XIV 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1908 



To Good Housekeepers! 



Dear Madam: — 



A SHABBY piece of furniture never looks worth send- 

 ing out to be refinished — It really is worth it. You 

 forget that it isn't the wood that is worn — it is the 

 finish. 



Replace the finish — the piece is as good as new. When 

 you do this yourself, the expense is slight and the labor 

 nothing. 



You must first remove the old finish. Varnishing over it 

 looks cheap — shiny — home-made. 



The old finish is a coat. Johnson's Electric Solvo takes 

 this off quickly, easily. The piece is then left "in the 

 white" — new wood — to be finished as you like. 



Choose one of Johnson's Wood Dyes (14 shades). A 



shade to suit you. If too dark, add alcohol, if not 



dark enough, add our Flemish Oak Dye, No. 172. 



You'll find the dye thin like water. It enters the 



wood pores evenly — it brings out the beauty of 



the grain — the lights — the darks. 



TfflMW<vVlNMfr 



Artistic Wood finishes 



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You cannot make a "spotted" job if you try. 

 It contains no varnish to cover the beauty of 

 grain. It is a dye that accentuates the effect you 

 want. Each shade is always the same. 



The finishing is equally simple. Johnson's 

 Prepared Wax is pastelike. It is applied 

 with a soft cloth. It dries instantly. 

 Rubbing with a dry cloth then gives a 

 velvety protecting finish of great beauty. 

 The same treatment will refinish your 

 woodwork and floor. This is worth your con- 

 sideration for Johnson's Wood Finishes do 

 not mar, scratch nor peel. 



Every paint dealer carries these three 



^simple necessities — Johnson's Electric Solvo — 



Johnson's Wood Dyes — 14 shades — 30c and 



,50c — Johnson's Prepared Wax — 10c and 25c. 



48-Page Illustrated Book Free — 

 Edition AH- 10 



Our text book on "The Proper Treat- 

 ment for Floors, Woodwork and Furni- 

 ture," will be sent you or your friends 

 , free for your names and addresses. 



i S. C, JOHNSON & SON, Racine, Wis. 



"T/ic Wuud Finishing Authorities" 



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 



tation to the eye to pierce to the mysteries 

 beyond. 



The changing shapes of the openings are a 

 constant fascination to one lying under the 

 trees, and the shadow cast upon a lawn is 

 broken up by many changing spots of light, 

 now flashing pure green and again shut out. 



The outline of the birch is not regular, it is 

 often oval and broader than it is high, or the 

 oval may be turned on end. The outline is 

 broken up and softened by whole branches 

 growing beyond the general outline and by 

 single twigs pushing out. 



Often the tree seems to be permanently bent 

 to one side and to have grown away from the 

 high winds. 



In autumn the leaves turn a light yellow, 

 almost the color of primroses or of lemons. 



The flower catkins and the seeds are inter- 

 esting details of this beautiful native tree. 



THE USE OF VINES 



By E. P. Powell 



FOR house walls I do not know of a single 

 vine so good as the grape. It not only 

 furnishes an immense amount of fruit, 

 and ripens it well in such a location, but it 

 gives a period of flowering with most delicious 

 fragrance. The wild grapes are preferable for 

 rampant growing, for perfumed flowers, and 

 for shade. There is, of course, a difference in 

 varieties. Some of them will grow hundreds 

 of feet, covering the whole side of a large 

 house, and are absolutely hardy. Of the culti- 

 vated grapes I do not know of one better fitted 

 for this purpose than August Giant. It will 

 grow thirty or forty feet in a season, will bear 

 bunches about the size of Concord, but better 

 flavored. It does not ripen, however, in Au- 

 gust, but late in September. Very few of the 

 growers catalogue this variety, but I think that 

 the old Campbell stock is still in existence at 

 Delaware, Ohio, and Mr. Josselyn, of Fre- 

 donia, N. V., I think, can supply it. Niagara 

 is another good wall grape ; so is Herbert, a 

 superb black grape — the best of Rogers' hy- 

 brids in that color. Gaertner is pretty good, 

 and Concord will do very well. The Lindley 

 can not be surpassed, provided you give it a 

 running mate that will furnish pollen — such 

 as Worden or Moore's Early; and these are 

 also both good wall grapes. 



Besides the grape the small cottage can be 

 sufficiently covered with running roses, such 

 as Helen Gould, or it can be shaded with 

 wistaria. The wistarias are pretty well 

 adapted to this sort of work, although to be 

 seen at their best their splendid lilac or white 

 clusters must hang down. This makes them 

 peculiarly well adapted to veranda shelters. 

 The same vine is capital for growing over a 

 tree ; but much better is the trumpet creeper — 

 a very bad vine for clinging to a house. The 

 bignonia most common in the South is venusta, 

 and it is vastly finer than the trumpet creeper 

 of the North. It is also a bad vine for the 

 house. It is very stout and clingy, and it runs 

 with astounding rapidity. It will grow 

 seventy-five feet from the ground in a season. 

 If it is killed back, as it sometimes is, it starts 

 up like Jack's beanstalk, in the winter, throw- 

 ing out great bunches of flowers at every six 

 inches, until it fills a whole tree with its 

 golden bloom. It takes hold of anything, and 

 asks no help anywhere. All the time it is 

 throwing off, to right and to left, armlets ten 

 feet long, that are almost a mass of florifer- 

 ence. On a house this becomes too much and 

 unmanageable foliage. For Southern houses 

 the Cherokee rose is much better. 



For arbors I once again recommend the 

 grapevine, those of less rampant growth. Sev- 

 eral of the honeysuckles are specially adaptable 

 to this purpose, but, probably, best of all are 

 some of the varieties of clematis. The Jack- 



