XVI 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



May, 1908 



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To Have a Handsome Home — How to Do It 

 and How Not to Do It 



READ this from a recent letter: — 

 "I tried all the different kinds of varnish stains, 

 „ and oil stains with varnish finish, but the effect 

 was muddy. 



I tried several wood stains and found that they would 

 rub off unless I grave them a wax finish and then they 

 would show light and dark spots. 



Then I used your Dye finishing with your Prepared 

 Wax and was surprised and delighted with the results. All 

 the beauty of the wood was brought out and your Wax 

 gave it a beautiful soft tone, so different from the harsh 

 effect varnish gives." 



And now read this from a recent number of the 

 American Carpenter and Builder : — 



"Although great claims are made 

 by varnish manufacturers foi their 

 floor varnishes, it may be truthfully 

 said that none of them will stand the 

 hard usage of walking on them without 

 sooner or later marring white. As was 

 very pertinently said by avamish manu- 

 facturer, speaking on the subject ot varnished floors at a 

 master painters' convention, 'floor varnishes are not made 

 to be walked on.' " 



These matters are easily explained — 



Stain and varnish, shellac, hard oil and similar prep- 

 arations cannot sink into the grain of wood because 

 they are too "thick" to penetrate the pores — so the 

 wood is simply stained over or coated — thus the coating, 

 instead of bringing out the beauty of the wood in the 

 grain, hides it and makes it look flat and muddy — and, 

 as the coating is only on the surface, every scratch 

 and scrape and blow makes a light spot — the un- 

 colored wood shows through the coating. 



Now Johnson's Wood Djes are dyes — not mere 

 S tains. 



Johnson's Wood Dyes do not coat over the wood — 

 they color it (to any desired shade) because they are 

 so prepared that they penetrate the pores — thus they de- 

 velop and accentuate the beautiful grain of the wood. 



That is why they give an unequaled richness and 



Autistic wood Pn ism es 



depth of permanent tone and a perfectly even texture 

 which will not rub off. 



Any one can secure the best results with Johnson's 

 Wood Dyes and you can easily keep all your wood- 

 work, furniture and floors in perfect condition by ap- 

 plying Johnson's Prepared Wax with a cloth right over 

 the Dye or any other finish. 



Johnson's Prepared Wax gives a rich, subdued, 

 lustrous and enduring surface which cannot be pro- 

 duced by any other finish, and, unlike shellac, hard 

 oil or varnish, it does not show heel marks or scratches 

 — "it is made to be walked on" — and 

 sat on — rubbing only gives it a finer 

 polish. 



Johnson's Wood Finishes are not 

 new preparations. 



We studied them out years ago In 

 order to be able to preserve and 

 bring out the natural beauty of the fine hardwood 

 flooring which we make and ship all over the world. 



You see we had an object in seeking out the very 

 best finish for our wood that could possibly be made. 

 Now you can profit by our self-interest. 

 For your name and address on a postal we will send 

 you, with our compliments, a very handsome and in- 

 teresting 48-page illustrated book, "The Proper Treat- 

 ment for Floors, Woodwork and Furniture." 



This book tells you in detail the easiest and most eco- 

 nomical way to have a handsome home. You can do all the 

 work yourself and the expense is trifling. 

 Just send us your name and address on a postal now. 



S. C. JOHNSON & SON, Station HG-5 Racine, Wis. 

 "The Wood Finishing Authorities." 



Johnson's Wood Dyes for the artistic coloring of woods (14 shades), half 

 pint cans SO cents, pint cans 50 cents. 



Johnson's Prepared Wax, 10 and 25-cent packages and large size cans 

 S ild 1 y all dealers in paint. 



No. 62. UNIVERSAL WOOD WORKER 



ARE YOU LOOKING 

 FOR A MACHINE 

 THAT WILL 



planeoutof wind, sur- 

 face straight or taper- 

 ing, rabbet door 

 frames, rabbet and 

 face inside blinds, 

 joint, bevel, gain, 

 chamfer, plow, make 

 glue joints, square up bed posts, 

 table legs, newels, raise panels, 

 either square, bevel or ogee, 

 stick beads, work circular mould- 

 ings, etc., rip, cross cut, tenon, 

 bore, rout, rabbet, joint and bead 

 window blinds, work edge 

 mouldings, etc. ? If so, drop us 

 a postal card, and we will send 

 you a descriptive circular show- 

 ing two views of our No. 62 

 Universal Wood Worker. 



Write 



209-229 West Front Street 



J. A. FAY & EGAN CO. 



CINCINNATI, OHIO 



plants available for bloom during a stated 

 part of the year, but will make a beginning 

 to which may be added many other desirable 

 sorts. 



The path, to harmonize with the old time 

 effect of the planting, should be laid in red 

 bricks in a zigzag pattern and a row of 

 bricks set cornerwise outline the bed. Down 

 this my lady may trip in the gloaming to tryst 

 with her lover under the clematis at the gate. 



But the summer home quite often consists 

 of a cottage rented for the season and peren- 

 nial planting is not to be thought of, then 

 there remains the alternative of a flowerless 

 summer, or the use of annuals. But this class 

 of flowers, while entailing somewhat more 

 trouble than perennials, is rich in color, odor 

 and grace and affords, perhaps, more pleasure 

 than the paler colored perennials. Most of 

 the hardy annuals may be planted in the open 

 ground after the summer has well begun, and 

 many may be started in the city home and 

 transported to the summer home along with 

 the pet cat and canary. 



Early blooming asters, salvias and stocks 

 may be used for the background of these 

 beds and such low-growing plants as pansies, 

 daisies and verbenas be used for edging. 

 Phlox Drummondi is another charming plant 

 for edging beds of taller plants, and is also 

 excellent for cutting. A bed of scarlet sage 

 interspersed with the two tobacco plants — 

 N. affinis and sylvestris — and bordered with 

 scarlet and white phlox can not but be charm- 

 ing. 



Where the path runs from east to west 

 a pretty effect may be obtained by planting 

 these tall growing plants on the north side 

 and lower forms on the south. To the tall 

 sorts cited may be added the cleomes, which 

 will give an abundance of attractive, showy 

 flowers all summer, and on the south side such 

 plants as stock, scabious, poppies, asters and 

 gypsophila may be grown ; all these will give 

 an abundance of cut flowers suitable for vase 

 or for corsage wear and none is exacting in 

 the matter of culture. 



In preparing the bed for this summer plant- 

 ing it should be dug twelve or eighteen inches 

 deep and well enriched with old manure well 

 incorporated with the soil. If the soil is 

 rough and gravelly, or stiff with clay, it will 

 be well to remove a portion of it and replace 

 it with a quantity of good, mellow loam and 

 leaf mold. This will be cheaper in the end 

 than to labor with a hard soil all summer 

 and meet with failure instead of success in 

 the growing of flowers. 



If there is a rough bank about the grounds 

 cover it with nasturtiums, but failing this 

 let the nasturtiums climb about the porches, 

 and peep in at the windows and share the 

 honors with the morning glories. 



Sweet peas, pansies and petunias are about 

 all the remaining annual flowers that will 

 repay culture where little care can be given 

 them, and these may find a place about the 

 foundations of the house or elsewhere on the 

 premises, and should be included in one's 

 plans for the summer, even though it be in 

 a temporarv home. Many of these plants 

 mentioned will self-sow and come up year 

 after year. Verbenas, asters, pansies, agera- 

 tums, cleomes, scabious, the nicotianas, pop- 

 pies and petunias may all be depended upon 

 to come up, self-sown, year after year. 



A dollar's worth of seed will supply all 

 the flowers needed for such a garden, and 

 the pleasure to be derived therefrom cannot 

 be measured in dollars and cents, though such 

 a border, in an otherwise flowerless neigh- 

 borhood, may be made very remunerative by 

 the sale of cut flowers. 



