xii AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
April, 1909 
x 
WENTY years ago the oil lamp had already 
been driven out of the city into the country 
home where gas could not follow—so we 
thought. 
In those days we would have laughed at the 
idea of a country home lighted with gaslight. 
But like the telephone and free mail delivery 
gaslight has finally left the city to become a com- 
noon rural convenience. 
In the year 1909, the up-to-date villager or 
farmer not only lives in a gas-lighted house, same 
«s his city cousin, but when he drives home on a 
cold, wet night he actually lights up his barn, his 
barnyard or porches on his house with this gas- 
light by simply turning an “ignition” button on a 
post or wall. 
* OK 
And this change seems quite like magic when 
you consider that this rural gaslight is home- 
made—made by the family itself right on the 
premises. 
Takes fifteen minutes once a month to make 
all that can be used in a large house. 
The magic is all in. the strangely, weird, 
manufactured stone known commercially as 
“Union Carbide.” 
This wonderful gas-producing — substance, 
“Union Carbide,” looks and feels just like crushed 
granite. For country home use it is packed and 
shipped from warehouses located all over the United 
States in sheet steel cans containing 100 pounds. 
Union Carbide won’t burn, can’t explode, and 
will keep in the original package for years in any 
climate. For this reason it is safer to handle and 
store about the premises than coal. 
ag 
co 
All that is necessary to make ‘Union Carbide”’ 
give up its gas is to mix it with plain water—the 
gas, which is then instantly generated, is genuine 
Acetylene. 
When piped to handsome brass chandeliers 
and fixtures Acetylene burns with an intensely 
brilliant, stiff flame, that the wind can’t affect. 
This flame makes light so white in color that 
it is commonly called “artificial sunlight.” 
Experiments conducted by Cornell University 
have proven that it will grow plants the same as 
sunlight itself. 
Physicians recommend ne Ip 
Acetylene as a germicide and 
a remedy for eyestrain, and 
it is used as an illuminant in 
fifty-four hospitals in New 
York City alone. 
Then too, Acetylene 
is so pure that you might bes 
blow out the light and sleep all night ina & 
IHlome-made Gas-lLight 
From Crushed Stone 
nent brass fix- 
tures attached to 
walls and ceilings, 
Acetylene is much 
safer than smoky, 
smelly oil lamps 
which can easily 
be tipped over. 
For this reas- 
on the Engineers 
of the National 
Board of Insur- 
ance Under- 
writers called 
Acetylene safer 
than any illumi- 
nant it commonly displaces. 
In addition to all these advantages, Acetylene 
light is inexpensive. 
An Acetylene light of 24-candle power costs 
only about 3% cents for ten hours’ lighting, while 
for the same number of hours regular oil lamps 
of equal volume cost about 6 cents in kerosene, 
chimneys and wicks on the average. 
* 
Consider this carefully and you will hardly 
wonder at the fact that there are today no less 
than 176,000 town and country homes lighted 
with home-made Acetylene, made from ‘Union 
Carbide.” 
Once a month some member of the family 
must dump a few pounds of Union Carbide in a 
small tank-like machine which usually sets in one 
corner of the basement. 
This little tank-like machine is automatic—it 
does all the work—it makes no gas until the 
burners are lighted and stops making gas when 
the burners are shut off. 
The lights, located in every room in your 
house, on your porches, in your horse and cow 
barns, or barnyards and chicken yards if you 
like, will all be ready to turn on with a twist of 
the wrist or a touch of the button at any time 
of the day or night. 
No city home can be as brilliantly or as beauti- 
fully illuminated as any one of these 176,000 homes 
now using Acetylene. 
Won’t you let us tell you 
how little it will cost to make 
j this time-saving, money-sav- 
=— ing, beautifying light at your 
J=~ own home? 
Write us today how large 
your house and how man) 
rooms’ you have, and re- 
ceive our estimate and books giving full in- 
room with the burner open without any injur- DVN formation. 
ious effects whatever. _ ; ffi Address UNION CARBIDE SALES CO. 
On account of its being burned in perma- Se 14 Adams St., Chicago, Ill. 
YOU can make 
the Brilliant 
Acetylene Gas 
Easily! 
Safely! 
Cheaply! 
WITH THE 
Sunlight “Omega” Generator 
Only Automatic Generator with the modern INDIRECT . feed 
operated by its own power! 
INSURES ABSOLUTE SAFETY! 
Easiest to understand---easiest to handle! Nothing to get out of order! 
Brighten up your home! 
Costs no more than the other kind! 
Our Illustrated Book Free. ‘Tells all about up-to-date lighting of 
Get it! Read it! 
country home. 
1 THE SUNLIGHT GAS MACHINE. CO. 
47 Warren Street, New York 
bers one and three, it will be observed, are 
exactly like numbers two and four, but re- 
versed. Oftentimes an architect’s plan will 
fit the lot and exposure better if it is turned in 
this way. It is a simple thing to do and only 
necessitates retracing the drawing when laid 
face down. 
Lot number three is like number one, but in 
this case the house has been moved to the north, 
or back of the lot, and to save room the car- 
riage entrance is on the side street. We like 
this arrangement better than that of number 
two. 
In all these diagrams it will be noticed that 
the service court, kitchen and garage have 
been put in the least interesting and useful 
corner of the lot, and that the garage will to 
some extent screen one from neighbors’ back 
yards and kitchen doors. 
It will be readily seen that if the avenue 
were to run north and south instead of east 
and west, that the arrangement would be more 
dificult and quite different, and that another 
type of house would be required in order to 
get the most out of the lot. 
PLANTING A SUBURBAN LOT 
E. J. S. asks what trees and shrubs to use 
in planting a suburban lot which he describes 
vaguely. 
Without an accurate plan of the house and 
grounds as they exist, or good photographs, it 
is impossible to give any general advice that 
will be of much use. It is also difficult to plan 
such things without some knowledge of the 
owner's tastes. 
The best thing for E. J. S. to do is to go 
through a lot of nursery catalogues and make a 
a of the trees and shrubs he thinks he would 
like. 
It would be well to avoid all variegated, 
yellow-leaved and red-leaved shrubs unless one 
wants a very gaudy place, in which case one 
could do startling things with such brilliant 
material. For everyday life there is enough 
variety in the tones of green foliage to satisfy 
most of us. At first the list might be confined to 
hardy native plants, of which there is a won- 
derful variety. Many of these natives are 
little known and few have attained the popu- 
larity of forsythia, or Japanese barberry. It 
would be a rare delight to see a place planted 
only with native trees and shrubs. 
The nurserymen are only concerned in 
growing and selling plants; not in inducing 
one to make an intelligent choice, but a profita- 
ble one. Just now the profits are greater in 
selling ordinary stock, but if the demand for 
the best class of natives grows they will be 
forced to supply it. 
The list might contain, among others, the 
following striking, but neglected, shrubs an 
trees: 
Cladrastis tinctoria, yellow wood, our most 
elegant spreading tree. 
Amelanchier, shad bush, a small, flowering 
tree, second only to the dogwood in beauty, 
which bears edible fruit. 
Halesia tetraptera, the silver bell tree, well 
named and as beautiful as its name. 
Stuartia pentagyna, which bears a camellia- 
like flower in August. 
Andromeda arborea, the lily of the valley 
tree, which blooms in July and turns beauti- 
fully in October. 
Pyrus coronaria, the fragrant crab, whose 
blossoms are perhaps more delicious than the 
rose or violet. 
Magnolias in great variety. “These have the 
largest leaves and the largest blossoms of any 
trees, and are altogether satisfactory and strik- 
ing. The partially evergreen, M. glauca, 
should not be neglected. 
Chionanthus virginica, white fringe, is well 
known but no less beautiful on that account. 
