Finally, the most important factor of all in the management of a wood fire is an ample bed of ashes for its foundation. It is impossible for anyone who has not actually tried fires both ways to appreciate the immense advantage that a bed of wood ashes gives. It unquestionably doubles the fire’s efficiency in throwing heat out into the room, it halves the care and attention needed to keep the fire burning, and it increases beyond measure the beauty of a wood fire, when it is nearing its end, by rekindling itself with the embers and keeping alive for a long time the quiet, dull red glow. Stop your ears to the importunities of the over-zealous housekeeper and steel yourself against the pricks of the conscience of cleanliness. If need be, fight for the retention of that bed of ashes. You can scarcely get it too large or too deep. The accumulation of two years is a priceless treasure. One of my own fireplaces has a bank that has to be depleted about twice a year to make room for the fire. A peck or two of the fine white powder is then carried out to bring joy to the rose garden.
To one who loves a wood fire and knows its possibilities the mention of such a thing as an ash-drop is as a red flag to a bull. Peace be to the ashes of the man who invented this easy method of robbing the hearth of half its charm. May he be forgiven it.
THE
HOUSE & GARDEN
MAKING
BOOKS
It is the intention of the publishers to make this series of little volumes, of which Making a Fireplace is one, a complete library of authoritative and well illustrated handbooks dealing with the activities of the home-maker and amateur gardener. Text, pictures and diagrams will, in each respective book, aim to make perfectly clear the possibility of having, and the means of having, some of the more important features of a modern country or suburban home. Among the titles already issued or planned for early publication are the following: Making a Rose Garden; Making a Lawn; Making a Tennis Court; Making a Water Garden; Making Paths and Driveways; Making a Poultry House; Making a Garden with Hotbed and Coldframe; Making Built-in Furniture; Making a Rock Garden; Making a Garden to Bloom this Year; Making a Garden of Perennials; Making the Grounds Attractive with Shrubbery; Making a Bulb Garden, Making a Garage, Making and Furnishing Outdoor Rooms and Porches; with others to be announced later.