60 
House & Garden 
FINE FURNITURE NEED NOT 
NECESSARILY BE EXPENSIVE 
I T is a mistake to assume that furniture, to 
be really artistic and beautiful, must of 
necessity be expensive. 
You will be astonished at the low prices of 
many exquisitely fashioned pieces and suites 
made by Berkey & Gay. Each of them is an 
original creation by Berkey & Gay design¬ 
ers and each bears the famous inlaid Shop- 
Mark—your guarantee not only of artistic 
excellence but of the quality of material and 
workmanship. 
You can see Berkey & Gay furniture at 
the leading furniture store in your city. If 
you have any difficulty finding it, write us and 
we will gladly tell you where you can see it. 
Berkey & Gay Furniture Company, 444 Mon¬ 
roe Ave., Grand Rapids, Michigan. 
A new and comprehensive exhibit, comprising thousands of pieces 
of Berkey 13 Gay Furniture, may be seen at our New York Show¬ 
rooms, 113-119 West 40th Street—or at Grand kapids. Visitors 
should be accompanied by, or have a letter of introduction from, a 
furniture dealer of their city. 
BERKEY & GAY FURNITURE 
(=CQ,Ji 
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Cabot’s Creosote Stains 
For Shingles, Siding, Boards, Trimmings, Timbering 
Stained wood is much more beautiful than painted wood. The stain is transparent and 
brings out the beauty of the grain and texture while paint completely hides both. Cabot’s 
Stains cost only halt as much as paint and the labor cost is only half as much. The 
colors are rich, harmonious and lasting and the Creosote penetrates and preserves the wood. 
“ 50% Cheaper Than Paint ” 
You can get Cabot*s Stains all over the country. Send 
for stained wood samples and name of nearest agent. 
SAMUEL CABOT, Inc., Manfg. Chemists 
24 W. Kinzie St., Chicago 
11 Oliver St., Boston, Mass. 
525 Market St., San Francisco 
Twenty Million Fuel Savers in America 
(Continued from page 40) 
1 . Clean off top of oven, take off 
small clean-out door and clean thor¬ 
oughly under the oven monthly; see 
that smoke pipe fits in the chimney 
tightly, and that inside of the chimney 
is closed off about six to eight inches 
where the pipe enters. If the fire bricks 
are loose, get a little fire clay and fill 
in joints. 
2 . Keep the fire pot up even with 
the top of oven, rounding off the top, 
but not having coal against the lids or 
running out over the oven. 
3. Turn shaker handle over quickly 
as far as it will go and then back; both 
motions should be continuous and rapid. 
Repeat until the fire-bed is free from 
ashes and clinkers. If the range has a 
flat grate, use the poker to clean off the 
top of the grates. Always allow fire to 
have full draft for five or ten minutes 
before cleaning. Take ashes from the 
ash pit daily, to prevent damage to 
grates. 
4. For baking and roasting, have slide 
open in the ash-pit door, have the fire 
box filled up to the top of the oven 
and free from ashes. As soon as baking 
is finished, close all front drafts, open 
the check-draft damper in pipe, and if 
the fire still burns too freely remove one 
of the lids over the oven about two or 
three inches. To leave drafts on after 
you are through cooking is very wasteful 
of coal. To bank fire for night, run 
poker around the side of the fire, which 
will clean the clinkers off the bricks and 
water back. See that the fire is packed 
down solidly, rounding off the top but 
not having coal against lids or running 
over the oven. Check draft as directed 
when through cooking. It will keep 
your kitchen very much warmer if you 
let the oven door stand open. For fur¬ 
ther information or directions consult 
your regular range man. 
5. Read the General Rules applying 
to all household coal burners. 
ARE THESE YOUR PROBLEMS? 
Some of the personal letters which our In¬ 
formation Service has written to inquirers 
Inquiry —As a reader of House & 
Garden I ask for full information on 
Bird Houses. What kind of houses are 
best, how they should be placed, cost, 
etc. I have a lot 66 2 / 3 ' x 165' with house 
and garage on same, erected during the 
past twelve months. My trees are all 
young. Kindly give as full information 
as possible. 
Answer —From what I know of the 
general type of country about Atlantic 
City I am inclined to believe that your 
best success with bird houses will be 
with those designed for Bluebirds, House 
Wrens and Purple Martins. The other 
species which patronize such shelters, 
chiefly the woodpeckers, chickadees and 
nuthatches, are found in the more 
wooded areas farther inland, and if I am 
not mistaken would occur with you only 
as occasional stragglers. * 
With this assumption, then, I would 
suggest that you put up about half a 
dozen of the smaller houses, three of 
them being the bluebird size and three 
for wrens, and one large colony house 
for martins. The latter should be on top 
of a pole at least 15' high, and in as 
exposed a position as possible. It should 
stand well away from trees and build¬ 
ings, as martins prefer to have nothing 
nearby which tends to curtail their flight 
in approaching or leaving the house. 
The wren and bluebird houses, on the 
other hand, may be placed almost any¬ 
where about the grounds, preferably at 
heights ranging from 8' to 15'. As your 
trees are still small, it would probably be 
advisable to set some of these houses on 
specially erected poles, although such 
situations as the top of an arbor or trel¬ 
lis, boundary fence posts, etc., often 
prove attractive. I have known of sev¬ 
eral cases, too, where wrens have taken 
possession of houses erected for them 
on the pillars of vine-covered verandas. 
Wherever possible, bird houses should 
face the east, south or southwest. A 
northwest exposure is not so good, be¬ 
cause it is open to the full force of the 
heaviest summer winds and storms. The 
houses may be put up at any time dur¬ 
ing the fall or winter. It is well for 
them to have a chance to weather a 
little before the birds arrive in the 
spring. 
As you doubtless know, it is difficult 
to attract birds from any distance by 
erecting nesting houses for them. If 
they do not like the locality, they can¬ 
not be induced to stay there, nor will 
they go far from the general type of 
country which is natural to them. I 
would suggest, therefore, that you be 
conservative about putting up any but 
the martin house unless you know that 
the other species of birds I have men¬ 
tioned are found in the general region. 
Many disappointments are caused every 
year because the birds for which houses 
have been erected are not natural to the 
locality and therefore fail to put in an 
appearance. 
The purple martin, however, is quite 
common along the New Jersey Coast, 
and you should have a good chance of 
getting a colony of them to nest on your 
place. A large house with many sepa¬ 
rate rooms is the best, as these birds 
prefer “community” life. Twenty-five 
or more pairs sometimes take possession 
of one dwelling, returning year after 
year. 
I am today asking a number of the 
best bird-house manufacturers to send 
you their catalogues and informational 
booklets, which will give you such de¬ 
tails as price, construction, etc. 
Inquiry —I wish to put in an aspara¬ 
gus bed. 
How do I prepare the bed? 
How deep should plants be planted? 
When should I plant? 
What kind and where can I buy plants? 
How far apart should I plant ? 
If you will give me some information 
I will be very thankful. 
Answer —The usual time for making 
up the new asparagus bed is early in the 
spring, as soon as the ground can be 
worked. By the first of April, in normal 
seasons, the bed should be fully pre¬ 
pared and the plants may be set in. 
Best results will be had from a warm 
(Continued on page 62) 
