January, 1910 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



XI 



Co)itiiiurd from payc r. 

 of how things grow and Hve in the gar- 

 den ; a lot about plants and the weather ; a 

 lot about out-door life all the year 'round. 

 All told, if you please, in the most delight- 

 ful way, so that the mere scanning of the 

 words, is a delight. If not actually a new 

 kind of a garden book, it puts garden life 

 in a new way, and is thoroughly interesting 

 from cover to cover. 



Surely there is merit in this procedure ; 

 for one of the principal purposes of art is 

 to be engrossing; one of the chief ends of 

 literature is to be interesting; the real ob- 

 ject of writing a book is to produce some- 

 thing that people will read. Garden books 

 are rarely literature, rarely books one will 

 read through from beginning to end for tlie 

 sheer love of reading. Their authors, for 

 the most part, are too intent on telling you 

 what to do and how to do it. There is, it 

 is true, a host to learn in garden lore, even 

 for the best of us; but at times it is a bit 

 tiresome to read of soils and growths and 

 prunings and seeds and flower pots. The 

 real growth out of doors is the thing and 

 our garden-book authors seldom get even a 

 whiff of the real atmosphere. 



Not so Mr. Farrer. He loves his plants 

 and knows them ; understands them too. 

 and how they need to be reared and shel- 

 tered. And he tells you all about these 

 things while you think he is simply describ- 

 ing scenery! Garden lore was never more 

 agreeably served up than in his pages. He 

 has achieved a real success in book making 

 and has produced a book at once instructive 

 and entertaining-. 



AUTOMOBILES AND ROADS IN 

 FRANCE 



THE action of automobile trafific upon 

 road surfaces is quite different 

 from that of horse-power vehicles, 

 points out Ernest Flagg in an article 

 discussing French and English roads 

 in the Century Magazine. The tires ex- 

 ert a sucking action, which draws out the 

 particles of the binder from between the 

 stones, and loosens them. No road of 

 broken stone can stand an excessive amount 

 of such usage; but where motor traffic is 

 light, and the road is in perfect condition, 

 little damage is done except at turns. The 

 particles sucked from between the stones 

 are quickly restored by sweeping, and con- 

 solidated by the ordinary traffic. 



The damaging effect of excessive motor 

 traffic can be seen in the roads immediately 

 about Paris. Within a zone of twenty 

 miles around the city they are in a state of 

 ruin. The surface is so cut up that it is 

 almost impossible to drive over them, and 

 they are now to be replaced by roads of a 

 different kind, designed to meet this sort 

 of trafific. 



The effect of motor traffic is most dis- 

 astrous on roads where depressions are 

 allowed to form on the surface. In wet 

 weather, the water which collects in them 

 is violently thrown or splashed out by the 

 wheels, carrying with it the binding mater- 

 ial from between the stones. In such places 

 a few passings machines will be sufficient to 

 dig out a pot-hole, and unless this is speed- 

 ily filled in, a rut will be formed. 



At corners and turns in the road the 

 wheels of swiftly moving motor-cars slip 

 and grind the surface, tearing the stones 

 apart, and breaking up the crust. 



The notion that chains do much damage 

 to roads is a mistaken one ; they certainly 

 do not add to the suction or splashing, and 

 they are used expressly to prevent slipping. 





How they shone — those old folks — 



at a function or reception — 



But oh! what they missed 



in their lack of all 



conception of a food so good as 



Uneeda 

 Biscuit 



The Soda Cracker that makes 

 our days the best of days, 



NATIONAL BISCUIT COMPANY 



THE FRUIT CURE FOR RHEUMATISM 



THE OLD "CURE" for rheumatism is some unpalatable compound, 

 "well shaken before taken," given to correct an unduly acid condition. 



^.fl ATWOOD GRAPE FRUIT 



No new principle is involved in this fruit cure. It has been demonstrated by physicians 

 and sufferers from rheumatism that the citric acid of this delicious Florida product 

 accomplishes in the most delightful and natural way what the bottle method too often 

 fails in doing. Says the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, 

 in speaking of citric acid: 



"If combines with certain bases and the resulting combinations in turn are 

 transformed into carbonates, thus rendering an unduly acid urine alkaline. " 



Thus nature has responded to the world-wide cry for relief from a distressing malady by 

 appealing to the palate in a most seductive way. 



ATWOOD GRAPE FRUIT 



Is the thin-skinned kind that is filled with juice and has the genuine grape fruit flavor. 



Standard Box of 54, 64 or 80, according to size. Six Dollars 

 Buy of your Dealer. We do not fill retail orders. 



THE ATWOOD GRAPE FRUIT COMPANY 



Kimball C. Atwood. President 290 Broadway, New York 



