In apple wood, gnarled and bossed into natural rosettes by frequent pruning, and nature's efforts to heal the wounds, will be found material well suited to the purpose of making Rustic Furniture. The old wood of Kalmia from the Southern swamps is much employed in Baltimore, where an extensive manufactory has been established by an individual who began in a very small way, but now supplies a large region of country. Pear, plum, and oak, especially the white oak, are also suitable from the frequent bendings and elbows of their growth. The wood should be dry before working; it may be either used with the bark on and a coat or two of paint applied after the manufacture of the article, or the bark may be removed and the work finished with a coat of "outside" varnish. This is far preferable, as the bark, if the paint is not renewed, is apt in a year or two to separate and peel off. By revarnishing in spring they will look "as good as new." Figure 6 is another pattern of a chair.

Fig. 6.

Figure 7, an arm chair. Care must be taken that sufficient symmetry is preserved. Employ the same means as suggested for No. 6, in the last number. The two front legs, it will be observed, are braced by natural limbs, and the arms have been selected from what would have formed "knee joints" for the ship builder, had they remained long enough in growth.

Flower baskets, such as shown at figure 8, may be manufactured by covering old butter firkins, or other packing cases with split hazel rods, either perpendicularly applied, as trellis, or in any other decorative arrangement; taste in such matters speedily growing with the exercise of the habit of construction.

Fig. 9 is produced by employing the same 'means with the base, and by taking a hoop to attach upright slats made as fancy may direct or employing hazel rods.

Fig. 7.

The laborer who has tried and succeeded in making some of these simple appendages to his garden will Boon be led on to the construction of rustic fences, porches, etc. He will learn to weave the branches into grotesque and picturesque combinations - to pave the floor with pebbles or with short pieces of the branch sawn across and placed perpendicularly in sand. With the decoration and improvement of his cottage and garden self respect and comfort in his home will grow, increased by this occupation of his time, and his house will become what it ought to be, attractive to himself and family.

Fig. 8.

Fig. 9.