demand among the inhabitants of the neighbouring manufacturing villages. Two professional gardeners, with a staff of men, are in charge of the gardening department, and are always ready to give information and advice.

The tenants have formed a "Tenants' Committee," through which arrangements are made for the co-operative purchase of plants and seeds, and for the hire of garden tools, bought for the purpose; as well as the carrying on of a loan library, a series of lectures for the winter months, and a conspicuously successful annual flower show, at which there were no less than 1,001 entries last year. Fowls are kept by many of the tenants, while others are making profits out of bee-keeping.

The rents range from 6s. 6d. a week, rates included, to 9s. rates not included. The smallest houses have

Ground Floor-Living Room or Kitchen, 16 ft. 6 in. × 11 ft. 6 in.
Parlour, 13 ft. 6 in. x 11 ft. 0 in. and Bay Window.
Scullery, 7 ft. 0 in. × 7 ft. 6 in.
Lobby, Larder.

There is also a bath in the kitchen, and the usual outhouses.

The larger cottages have similar accommodation, but the rooms are larger and an extra bedroom takes the place of the linen closet. In the largest houses bathrooms with hot and cold water are provided.

Financial Outlay and Return. Much of the pioneer work of development being of an experimental character, a good deal of money was expended in the first instance which would be wholly, or partly, saved in a repetition of the experiment, so that a detailed statement of the capital outlay and annual expenditure would be misleading, but it is estimated that the value of the 330 acres of land including the village of Bournville, as made over to the trustees was about £180,000, producing about £5,400 per annum. The whole scheme will now be managed on a sound commercial basis, so as to secure a net return from all new houses of 4 per cent. on the total outlay, reckoning ground rent at £20 per acre.

The cost of building the most recent houses works out at about £250 each, and with six houses to the acre the net return required on a 4 per cent. basis will be about 5s. per cottage per week, to which, of course, must be added rates, at about 5s. 3d. in the £, taxes, repairs, and management, thus making a total of from 75. to 75. 6d. per week for a large cottage with garden. The revenue thus derived, together with farm rents, is to be paid to the trustees, and employed by them in building more houses and further developing the estate.

Thus it will be seen that the scheme contains within it a principle of continual growth, and the income in course of time will increase so as to admit of an almost indefinite extension of the benefits of the Trust.

The Trust Deed is dated 14th December, 1900, and in view of the great potentialities of this remarkable instrument it may be well to mention that it contains the following among other statements and provisions :

The Founder is desirous of alleviating the evils which arise from the insanitary and insufficient accommodation supplied to large numbers of the working classes, and of securing to workers in factories some of the advantages of outdoor village life, with opportunities for the natural and healthful occupation of cultivating the soil. The object is declared to be the amelioration of the condition of the working class and labouring population in and around Birmingham, and elsewhere in Great Britain, by the provision of improved dwellings, with gardens and open spaces to be enjoyed therewith.

In speaking of the Trust property the following modes of applying it are suggested, but they are mentioned by way of illustration only, and not so as to limit the Trustees' discretion.

The provision, erection, adaptation, or improvement of buildings and the acquisition of land in any part of Great Britain, such buildings to be used for the purpose of dwellings for the labouring and working classes, and common and other lodging houses.

It is the desire of the Founder that so far as possible such dwellings may occupy about one-fourth part of the sites on which they are respectively erected; also that the rents be fixed on such a basis as to make them accessible to persons of the labouring and working classes, without, however, placing them in the position of being the recipients of a bounty.

Subject to clause 33, which relates to the sale of alcoholic drinks, any part of the property may be used for shops or factories, but the Founder suggests that no such factories shall occupy in area more than one fifteenth part of the total area of the estate.

The Trustees are empowered to make arrangements with Railways and other Companies for cheap means of transit. They may lease, underlet, or sell land, develop it and prepare it for building, borrow money, invest funds, give land, or erect buildings for Places of Worship, Hospitals, Schools, Technical Institutes, Libraries, Gymnasiums, Laundries, Baths, and kindred objects. But all "such schools and institutions which the Trustees may build must be so organised as carefully to exclude sectarian influences, and so conducted as to avoid denominational jealousy."

The clause relating to the sale of intoxicating liquor provides that no house or building shall be used for such sale. except under the following conditions :

The unanimous consent of all the Trustees in writing shall be a necessary precedent to the grant and extent of the license or other permit, and all net profit arising from the sale of intoxicating liquor shall be devoted to securing for the village community recreation and counter attractions to the liquor trade as ordinarily conducted. One other clause must be quoted in full

The administration of the Trust shall be wholly unsectarian and non-political, and there shall always be a rigid exclusion of all influences calculated or tending to impart to it a character sectarian as regards religion or belief, or exclusive as regards politics, and it will be a violation of the intention of the Founder if participation in its benefits should be excluded on the ground of religious belief or political bias.

The Trust is under the final control of the Charity Commissioners. The village is yet young, but the following facts may be noted regarding it. Every house is occupied. Tenants do not leave unless obliged to do so, owing to removal from the district. When a house is vacated there is keen competition to secure it, and there are at present waiting for vacancies enough applicants to people a village nearly twice as big as Bournville. The death-rate for 1901 was only 8.8 per 1,000, and the local Medical Officer of Health says he cannot speak too highly of these dwellings."

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The scheme can be easily copied by individuals, societies, or municipalities elsewhere, and if Mr. Cadbury's example were thus followed to any great extent, the much desired solution of the housing difficulty would be brought appreciably nearer.

CHAPTER XVI.

BYELAWS AND EXPERIMENTS IN CHEAP
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION.

The construction of new dwellings is regulated to such a great extent by a rather rigid and in some respects irksome series of "Building Byelaws," that it is difficult to make experiments in new or cheap building construction without transgressing one or more of these regulations. The substance of these byelaws is given in the Appendix, pp. 85-92, and it will be seen that they are mainly concerned with five points.

(1) Prevention of damp through defects of either site or materials.
(2) Adequate air space within and without the dwelling.
(3) Prevention of fire.

(4) Sound and safe construction.

(5) Efficient ventilation, drainage, and sanitation.

Byelaws and Sites. The provisions intended to secure the above objects are sound in principle, but are so lacking in adaptability and elasticity that they unnecessarily restrict the erection of many useful and healthy dwellings, while not preventing the jerry builder from piecing together his shoddy houses.

Dealing first with the site, it is obvious that the moisture in the soil has the normal process of evaporation intensified by the presence on it of a building warmed and ventilated. This evaporation lowers the temperature of the air in and near the building, as each cubic foot of water evaporated absorbs heat to the extent of 1 degree Fahrenheit from 3,000,000 cubic feet of air. The lower the water in the soil, the less the evaporation and the warmer the adjacent air. Phthisis, rheumatism, neuralgia, and catarrhs are largely due to dampness of the soil, which also tends to increase all affections of the respiratory system, such as bronchitis and pneumonia, as well as measles and whooping cough. Bearing in mind the important part played by the ground air, which is breathed in and out of the soil with varying pressures and temperatures of the atmosphere, it is hardly necessary to insist upon the importance of having a soil free from decomposing vegetable or other matter which might exhale noxious gases into the dwelling.

The best soils for sites, as a rule, may be considered to stand in the following order :

(1) Gravel is excellent if free from loam and with a pervious subsoil, so as to admit of rapid surface water drainge and free circulation of ground air. (2) Chalk is very good if permeable and free from clay.

(3) Clay is fairly good if carefully drained, but it is always cold, owing to its being a good conductor of heat, and if badly drained it is very unwholesome in hot weather.

Marshy soils should be avoided, because they give rise to malarial and other diseases, while "made ground" is generally very bad and unhealthy.

With regard to position, the ground should slope in all directions away from the house, but it should not be exposed to winds from marshy districts, muddy creeks, or ditches. It should not be at the foot of a slope to which other districts drain.

The byelaws require all unhealthy soil to be removed, and the whole site to be covered with concrete or other non-porous substance [clause 10, p. 86, App.]. This, while not sufficient protection in the case of some soils, is an unnecessary expense in many country districts where sites of healthy, rocky, or solid soil are often found.

This condition has been modified at Dorking by the addition of the words, "wherever the dampness of the site renders this necessary."

Roads and Drainage System.-Dealing next with the roads, there is no doubt that in country districts the byelaw requiring new streets to be 36 feet wide is both unnecessary and injurious in its present form. It adds to the cost of the work, and at the same time destroys many a pleasant country lane by necessitating the cutting down of trees and the destruction of hedges, as everybody who has watched the development of new estates in country districts must have seen with regret. The introduction of a town system of drainage and sewage disposal into a country district is another expensive and unsuitable practice.

Dr. Poore's System of Sanitation.—In country districts every cottage ought to have its bit of garden, about one-eighth of an acre or more, and adopt the following system of sanitation advocated by Dr. Poore in his book on Rural Hygiene.

1.—All excrement should be kept out of the drains, for by doing this the putrefaction of the solid is prevented, and the purification of the liquid by filtration through the earth is effected with ease, which is proportionate to the thinness of the fluid.

2.-All solid matter should be removed every day from the immediate neighbourhood of the house, and buried in the top layer of cultivated ground. This surface layer is full of living organisms, which rapidly disintegrate and oxidise any substance deposited on it, until in a very short time-in summer within less than three weeks-the filth becomes fertile "humus" or mould. Household slops should be poured on to the surface of the garden, and the mistake of attempting what is called subsoil irrigation must not be made.

3.-Earth closets with moveable pails should be outside the dwelling house, approached by a covered passage, with cross ventilation. Sifted garden mould, taken from the top layer and dried in a shed-not over a stove is most suitable for use. If specially constructed, as in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, so as to separate liquid from solid deposits, and if kept free from household slops and other liquids, earth closets are not only free from nuisance, but will provide valuable manure. 4. With regard to other solid refuse the rule must be

(1) That whatever is capable of rotting must be put in a heap to humify.

(3) Whatever is not capable of rotting must be burnt.