XVill 
Noteworthy Articles 
ON TIMELY TOPICS 
SEWAGE AND ITS DISPOSAL. A 
review of modern methods. By H. 
Lemmoin-Cannon. Scientific American 
Supplement 1551. 
ELECTRIC LIGHTING FOR AMA- 
TEURS. How a small and simple ex- 
perimental installation can be set up 
at home. Scientific American Supple- 
ment I551. 
CHEMICAL AFFINITY. Simply ex- 
plained by Sir Oliver Lodge. Scienti- 
fic American Supplement 1547. 
CASE-HARDENING. By David 
Flather. Scientific American Supple- 
ment 1547. 
ELECTRIC IGNITION SYSTEMS. A 
comprehensive article by E. W. Rob- 
one: Scientific American Supplement 
1546. 
CONCRETE. A general article on its 
merits and defects. Scientific Ameri- 
can Supplement 1543. 
REINFORCED CONCRETE. Some of 
its Principles and Applications with 
practical Illustrations. Scientific 
American Supplements 1547, 1548, 
1551. 
ELECTRONS AND THE ELECTRO- 
NIC THEORY are discussed by Sir 
Oliver Lodge in Scientific American 
Supplements 1428, 1429, 1430, 1431, 
1432, 1433, 1434. 
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. Its Pro- 
gress and Present Condition are well 
discussed in Scientific American Sup- 
plements 1425, 1426, 1427, 1386, 1388, 
1389, 1383, 1381, 1327, 1328, 1329, 1431. 
HOW TO CONSTRUCT AN EFFI- 
CIENT WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 
APPARATUS AT SMALL COST is 
hole in Scientific American Supplement 
1363. 
SELENIUM AND ITS REMARK- 
ABLE PROPERTIES are fully de- 
scribed in Scientific American Supple- 
ment 1430. The paper is illustrated by 
numerous engravings. 
LANGLEY’S AERODROME. Fully de- 
scribed and illustrated in Scientific 
American Supplements 1404, 1405 and 
1546. 
STEAM TURBINES. Their Construc- 
tion, Operation and Commercial Ap- 
plication. Scientific American Supple- 
ments 1306, 1307, 1308, 1422, 1400, 1447, 
1370, 1372, 1521. The articles have all 
been prepared by experts in steam en- 
gineering. 
PORTLAND CEMENT MAKING is 
described in excellent articles con- 
tained in Scientific American Supple- 
ments 1433, 1465, 1466, 1510, 1511. 
THE TANTALUM LAMP. A full illus- 
trated description of a lamp having a 
metallic filament and burning at once 
without preliminary heating appears in 
Scientific American Supplement 1523. 
THE WATERPROOFING OF 
FABRICS is thoroughly discussed in 
Scientific American Supplement 1522 
by an expert. 
THE SPARK COIL, ITS CONSTRUC- 
TION AND MAINTENANCE, is the 
subject of a painstaking article in 
Scientific American Supplement 1522. 
ELECTRIC IGNITERS FOR GAS EN- 
GINES are discussed in Scientific 
American Supplement 1514. 
CARBURETERS, a subject of immense 
importance to automobilists and the 
users of oil engines, is well treated in 
Scientific American Supplement 1508. 
EPICYCLIC TRAINS, which play an 
important part in toothed gearing, are 
ably described in Scientific American 
Supplement 1524. 
Each number of the Scientific American 
Supplement costs 10 cents by mail 
Send for 1910 Supplement Catalogue 
FREE to any address 
MUNN & COMPANY 
361 Broadway New York 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
CORRESPONDENCE 
June, 1911 
The Editor of AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS desires to extend an invitation to all its readers to send to the Correspond- 
ence 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. 
Problems in House Furnishing 
By ALICE M. KELLOGG 
LIVING-ROOM DECORATION 
RS, J.-B: $2 of East "Orange says: 
“Please give me some idea as to 
my living-room paper. It is a 
light, sunny room for most of the day. 
The ceiling is beamed, woodwork a gray 
brown, neither light nor dark, but there is 
a good deal of it in the room. Window 
and door frames are wide and plain and 
at the end of the room there is an ingle- 
nook with heavy settle ends, and a fire- 
place with a broad shelf. The side of the 
room opposite the door has four case- 
ment windows with seat. Rugs are an- 
tiques, furniture old mahogany and a lit- 
tle black oak. Have held up sample after 
sample, but cannot seem to hit the wood- 
work correctly. Room 14x26. Cottage 
curtains to sill only of yellow brown 
sill.” 
In this room the woodwork plays an 
important part, as there is so much of it. 
I would pin up in different parts of the 
room samples of every kind of paper 
nearly suitable, wrapping paper or even 
butcher’s paper will serve. Study these 
for a day or so and you will find your 
choice narrowing successfully. As your 
curtains are yellow your woodwork 
brown, the wallpaper may safely be a 
tone between the two. As there is little 
design in your materials, chair and sofa 
coverings being plain, and the room is 
large, the paper may be a figured one. 
There should be some blue object in the 
room, old blue in some rug, cushion or 
vase. A medium shade of green would 
look well, but if the room is sunny the 
paper would have to be renewed soon. 
Another correspondent inquires about 
improving her bathroom. “My _bath- 
room needs improving, but I do not 
know what to do with it. There is a 
wainscoting of white cement marked off 
like brick work, a flat rail dividing it 
from a plain wall above. The house is 
new but has settled and the corners are 
somewhat cracked. Floor is tiled, porce- 
lain tub and basin, mahogany seat and 
tank. Rug two tone in blue.” 
If you have your rug already it will be 
best to build up from that. The cement 
should be painted with white paint, two 
flat and one enamel finish. For the wall 
above, choose some one of the bathroom 
papers; there are some extremely pretty 
ones now with high finish. Of course 
the paperhanger will plaster up the 
cracks before hanging the paper. 
Mr. F. Richards writes: “This subur- 
ban house we have just moved into has a 
fine porch, 12x82 feet. I would like to fur- 
nish it somewhat this summer, but can 
spare only thirty dollars on it. It has 
the sun in the late afternoon.” 
You can do a good deal with this 
amount, and I submit two suggestions. 
The awning will undoubtedly furnish and 
(Continued on page xix) 
Garden Work About the Home 
By OLIVER INGRAHAM 
HE labor of gardening is often irk- 
some to the amateur because his 
tools are not good. Farm tools are 
made for farm laborers and for farm con- 
ditions and are heavy, strong and lasting. 
The tools for gardening should be light, well 
balanced and sharp. There is no sense in 
using a heavy hoe in the fine soil of a garden. 
A sharp light hoe will cut the weeds much 
better and with less effort. 
Besides being heavy and clumsy, farm 
tools are often badly adapted to garden 
work. For a hoe get a ladies’ hoe with a 
small sharp blade and a springy handle. 
Use this for a shallow stirring of the soil 
after rain or for weeding. For deeper cul- 
tivation use a light four-tined potato digger. 
This will stir the soil more deeply and more 
thoroughly than a rake, and it is easy to 
handle, and may be used between plants 
that are less than a foot apart. The hoe 
shaped like the ace of spades is a very use- 
ful tool for cultivating or for making drills. 
I have just imported from England a 
Sproughton hoe, which seems very promis- 
ing. It is like a Dutch scuffle hoe, but the 
edge is held only at one side, so that one 
can cultivate all sides of a plant without 
changing ones position. It has the further 
advantage of having two edges so that it 
can be pushed like a Dutch hoe or drawn 
toward one like an ordinary hoe. Spades 
should be of several sizes—one a nursery 
spade with a long blade and an iron bound 
handle; another should be half the usual 
length with a small narrow square blade. 
This can be used in place of a trowel, and 
and is good for collecting. There should 
also be a_ short-handled shovel. Long- 
handled shovels or spades have no place 
in the garden, and they are wasteful im- 
plements anywhere. Spading forks should 
always be used for spading up the ground. 
They are usually too heavy. I have found 
a short-handled manure fork with sound 
tines cut short (about 10 inches) a better 
implement. 
The wheel hoe with its various attach- 
ments is, of course, indispensable in any 
vegetable garden. 
English trowels of cast steel are the only 
kind it pays to buy, and the same may be 
said of sickles. 
Good tools are worth all they cost in 
comfort and ease of working, and in the 
increased labor which one may accomplish 
with them in a given time. 
DON’T wonder that you are disturbed 
by the large bill-board which has just 
been erected across the road from your 
house. There are many ways to attack the 
bill-board evil, and if you can arouse a 
strong public sentiment they are bound to 
succeed. 
The most effective way is to approach the 
owner on whose property the bill-board is 
erected, and to point out to him that he is 
unneighborly to permit it, that his personal - 
pride ought to keep him from being willing 
