82 
House & Garden 
Individual Artistry) 
To add the final toucK to an otKer- 
vJise artistic interior, our designers and 
cabinet-makers co-operate to produce 
a true work of art—a creation so 
completely) outside the pale of tbe 
commonplace that its striking individ¬ 
uality) will greatly) enhance the entire 
interior beautj) of your home. 
Rprlm^r-'BrooK.s Studios 
DccorMrors zwtVb Furnishers 
1 “2 3 7 CucUT) (HVcnvie. 
Cleveland, Ohio 
THE TEXTURE of PAINTED WALLS 
(Continued from page 80) 
A simple border generally looks best in 
the simply decorated and furnished 
room. The degree of brightness in 
stencil colors will also pretty closely 
follow the same general trend. 
Regular stencil colors in a large vari¬ 
ety of shades are sold for the purpose 
by every paint store. A small tube will 
go a long way. A regular stencil brush 
with short bristles should be used for 
doing the work. The colors usually 
need thinning, as directed by the manu¬ 
facturer. 
THE CORRECT USE OF STENCILS 
It is generally necessary to trim sten¬ 
cils at the top and one side before 
starting to use them, so you can get as 
near to the ceiling and the corners of 
the room as desired. In applying the 
stencil design simply hold the stencil 
flat against the wall surface. A few 
thumb tacks may be used to hold the 
stencil in position, especially until you 
become accustomed to it. They will 
not injure the walls. 
Apply the color with a rotary 
“scrubbing” motion, keeping the brush 
at right angles to the wall, the brush 
helping to hold down the stencil while 
it is applying the color. 
Stencils are usually provided with 
guide marks to enable the repeat pattern 
to follow in correct position. Two color 
stencils are also provided with guide 
lines, so there is no difficulty about the 
colors registering. 
One of the secrets of success in sten¬ 
ciling is to keep the side of the stencil 
that goes against the wall absolutely 
clean. Lay the stencil, paint side down, 
on a piece of paper after doing each 
length and wipe the back with a soft 
cloth. It only takes a moment and is 
time well spent. Take care not to bend 
or break off the stencil while wiping off 
with the cloth. 
The principal other point to observe 
is to have the stencil color at the right 
consistency, so that it will not run un¬ 
der the stencil. If very scant brushfuls 
are used there is seldom any difficulty 
from this source. In breaking in a new 
stencil, make a print or two on paper, 
as the first print or two usually run 
under and blur. 
With many stencil designs, particular¬ 
ly large patterns, it is not desirable to 
finish each corner as you come to it, 
as this would necessitate bending the 
stencil, and it would then not be flat 
for the straight wall work to follow. 
Work as near to the corner as possible, 
without bending the stencil (merely 
curving the stencil does not matter) 
then measure off on the wall around 
the corner, the length of the design 
(from guide to guide) and when the 
stenciling is finished clear around the 
room,'with the exception of the corners 
—then do the corners. The stencil must 
be bent, and this can now safely be 
done as all the other work has been 
completed. Measure off the first space 
and mark the stencil, bending it up 
over a yardstick, taking care not to 
break the design. Alt corners should 
be measured and the design bent to fit, 
in the same way. If the walls are true, 
little trouble will be experienced. In 
many instances, particularly with large 
figures, it is often desirable to work 
out the border so that a design, for in¬ 
stance, will come directly over a fire¬ 
place or over the center of a doorway. 
In cases where it is desired to have a 
stencil come out even at a certain point, 
lay off the pattern on the wall in the 
regular way, until about six or eight 
repeats remain before the point where it 
is desired to center the design. Then 
find what the discrepancy, if any, will 
be, divide the remaining space by the 
number of repeats remaining, then pro¬ 
ceed to “steal” that distance, each time 
extending the stencil a little or crowding 
it as necessary. 
HARSH TREATMENT /or TREE PESTS 
(Continued from page 52) 
blister mines, about half an inch in 
diameter, of a sawfly miner. The 
whitish, legless grubs, about )4" long, 
are easily destroyed by spraying the 
leaves with a tobacco soap preparation 
early in June. 
Occasionally the foliage of American 
elms is badly infested by light green 
plant lice. They harmonize with the 
leaves so well that they are easily 
overlooked. The foliage may be kept 
wet with the excreted honeydew 
and later blackened by the sooty fun¬ 
gus developing therein. Such outbreaks 
are usually controlled speedily by nat¬ 
ural enemies, though in the case of 
more valuable lawn trees, it would be 
advisable to check the pests by early 
spraying with a tobacco soap solution. 
The sugar maple borer is one of the 
most serious and dangerous enemies of 
this favorite shade tree. The stout, 
black, golden-marked beetles about an 
inch long are abroad in mid-summer, 
deposit their eggs in slit-like cavities in 
the bark and the grubs bore in the liv¬ 
ing cambium. The galleries frequently 
partly girdle the tree, those of the full 
grown grub having a diameter of 
and seriously weakening, if not killing, 
that portion of the tree above the gal¬ 
lery. The damage is rarely evident un¬ 
til some years after the mischief has 
been caused. Sugar maples should be 
examined each fall and early in the 
spring for evidences of boring and the 
pests destroyed with a wire or cut out 
with a knife. This insect is somewhat 
local and occasionally one may find 
very badly infested, practically worth¬ 
less trees which should be cut out in 
order to prevent the insects escaping 
and attacking better trees. 
The sugar maple is occasionally de¬ 
foliated by the forest tent caterpillar. 
Danger of this character is always pre¬ 
ceded by the deposition of light brown 
egg belts on the smaller twigs, conse¬ 
quently even a cursory examination in 
winter or early spring will indicate the 
probabilities for the coming season. 
Damage by these pests may be easily 
prevented by thorough spraying the 
last of May or early in June with ar¬ 
senate of lead. 
There is a wooly bark louse which 
occasionally becomes somewhat abun¬ 
dant upon the leaves of sugar maples 
and is also recognizable by the chalky- 
white incrustations covering good sized 
areas of the larger limbs and trunk. 
This is the so-called false maple scale. 
It disfigures the foliage and undoubtedly 
weakens the trees. There are three 
generations, the second brood hatching 
in June, the third in August and the 
young of the last over-wintering. Thor¬ 
ough and usually repeated sprayings 
with a tobacco soap preparation when 
the minute yellowish young are crawl¬ 
ing is the safest and on the whole the 
most satisfactory method of control. 
Applications of oil emulsions to sugar 
(Continued on page 84) 
