80 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
~~ CORRESPONDENCE # 
February, 1909 
The Editor of American Homes and Gardens desires to extend an invitation to all its readers to send to the Correspondence Department inquiries on any matter 
pertaining to the decorating and furnishing of the home and to the developing of the home grounds. 
All letters accompanied by retum postage will be answered promptly by mail. 
Problems in Home Furnishing 
By Alice M. Kellogg 
Author of ‘‘ Home Furnishing: Practical and Artistic” 
A TABLE FOR A LIBRARY 
a THERE any kind of a table that I could use in my library 
that would look a little more unusual and interesting than 
the ordinary oblong table? I have a writing desk against 
the wall, so I do not need a table with drawers. I notice 
in your correspondence department that you speak of a ‘gate-leg’ 
table. What does this look like? Is it suitable for my room? 
siCx Wi -Ohion 
There are various styles of the gate-leg table, which dates back to 
the middle of the seventeenth century. The one illustrated has a 
simply turned leg with a leaf on either side that drops down when the 
A gate-leg table 
leg is turned back. It was a table of this kind that was made famous 
by having the Declaration of Independence signed on it. In Eng- 
land, where the table originated, it is often used for a breakfast 
table. It is available for a good many purposes and places as it can 
be adjusted to three different sizes. 
COLOR COMBINATION FOR A WESTERN HOME 
An Oregon homemaker, H. R. H., writes: “I am building a 
house that is Colonial in design. I am particularly anxious to have 
the interior colors on the first floor harmonious. The dining-room has 
a low wainscot, no plate rail, a long plant window on the south 
side and mahogany furniture of Chippendale pattern. What finish 
would you have on the woodwork? What wall covering? Also, 
what kind of curtains and rug? I am undecided, too, about the 
wall covering for the hall. I had thought of red, but I really prefer 
to use browns and blues on the first floor. I do not know how 
to combine these colors. The living-room is to have mahogany 
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Replies that are of general benefit will be published in this Department. 
Garden Work About the Home 
By Charles Downing Lay 
PLANTING A CEMETERY LOT 
sk: regulations of cemetery associations vary so greatly 
that it is hard to advise A. D. P. about the planting of the 
lot mentioned. 
Some cemeteries restrict lot owners to one stone, of a de- 
sign to be approved by the association, and do not allow any curbs, 
railings or fences, but mark the corners of the lot with granite blocks 
at their own expense. 
In one cemetery that I know of, planting of any kind is forbidden, 
as are mounds over the graves, and the lots are to be cared for by 
the association forever. 
Other large cemeteries, like Greenwood, make arrangements for 
perpetual care of the lots, but as the payment for perpetual care is 
not required, one lot may be kept in beautiful order while those 
on each side may have no care whatever, spoiling the good effect of 
the neat lot. 
One of the nicest lots I have seen has plain granite posts with 
a chain hung between to mark the lot. There is one simple monu- 
ment and the graves are marked by headstones. 
Climbing roses grow on the posts and are trained along the chains. 
One grave is planted with candytuft, [beris tenoreana, a charming 
evergreen perennial herb which has an abundance of white flowers in 
the spring. 
Another grave is planted with English Ivy, a third has the beau- 
tiful Daphne (D. cneorum), which bears delicate sweet scented pink 
flowers in May and September. 
In one corner of the lot is a holly tree twelve feet high, and not 
far away there are several fine white oaks. 
Nothing nicer or more suitable could be imagined, and the lot 
always looks well. Even in the dead of winter the graves are green 
and cheerful and no planting could be more permanent or easier 
to care for. 
Geraniums and such soft annuals are always a mistake, because the 
first frost destroys them and the lot looks like distress until the 
planting can be done over again in the spring. 
A lot which I have just planted is unusual, but rather pleasing. 
Along the road, which goes downhill slightly from the corner, there 
is a marble retaining wall, built so that the lot could be graded 
level, and so that a sloping bank covered with grass would be un- 
necessary. “The wall is, at its highest point, not more than two and a 
half feet high. At the bottom are planted ivy and euonymus (EF. 
radicans), at the top the evergreen andromeda (Pieris floribunda), 
which is now low, but will grow to three feet, making a hedge 
which will be neat and orderly, but not rigid. It will not have to 
be clipped. 
There is an easy flight of steps from the road to the lot, and at 
the top and bottom the steps end in a wide platform. On either side 
of the steps there is a Japanese yew tree. 
The back of the lot is thickly planted with rhododendrons, which 
soften the sharp corners and hide all but the tops of the monuments 
on the adjoining lots. ‘These rhododendrons are tall at the back 
(specimens of R. maximum six feet high), but in front where the 
named hybrids are planted they are low, their branches touching 
the grass. 
They make a good background and are charming when in bloom. 
Two or three dogwoods (C. florida) are planted among them and 
add not a little to the effect throughout the year. 
There are several good oak trees on the lot and a fair hemlock, 
besides two old dogwoods. 
At the narrow end of the lot there is an old boulder, cracked 
apart, and in this crack we have put soil and planted white moss 
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