November, 1911 
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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
The top-cover for the open automobile will be much appreciated when driving leisurely on sunny days, and also in using the car on days when 
one is obliged to travel great distances and to weather storms of rain, snow or sleet 
is interesting to note that a tire will last much longer in the 
country than in the city. It is said that fully two hundred 
miles of travel may be had over country roads against one 
hundred over city streets, crossed as they are with a multi- 
plicity of car tracks, enforcing long stops and sharp turns, 
and the skidding incident to the present methods of street 
sprinkling. 
The lights which an automobile carries are a most im- 
portant part of its equipment. One should select, if possible, 
electric headlights, with a battery-charging dynamo, for the 
increased cost will really prove to be an investment paying a 
dividend in convenience and increased efficiency upon the 
amount of the expenditure. 
Many country dwellers would turn seriously to a consider- 
ation of investing in an automobile were they not frightened 
away from it by what they imagine to be the excessive cost 
of maintenance and repairing, not taking into consideration 
that the size of the bill for repairs is usually an index to 
the manner in which the motor car is operated and cared for. 
It is truly remarkable how little repairing is required with 
the automobile that is carefully handled, an ounce of pre- 
vention in the matter of driving being worth a ton of cure 
after reckless speeding. The makers of any reputable motor 
car construct their automobiles upon the “‘honor”’ plan, and 
therefore the machines may be depended upon to last, 
especially as the automobile has long since passed out of its 
experimental stage of being merely a noisy, rattling curiosity. 
Highly important in the maintenance of a car is the man- 
ner in which it is housed. Architects and builders have ex- 
erted their ingenuity in evolving the best types of garages for 
country homes. In AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS many 
of these have been pictured from time to time. The best 
arrangement in planning a garage is to place it where it 
will harmonize with the general architecture of the build- 
ings to which it is adjacent, thus adding to the beauty and 
symmetry of the composition line of the assembled out- 
buildings. For this reason the garage, as a general thing, 
should be designed in the style of the house itself, and it 
should be placed with an idea of keeping it apart, as far as 
possible, from the dwelling. One particularly successful 
example of this grouping of buildings comes to mind. It 
was that found on a country place, the house being one of 
twenty rooms, the outer walls covered with rough hand- 
made shingles which had been stained to a silver-gray. 
Numerous chimneys of stone were necessary to the house, 
and the whole dwelling was almost covered with Boston ivy, 
which had been permitted to grow directly upon the shingle 
walls—an arrangement which, though somewhat harmful 
to the life of a frame building, yet produced a homelike 
effect. The service buildings, garage and other out-build- 
ings were placed away from the house, the space between 
being connected by a roof to form an arcade. This made, in 
effect, one building of the group of buildings, broad and 
low in appearance, and following the lines of the site. The 
whole place was carefully planned and had the environment 
of beautiful grounds, the result of generations of planting. 
Of course, this particular country estate is one of consider- 
able cost, but it was a distinct and pleasing contrast to others 
I have seen, where the final appearance of the grouping of 
the out-buildings was not taken into account, and even in 
this instance the same principles apply to the plans for a 
country home for the man of moderate means. As insurance 
