HOUSE AND GARDEN 
1 May. 
1912 
43 
frame at the top of a glass fronted fowl 
house saves expense and helps wonderfully 
in ventilation. Stable windows and those 
of cow barns should be filled with cloth- 
covered frames as soon as the weather is 
the least bit mild. Thus flies and most of 
the dust are barred. Thus, also, there is no 
sweating or steaming as with glass, nor 
the holding of ill odors. Cellar windows 
ought to have the cloth frames inside their 
bars or wire gauge. In the garden small 
tents of cheesecloth are the handiest pro¬ 
tectors from frost and frames of the cloth 
and netting are better than sash for 
sheltering plants in hotbeds or coldframes, 
as they give air and save from sunburn. 
Reducing Water Pressure 
A WATER pressure reducer is coming 
into extensive use these days and 
rightly so. Its cost is small; 
one can be purchased for about 
$10 which will give good satis¬ 
faction. The ever-increasing- 
water pressure which one now 
finds so universally, makes 
some device of this sort neces¬ 
sary if economy is sought after. 
High water pressure makes 
much trouble in the household. 
Of course the reason for the 
increase of pressure is usually 
fire protection. This is of 
value, but if care is not taken 
(and so many householders do 
not realize how much money 
can be wasted by excessive use 
of water) to prevent needless 
waste, water bills wdll make 
quite a hole in the careless 
householder’s pocketbook. Let 
us now' consider a typical case: 
Mr. “A.” had received a 
large w'ater bill for the size of 
his house. Complaints to the 
company simply resulted in his 
learning that the meter was 
registering correctly. He was 
merely using water which must 
be paid for. He called in his 
plumber, and acting upon his 
advice installed a water pres¬ 
sure reducing valve. In only 
six months he reduced his water 
bill one-third. How is it done? 
The pressure reducer controlled 
the pressure. Before using it, 
if a quart measure in the 
kitchen was to be filled, an¬ 
other quart or more was wasted 
by high pressure, making the 
measure overflow. Any amount 
of water was thus wasted in 
the daily household tasks. But 
this was not all. High pres¬ 
sure makes the “ball cocks.” which we 
all have to use in our homes, op¬ 
erate improperly. The valve seats are 
injured by being subjected to a very 
high pressure. Then leakage results 
and water runs to waste, often without the 
knowledge of the householder. But more 
than this, all piping is subjected to an un¬ 
due strain, and plumber's bills are large. 
If the house has no tank, a large strain 
is also put on the kitchen range boiler. 
A Screen That Acts as Wardrobe 
tIE unsightly clothes tree has a rival; 
or rather succumbs to the greater 
usefulness of the “wardrobe screen.” 
Most people object to hanging their 
clothes aw^ay in a closet immediately on 
removing. It is those people, as well as 
the ones who have insufficient closet room, 
who are given to using the clothes tree. 
The screen which now takes the place of 
the tree is a practical screen for every 
purpose to which a screen may be put. 
On the face of it, it is a good, comfortable, 
useful-looking burlap-paneled screen, with 
oak or imitation mahogany frame. The 
screen stands over five and a half feet 
high with panels of generous width — 
about twenty inches — and is solid and 
substantial, although easily moved. So 
much for the screen, which may be used 
anywhere that a screen is desired. The 
wardrobe part is in the wood trimming 
at the top. Each of the panels holds three 
wooden pegs, as you can see in the picture, 
which turn at will into clothing pegs on 
both sides of the screen, making eighteen 
available pegs which will support a quan¬ 
tity of clothing—heavy weight articles at 
that. When not in use the pegs may be 
turned parallel to the top of the frame to 
make the proper trim. How much more 
sensible than stringing one's things over 
chairs at night; and how useful to keep 
hanging on the “other side” any articles 
which we wish to expose to the air of the 
room by day. 
The hurlap covering of this screen 
should of course be of such a color as to 
harmonize with the room where it is to be 
used. 
A Carpet Suggestion 
T T is sometimes a problem to know how 
to carpet a floor in a room where a 
great many colors are used, as often hap¬ 
pens, for we cannot always 
have things to our liking, and 
get rid of all the accumulation 
of years, especially in an old 
house. Then, too. we are some¬ 
times obliged to put up with 
a wall paper that is already in 
a house or apartment. This, 
of course, does not happen 
when we are doing the house 
over to suit ourselves, but when 
we are making the best of 
what is already there, a good 
many problems present them¬ 
selves. What carpets or rugs 
to use when there is a hetero¬ 
geneous collection of colors 
and objects in the room is one 
of these problems. A friend 
of mine solved the difficulty 
most satisfactorilv bv havinsf 
rugs made of plain velvet or 
axminster carpet in the colors 
best suited to the needs of each 
room. V"elvet and axminster 
carpets come as low as and less 
than a dollar a yard occasion¬ 
ally, up to almost any price 
that one cares to pay. These 
plain carpets may be had in 
very good colors, soft greens, 
tans, grays, browns, almost any 
color, in fact, that one could 
desire. In a room that has 
hangings and other furnishings 
of old blue, a rug of soft tan 
will be very satisfactory, and 
in the proverbial “girl’s room” 
of pink and white, a gray- 
green rug will give good ser¬ 
vice, better than an old rose, 
and be a pleasing contrast. An¬ 
other point in favor of these 
made-up rugs is that they 
may be made any size and 
shape that the room requires, and small 
strips, simply the width of the car¬ 
pet, can be bound at both ends, to fill in 
a narrow space made by a jog in the wall, 
or a narrow entrance way. In fact, there 
are in almost every house odd corners 
where these small pieces can be employed. 
The combined duties of clothes rack and screen are successfully 
performed by this simple contrivance which has a row of pegs 
along its top for hanging garments 
