xii AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS June, 1912 
Hardware 
No feature of building is more important than harmonizing the 
finishing and decorating with the architecture of the various rooms. 
No feature of the finishing is more important than the refine- 
ment and beauty of the hardware employed. 
Good architects are invariably acquainted with Sargent Hard- 
ware and the Sargent care of little details, beauty. of finish, 
authenticity of period design and reliability of construction. 
In Sargent Hardware every detail, every piece even of 
the least important display is given scrupulous attention. 
lt is correct. It is in harmonious keeping. with its 
more prominent companion pieces. — It is 
practical in service. 
Write for the illustrated book of 
Sargent Designs. Also for the Sar- 
gent Colonial Book illustrating pat- 
terns of thisperiod. Both sent free 
on request. Then confer with your 
- architect to insure an harmonious 
selection. 
Lane Steel Beam Hangers 
= 
oe ) 
Lane Double Hangers 
Lane “D” Hanger Lane “B” Hanger 
When you do build, build right. Do not cut away the timbers or depend on 
flimsy spiking. 20,000 Hangers in 100 stock sizes adapted to all conditions are in 
stock ready for immediate shipment. Send for a handsome model done in 
aluminum—consult your architect—then permit us to estimate on your requirements. 
LANE BROS. CO., 434-466 Prospect Street, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
GIRDLING GRAPE VINES 
By E. 1. F. 
N sections where early frosts interfere 
with the growing of early grapes, it is a 
common custom to girdle the vines, by 
which means the time of ripening is has- 
tened from three to five days. The work is 
done by taking out a ring of the bark be- 
low the fruit an inch or less in width, a 
sharp knife being passed around the cane 
twice and the bark then peeled off. The 
result of this treatment is that the elabor- 
ated sap beyond the point girdled does not 
return to form cane or root, but is taken 
up by the fruit increasing its size as well 
as causing it to ripen earlier than under 
ordinary conditions. 
Discretion must be used when this plan 
is followed, and enough of the canes left 
ungirdled so that the development of the 
root system and the making of new canes 
for the next year’s fruiting will not be in- 
terfered with. After the crop has been 
gathered the girdled canes are cut away. 
The time for performing the girdling 
operation is from July 1st to September 
1st, but the earlier the better, as a rule. The 
work is easily and quickly done and the 
plan is worth trying if it will save the 
grapes from being caught by frosts. 
Another plan practiced by grape growers 
and commended to amateurs is the bagging 
of a number of the choicest clusters. An 
ordinary paper bag will answer and the 
three-pound size is commonly used. The 
bags may be fastened about the stem with 
a bit of twine or with pins. Grapes treated 
in this fashion mature deliciously and are 
free from the attacks of birds and other 
pests. If orioles are plentiful they often 
do much damage in the grape arbor by 
piercing the fruit with their bills. Bag- 
ging is a perfect protection. 
CATALOGUING EARTHQUAKES 
WRITER in the New York Evening 
Post points out that “the modern seis- 
mographs scattered about the world record 
about eighty-two earthquakes a day, or ap- 
proximately 30,000 each year. Most of 
them, 99.8 per cent., to be exact, are sien 
slight trembles as to be of no importance. 
This leaves some sixty a year worth re- 
cording. Several elaborate and painstaking 
efforts have been made to compile complete 
records of the world’s quakes since very 
early times. The late Robert Mallet and 
his son made such a list, extending back to 
1600 B. C., or thereabouts, and the Count 
de Montessus de Bellore of Chili has col- 
lected records of 140,000 earthquakes. The 
futility of the attempt at completeness is 
obvious when it is remembered that at the 
present rate of 30,000 a year there must 
have been about 6,000,000 quakes since the 
Christian era began. 
“Tt has been possible, however, to make a 
seismic record covering the Christian era 
of some scientific value by eliminating the 
minor earth disturbances. Even the re- 
sults of this limited compilation, recently 
published for Prof. J. G. Milne by the Brit- 
ish Association, are very imperfect. His 
records begin at 7 A. D. and extend to 1899, 
a period of 1,893 years. They include only 
what he calls destructive earthquakes, that 
is, ‘those causing some marked injury to 
property.’ His lists contain but 4,151 such 
quakes, whereas at the present rate of sixty 
a year, there should have been something 
over 100,000. He could find reliable rec- 
ords and details of but 4 per cent. of the 
probable total. The most disastrous and 
fatal quake of which he gives details was 
that of 1556, in China, when the loss of life 
was estimated at 830,000.” 
