vi AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
September, 1912 
Assuan Dam, part of the Nile system, one of the greatest engineering projects of its kind. 
The Nile System—The Bell System 
For thousands of years Egypt wrestled 
with the problem of making the Nile a de- 
pendable source of material prosperity. 
But only in the last decade was the Nile’s 
tlood stored up and a reservoir established 
from which all the people of the Nile region 
may draw the life-giving water all the time. 
Primitive makeshifts have been super- 
seded by intelligent engineering methods. 
Success has been the result of a compre- 
hensive plan and a definite policy, dealing 
with the problem as a whole and adapting 
the Nile to the needs of all the people. 
To provide efficient telephone service in 
this country, the same fundamental principle 
has to be recognized. The entire country 
must be considered within the scope of one 
system, intelligently guided by one policy. 
It is the aim of the Bell System to afford 
universal service in the interest of all the 
people and amply sufficient for their 
business and social needs. 
Because they are connected and working 
together, each of the 7,000,000 telephones 
in the Bell System is an integral part of the 
service which provides the most efficient 
means of instantaneous communication. 
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY 
AND ASSOCIATED COMPANIES 
One Policy 
ever brought out. 
plates. One dollar each. 
MUNN & CO., INC,, 
Sold 
HESS Seti LOCKER 
The Only Modern, Sanitary 
STEEL Medicine Cabinet 
or locker finished in snow-white, baked 
everlasting enamel, inside and out. 
Beautiful beveled mirror door. Nickel 
plate brass trimmings. Steel or glass 
shelves. 
Costs Less Than Wood 
Never warps, shrinks, nor swells. Dust 
and vermin proof, easily cleaned. 
Should Be In Every Bathroom 
Four styles—four sizes. To recess in 
wall or to hang outside. Send for illus- 
pe trated circular. 
= RecsieodSreak HESS, 926 Tacoma Building, Chicago 
Medicine Cabinet Makers of Steel Furnaces.—Free Booklet 
One System 
Cattage Desians 
By far the most complete collection of plans 
Illustrated with full-page 
361 BROADWAY, NEW YORK 
Universal Service 
No. 1. COTTAGE DESIGNS 
Twenty-five airs. ranging in cost 
from $600 to $1,500. 
No. 2. LOW-COST HOUSES 
Upward of twenty- Ae designs, costing 
from $1,000 to $3,0! 
No. ae MODERN DWELLINGS 
wenty designs, at costs ranging from 
oo 800 to $7,000. 
No. 4. SUBURBAN HOMES 
Twenty selected designs, costing from 
about $3,000 upward. 
separately. 
es 
H Iron Railings, Wire Fences and Entrance 
Gates of all designs and for all purposes. 
Tennis Court Enclosures, Unclimbable Wire Mesh [J 
and Spiral Netting (Chain Link) Fences for Estate Fj 
Boundaries and Industrial Properties—Lawn Fumi- 
ture—Stable Fittings. Ft 
F.£. CARPENTER CO., 29°, Broadway F 
Peeeeepeeeanmeeoe eee we ele ee eee 
HOT WATER SUPPLIED BY AN 
ELECTRIC POWER PLANT 
HE Electrical World, in a recent issue, 
described a progressive electric light 
plant which sold to its customers not only 
the current, but the exhaust steam that 
made the electricity ; then on the demand of 
one of its customers, it collected the steam 
condensed and served the customer with 
hot water. As the company had no hot 
water main, a trap was set in the basement 
of the building to receive the condensate. 
This trap was arranged to tilt when it filled, 
and in so doing it closed the circuit of a 
two-horse-power motor which drove a pump 
that delivered the hot water for the cus- 
tomer’s service. 
THINNING THE FRUIT 
By A. L. BLESSING 
ANY professional fruit growers make 
N a practice of thinning the fruit on 
their trees, and there is no reason why the 
amateur should not follow their example. 
Indeed, there is no other way to get fruit 
of the finest quality. This is especially true 
in growing peaches and apples, although it 
is worth while to thin plums and pears. 
Sometimes it pays to remove half the 
fruit on a tree, if the tree hangs very full. 
Strange as it may seem, there will be just 
as much fruit as though no thinning had 
been done. The reason lies in the increased 
size of that which is allowed to remain. 
Apple growers practice thinning to a less 
extent than the men who grow peaches for 
market. Thinning peaches is necessary in 
a year when the trees are bearing heavily 
in order to grow handsome, large and per- 
fect specimens. The amateur will get just 
as satisfactory results if he thins his ap- 
ples, too. 
No two peaches or apples should touch. 
In fact, there should be two or three inches 
between them. Growers who are aiming to 
secure fruit of superior quality often thin 
to six inches. All obviously poor speci- 
mens should come off, as a matter of 
course. Then, additional thinning may be 
done in proportion to the grower’s cour- 
age. Sometimes two thinnings are desir- 
able, one when the fruit is small and a sec- 
ond when it is considerably larger, 
The reason for the improved quality and 
larger size of the fruit when thinning is 
practiced is found in the fact that the most 
severe drain on a tree’s vitality comes in 
the production of seeds. The real object of 
a tree is, of course, to produce seeds, and 
it expends its strength upon them. The 
grower, on the contrary, wants fruit, and 
gets it by the simple expedient of reducing 
the number of seeds which the tree is per- 
mitted to mature. 
CATS AND DOGS IN MALTA 
js OLIVER LAING, American 
consul at Malta informs the State De- 
partment that many Americans have asked 
him to give names of breeders of pure 
blood Maltese terriers and cats. He 
says there are a few so-called Maltese 
terriers in Malta and they are not 
of pure blood. The puppies which 
the street hawkers offer for sale to tour- 
ists are more or less mongrel, with a strain 
of the old breed. Maltese cats do not exist 
in Malta, at least not one of the color called 
maltese in the United States, has been seen 
there. 
HE Chilian Government has decided to 
spend $12,775 during this year for a 
cooking department in some of the profes- 
sional schools. 
