PLAN No. 445. BOOKBINDER FOR U. S. SEE [PLAN No. 217]
PLAN No. 446. BOOKKEEPER FOR U. S. SEE [PLAN No. 217]
PLAN No. 447. A SIMPLE DANDELION DESTROYER
Having discovered a simple yet effective method of destroying dandelions without digging up the roots, injuring the grass or otherwise disfiguring the lawns, a middle-aged landscape gardener in an eastern city made a great deal of money by taking contracts to destroy these perennial pests in hundreds of lawns, being frequently offered $100 by a wealthy householder if he would successfully eradicate them from the premises.
All he used for this purpose was sulphate of copper, which he bought by the barrel at less than 5 cents per pound, but which he sold at 25 cents per pound to those who wished to apply it themselves, though in most cases property owners preferred to have him do the work himself, and while there was no great labor involved, it usually paid him at the rate of $2.50 an hour, the material used costing about 20 cents, as one pound of the sulphate will make about four gallons of the solution, which is applied with a sprayer, sprinkling the tops of the plants liberally. This effectually destroys the dandelion, while the blue grass or clover of the lawn is not injured in the slightest degree by its application.
PLAN No. 448. MADE FEATHER COMFORTERS
The wife of a Norwegian farmer, living in northern Minnesota, where the winters are very cold, had brought with her from the old country many excellent ideas of real comfort, and among these was the idea of feather comforters.
They had a large flock of geese and ducks, and thus the raw material for making these wonderfully comfortable comforters was easily available and plentiful. But she did not make them bunchy and unwieldy, but light in weight, neat, pretty—and extremely comfortable. The following is her method of making them:
The feathers are held in small sacks, made like long, narrow pillowslips, of cheese cloth or regular ticking. For each sack a strip of ticking about 20 inches wide and as long as the desired width of the comforter is used. This strip is stitched together up the side and across the end just as a pillowslip is made; then turned and filled with feathers and the opening is hand sewed. The thickness of the comforter will, of course, depend upon the amount of feathers put into each sack. An exactly equal weight must be used in each to insure a uniform thickness of the comforter. About twelve of these sacks, each measuring about eight inches across when filled, will be required for a comforter of ordinary length.
The covering for the comforter may be of calico, sateen, flannel, or even of silk. The top and bottom covers are held together by basting, then lines of stitching are run across the width far enough apart to admit of the long feather sacks being drawn through from side to side like tape through a hem; then the edges of the comforter are bound and the comforter is complete. It is warm and elastic, there is no bunching up of the feathers, and the whole is easily cleaned by opening the two sides of the covers and pulling out the sacks of feathers to be dry-cleaned or hung on the line to sun and air while the covers are being washed or new ones provided.