Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1893 — USES OF FLOUR BARRELS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

USES OF FLOUR BARRELS.

Some of tilie Pretty and Practical Thin** That Can Be Made from Them. You think you are familiar with the possibilities of old barrels. You know how to make chairs of them. You have Improved vasi’y on the rather primitive affair your ingenious grandmother was proud of having fashioned out of a barrel. Did it ever occur to you that there are other possibilities in an empty barrel? Have you ever tried making a table of one? Four nicely curved staves will make the legs. Use the head of the barrel for the top, or, if you like, buy a piece of wood any size or shape you fancy. Get a square piece of timber a few inches long and about five and a half inches square. Take off the corners for about an Inch, making an irregular octagon, and fasten on the sides the four barrel staves, with the ends well squared and smoothed off. Between them, where the corners were, fasten on some brackets to support the top. A small hoop placed between the staves near the floor will make them more firm, and a coat of paint or varnish will complete quite a presentable little table. A kind of round cabinet table can also be made by sawing out zigzag panels in the sides above the lower hoops and inserting a round shelf inside at this level. Put a round cover on the top and paint it white, first filling the cracks and imperfections with putty and rubbing down with sandpaper. The cabinet of shelves Is built of well-selected barrel heads, whose parts are held together by a broad cleat nailed on the under side of each

head. These are supported by four upright pieces, with grooves sawed in the edges at different levels. Brackets strengthen the frame and secure the shelves properly. The edge is finished with a fringe or -some other ornamental decoration about three inches deep. A useful stand may be made of a barrel sawed in half lengthwise and resting upon a framework of plain hoards with a shelf below. This may be filled with earth for a winter window garden or may have a cover hinged on for a table and be draped with a cloth to hide the barrel shape, which affords a spacious receptacle. Still another may consist of two ends of a barrel with the heads in each part being sawed off just at the second hoop. Through four holes in the lower one run the supports of the frame and let the top part rest upon their ends. Some small brackets under each barrel head will strengthen the whole. Covered and decorated with cloth and plush and with cushioned sides and pockets, this makes a very convenient work table, or, decorated in rustic fashion, a very pretty plant stand.

THE POSSIBILITIES OF A BARREL.