62 
House 
& Garden 
The Glass of a Thousand Flowers 
Ohe lEhrich (Galleries 
Dealers in 
“<mt> JtotenT exclusively 
707 FIFTH AVENUE at 55th Street NEW YORK 
(i Continued from page 60) 
may be circular or scalloped. Into one 
of these moulds ropes of colored glass 
are arranged in the pattern desired, to 
which, when taken out, two workmen 
attach iron rods, one at each end of 
the mass, and draw it out until it is 
of the requisite slenderness. The design 
retains its exact proportions through the 
entire length and is as perfect in a 
rod of an eighth of an inch diameter 
as in the original thick cylinder. If an 
animal is to be represented the mould 
is cut into the exact shape and when 
the glass is released and drawn out each 
detail of legs, tail, ears and other parts 
is uniformly reproduced in solid color 
so that even in the tiniest representa¬ 
tion of the figure every part appears to 
be perfectly formed. Sometimes a cane 
will be composed of many threads of 
various colors and designs, each of which 
has been formed in this manner, 
arranged around a central rod and 
welded together. When the rods are 
finished they are broken into small 
pieces, or cut into uniform lengths or 
into thin slices, according to the sort 
of paperweights or other objects to be 
made. Into an iron ring the size of 
a paperweight a cushion of molten glass 
is dropped and while soft the sections 
of rods are laid on the surface or 
stuck in it side by side in a regular 
pattern, the tops of the rods being 
pressed into a rounded or convex form. 
Over all more of the melted glass is 
poured and the surface rounded into 
hemispherical shape by means of a con¬ 
cave spatula of moistened wood. The 
last process consists in polishing the 
surface of the curved top and the flat 
base after the ball has been again 
heated.” 
Dr. Barber further informs us that 
the millefiore paperweights found their 
way into America from St. Louis in 
Alsace-Lorraine (first to produce paper¬ 
weight of the sort, circa 1840) and 
from Baccarat in France. To the manu¬ 
factories of the latter town we look 
for the finest of the European millefiore 
paperweights. At first the filigree rods, 
cut or uncut, were imported; but soon 
American glass workers turned their 
attention to the complete production, 
and we may mark the period of 1860 
to 1875 as that of the heyday of 
American-made millefiori glass. 
It must not be thought that all the 
American millefiori glass has been picked 
up or picked over; there is much of 
it remaining to reward vigilant search 
and the collector will find it very well 
worth going after. Out-of-the-way 
villages in the East and South still 
secrete many such pieces, and so does 
the householder of the Middle West; 
while one finds Pacific-ward many 
examples of the old Thousand Flower 
glass that had so widespread a popu¬ 
larity before the Centennial turned the 
country to fresh ingenuities. 
The War Garden Department 
(Continued from page 50) 
"PORTRAIT OF A LADY" BY JACOB GERRITSZ CUYP (159 4-1651) 
Tinted Walls are Now the Vogue 
Designs and patterns on walls have had their 
day. Multi-colored treatments are passe. Good 
taste decrees artistic monotones and health de¬ 
mands the elimination of poisonous pigments. 
In the soft, velvety tones of 
HARRISONS 
Sanitary Flat Wall Finish 
(j4 Du Pont Product ) 
decorators and home builders find the perfect combination 
of beauty, sanitation and economy. It provides the ideal 
background for home furnishings, and yields the much de¬ 
sired atmosphere of good cheer and restful harmony. 
Harrisons, Inc. 
Established 1793 
Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City 
can grow them successfully within the 
confines of your yard. 
Every year you should overhaul your 
garden tools and get them into perfect 
condition before the spring. In look¬ 
ing over them, do not be content mere¬ 
ly to collect them into one place where 
they can be found later on. Give them 
a thorough overhauling. Soak in kero¬ 
sene for several days all the parts that 
are rusty, to help clean them up. Re¬ 
move all bolts, nuts or screws from the 
adjustable parts and attachments and 
soak and oil them well, so that if any 
change is wanted when the time to use 
the implements comes it may be made 
quickly and easily. 
Sharpness and Cleanness 
And get all your tools sharp! If you 
have ever attempted to shave with a 
dull razor—or if you have heard your 
husband attempting to shave with one— 
you will have some idea of the efficiency 
and pleasure in trying to work with a 
dull hoe or other garden tool. Get every 
one of them sharp now on a grindstone 
or emery wheel, or with a file. 
One tool especially that should never 
be out of order in the spring is the 
sprayer. If material has been left in it, 
the metal parts will be rusted or cor¬ 
roded ; and if it has been left empty the 
leather washers are pretty sure to have 
dried up so that they will not work 
properly. Sometimes all that is neces¬ 
sary, after giving all the parts a thor¬ 
ough cleaning, is to soak the plunger in 
oil for a couple of hours until it comes 
back to life. If this won’t do, you can 
get a piece of leather of suitable thick¬ 
ness and cut a couple of washers out 
of it. 
While you are at the matter of over¬ 
hauling tools, do not neglect to use a 
little paint. This is not for looks alone. 
Wood that the weather can get into soon 
rots. Tools that are kept looking new 
by an occasional coat of paint command 
more respect from the workman who 
uses them or the neighbor who borrows 
them. They are much more likely to be 
cleaned up when they are put back into 
your tool shed than if they looked old 
and battered to begin with. Good tools 
may not make a good gardener, but they 
will be a long step in the right direction. 
Seed Testing 
If you have any seeds on hand, you 
do not know whether you have an asset 
or a liability until you have tested them. 
Seeds that are fairly fresh to begin with 
will keep about the following length of 
time: Beans, 3 years; beets, 6; cab¬ 
bage, 5; carrots, 4; cauliflower, 5; cel¬ 
ery, 8; cucumbers, 10; egg-plant, 3; 
endive, 10; gourd, 6; kohlrabi, 5; leek, 
3 ; lettuce, 5 ; sweet corn, 2 ; muskmelon, 
5; onion, 2 ; oyster plant, 2 ; parsley, 3 ; 
parsnip, 2; peppers, 4; pumpkin, 4; 
radish, 5; spinach, 5 ; squash, 6; toma¬ 
toes, 4; turnip, 5. 
But as in most cases there is no way 
of telling how old the seed was when 
you got it, particularly if it is some you 
bought last year when seeds were scarce, 
the only sure way is to test it for germi¬ 
nation. While this can be done by- 
placing the seeds between two layers of 
moist blotting paper in a fairly warm 
temperature, a much more satisfactory 
test can be made by using an ordinary 
flat and soil such as are suitable for 
sprouting seeds. By marking off rows 
2 " or so apart, you can easily start a 
dozen or more kinds in a single flat, 
using about fifty to one hundred seeds 
of each. Label' each variety carefully 
as you plant it; keep the flat well wa¬ 
tered and in a warm place, and count 
the seeds as they germinate. Eighty to 
ninety per cent, the latter figure being 
none too much in most cases, should 
germinate if the seed is good enough to 
use in your garden this year. If not, it 
is much better to throw it away, as it 
does not pay to take any chances with 
poor seed when the few cents you might 
save on it are weighed against tire pos¬ 
sibility of losing all the fertilizer, time 
and trouble put in to start even the 
simplest vegetable garden as it should be 
started. The testing should never be 
omitted, and this is the best time to do it. 
