been added. The
material must be soaked in a solution of tin crystals before dipping,
if a pure orange is desired, as without this the color will be a pink
buff--or "nankeen" color.

What I have written on the subject of home dyeing is intended more in
the way of suggestion than direction, as it is simply giving some
results of my own experiments, based upon early familiarity with
natural growths rather than scientific knowledge. I have found the
experiments most interesting, and more than fairly successful, and I
can imagine nothing more fascinating than a persistent search for
natural and permanent dyes.

The Irish homespun friezes, which are so dependable in colour for
out-of-door wear, are invariably dyed with natural stains, procured
from heather roots, mosses, and bog plants of like nature. It must be
remembered that any permanent or indelible stain is a dye, and if boys
and girls who live in the country were set to look for plants
possessing the colour-quality, many new ones might be discovered. I am
told by a Kentucky mountain woman, used to the production of reliable
colour in her excellent weaving, that the ordinary roadside smartweed
gives one of the best of yellows. Indeed, she showed me a blanket with
a yellow border which had been in use for twenty years, and still held
a beautiful lemon yellow. In preparing this, the plant is steeped in
water, and the tint set with alum. Combining this with indigo, or by
an after-dip in indigo-water, one could procure various shades of fast
blue-green, a colour which is hard to get, because most yellows, which
should be one of its preparatory tints, are buff instead of lemon
yellow.

An unlimited supply and large variety of cheap and reliable colour in
rag filling, and a few strong and brilliant colours in warps, are
conditions for success in rag rug weaving, but these colours must be
studiously and carefully combined to produce the best results.

I have said that, as a rule, light warps must go with dark filling and
dark warps with light, and I will add a few general rules which I have
found advantageous in my weaving.

In the first place, in rugs which are largely of one colour, as blue,
or green, or red, or yellow, no effort should be made to secure _even_
dyeing; in fact, the more uneven the colour is the better will be the
rug. Dark and light and spotted colour work into a shaded effect which
is very attractive. The most successful of the simple rugs I possess