308 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



member tliat a eoiiveiiieiit kitelieii is u matter ui' thought, not money. 

 Have plenty of cupboards, as many closets as yoii need, and your pan- 

 try in the best location. A small sliding window between kitchen and 

 dining room saves steps. A cold storage room just off the kitchen 

 where the refrigerator may be iced from the kitchen porch saves work 

 in cleaning. 



The finish of the wood w^ork of a house may make work or save 

 work. The best floors for moderate price are red oak. It also is a 

 beautiful wood for the upright finish. If possible have the down stairs, 

 except the kitchen, done in oak. In a room 16x16 feet the difference 

 in cost between a hard pine floor and finish and a red oak floor and 

 finish is not to exceed $10 more for the oak. Oak floors should be 

 filled and waxed and they should be kept in practically the natural 

 color, which is light. This prevents the dust from showing as it would 

 were it stained dark. It pays to see that the boards in the floors are 

 free from knots and well scraped and sand-papered before the finish 

 is applied. The upright finish may be finished natural — i. e., filled 

 and varnished, or stained. The finish most popular now is a stain with 

 a lusterless varnish, giving a dull finish. Since waxed floors cannot 

 have water applied to them, many prefer the floors of the bedrooiiLs— 

 if they are pine — to be filled and then coated with "elastica" — a finish 

 which is not affected by being wiped with a damp cloth. Any floor 

 finish will require renewing. A waxed hardwood floor grows more beau- 

 tiful with each waxing, and the wax is easily applied by any one. 



The best furnished house is that w^hich has in it useful pieces of 

 furniture, of a character which indicates beauty in design and strength 

 and permanence in construction. We are getting away from the spindle 

 legged chair, and similar constructions in furniture, where the articles 

 possess neither beauty nor utility. A room is well furnished when it 

 has in it just what you need for the work of that room. 



RUNNING WATER IN THE COUNTRY HOME. 



(Professor M. P. Miller, College of Agriculture.) 



I am sure that no great part of this paper should be given to a dis- 

 cussion of the desirability of having a supply of running water in the 

 country home because our country women as a rule recognize the great 

 importance of this matter. If I were addressing an audience made up 

 of farmers, I think I should dwell strongly upon this phase of the 

 question, for if there is any one thing in which we as farmers are de- 



