August, 1907 A M E R I 



plants to keep on blossoming and setting fruit 

 until frost comes. The consequence is that 

 we seldom get any really fine specimens from 

 a plant. The strength that should be con- 

 centrated in a few good squashes is fritted 

 away on a score or more in all stages of de- 

 velopment. To prevent this, keep the plant 

 from setting any new fruit after it has set 

 its first half dozen. Nip off the buds as they 

 form. This will throw all the strength of 

 the plant where it belongs, and you will have 

 some fine squashes to show for your season's 

 work, when fall comes, instead of a lot of 

 small, inferior-in-every-way specimens, such 

 as characterize the plant which is allowed to 

 follow out its own inclinations. 



* * * 



Radishes, spinach and other vegetables of 

 quick growth can still be sown for fall use. 

 Give them the warmest corner of the garden, 

 and a very rich, mellow soil. You can not 

 grow good ones, at this time of the year, 

 unless you give them special attention. 



* * * 



Chrysanthemums shoidd not be pinched 

 back after buds begin to form. Only the 

 earliest varieties will show buds this month. 

 Keep the plants well tied up. A little neglect, 

 at this time, may cost you the work of the en- 

 tire season. Few plants have more brittle 

 stalks, and one must handle them with the 

 greatest caution to avoid breaking them, es- 

 pecially if they have formed heavy heads. 



* -*- * 



Next month your plants will have to be 

 lifted and potted. Begin to get ready for the 

 work now. Get your pots. Let their sizes 

 range from nine to twelve inches. If they are 

 new ones, soak them for a day or two before 

 putting plants into them. Provide some good 

 potting soil. Not much will be needed, for 

 you will lift your plants with a good deal of 

 earth adhering to their roots — quite as much, 

 in all probability, as can be crowded into the 

 pot — but sometimes some of this soil will 

 crumble away in spite of all your care, and it 

 should be replaced with fresh, strong compost. 

 Provide yourself with good, strong supports 

 for each plant. These should be put in place 

 as soon as the plant is in its pot to guard 

 against possible accidents in moving. Insert 

 them close to the stalk and tie the plant se- 

 curely with strips of cloth instead of string, 

 as is usually done. String is likely to cut into 

 the stalk if tied tightly, and unless it is tightly 

 tied it does not furnish the necessary support. 



* * * 



At this season it is well to look the garden 

 and grounds over with a view to making 

 changes that will result in improvement. Mis- 

 takes will no doubt be in evidence on every 

 hand. Study the habit of your plants, and try 

 to find the place that will enable them to dis- 

 play their charms to the best advantage. The 

 ideal garden is always an evolution. It grows 

 by slow degrees. Plan it ever so carefully, at 

 first, and you will find that a good deal of it 

 has to be made over before it satisfies you. It 

 takes time to find where all the plants in it 

 belong. 



Next month will be bulb-planting time. 

 But don't wait until then to get ready for 

 your bulbs. Prepare the ground now. Spade 

 it up to the depth of a foot — a foot and a half 

 would be better — and work it over and over 

 until it is as fine as it can be made. Make it 

 rich with well-rotted cow-manure. Let the 

 beds slope away in all directions from the cen- 

 ter, that rain may run off rather than settle 

 into them. 



Order your bulbs as soon as the fall cata- 

 logues of the dealers come to hand. The 



CAN HOMES AND GA 



JUST PUBLISHED 



AMERICAN 



RENAISSANCE 



12\,!5\cvlewof "Pomcstlc'^rcbltccture 

 Hoy "^b<i«il«ir i>ow,^rcl)ltact ;> 



Illustrated by Ninetv-six Half-tone Plates 



EASIOVER (Miniature). THE GARDEN I RONT 

 From "American Renaissance" 



This book is a carefully prepared history 

 of American Domestic Architecture from 

 Colonial days, illustrated in the most elab- 

 orate manner and worthy a place in every 

 architectural library, and should be read by 

 every one who desires to famiharize him- 

 self w'th Colonial architecture and its effect 

 on the architecture of to-day. 



CONTENTS.— Chapter I., Ethics; II., Art 

 and Commercialism; III., The Ancient 

 Regime — Andrew Jackson ; IV., Humble 

 Beginnings of a National School ; V., The 

 Grand Epoch ; VI., Early Nineteenth Cen- 

 tury Work; VII., The Transitional 

 Period ; VIII., Reign of Terror — Its Neg- 

 ative Value ; IX., Fashion in Architec- 

 ture ; X., Adaptation ; XI., Concerning 

 Style; XII., Conclusion. 



HANDSOMELY BOUND IN CLOTH. GILT TOP 



^rlcc, $4.00 net 



MUNN & CO., Publishers, NEW YORK 



Colonial Houses 



FOR MODERN HOMES 



A collection of designs of Houses with Colonial 

 (Georgian) details but arranged with modern com- 

 forts and with the completeness of the twentieth 

 century. 



Written and Illustrated by 

 E. S. CHILD, Architect 



They show large, correctly drawn perspectives, 

 full floor plans, and complete descriptions, with 

 estimates of cost. The designs are new, original, 

 unique, consistent, but not stiiT nor constrained. 

 Made, not by an artist, but by an architect. They 

 combine beauty of exterior with complete and 

 convenient interiors, with Kitchens, Laundries, 

 Pantries and Closets carefully and skilfully con- 

 sidered. 



If you are at all interested in the subject, you 

 will enjoy this publication. 



PRICE, Postpaid, TWO DOLLARS 

 MUNN & COM PA NT 



361 Broadway : ; Nc'-uu York City 



Cottage Designs 



No. 1. C^ofiage Designs 



Iweuty-five designs, ranging in cost from 

 $600 to $1,500 



No. 2. Low Cost Houses 



Upward of twenty-five selected designs, 

 originally costing from $750 to $2,500 



No. 3. Modern Dwellings 



Twenty designs, at costs ranging from 

 $2,000 to .$5,000 



No. 4. Suturtan Homes 



Twenty selected designs, ranging in cost 

 from about $3,000 upward 



One T>ollar ^ach, "Postpaid. Sold Separately 

 Munn Co., 361 Broadway, New York 



R D E N S 



earlier in the season you f^et them, the stronger 

 they will be likely to be, as they part rapidly 

 with their vitality while out of the ground. 

 Aim to have everything in readiness for them 

 on their arrival, and put them into the ground 

 as soon as possible. The catalogues will tell 

 you how deep and how far apart to plant them, 

 and give you such other particulars as you 

 may stand in need of. You will find it most 

 satisfactory to plant the various colors by 

 themselves. Mi.xed collections give too bizarre 

 an efiect to be pleasing to those who have a 

 keen eye for colcjr-harmony. 



* * * 



Tea and hybrid perpetual roses should be 

 given a good deal of attention in order to se- 

 cure a late crop of flowers. The treatment is 

 about the same for both. Make the soil rich, 

 in order to encourage growth. Cut back the 

 branches to some strong bud. This will de- 

 velop into a branch, from which you may hope 

 to get flowers. Your hope will not always be 

 realized, with the hybrid perpetuals, but you 

 may reasonably expect it to be with the teas, 

 which often keep on flowering tintil the ground 

 freezes. 



* * * 



I cut back my pansies in July and August, 

 clipping away nearly all the old top. Not 

 much growth will result while the weather is 

 hot and dry, but as soon as cooler, damper 

 weather sets in, the plants will make rapid 

 development, and in September and October, 

 and often until late in November, they will 

 yield fine crops of blossoms. 



* * * 



Cosmos will be rapidly forging ahead now. 

 So luxuriant is its growth that quite likely it 

 will need some support. I have had large 

 plants of it almost ruined by sudden winds, be- 

 cause I had neglected to give them the proper 

 attention. Like the dahlia, it has a very brittle 

 stalk, and its foliage is so heavy, especially 

 when wet with rain, that they are almost sure 

 to split down under the weight of it. 



PAINTING THE HOUSE 



By George Etheibert Walsh 



REPAINTING the country house is one 

 of the necessary evils of modern exist- 

 ence which periodically recurs with the 

 certainty of passing time. The double func- 

 tion of preserving the woodwork and beauti- 

 fying the house is achieved through the proper 

 selection of paint to harmonize with the sur- 

 roundings. Fortunately our tastes dii^er in 

 paint as in everything else of external use, and 

 general variety of landscape effect is thus un- 

 consciously produced. The old Colonial homes 

 with their pure white exteriors and green 

 blinds suggested a purity of composition that 

 can not be excelled, but unending rows of 

 houses of glaring white grow monotonous to 

 the eye. We wish for some other color — 

 something vulgar even — to break the monotony 

 or to intensify the chastity of the convention- 

 ally painted white-and-green house. To-day 

 all the colors of autumn's landscape appear 

 in the scattered country homes and clusters of 

 village houses, and while the combinations of 

 some may be atrocious the general effect of 

 variety is pleasing. 



We tire of one color in a house as we grow 

 weary of one shade of dress or hue of wall 

 paper. Very few paint the house the same 

 color the second time. It is a white house 

 this year, a terra cotta with cream trimmings 

 next, and then a grass green that seems to 

 spring out of the very ground. The indi- 

 viduality of the house is not changed by a 

 fresh coat of paint, but when it dons its new 

 dress it seems to take a new lease of life, re- 



