XIV 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



September, 1908 



Those Needed Home Improvements 

 Are So Easily Made 



You 



"T doesn't really pay to be too skeptical. 



Even if your experience with varnish stains has not been happy, 

 have been using the wrong material. 



You wouldn't starve the baby because the first infant's 

 food you tried did not agree with him? 

 Now would you? 



Maybe the principle of that first food was wrong. The 

 principle of varnish stains is wrong. 



Because the thick consistency of varnish not only holds the 

 color particles in solution but holds them out of the wood 

 pores. And varnish varies with the temperature. You 

 might have pretty good luck with it today — and tomorrow 

 find yourself in despair. 



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ARTISTI C WOOD PMS M ES 



Now Johnson's Wood Dyes are dyes— not mere stains. 

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

 color it (to any desired shade) because they are so pre- 

 pared that they penetrate the pores — thus they develop 

 and accentuate the beautiful grain of the wood. 



That is why they give an unequaled richness and 

 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 woodwork, 

 furniture and floors in perfect condition by applying John- 

 son'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 produced by any 

 other finish, and, unlike shellac, hard oil or varnish, it does 

 t 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 prep- 

 arations. 



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 interesting 48-page illustrated book, 'The Proper 

 Treatment for Floors, Woodwork and Furniture." 



This book tells you in detail the easiest and most 

 economical way to have a handsome home. You 

 can do all the work yourself and the expense is 

 'rifling. 



Just send us your name and address on a postal 

 now. 



S. C. JOHNSON & SON 



"TJie Wood Finishing Authorities" 



Station AH- 9, Racine, Wis. 



Johnson's Wood Pyes for the artistic coloring of woods 

 (H shades), half-pint cans 30 cents, pint cans 50 cents. 

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

 cans. Bold by all dealers In paint. 



No. 62. UNIVERSAL WOOD WORKER 



ARE YOU LOOKING 

 FOR A MACHINE 

 THAT WILL 



plane out of 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 



leedsi, "Duchess of Brabant"; N. leedsi, "Mrs. 

 Langtry" ; N. poeticus, N. poeticus grandi- 

 floruSj N. poeticus ornatus, N. incomparabilis, 

 "Orange Phoenix"; N. incomparabilis, "Sul- 

 phur Phoenix." 



PLANTING A PRIVET HEDGE 



F. D. N., Bridgeport. — For the privet 

 hedge which you wish to plant in front of 

 your house, get the best plants you can, say 

 three years old. These plants will be three 

 to four feet high, but rather thinly furnished 

 — as they say in nurseries, "leggy." 



They would in time make a fair hedge if 

 left at their present height, but it will be 

 much better to take each plant to a block and 

 chop off the top about a foot above the lowest 

 branch. When planting, put them in deeper 

 than they were in the nursery, so that only 

 six inches of the stubs you have left are above 

 ground. The lower ends of these branches, 

 where they join the main stem, will be under 

 ground and will throw out roots, so that each 

 branch will become, to all intents, a separate 

 plant. 



Plant in a single row fifteen inches apart. 

 We often see hedges made of two or four 

 rows, but they are never so good as the single 

 row, and it is a great waste of material. 



You may think it a pity to cut off so much 

 and to start with a hedge only six inches high 

 when it might have been three feet, but rest 

 assured that in the third season the hedge will 

 be better and higher than it could have been 

 made with the tall plants. 



In the first year the hedge should be 

 trimmed three or four times in order to 

 thicken it up at the bottom. 



It is well to know that the Ibota privet is 

 hardier than the California privet, and that 

 it will make almost as good a hedge. 



THE GARDEN'S AFTERGLOW 

 OF FALL FLOWERS 



By Elizabeth Dand ridge 



THE all-summer garden appeals little to 

 those who go away at the beginning 

 of warm weather for a three months' 

 vacation at sea shore or mountain, few of us 

 being of the self-denying, altruistic tempera- 

 ment which makes labor for an unknown 

 quantity an attractive proposition. Even 

 were we all possessed of the generous spirit 

 which makes the fact that if we are not there 

 to enjoy, some one else will be, sufficient 

 recompense, the counter thought that neglect 

 must follow our departure holds our hand 

 from generous sowing or planting of mid- 

 summer flowers. There is, however, no rea- 

 son why we should not plan for the home- 

 coming and insure a welcome from those 

 flowers which make gay the dying months 

 of the year — the summer's after-glow which 

 flings defiance to the frost of September with 

 so brave a spirit. 



Flowers which bloom late in the summer 

 and until cut down by frost are plentiful, and 

 include much of the garden's repertoire. The 

 cosmos is at its best just when the first nip- 

 ping frosts are in the air. The dahlia has 

 only reached its best estate in time to suc- 

 cumb to its withering blight, the salvia 

 flaunts its scarlet plumes abroad and the 

 cobaea hangs its mauve and purple bells aloft 

 more luxuriantly than ever. A few hard 

 frosts, and even the glory of these have de- 

 parted, and only blackened stems and 

 withered foliage remains to tell the story of 

 the season's wealth. 



Then comes the triumph of the frost flow- 

 ers — the hardy chrysanthemum and the ane- 

 mones. Planted in sunny situations, on the 

 south side of a building or hedge, they bid 

 defiance to the frost king and may be often 



