end,
therefore, that, since all kinds of stains are now kept in stock, and
for sale everywhere, you would better rely upon the manufactured goods
rather than to endeavor to mix up the paints yourself.

STAINS AS IMITATIONS.--It will be well to remember one thing as to
stains. Never attempt to stain anything unless that stain is intended
to produce an imitation of some real wood. There are stains made up
which, when applied, do not imitate any known wood. This is bad taste
and should be avoided. Again you should know that the same stain tint
will not produce like effects on the different light-colored woods. Try
the cherry stain on pieces of pine, poplar, and birch, and you will
readily see that while pine gives a brilliant red, comparatively
speaking, pine or birch will be much darker, and the effect on poplar
will be that of a muddy color. In fact, poplar does not stain cherry to
good advantage; and for birch the ordinary stain should have a small
addition of vermilion.

By making trials of your stains before applying them to the furniture,
you will readily see the value of this suggestion.

GOOD TASTE IN STAINING.--Oak, mahogany, cherry, black walnut, and like
imitations are always good in an artistic sense, but imitations of
unfamiliar woods mean nothing to the average person. The too common
mistake is to try to imitate oak by staining pine or poplar or birch. It
may, with good effect, be stained to imitate cherry.

Oregon pine, or some light-colored wood, with a strong contrasting grain
may be used for staining in imitation of oak.

GREAT CONTRASTS BAD.--Violent contrasts in furniture staining have the
effect of cheapness, unless the contrasting outlines are artistically
distributed throughout the article, from base to top finish.

STAINING CONTRASTING WOODS.--Then, again, do not stain a piece of
furniture so that one part represents a cheap, soft wood, and the other
part a dark or costly wood. Imagine, for instance, a cabinet with the
stiles, rails and mullions of mahogany, and the panels of pine or
poplar, or the reverse, and you can understand how incongruous would be
the result produced.

On the other hand, it would not be a very artistic job to make the
panels of cherry and the mullions and stiles of mahogany, because the
two woods do not harmonize, although frequently wrongly combined.

HARD WOOD IMITATIONS.--It would be better to use, for instance, ash or
oak for one portion of the work, and a dark w