AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



January, 1908 



Monthly Comment 



'MERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



welcomes the approach of a new year 

 that gives every promise of being the 

 most successful in its history It has 

 but a single end and aim, and that is to 

 help the home builder and the home 

 maker in every possible way. The Maga- 

 zine has arranged a brilliant programme for the next twelve 

 months, and will introduce many new features, while 

 strengthening the best of those already established. New 

 writers and authoritative writers will, in these pages, give 

 the best of their time and thought. Many practical prob- 

 lems centering in the house and garden will be treated in a 

 helpful and illuminating way, and countless valuable help- 

 ful and stimulating suggestions may be found in each month's 

 issues. The illustrations will be more numerous and more 

 beautiful than in any previous year. The Magazine be- 

 speaks not only the continued support of it friends, but it 

 asks their interest and co-operation. If you have something 

 to tell that might help others, tell it in our pages. If you 

 have a need on which you desire advice, let us help you. 

 The Magazine invites correspondence of every kind on 

 matters within its scope and plan. 



Mr. Thomas A. Edison, whose name and fame is known 

 to all, has made the interesting announcement that he has 

 solved the problem of building small houses at small cost. The 

 operation is simplicity itself, for it consists of nothing less 

 than pouring concrete into a mold, and keeping up the proc- 

 ess uninterruptedly, until the house is finished. The method, 

 says the Scientific American, consists in the use of molds, 

 costing $25,000 the set, made of ' 4 -inch cast iron, planed, 

 nickelplated, and polished. The different pieces vary in 

 size, some of the interior parts being but two feet square. 

 When in position, the units are held in place by trusses and 

 dowel pins. Into the top of these molds concrete is pumped 

 continuously by compressed air, using two cylinders. The 

 concrete itself acts as a piston, and the two cylinders are 

 alternately filled and emptied. The delivery of the mix- 

 ture must be continuous, for wherever it is stopped a line 

 appears. To secure this rapid and continuous flow, at the 

 rate of 175 cubic yards per day, a very efficient mixer is 

 required. It has not yet been decided whether a Ransome 

 or a specially designed machine will be used. No rubbing 

 up is necessary, although a few flaws may be present, owing 

 to the difficulty of expelling all air. The escape of air is 

 permitted by the special design of the house, or, when neces- 

 sary, by a temporary pipe, which may be removed later. 



From damage and loss by fire there appears little relief. 

 The city of New York averages twenty-three a day, and the 

 records of a single Tuesday — the universal ironing day — 

 have amounted to as many as 989 in the boroughs of Man- 

 hattan and the Bronx alone. Ten million dollars of annual 

 loss is an easy estimate for this city, while the total loss to the 

 country at large is simply appalling. A good deal of use- 

 ful agitation on this subject has been developed in the last 

 few years, but the warnings and suggestions do not appear 

 to reach the right people. Else why should it be possible 

 for New York to calmly estimate a yearly fire loss of $2,- 

 500,000 from carelessly dropped cigarettes and matches? 

 The truth of the matter is that people, as a rule, are too 

 careless of matches and flame, too careless in lighting gas and 

 oil, too careless in disposing of their ashes and waste, too care- 

 less in a thousand ways in everything that relates to fire, 



light, heat, and flame of any sort. Everyone knows the 

 danger that comes from the careless use of matches and 

 fire, but apparently many people think they can be indifferent 

 to the requirements of safety, and then have to pay the bill 

 for plain disregard of common sense. Only by persistent 

 agitation can any relief from this wasteful indifference be 

 obtained. 



The winter season is a favorite and convenient time in 

 which to consider the house one hopes to build or occupy 

 next summer. While very bad weather is an excellent time 

 in which to test the inconvenience of country living, it is also 

 an exceedingly inconvenient period in which to go house hunt- 

 ing. But if one may not go abroad into the green fields and 

 country lanes a-seeking a house or lot, one may, certainly, 

 look at house pictures. Forthwith every possible source 

 of information and illustration is taken out, examined, 

 studied, and criticised. It is a pleasant pastime, and an 

 easy one, for there are a good many books and papers which 

 undertake to tell you all about houses and the various de- 

 lights of living in the country, miles from everywhere, and 

 with nothing but open fields around you. They give lots 

 of advice too, and tell you how to make a fortune by keep- 

 ing all sorts of animals, domestic and otherwise — the more 

 the merrier, and, no doubt, the larger the resulting fortune. 



There are a good many words of caution that might be 

 applied to the city folk who are about to remove into the 

 country, but there is one that seems particularly applicable 

 at the present time. And it is this. Don't believe all you 

 see, and don't believe all you read. Not that the makers of 

 books and the perpetrators of illustrations are dishonest 

 folk; far from it. But it is well to remember that the true 

 measure of success in living in the country is the living 

 part and not the house and garden. These contribute 

 mightily to the general joy, to say nothing of the drains they 

 may make on the pocketbook ; but the most delightful of 

 all houses has to be lived in before it can be appreciated, 

 and it is a well-established fact that what is perfectly suit- 

 able to one may not be equally agreeable to another. Hence, 

 it unfortunately does not follow that because certain people 

 have achieved a mighty success in raising guinea pigs you 

 will do likewise ; nor that because a certain family has ex- 

 perienced many, many rural delights all your own brood 

 will be equally happy under similar conditions. 



In thinking about the house one would like to have, it 

 will be well to remember that even with ample funds it 

 may not be possible to combine the excellencies of half a 

 dozen dwellings in one new creation. Each house that is 

 designed for a special purpose is an individual house, in- 

 tended for individual uses in one particular place. It is 

 not always possible to translate house excellencies from one 

 structure to another. A feature that appears particularly 

 excellent in one design may seem quite commonplace, or 

 at least not nearly so desirable, when transposed into another 

 and divorced from the surroundings in which it originally 

 appeared. It is well to know what other people have done; 

 it is well to be familiar with houses of all sorts and de- 

 scriptions, useful to understand plans, to note arrangements, 

 to be familiar with furniture and details; but the very things 

 that appear so desirable in another house may simply not 

 seem so good when put into yours. It is well to be prepared 

 for some disappointment here, for it is hardly possible to 

 escape it. 



