tile world where a mixture
of cotton and wool is highly advantageous, but in ingrain carpeting,
where the sympathetic fibre of the wool holds fast to its adopted
colour, and the less tenacious cotton allows it to drift easily away,
the result is a rusty grayness of colour which shames the whole
fabric. This grayness of aspect cannot be overcome in the carpet
except by re-dyeing, and even then the improvement may be transitory,
so an experienced maker of rugs lets the half-cotton ingrain drift to
its end without hope of resurrection.

The cutting of old ingrain into strips for weaving is not so serious a
task as it would seem. Where there is an out-of-doors to work in, the
breadths can easily be torn apart without inconvenience from dust.
After this they should be placed, one at a time, in an old-fashioned
"pounding-barrel" and invited to part with every particle of dust
which they have accumulated from the foot of man.

For those who do not know the virtues and functions of the
"pounding-barrel," I must explain that it is an ordinary, tight,
hard-wood barrel; the virtue lying in the pounder, which may be a
broom-handle, or, what is still better, the smooth old oak or ash
handle of a discarded rake or hoe. At the end of it is a firmly fixed
block of wood, which can be brought down with vigour upon rough and
soiled textiles. It is an effective separator of dust and fibre, and
is, in fact, a New England improvement upon the stone-pounding process
which one sees along the shores of streams and lakes in nearly all
countries but England and America.

If the pounding-barrel is lacking, the next best thing is--after a
vigorous shaking--to leave the breadths spread upon the grass, subject
to the visitations of wind and rain. After a few days of such
exposure they will be quite ready to handle without offense. Then
comes the process of cutting. The selvages must be sheared as narrowly
as possible, since every inch of the carpet is valuable. When the
selvages are removed, the breadths are to be cut into long strips of
nearly an inch in width and rolled into balls for the loom. If the
pieces are four or five yards in length, only two or three need to be
sewn together until the weaving is actually begun, as the balls would
otherwise become too heavy to handle. As the work proceeds, however,
the joinings must be well lapped and strongly sewn, the rising of one
of the ends in the woven piece being a very apparent blemish.

Rugs m