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Show " BANISHING THE CARPET Tho living room in a farm house, especially whuro there arc a number of children, soon becomes a harbor for dust: and no matter how particular particu-lar ono Is In sweeping, this dust Is simply shifted nbout, somo .settling on the furniture, more sinking Into tho depths to tho carpet, to be startcd'up again at tho next sweoplng. The waxed or varnished floors which spot If a drop of water touches them are not practicable on the farm; but tho room may still be made presentable pre-sentable without a carpet, clean, and moro easily kept in order. In our own case, the 'problem was to finish a hard-wood floor that has been used some years, and was rough and discolored in places. Perhaps some of the prepared floor waxes would havo given more pleasing results. re-sults. If mere beauty was the motive. P.ii wn wnnforl fliirnhlllrv nnrl n llnnr not too slippery. It wa3 flrot snndpaporod until smooth. And thfs jiort of tho work must be thoroughly done; for on Its completeness depends much of the future beauty of tho work, as woll as the case of keeping It In order. If not perfectly smooth the dU3t is bound to stick; while If the surface-Is surface-Is properly reduced the cust wipes off very easily. There were .some crack's to be filled. Wo had read of n paper pulp filling easily eas-ily prepared by tearing newspaper Into small bits and cooking It in pasty water uytll s,oft, then kneading It Into a pulp. This may answer with very largo cracks. ' It is difficult to work" smoothly Into small ones and on tho-wholo rather an expensivo makoshlfi. If time is valuable. val-uable. It is better4to invest In a prepared pre-pared crapkfiUer. . ' ' This sprea'ds smoothly and evenly, - - a. but Is white when dry. It also crumbles crum-bles when In contact with moisture. To obviate this difficulty ordinary yellow yel-low paint was darkened with burnt sienna until it nearly matched the color of tho floor, and the cracks given a coat of It after the filler had been In twenty-four hours and become be-come hard. Allowing another day for tho paint to dry, tho floor was treated to a coat of boiled linseed oil. applied hot. It takes comparatively llttlc5ll to cover a floor, application being easily mado with a flannel cloth. Now comes the work, fun If thore arc little folks in the family. It must bo well rubbed Into tho wood, this, next to sand-papering, being the secret of succohs. Pieces of burlap serve nicely for applying the friction. Of course if one has a floor brush Iho work 1$ still better accomplished. At tho ond of a week a second application of oil should bo gien. Then onco in a month or six weeks will bo found sufficient. Titakc several Lags of canton flannel, with tho nap side out, or of outing flannel. Ono of these can be slipped over tho broom and held In place by a 'raw-string. Sweeping dono by this mothod not only leaves the floor shining and freo from dust but saves much dust from, settling on furniture. If there Is need of it, the floor can ho c.-iBily cleaned by Wringing a mop on of cold water. Soft wood floors will require a different dif-ferent treatment. But by filling cracks and treating the floors in some manner that will be durable, and using us-ing rugs Instead of carpets ono will find the problem of keeping clean more easily solved: |