Choose Judiciously

For very sunny rooms, select cool-looking papers, such as blues, greens and browns in various shades,

while for dark rooms pinks, reds, terra cottas and yellows are best. When selecting papers, pay care

ful attention to the color scheme of your room, and don't have an inharmonious mixture, which will offend good taste. Small, plain patterns are the most economical, and the easiest to match. The cheap, trashy papers, costing only a few cents a roll, are not worth the trouble of putting up. Gold paper is not to be recommended for wear.

No borders should be used for rooms having a low ceiling. For such, a striped paper of pretty design running right up to the ceiling is best. The ceiling may be papered in a plain or very smallpatterned design, to harmonize with the side walls, or treated with several coats of tinted kalsomine or paint. A picture molding of appropriate color is used to finish the side walls, being placed scarcely I inch from the ceiling. The ceiling whether papered, painted or kalsomined, should be done first. It is a very difficult matter to paper the ceiling, and, unless you can have help, it would be better not to attempt it. Plain tints in paint or kalsomine are always pretty and in good taste. If, however, you want to risk papering the ceiling yourself, get some handy body to help you.

Paste and Tools

The paste is made by simply boiling flour and water together, and adding a very little alum, salt and glue-about a tablespoon of each to a pound of flour. It should be of a consistency thick enough to apply easily, and not so thin that it will run.

Provide yourself with a good-sized paste brush, another one (a whitewash brush will do) to use dry over the paper, sharp scissors and a knife,

plenty of clean rags, two barrels, two long, smooth, clean boards, each about 10 inches wide, and a stepladder.

Make a long table by placing the two barrels about 8 or 9 feet apart and on top of these the boards.

Trimming and Cutting

The first thing to do is to cut the necessary number of strips of paper long enough to allow for waste in matching, and lay them all face downward on the "operating" table, one on top of the other. Next spread the paste evenly over the top or first strip of paper, being very sure to have the edges. well pasted. Then turn top and bottom parts down, bringing pasted sides together, so that they meet, and none of the paste part is exposed, and carefully trim off edge on one side, with large, sharp scissors. Lift up the part thus trimmed and folded, and mount the ladder, which should previously have been placed convenient to the place where you intend to begin operations—the largest wall space is best, next to a door or window.

Hanging the Paper

Now take hold of the top end which was doubled over (it will open and hang by its own weight) and adjust to its proper place on the wall. Then, with a large clean rag in your hand, rub downward, never up or sideways, and take great care to keep the edge straight. If you find that you didn't start straight from the top, loosen paper and do it over again. A "straight eye" is needed to do the work neatly. Don't rub too hard and always rub down

ward, doing a little part at a time, and lifting paper occasionally, so that no air bubbles are left under it. When the upper part is done, dismount from ladder, undo the folded part at the bottom of the width, and proceed in the same manner to adjust to the wall. When you are sure it is on straight and smooth, trim with a sharp knife along the baseboard. Then give the strip another smoothing by going all over it again with a dry, clean brush. Proceed in this way until all the full length parts are covered, and then match in the small spaces over and below windows and doors. All the matching must be done with great care.

Practical and Economical

Wainscoting in living or dining rooms are nice, and very practical, especially where there are small children. For this purpose burlap, or the less expensive dark, heavy papers that come in wood-grain imitation are good. Matting is sometimes used with very good effect, too. A narrow wooden molding is used to finish the top of the wainscoting, and in that case the work of papering the side walls is so much easier, the lengths being short.

THE FARM BLACKSMITH SHOP

A blacksmith shop is of immense practical value on a farm. To those who have one it is almost as essential as live stock, farm tools and crops. One does not need to be a professional blacksmith. The elementary practice in welding, upsetting and tempering is easily learned with a little practice. Nor is it necessary to have many tools. An entire equipment may cost but a few dollars.

An old railroad rail will do for an anvil. But after getting the real article one is better satisfied and can do the work with greater ease. The forge should be obtained at the start. With it almost anyone can heat any small iron to welding point with as much ease as a regular blacksmith.

In the equipment of an Ohio farmer are a pair of tongs that he made himself, two other tongs and a large pair of pinchers picked up in a junk shop. He got the hammer and sledge from a hired man who had worked in a car shop. The anvil and vise also came from the junk shop, and both were in good repair. These cost $8, the hammer and sledge, $1.15, and an old, second-hand forge, $1.80. Not a large outlay to be sure, but a wise expenditure. If purchased at first hand the cost would be greater, but cheap at any price when you consider what you can do in the way of making and repairing with such a list of blacksmith tools.

In addition to the above list this man, Frank Ruhlen, has chisels, pinchers, fullers and other small tools, all of which he has made out of old pieces of steel taken from old worn-out machines. By figuring and planning just a little, any farmer can make the greater part of his own tools and at a very small cost for materials and labor.

Why the Shop Pays

Mr. Ruhlen says: My shop was not started to replace the town blacksmith shop; and it will never do so. But it does serve for repair work, and it saves many trips to town. It is helpful in other ways, also. Last winter a sudden ice spell came on, so severe that I could not get the horses out to the field to feed the flock. Only one thing was