Part 12 (2/2)

[Illustration: PISe HAND RAMMERS]

_Second Note by Major Baylay, Peter Maritzburg, Natal, South Africa_

”I have coh weather conditions have been as bad as possible, it is sound and very satisfactory

”Inshould not be attempted in the rainy season in Africa Earth contains too much moisture, and the power of the sun dries it out too quickly and causes cracks

”_Re_ plastering I covered the outside and inside with a mixture of 6 earth, 2 sand, 1 blue (Hyd) li the red, rather 'fat'

earth found everywhere, and the same stuff the house is built of It is put on thin with a trowel, after da the wall When it dries and cracks, rub all over with a sacking pad covered with the plaster mixture, but wetted to a thin cream consistency It may sound an odd method, but the natives do this ell, and the result is as good as one can wish for You can put tar or any wash (No 6) on this”

[Headnote: Soils]

SOILS

Were it not for the fact (often soood pise will none the less produce enthusiastic pise-builders, a warning as to the vital iht seem superfluous

The author has found so on and valiantly struggling with stiff glutinous clay and alorous optimism can achieve little under such adverse conditions unless soil-blending be resorted to, and even so, pise-building begins to lose points in the matter of economy directly complications of this sort are introduced

Fortunately, however, England is well off in the st the very best

A study of the country, or, failing that, of the geological onally right across England, from Yorkshi+re down into Devonshi+re, where it ends conspicuously in the beautiful red cliffs about Torquay

There is a large area of the stuff in the Midlands, notably in Warwickshi+re, with lesser patches here and there about the country

Second only to the red marls come the brick earths, which, fortunately, are also widely distributed

”Brick earth” is rated under the action of wind, rain, frost, and organic agents, the sulphides having become oxides, and as a cold intractable slitheryearth

It is probable that even stiff clay, if dug in the summer or autumn, and left exposed for a winter, would prove sufficiently refor

After the marls and the brick earths there is an endless variety of soils that will serve well for pise-building--some, of course, better than others, but all, save the extreht and the excessively clayey), capable of giving good results under proper treat pise construction actually in hand, however, the intending builder will do well to submit samples of his earth to so

A fistful taken from a depth of 9 in, and another froive sufficient evidence as to the soil's suitability or the reverse

III

_CHALK_

-- I GENERAL

Chalk, as a source of lih iht alien eneral use for walling in the forain forms the basis of a coely e from the earliest times down to the present

”Pise de Craie,” or chalk consolidated by ra that has been long held in high repute in France and elsewhere, but which has only recently been given a serious trial in England