its noted for its warping qualities. I have known a man start sawing a plank down the centre and find that it twisted so that the two pieces he had ripped so far seemed to fold themselves up like a person crossing his arms. In desperation the fellow started on the other end, and when he had gone a foot it twisted outwards with such force that it split itself down to the other end, but not straight. Oh, no ! a yellow wood plank would never do that. Well, I cut things as fine as I could, and had only three shutterings of ten feet by three feet high and two corner pieces. I wish I had had five shutterings, but the iron bolts are the expense. Well, the shutter- ings are like strung bows from end to end, and also twisted all other ways, so that it is not so easy to get one's walls plumb and upright, and one plank has split off because it refused to bend near straight again. Still, there are the walls with only another day's work on them, say three square yards to finish, and althou,gh they have lots of blemishes they are really good, sound, and presentable. Now had I built those walls of brick it would have cost me about £30, or in plank £18 to £15. These for actual labour (not counting the shutterings, which I hope to be able to hire out to others and get some of my £9 back) have cost me, allowing for two more days' work, £1 us. ad. The walls are twenty feet by fourteen feet inside and nine feet high. About the roof: I don't know what it will be roofed with, as I am afraid I shall not be able to get asbestos tiles to dolt with. All the firms in Durban arc out of them, and can't get any more, so I shall have to fall back on corrugated iron.'
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