HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 
1912 
Your Stucco or Con¬ 
crete House Needs 
Bay State Brick and 
Cement Coating Pro¬ 
tection. 
The coating does not destroy 
the distinctive texture of con¬ 
crete, protects against dampness 
and moisture and has been en¬ 
dorsed by the National Board 
of Fire Underwriters as a fire 
retarder. It comes in different 
colors. 
Let us send you a booklet that 
tells you all about it. It has 
been used by the best architects, 
contractors and builders as a 
coating in light as well as heavy 
construction of every kind; 
houses, mills, breweries, garages, 
and railroads. 
It is very effective as a tint for 
interior decoration on wood, 
cement or plaster. 
Address for Booklet No. 2 
Wadsworth, Howland & Co. 
Incorporated 
Paint and Varnish Makers and 
Lead Corroders 
82-84 Washington Street, Boston, Mass. 
The Stephenson System 
of Underground Refuse 
Disposal 
Keep your garbage and waste 
out of sight, under ground or below floor in 
THL STEPHENSON 
MASS 
Underground 
Garbage and Refuse Receivers 
Sanitary, odorless, fly-proof, a clean back yard, 
a fireproof disposal of refuse in 
cellar, factory or garage. 
Underground Earth Closet with port¬ 
able steel house for contractors, farm 
or camp. 
Nine years on the market. It pays 
to look us up. 
Sold direct. Send for circular. 
C. H. STEPHENSON. Mfr. 
20 Farrar St. Lynn, Mass. 
unable to regulate the temperature care¬ 
fully enough for the heading variety which 
had done all right in the frames. This 
was another item to be charged to their 
experience account, but the profit on what 
was good more than covered their loss, so 
they considered themselves lucky. 
Mrs. Mantell, in spite of her many 
household duties, found time to work in 
the greenhouse a little almost every day 
and took delight in the handling of the lit¬ 
tle plants, and especially in making the 
cuttings and rooting them in the moist 
sand. The main lot of these they had put 
in in October, just before the first severe 
frosts, and a new lot of small pots had to 
be procured into which to pot them all off. 
Almost every good day Mantell and 
Raffles were busy in the woods, for there 
was a lot of logs to get out and ready for 
the first good sledding. The wood-lot, 
which had for so many years been abso¬ 
lutely neglected, was beginning to look 
like a different place. They cut out care¬ 
fully, taking as far as possible only trees 
that were crooked, damaged or crowding 
other trees and cleaned up all brush and 
underbrush as they went. The result was 
that what had before appeared but a wild 
tangle now looked quite a stately piece of 
woods. 
On stormy days they found plenty to do 
indoors. The cellar rafters were all so far 
gone with dry rot that every one of them 
had to be replaced. And there was any 
number of other improvements that they 
found occasion to make around the house. 
In this work they found the greatest as¬ 
sistance and economy in the catalogue of 
a large Western house which carried 
almost everything one could imagine in 
the way of household fixtures — and nearly 
everything else for that matter — so that 
they were enabled to do much more of 
their own work than they would otherwise 
have been able to accomplish and at a 
cost of the materials of about half what 
they would have had to pay locally. 
Another stormy day task was the mak¬ 
ing of flats and boxes for use in the green¬ 
house the following spring. Every time 
a load of potatoes or vegetables went to 
town, they brought back empty cracker 
boxes from the grocer’s. At first they 
sawed these out by hand ; but that took too 
much time and effort, even of winter time, 
to suit Mantell. They could not squeeze 
out the money for a gasoline engine and 
so they rigged up a hand power machine, 
consisting of a large wooden wheel, which 
it cost them two dollars and twenty-five 
cents to have put together and “trued” at 
the Priestly sash and blind shop, and keyed 
to an axle of hard wood. This was set 
up very securely and made an efficient 
hand power for running a belt to a small 
pulley and arbor which they had bought 
second-hand at a lumber yard. This cost 
them two dollars and a circular saw eighty 
cents more; the table they made them¬ 
selves. It was no easy job to run this ap¬ 
paratus even with the wooden axle well 
soaped up, but by taking turns at the wheel 
they were able to saw up the thin boards 
they had to use several times as fast as 
they could by hand — another reduction in 
the cost of production. 
And so the winter months sped past, to 
the end of the first year of their experi¬ 
ment. They had been able to make a liv¬ 
ing — somewhat meager, it is true, but a 
contented one. They were all in perfect 
health and full of enthusiasm for the com¬ 
ing season, plans for which already 
formed the theme of conversation for 
almost every meal. 
Squire Hunderson. who still remained 
their most intimate friend, often came in 
to spend an evening. They could gener¬ 
ally hear him stamping and puffing before 
he reached the front gate, much as he had 
on the evening of their arrival. And 
often, too, he brought a jug of cider and 
a bag of butternuts. 
“Mebbe you can grow corn, Mantell,” 
he would beam genially, “and smooth po¬ 
tatoes, with all your darnation new-fan¬ 
gled ways, but you can't make cider yet 
— not for shucks — not — for — shucks !” 
A Barn That Served as a Summer 
Home 
(Continued from page 37) 
Our strawberries yielded 250 quarts, 
and they were delicious for breakfast, all 
dewy from the garden. 
Now our cellar is filled with good 
things, and the cost has been moderate. 
We have hired no help in the garden ex¬ 
cept for plowing and hauling compost in 
the fall and spring. In return it has af¬ 
forded an opportunity for air and exer¬ 
cise to an office man, has given us a boun¬ 
teous fare for our table, and has opened 
up a new life for three boys and their 
mother. 
We have picked the fruit and gathered 
the vegetables, we have taken long tramps 
along the field, hunted wild plums and 
berries, always near our home. We have 
watched all the seed babies form, have 
found where the gophers store their corn 
for winter, have answered the quail and 
looked for killdeer nests, and we have 
been delighted when we have run across 
a mother fieldmouse and her babies nestled 
in the grass. We have watched our house 
grow step by step and because we were 
right on the spot we could be sure of the 
suitability of everything before it was too' 
late to change. And now our winters will 
be as restful as our summers for we shall 
stay out in the country. 
Garden Steps 
(Continued from page 35) 
it is best to make them of some native 
stone that harmonizes with the surround¬ 
ings and does not attract attention by any 
glaring incongruity of color. One of the- 
In writing to advertisers please mention House and Garden. 
