My next venture was in response to an urgent appeal from a farm tenant
to build him a waggon house. The result is seen in the accompanying
illustration. This building, about 40 ft. by 30 ft., was made purely of
earth, but some experiments were tried in the way of introducing hurdles
into the shuttering in order to afford a surface to which plaster could
easily cling. Suffice it to say that the plain earth, without plaster or
any covering, more than justified itself. One part of the wall is very
much exposed to the weather, but it has stood the rains and the frosts
of three very bad winters without turning a hair. Lovers of the
picturesque may like to know that it presents a pleasant face of light
ochre, upon which a pale green efflorescence of lichen has appeared of
late. Anyway, the frost has not touched it.