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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



June, 1908 



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 return postage will be answered promptly by mail. Replies that are of general benefit will be published in this Department. 



1 c 



Problems in Home Furnishing 



By Alice M. Kellogg 



Author of "Home Furnishing: Practical and Artistic" 



SOME IDEAS FOR A GIRL'S ROOM 



AM a girl nineteen years old," writes H. M. W., "and I 

 would like to know what to put in my bedroom to furnish it 

 tastefully, serviceably and inexpensively. The size of this 

 room is thirteen feet by fourteen feet, and there are two win- 

 dows on the west side and one on the south. The wood finish is 

 hard pine; the floor is not good enough for rugs." 



The floor problem may be overcome without very much expense by 

 using green cordoman over a carpet lining. The cordoman is some- 



I 



Garden Work About the Home 



By Charles Downing Lay 

 VINES FOR THE HOUSE 



THE twelve vines, with their varieties, named in the following 

 catalogue raissonne, should be enough to satisfy the most ex- 

 travagant desires, and the list will, I trust, answer several 

 correspondents who have asked for the names of "the best 

 vines." I think it will seldom happen that all will be used, even on 

 a large place. 



Boston Ivy, Ampelopsis tricuspidata, is a coarse, rugged vine, very 

 useful for covering large expanses of brick wall, such as one sees in 



A Doorway Problem 



thing like heavy denim, and costs forty-five cents a yard, and the 

 width is thirty-six inches. Carpet lining costs ten and twelve cents 

 a yard in the three-quarter width. A pretty addition would be rag- 

 cotton rugs in yellow and white to lay beside the bed and in front of 

 the bureau and washstand. The cost of these rugs may be reckoned 

 at about one dollar a square yard. 



A bedstead and bureau may be bought in white enamel, the cost 

 varying with the quality of the material and its construction. Odd 

 pieces may be added for the writing desk and chair, night stand and 

 work table. A plain stool may be found for a slipper chair, and 

 splint side chairs and rocker may be painted white to decrease this 

 part of the expense. (These chairs may be had for one dollar each 

 in the unfinished wood.) An English toilet set in an all-over star 

 pattern in olive green may be bought for four dollars and a half. 

 The wall treatment may be made very attractive if a yellow texture 

 paper (at twenty-five cents a single roll) is carried from floor to 

 {Continued on Page xii) 



The Climbing Rose, Tausendschbn 



cities or on warehouses, but it has no place on buildings of any archi- 

 tectural beauty, because it covers them too completely in a waving 

 mass of green. The young shoots are exceedingly beautiful with their 

 small shining red leaves gracefully sprawling about, but they soon 

 lose their delicacy and become very rough. In the autumn the leaves 

 drop off before the stems, leaving for a week or more an ugly stubble 

 covering the vine. It grows rapidly and has few enemies. In cities 

 it is indispensable, but anywhere else we prefer the 



Virginia Creeper, Ampelopsis quinquifolia. This is a common 

 native vine. It does not grow well on brick or stone, but clings to 

 wood with great tenacity. The individual leaves are always beautiful 

 in shape, and their masses are varied in texture and picturesque in 

 outline. It has a refinement lacking in its Japanese relative, the 

 Boston Ivy. 



The inconspicuous yellow flowers have a slight fragrance and 

 attract the bees; I believe it has nothing to offer undesirable insects. In 

 ( Continued on Page xiii ) 



