HOUSE AND GARDEN 
June, 1913 
506 
r HE finish is one of the most necessary features to consider in . 
selecting paints and varmsnes— BUT— do not overlook the import i 
ant matter of a lasting finish. _ To secure a satisfactory finish the 
quality of each preceding coat is as important a.s the finishing coat. 
A. 1 ’. PAINTS assure a proper foundation and a lasting finish. 
A. P. PAINTS A. P. FLATLAN (Flat wall finish) 
A. P. Products are a Standard of Perfection 
,TLAS PAINT COMPANY, 101 York 
See Sweets Catalog. Pages 1780-1781. 
FLEX-A-TILE 
Asphalt s Shingles 
made of solid asphalt beautifully 
surfaced with chipped slate or 
granite in natural colors of rich 
red or green. 
Make a wonderfully attractive 
roof and one that lasts as long 
as the house stands. 
Easy to apply — not expensive 
— and very distinctive. 
Used effectively for both sid¬ 
ing and roofing in contrasting 
colors. 
Be sure to send 
for free sample 
THE HEPPES COMPANY 
££££££££££ 
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For Better 
Greener Lawns 
Use 
Alphano Humus 
It Can Be Applied 
At Any Time 
— It Is Odorless — 
W TfEN thickly spread on your 
lawns and raked in (not raked 
off as with stable fertilizers) 
it will promptly stimulate the grass, 
keeping it green all through the hot 
months, and continue to furnish it 
with plant food for a surprisingly 
long time—years in fact. 
It is not a chemical mixture that 
stimulates the roots for only a short 
period. Nor does it leach away with 
the first rain. It is nature’s own make 
of plant food. A natural deposit of 
decayed animal and vegetable matter 
that’s been thousands of years in the 
making. We dig and prepare it in a 
dry powdered form for immediate use. 
Being odorless, it will not attract 
flies, and is in every way entirely 
sanitary and as little objectionable to 
handle as any garden loam. 
Order some. Use it freely, all sum¬ 
mer long. 
The price is so reasonable you can 
afford to. 
5 bags, $ 5 . By the ton, 512 (F. O. 
B.‘ Alphano, N. J.) Special price on 
carloads. 
Send for Humus Book. It explains 
about Humus in general and Alphano 
Humus in particular. 
AtpKano Humus Co, 
938 Whitehall Bldg., New York City 
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the indication will be all the clearer. In 
the final stage it is advisable to color the 
entire plan, using green for all grass plots 
and brown, gray or brick color for the 
paths, according to the material. 
Catalogues begin to come along in Jan¬ 
uary ; so that these may be gone through 
and the selection of plants and seeds made 
as the work of planning progresses. Early 
decision and early placing of orders is 
wise; you get the pick of the stock, which 
sometimes runs out altogether before the 
late-comers have been heard from. There 
is no danger that early orders will be 
shipped too soon; they merely take prec¬ 
edence. H. S. Adams 
Lawn-Soils and Lawns 
A T THE time of the year when the resi¬ 
dents of the cities and suburbs are 
looking at their lawns with a view of re¬ 
pairing them for the winter and summer 
months, it is well to examine the soil to a 
depth of from twelve to twenty-four 
inches to see if there are any bricks, tin 
cans, boards and other coarse building 
debris. The Bureau of Soils, United 
States Department of Agriculture, says in 
a Farmers' Bulletin that the reason that 
grass does not thrive well on the average 
city lawn is that the majority of them have 
a filler of this kind of rubbish, and of 
course, grass will not grow on such unfer¬ 
tile material. 
“A lawn is the accompaniment of every 
effort on the part of man to beautify the 
surroundings of his abiding place,” says 
the bulletin. “The great increase of inter¬ 
est in suburban and rural life has caused 
a corresponding increase of interest in 
matters pertaining to the making and 
maintenance of lawns. Suburban rail¬ 
ways, the extension of electric lines into 
the country, and the return of man to 
natural ways of living are all factors con¬ 
tributing to the growing interest in mat¬ 
ters pertaining to lawn making. 
“In general a lawn should be beautiful, 
and it should be useful. Its beauty de¬ 
pends upon the contour of the land, the 
color and texture of the grass and the uni¬ 
formity of the turf. The use of the lawn 
is to provide a suitable setting for archi¬ 
tectural adornment and landscape planting. 
Every device should be employed when 
working with small areas of ground to 
give the lawn as great extent as possible. 
The buildings should be well back, the 
foundation not too high, and the grading 
of the ground should be slightly convex 
— that is, a gently convex, rolling surface 
from the base of the foundation to the 
street line, rather than concave. 
“Bricks, flat tins, boards and other 
coarse building debris found in nearly all 
small lawns in the city are very detrimental 
to the proper movement of soil fluid. The 
downward movement of water is not seri¬ 
ously impeded by such materials; it is 
In writing to advertisers please mention House & Garden. 
