34 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



July, 1905 







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A Cement Flower-Box. The Original Has Been so Closely Imitated That 

 Even the Wear of Time Has Been Reproduced 



bags and boxes, have assumed this texture of 

 stone, while other masses present a very un- 

 pleasing nondescript surface. When molds 

 are used this nonductility of the material re- 

 quiring stirring may blotch the surface with 

 areas where the finer particles seem to have 

 collected in a sort of paste. On the other 

 hand, when cast too dry, the cavities are not 

 properly filled. Owing to these difficulties 

 the cement will not always take the texture 

 of the mold, therefore one must resort to 

 other means. The mold itself may be en- 

 crusted with ingredients which will communi- 

 cate their texture to the cement, or materials, 

 coarse and fine, may be introduced into the 

 original mixture so as to modify the result. 

 In a word, the cement is merely a glue caus- 

 ing the gravel and sand to adhere to each 

 other, and is used as a medium and not as a 

 base. The process, which any one can work 

 out for himself if he wishes, lies almost en- 



tirely in the adding of certain ingredients to 

 the raw cement. The texture and color are 

 matters of workmanship and taste. When 

 the process is learned it will be possible to 

 reproduce almost any work of art with the 

 accuracy of the copies seen in the illustrations. 

 Once the mold is made there is practically no 

 limit to the number of reproductions. 



In one of the photographs may be seen in 

 cement a famous Byzantine holy water font, 

 in another is shown an adaptation of a Gothic 

 fireplace in the Musee de Cluny, at Paris. 

 Some of the sun dials were also most pleas- 

 ing, for they combined utility and beauty in 

 an unusual manner. 



I have endeavored in this brief sketch to 

 give some idea of the artistic uses of ce- 

 ment, and no one interested in such matters 

 could fail to be favorably impressed by the 

 result. 



A Sun Dial Cast in Cement in Imitation of the Font of Turtles 



Plants and Music 



AS music an influence on plant life? A 

 ponderous English review has been con- 

 sidering this question, and is inclined to 

 give an affirmative response. It cites 

 the opinion of a German professor of 

 music, resident in New York, who says: 

 " I have come to see clearly that plants love music as well as 

 sunshine, that they grow more luxuriantly in a studio where 

 there is music, and that the tender buds break more quickly 

 into beautiful blossoms than they do in silence or in discord 

 of sound." 



Colonel Andrade, of the City of Mexico, took two healthy 

 growing plants and experimented upon them thus: One 

 flower he blessed, praised its beauty and fragrance; it grew 

 in an atmosphere of harmony and developed rapidly into 

 perfect growth and flowers of brightest color. The other 

 plant the colonel frowned upon, scolded and blamed. It 

 rapidly failed, its growth ceased and within a month it was 



dead, though in point of physical conditions, such as light, 

 heat, air, moisture, and soil, it was treated absolutely the 

 same as the companion plant. 



These experiments conclusively prove that plants have 

 nerves. Harmonious, sympathetic vibrations thrill through 

 the vegetable fiber, and excite to anabolic cell-formation, 

 while discordant notes act as a katabolic poisonous agent. 



Turning to the insect world, we all know that the hiving 

 of bees is accelerated through the beating of a drum; but 

 recent experiments upon insects have had unlooked-for suc- 

 cess in other quarters. Brass bands have been used in 

 America for bringing a plague of caterpillars off trees and 

 in cleansing blight off plants. 



American Homes and Gardens does not present these 

 statements as facts, but quotes them from the Westminster 

 Review in the hope that our readers may have some ex- 

 periences of their own to communicate on this highly in- 

 teresting theme. 



