AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



July, 1906 



Send for 



Free 



Book 



on 



Household 



Health 



The first step toward a proper understanding of the 

 sanitation of the home is to get the book on "Household 

 Health." It is sent free on application. It explains the 

 perfect principle of the wonderful SY-CLO Closet and 

 shows why it is the safe closet. It tells how to detect the 

 unsanitary closet — how to protect the health of the home. 



The SY-CLO Closet has a double cleansing action. A 

 copious flush of water from above starts an irresistible 

 syphonic action from below. The downward rush of the 

 water through the pipes creates a vacuum — a powerful pump- 

 like pull which instantly empties the bowl of all its contents 

 instead of merely diluting as does the ordinary closet. 



Being formed of a single piece of solid white china, the 

 SY-CLO Closet is without crack, joint or seam for the lodge- 

 ment of impurity. Nothing can adhere or be absorbed. 



By an unusually deep water seal between the closet bowl 

 and the sewer connection making the escape of sewer gas 

 into the home impossible, the SY-CLO Closet gives adequate 

 health protection against the dangers from without. 



SY-CLO Closets are heavily constructed and have un- 

 usual strength. With ordinary care, they will outlast the 

 building, — a perpetual safeguard of health. 



SY-CLO stamped on a closet, no matter what other 

 mark is on it, signifies that it is constructed of the best 

 material, with the aid of the best engineering skill, under 

 the direction of the Potteries Selling Co., and that eighteen 

 of the leading potteries of the United States have agreed to 

 maintain its standard of excellence. 



If your home contains a closet of imperfect construction, 

 improper material, or one subject to rust, corrosion, or under- 

 surface discoloration such as porcelain enameled iron, you 

 may be unknowingly exposed to a dangerous source of 

 disease. If you have such a closet, self defense demands that 

 you replace it with the closet bearing the trade mark name 

 of SY-CLO, the seal of safety, the safeguard of health. 



A book on "Household Health" mailed free if you 

 mention the name of your plumber. 



Lavatories of every size and design made of the 

 same material as SY-CLO Closets. 



POTTERIES SELLING CO., Trenton, N. J. 



Bausch&Lanifc>Zeiss 



The Lens of the Camera 



is the most important feature. This year Kodaks, Premos, Hawkeyes, 

 Centuries, Graflex and other cameras can ba had fitted with the Tessar 

 Lens, a lens that will make all kinds of pictures under all kinds of con- 

 ditions. This lens requires only aboi ': half the light required by lenses 

 usually furnished on cameras. It is therefore possible to use it for home 

 portraiture, photographing the babies, as well as the most rapid out- 

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 optically. 



Specify TESSAR when ordering your earner 



Send for Booklet "Aids to Artistic Aims." 



Bausch & Lomb Optical Co., 



Rochester, N. Y. 



New York 



san 1RANCISCO 



■ 



THE SOIL. 



The ideal soil for a lawn is available in 

 but few cases where it is desirable to establish 

 a greensward. Ordinarily the lawn in which 

 a man is most interested is that immediately 

 surrounding his abiding place. The soil here 

 is usually greatly modified by building opera- 

 tions or necessary grading. The soil with 

 which one has to deal, therefore, is seldom a 

 normal soil of the locality. It is a portion of 

 the surface soil mixed with more or less of the 

 subsoil which has come from excavation in 

 making the foundations of a house. Large 

 lawns and parks are not, as a rule, so sub- 

 ject to difficulties of this kind as are small 

 private grounds. The problem before us, 

 then, is that of converting not a normal but 

 an abnormal soil into a suitable and con- 

 genial place for the growing of grasses. 



The ideal soil for grasses best suited for 

 lawn making is one which contains a consid- 

 erable percentage of clay and is moderately 

 moist — a soil which is somewhat retentive of 

 moisture, but never becomes excessively wet, 

 and is inclined to be heavy and compact rather 

 than light, loose, and sandy. A strong clay 

 loam or a sandy loam, underlaid by a clay sub- 

 soil, is undoubtedly the nearest approach to 

 an ideal soil for a lawn ; it, therefore, should 

 be the aim in establishing a lawn to approach 

 as near as is possible to one or the other of 

 these types of soil. In many localities it will, 

 however, be very difficult to produce by any 

 artificial means at one's command a soil which 

 will approach in texture either of the types. 

 The aim, nevertheless, should be to attaining 

 as closely as possible these ideals. 



Where a pure sand or a light sandy soil is 

 the only foundation for the lawn, a top- 

 dressing of two or three inches of clay should 

 be incorporated with the first four to six 

 inches of the sand ; the area should then if 

 possible, be used for the production of some 

 green crop which gives an abundance of veg- 

 etable matter. In latitudes south of Wash- 

 ington, D. C, cowpeas and soy beans, and in 

 districts north of this red clover, vetches, and 

 Canada peas are suitable for this type of soil 

 improvement. These crops, if allowed to oc- 

 cupy the land until their maximum growth is 

 attained and then plowed under, will act very 

 beneficially upon the structure of the soil in 

 making it more retentive of moisture, better 

 able to hold fertilizers applied to it, and less 

 liable to allow the greensward upon it to be 

 killed out in times of drought. When green 

 manuring is not desirable good results can be 

 attained by the use of stable manure which 

 will add available plant food and at the same 

 time increase the store of humus. A dressing 

 of thirty to fifty two-horse wagonloads of 

 such manure to the acre is not too much for 

 quick returns and lasting effects. 



GRADING. 

 Before definite preparations are made for 

 the seed bed, the surface of the lawn should 

 be reduced to the desired grade. In large 

 areas a gently undulating or broken surface is 

 much more pleasing than a uniformly graded 

 surface. Such a surface also lends itself bet- 

 ter to plantations of trees and shrubs. For 

 small grounds less than an acre in extent 

 the grading should be comparatively uniform 

 and of the simplest possible character. The 

 general statement made in regard to the con- 

 tour of the surface is sufficient for guidance in 

 grading such small areas. 



PREPARATION OF THE SOU.. 



Since the lawn is intended to be a perm- 

 anent feature of the decoration of a place, 

 its span of life is of utmost importance. In 

 general, grass seeds are small and the surface 

 seed bed for the reception of these seeds need 

 not be more than one inch in depth ; but since 

 grasses, as they become established, send out 



