ulate. The
floor of all stables for cows, horses, hens, and pigs should be of
concrete to insure the most sanitary construction. Planks absorb
liquids and wear out rapidly under the feet of the stock. Concrete can
be kept clean, is nonabsorptive, and if covered with some non-conducting
material, like sawdust, shavings, or straw, is a perfectly comfortable
floor for the animals.

_Use of concrete._

No development of recent times has tended more toward the improvement
and greater comfort of house building than the use of concrete. In the
earlier houses, the cellar walls were so badly built and the connection
between the top of the cellar wall and the timber sill of the house was
so poor that the winter's wind blew through above to the manifest
discomfort of those in the house. The writer remembers sitting in the
best room of a well-to-do farmer, and watching, with great interest, the
carpet rise and fall with the gusts of wind outside. To avoid such
unhappy consequences, farmers have been accustomed to bank up the house
outdoors in the fall with dry leaves, spruce-boughs, or manure, usually
to a point on the woodwork. This, of course, closes the cellar windows
for the winter for the sake of keeping out the wind. A concrete wall, at
the present price of cement, using gravel for the mixture instead of
stone, need cost but little more than the price of the cement and the
labor involved, and a tight cellar wall may thereby be obtained.

If the soil in which the cellar is dug is firm enough, the outside of
the excavation can be made so that no form on that side will be
required, but it is always better to make the excavation about two feet
more than necessary, to put forms inside and outside, and, after their
removal, plaster or wash the wall with a thick cream of cement and
water. In carrying the wall above the ground, forms must be used with
great care to secure a smooth surface, and Fig. 13 shows two methods
suggested by the Atlas Cement Company.

[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Cellar-wall forms.]

There are so many forms of construction where concrete is not merely a
convenience but a great advantage in the matter of health around the
house, and particularly a house in the country, that there would be no
end if one once began enumerating and describing the various methods and
processes involved. Besides the cellar walls and cellar floor, there are
outside the house, silos, manure bins, walks, curbing, steps,
horse-blocks,