Kitchen floors, which are usually of Georgia pine, are less suited for waxing, for the reason that much water falls on them, and makes the wax white and dull. The best treatment of all would be to saturate the floor with paraffine, by melting it in with hot irons, as is often done in hospitals. Such a floor would never absorb water or dirt of any kind, but it would be expensive; and most people, forgetting the hours that their servants spend in washing floors which, with proper treatment, would never need anything more than wiping with a damp cloth, choose the cheapest finish that they can find. Usually, a coat or two of linseed oil is put on; and, as the mucilaginous gum contained in linseed oil remains soft in a warm, moist atmosphere, the dust and dirt of the kitchen stick to it, forming a black coating which it is almost impossible to wash off. A thick paraffine oil is sometimes used instead of linseed oil, but with little better results. Some housekeepers wash their kitchen floors with milk, which is said, by repeated washings, to give a shining surface, which is not sticky; but there are sanitary objections, to say nothing of entomological ones, to filling the seams between the boards with dried and decaying milk. Probably wax in some form, notwithstanding the fact that the provision-man's wet boots make tracks over it, is the best application. In order to fill the pores and crevices of the wood as thoroughly as possible with it, the ordinary waxing may be supplemented by sprinkling the floor with powdered paraffine, scraped off a paraffine candle, or from the blocks sold for the purpose at the large grocery stores. These paraffine scrapings are much used for scattering over ball-room floors, the feet of the dancers soon forcing them into the pores of the wood; and the ordinary traffic of the kitchen, aided, perhaps, by a hot iron in the corners, would in time give something of the hard, impervious surface, which, if it is desirable in a ball-room, is even more so in a kitchen.

Kitchen floors.

When an oiled kitchen floor has become so black that the most persevering maid gives up the attempt to make it presentable, the usual course is to paint it. As even the best paint shows marks from boot heels and furniture, such a surface is less desirable than one made by thorough treatment with paraffine; but sometimes nothing better can be had. In such cases paint mixed thick, with plenty of japan drier, should be used, so as to get the floor well covered with one coat, and insure its drying within a reasonable time; and it is judicious to employ a single pigment, such as French ochre, raw sienna, burnt sienna, or raw umber, without mixing it with any other color, so that the worn spots which will appear later in front of the sink, and around the doors, can be retouched with the contents of another can of the same color, without recourse to the tedious, and generally unsuccessful, operation of mixing new color to match the old.

After a floor of any kind has once been properly waxed, it often happens that housekeepers, or over-zealous servants, in their anxiety to keep it in a state of brilliant polish, or to restore it when its original lustre has become dimmed, put on too much wax, which lies on the surface of the floor, and collects dust, giving the wood a gummy, blackish look. The remedy for this is to take off the surplus wax with a little turpentine. Some of the manufacturers of floor waxes, knowing the ways of housekeepers, put up and sell, under the name of "Reviver," or something of the kind, a mixture of a small amount of wax or paraffine with a large proportion of turpentine. This compound, rubbed with a rag over a floor suffering from too much wax, simply dissolves and removes the blackened surplus, revealing the floor underneath in its pristine brightness.

All floors are more or less subject to staining

« or discoloration from various causes. The worst discoloration is that which comes from the blackening of varnish or oil on the surface, and it can only be remedied by scraping the coating off, to the bare wood. This operation, when carried out with steel scrapers, is tedious and expensive, as the particles of sand and grit embedded, with other dust, in the sticky varnish, quickly destroy the edge of the scraper; but either this or, in the worst cases, planing, is necessary, as the acids, alkalies, or trade nostrums used by painters for removing old varnish leave the wood in an incurably uneven, chalky condition. After the floor has been thoroughly scraped, it should be treated with the oil and turpentine and japan mixture, and waxed.

Q ferior, even a damp cloth will, after a little time, cause white or yellow spots to appear on the surface. These are caused by the cracking and disintegration of the varnish; and, while they can be to a certain extent concealed by rubbing them with "Scotch Polish," used and sold for the purpose by furniture dealers, the disintegrated varnish soon crumbles off, leaving the bare wood.

Removing stains from floors.

Where the preliminary oiling of a waxed floor has been omitted, as is often the case where the proper method is not understood, the floor will show grease spots, particularly in dining rooms, where greasy crumbs will inevitably fall upon it. The grease can be tolerably well removed with turpentine, and the spots, if left to themselves, will gradually be absorbed and disappear; but the best way to cure them, as well as to prevent the formation of others, is to wash off the wax with turpentine, oil with linseed oil, turpentine, and drier, and refinish with wax.

Oak floors are subject to a sort of staining which often gives housekeepers much trouble, at the same time that it affords an interesting study in chemistry. Every one knows that ink is made by mixing gallic or tannic acid with a solution of iron, the two forming a deep black compound. As oak wood contains tannic acid, it is only necessary to wet it with a solution of iron to produce a deposit of ink in the fibres of the wood; and the necessary iron solution is furnished by a wet umbrella, or cane, or by the wet tires of a baby-carriage, or an old tin pail, or a multitude of other objects, any of which, if left standing on the floor, will leave a black mark. Fortunately, this inky mark is very easily removed with oxalic acid, which is the general remedy for all varieties of iron stains.