It is in doing repairs of an ordinary nature that the amateur will find practical knowledge of the arts connected with the building trades of use to him, in the first place. Secondly, he will find it of equal valve in constructing any small building for use or ornament, or for both, out of doors, or for making any appliance within doors; and thirdly, as it has been already urged, he will find it of even more value in enabling him to look after men who may be at work on his premises and in seeing that the work is done in a proper manner.

Excavations of all kinds can easily be compassed by the amateur, and he will find no difficulty whatever in making and using concrete. In connection with this kind of work lies the making of walls and paths of all kinds, and no one will deny that it is of advantage to the amateur to know how to do these things. In building walls with brick and stone he will probably fail, and more particularly because it is by no means as easily done as other kinds of work that fall more naturally within his compass; but, at the same time, it is desirable to know how to repair and " point" a piece of garden wall, as it is technically called; to fix a step that has become loose with cement; to put a piece of paving to rights and relay a loose paving-stone; and to repair a piece of plastering that has been displaced by damp or other causes.