May, 1909 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
xiii 
ws CORRESPONDENCE & 
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. 
Replies that are of general benefit will be published in this Department. 
Problems in Home Furnishing 
By Alice M. Kellogg 
Author of “‘ Home Furnishing: Practical and Artistic” 
MAKING A PIANO COVER 
. HE top of my upright piano,” writes 
Te E. J., a Philadelphia subscriber, 
“looks very bare to me. In asking at 
the stores for a spread or scarf of some kind 
I find nothing that is ready-made. Would it 
be possible for me to make a cover? If so, 
will you kindly give me particular directions ? 
I can sew well, but I have never seen any- 
thing of this kind, and would not know 
whether to have it cover only the top of the 
piano or hang over all around. Is a lining 
and an interlining necessary ?” 
Another inquiry on the same subject comes 
from an Indiana correspondent, who wishes 
made as to the interior materials, with dura- 
ble coverings, cannot be bought for less than 
twenty-five or thirty dollars. A Colonial 
rocker, mahogany frame on simple lines, with 
upholstered back and detachable seat cushion, 
costs about twenty-six dollars. A wing, or 
fireside, chair costs about thirty-five dollars. 
In comparison with these prices one may turn 
to the handmade willow armchairs, with 
hair seat cushions, which cost from twelve to 
fifteen dollars. Rockers may be added to 
these chairs, if desired. In a single guest 
room one comfortable chair will be needed, 
and in a double guest room two armchairs 
should be supplied. 
FURNISHING A COTTAGE FOR RENT 
“Would you give me, through your Home 
Furnishing Department, some ideas that 
would help to make a cottage attractive for 
Making a piano cover 
especially a piano cover that may be laundered. 
Replying to both of these letters this de- 
partment would suggest buying a strip of ma- 
terial in as handsome a pattern, and as good 
a quality as may be afforded. If the cover 
must be washed from time to time, a piece of 
Japanese wash silk could be used, and with 
this lightweight material it would be well 
to allow six or eight inches to hang down at 
the front and sides. Or a piece of ecru- 
colored linen may be embroidered in white 
floss, with the edges hemstitched. If a heavy 
quality of brocade or tapestry is to be made 
up, a pattern in paper should be first cut 
exactly the size of the top of the piano. The 
brocade may then be turned under two inches 
all around and an antique gold braid sewed 
on the right side along the edges, making a 
neat turn at the corners. A lining of silk, in 
a plain color, may then be sewed on the un- 
der side. With a thin material for the cover, 
an interlining of canton flannel may be used, 
but with a substantial kind of goods this will 
not be required. 
COMFORTABLE BEDROOM CHAIRS 
E. K., of Harrisburg, Pa., writes: ‘What 
chairs are suitable for bedrooms? Whenever 
I make a visit I like to spend some of the 
time in my room resting, as I am not very 
strong; but I never find a really comfortable 
chair to sit in. Now that I am about to fit 
up a guest room in my own home I want to 
have the right things, and the chair problem 
is puzzling. Please give some idea of prices.” 
Upholstered chairs of good shape and well 
renting? I have not seen any suggestions for 
this specific need, but I am sure there are 
others of your readers besides myself who will 
be benefited by some hints.”—F. S. Maine. 
The owner of a cottage that is to be rented 
must keep in mind the general taste that is to 
be suited, rather than his individual enjoy- 
ment. If there is much competition to meet 
in the neighborhood, it would be a good in- 
vestment to put extra expense to make the 
furnishings distinctive. Wall decorations 
make, perhaps, the quickest appeal to a pros- 
pective tenant, and with such charming vari- 
eties now on sale every condition may be met. 
Avoiding the hackneyed floral bedroom 
papers, with roses or poppies lavishly sprin- 
kled on a white ground, one may select in- 
stead an ivy design for a sunny room; a morn: 
ing-glory trellis for a room of small size; 
lilacs or sweet peas to give interest and un- 
usual coloring. Or, departing entirely from 
patterns, there are dimity, chambray, and 
homespun effects, in soft light tones, with 
flower borders already cut out and ready to 
paste under the picture molding below the 
ceiling. 
Papers that are too plain require an out- 
lay in pictures to make the walls inviting, so 
the dining-room may well be treated with a 
landscape wall paper, if it is printed in artis- 
tic tones. In the living-room a two-toned 
paper may be the background for some of the 
colored prints that have taken the place so 
satisfactorily of the old-time chromos. 
For the cottage floors there are some new 
(Continued on page xiv) 
Garden Work About the Home 
By Charles Downing Lay 
FORESTRY 
Le REPLY to T. McL.’s question: For- 
estry is the science of growing trees for 
the sake of their product in lumber and 
firewood. 
It is purely commercial, and does not in the 
least consider the appearance of the forest or 
any of its parts. It has, however, the ethical 
beauty of all careful methods as compared 
with the old slip-shod, wasteful ways. 
Whatever ulterior benefits may come from 
economical handling of the forest, such as 
the conservation of water, or a supposed in- 
fluence on the rainfall, are not sought by the 
forester, but are only extra reasons for the 
state to pursue good methods in the care of 
the forest. 
There is no doubt that forests do make the 
flow from streams more regular and tend to 
prevent floods, and this may well be taken into 
account by the state, but for the private 
owner, the only justification for money spent 
on forest management is the direct money re- 
turns which may be expected. ‘The forester 
looks upon the forest as the farmer does upon 
his field of potatoes, a crop to be harvested as 
soon as it is ripe, with the least cost and the 
greatest economy of method. If the crop is 
poor he wants to know why and how it can 
be bettered, how the yield may be increased 
in order to bring in more profits. 
This necessitates the study of arboriculture, 
just as the farmer studies agriculture. It 
means a study of soils, of climate, of adapta- 
bility of species, of the market value of differ- 
ent varieties, of diseases, insect pests, and of 
methods of handling the crop, and of prepar- 
ing it for market. 
But farming and forestry differ in this way, 
that with farm crops all the individuals ripen 
and are harvested at the same time, and are 
planted together the following spring, whereas 
in forestry only a few parts of the crop are 
harvested each year, and the replanting goes 
on continuously. 
Most people can tell when a field of corn 
is ripe and ready to cut, but it takes the 
skilled forester to know exactly how and when 
to cut the trees of the forest. 
A definite amount of lumber is grown in 
the forest each year, and we must know if 
the growth is as great as it should be, and 
whether we are cutting now more than the 
annual growth. If we are we shall get ahead 
of the forest, and the time will come when no 
cutting can be done profitably for a long 
period of years. The income is not only de- 
ferred for those years when no cutting is done, 
but is decreased if in that time the growth of 
the forest is wasteful, as may happen. 
Whether the method be to cut, say, one 
acre of a hundred acre plot every year, or to 
cut one hundredth of the trees every year, so 
that in a hundred years the forest will be re- 
newed, does not concern us now, only the fact 
that we must provide for its renewal in a defi- 
nite time. 
(Continued on page xiv) 
