58 
House & Garden 
The Water Servant of America 
In city, town or country homes—on ranches, farms or large 
estates—for greenhouse, dairy, office building—wherever 
water under pressure is required a 
“V & K” Water Supply System 
answers the question at once and for all time. 
The builders of these systems have been pump makers 
for more than Fifty Years and over Eighty Thousand “V 
& K's” in use and giving perfect satisfaction, is a gauge of 
the confidence of the American people in the “V & K" 
product. 
“V & K” Systems are operated by electricity, gasoline 
engine or water power. 
The Modern Way 
The “Modern Way” is the “V & K” 
Catalog. It describes and illustrates 
“V & K” Systems. It makes very 
plain the system that will best fit your 
requirements, and gives its cost. It 
explains Water System and WateT 
Supply. It proves “V & K” economy 
and efficiency. It is yours for the 
asking. Send for your copy today. 
As\ y° ur plumber or plumbing jobber 
about "V& K” Water Supply Systems 
THE VAILE 
Dept. F 
KIMES CO. 
Dayton, Ohio 
Send for/A/s. 
Booklet 
The 
Modern Way 
li 
The War Garden Department 
( Continued, from page 45) 
hot fruit or vegetable. Seal immediately. 
Cover must be sterile. 
Water Pack for Rhubarb, Gooseberries, 
Currants, Cranberries and Some Plums 
Prepare fruit as for canning. Pack 
closely into glass jars. Set these under 
the cold water faucet, and allow water 
to run into the jars for several minutes. 
Adjust rubber and screw on the top. 
( A glass topped jar is best for preserv¬ 
ing strongly acid fruits.) 
Cold Pack Method 
Pick over and wash vegetables thor¬ 
oughly. Blanch in boiling water for 5 
minutes. Plunge into cold water. Pack 
in glass jars. Add 1 teaspoonful salt to 
each quart jar. Fill jar to overflowing 
with boiling water. Adjust rubber, 
screw on top part way, and set in hot 
water bath. Place jars on a platform 
in washboiler or similar utensil. Have 
water cover tops of jars by at least 1". 
Count time of processing after water be¬ 
gins to boil — 120 minutes for all greens. 
Remove jars when time is up and tighten 
covers. Turn jars upside down, and 
when cool store in a dark, cool place. 
Intermittent Sterilization 
The process is the same as for Cold 
Pack canning except that the water in 
the boiler need be only about 3" deep. 
Steam will do the cooking. 
Set the boiler on the stove, place the 
jars on an improvised rack in about 3” 
of water, and bring water to a boil. 
Cook for 1 hour. Remove cover, let 
steam escape, remove jars and screw 
down tops. Next day loosen covers, set 
jars back into boiler and repeat the 
process. Repeat again the third day. 
All spores are killed by the fractional 
sterilization; and any fruit, vegetable 
or meat will keep when put up by this 
process. 
Syrups for Canning 
Stir the sugar into the water. Use 
hot water to dissolve the sugar. 
Thin Syrup: 1 cup sugar to 2 cups 
water for peaches, apples and other 
sweet fruits. * 
Medium: 1 cup sugar to 1 cup water 
for berries, cherries, plums, currants, 
etc. 
Medium thick: 3 cups sugar to 2 cups 
water for sour fruits such as gooseber¬ 
ries, cranberries, and for fruits like 
strawberries and raspberries.. 
Thick: 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water 
for preserves and jams. 
Combination Jams, Marmalades and 
Conserves 
Rhubarb and strawberry. Rhubarb 
and pineapple. Rhubarb and apple. 
Strawberry and pineapple. Strawberry 
and apple. 
Turn all left-over fruit syrups into 
“honey,” or syrup to be used in sauces 
for puddings. If allowed to ferment, 
any left-over fruit juice will make good 
vinegar. 
New and Old Floors 
(Continued from page 21) 
the vogue in this country, black and 
white marble floors were very popular. 
Some of them were very elaborate, one 
in particular, an original from an old 
Italian palace shows marbles arranged 
in geometrical patterns with numerous 
allegorical figures. All of these were 
quite consistent with the style of the 
house as they represented the sort of 
floor, that were in houses of this period 
in Europe from which our architects got 
their inspiration. 
Few of the decorators at that time 
had the knack of making this sort of 
house look livable or homelike, which 
accounts for the style of architecture 
giving away to the “cosey” or homelike 
Queen Anne. Thus did this style of 
floor go out of use. 
Now with the swing of the pendulum 
back to the straighter lines and more 
dignified rooms, black and white or 
black and yellow squared floors are 
again being put into our houses. There 
are two other ways, by which the same 
general effect can be obtained, and both 
of these are less expensive. One of them 
is to space off the wood floor into 
squares and paint directly on it in imi¬ 
tation of the marble. This was recently 
done in a very chic millinery shop in 
Boston and it proved not only unusual 
but very effective. The only objection, 
however, is that if the boards of the 
floor are narrow or the floor is poorly 
laid, this sort of work is apt to prove 
unsatisfactory. 
But the showing of lines of floor 
boards and irregularity of surface can 
be remedied. First cover the floor with 
a good grade of linoleum, preferably the 
battleship variety, and you are ready 
then to paint the black and white 
squares on the smooth surface. 
While dealing with marble it is well 
to add that there are other methods of 
treatment. A marbled floor, that is, one 
painted to look like variegated marble, 
is more practical for general use than a 
square or plain color or of two colors, 
because it does not deface easily, an ad¬ 
vantage the practical housekeeper wants. 
Some people who despise sham or imita¬ 
tion claim that this sort of floor is ob¬ 
jectionable. They do not realize that 
this marbleation of wood and even 
plaster is no new idea. It was carried 
out by the Italians in their 16th Cen¬ 
tury villas and palaces, even in the 
country where marbles were most 
abundant and the labor of marble work¬ 
ers a mere pittance. 
Of course a floor of this kind might 
seem too grand for the simple farmhouse 
type of architecture, the kind that came 
into existence one to two centuries ago. 
There is a remedy for this: use the 
spatter floor. One of these, most in¬ 
teresting in character, is found in the 
Thomas Aldrich house at Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire. To-day, however, this 
kind of treatment does not seem to be 
generally known or understood by the 
present generation, although they were 
very common in old New England 
homes built in early 1800. 
The spatter floor is merely the term 
applied to a sort of painted wooden 
floor, a speckled floor, resembling bril¬ 
liant granite. The general tone may be 
either dark, medium, or light, accord¬ 
ing to the color scheme of the room and 
the paint used. In a recently renovated 
farmhouse where a dark floor was neces¬ 
sary to bring out the right treatment, an 
absolutely black floor was not desired. 
The owner solved the problem by first 
painting it black, and then spattering 
the small spatters red, then yellow and 
then gray. The effect was dark, but it 
had the advantage of not showing every 
footmark and particle of dust. Spatter¬ 
ing is done by dipping the brush into 
the paint and then hitting it against a 
stick held in the hand. The size of the 
drops of paint can be regulated by the 
brush, the amount of paint on it and 
the force of the blow against the stick. 
How few of us think of birch for an 
inside floor? Yet it is excellent, being 
practical, warm and quite inexpensive. 
It shows a wonderfully rich amber 
color with even shades that are brought 
easily to the surface and take on a clear 
polish. Birch can be laid in straight 
rows or herring bone pattern. 
