The following method of staining floors in oak or walnut colors is highly commended by the London Furniture Gazette: Put 1 oz. Vandyke brown in oil, 3 oz. pearlash, and 2 drnis. dragon's blood, into an earthenware pan or large pitcher; pour on the mixture 1 quart of boding water; stir with a piece of wood. The stain may be used hot or cold. The boards should be smoothed with a plane and glass-papered; till up the cracks with plaster of Paris; the brush should not be rubbed across the boards, but lengthwise. Only a small piece should be done at a time. By rubbing on one place more than another an appearance of oak or walnut is more apparent; when quite dry, the boards should be sized with glue size, made by boiling glue in water, and brushing it in the boards hot. When this is dry, the boards should be papered smooth and varnished with brown hard varnish or oak varnish; the brown hard varnish will wear better and dry quicker; it should be thinned with a little French polish, and laid on the boards with a smooth brush.

Wax For Polishing Floors

To prepare this, 12 1/2 pounds yellow wax, rasped, are stirred into a hot solution of 6 pounds good pearlash, in rain water. Keeping the mixture well stirred while boiling, it is first quiet, but soon commences to froth; and when the effervescence ceases, heat is stopped, and there are added to the mixture, while still stirring, 6 pounds dry yellow ochre. It may then be poured into tin cans or boxes, and hardens on cooling. When wanted for use, a pound of it is diffused into 5 pints boiling hot water, and the mixture well stirred, applied while still hot to the floor by means of a paint brush. It dries in a few hours, after which the floor is to be polished with a large floor brush and afterwards wiped with a coarse woolen cloth A coat of this wax will last six months.