December 1924

A Chat with the Publisher

THIS is what might be called the inventory time of the year. When December comes and the year draws to a close, we begin to take stock of what has been accomplished, what progress has been made, what handicap's overcome. Many readers who have taken stock of the past year have written us telling about the progress they have made in making better gardens and in making better homes.

In January These Worth-while Features

"God Rest You, Merry Gentlemen!"

And Now We Have Our Home!

How We Fitted Up Our Home Attractively On a Slight Outlay

The Making of a Garden

This Garden Is the Result of More Than Sixty Years' Work

Beauty At the Back Door

How Fort Worth Staged a Yard-Beautiful Contest

Home Glimpses of Mrs. John D. Sherman

An Interview With the New President General Federation Women's Clubs

What Shall We Do With the Children?

How to Keep Them Happy at Home

If You Would Have Birds On a City Lot

How I Attract Them and My Lot Is Only 30x60 Feet

"Be It Ever So Humble," Sang Payne

Twenty-Fourth Article In a Series On the Homes of Famous Americans

It's a Fine Thing to Dream for a Little Child

I Faced the World Alone With My Infant Son and I Won!

"The End of a Perfect Day"

Success With Rhubarb

NO small garden should be without its rhubarb, variously known as the pieplant. It is considered one of the most healthful vegetables as well as the best spring system renovator. For pies it is fine and many can it for later winter use. It is also used for medicinal purposes. A small bed of roots is a permanent investment, at a very small cost; the tonic value of the sauce in early spring cannot be overestimated as well as during the entire season.

The Household Christmas Gift

IT is fortunate for most of us that the attitude towards Christmas gifts and giving should have undergone a vast change within recent years. Until that change crept in upon us, many well-intentioned people were bestowing gifts so widely and so altogether indiscriminately that they simply could not buy judiciously. The sole effect seemed to be concentrated on acquiring the requisite number of gifts-- the quality and the suitability of the purchases really appearing to matter least of all!

Under the Library Lamp

Standardized Plant Names is the title of an extraordinary volume issued by the American Joint Committee on Horticultural Nomenclature. It is extraordinary because it is the first attempt in the history of horticulture to propose one scientific name and one common or vernacular name for each item in American horticultural commerce.

Retouching the Neglected House

LAST fall we found it necessary to leave the little bungalow which we had recently built and move into another city for a few months. Since we intended to stay but a short time the logical solution for our housing problem was to rent a furnished house.

How to Buy and Cook Meats

IN spite of the fact that lamb is probably one of the earliest of domestic animals used for food, in this country it is one of the least used meats, and few housewives are acquainted with cuts other than the leg and ribs. There is no well-founded reason for this unpopularity, for lamb is a wholesome, nutritious and economical meat to buy, providing one buys wisely, selecting from the forequarter cuts as well as the hind quarter.

DAD'S PRACTICAL POINTERS

HERE it is almost Christmas time! Fall slipped away in a hurry, didn't it? And next month-- comes another year. Have we accomplished all we wished, done all the things we hoped to do?

How We Do It In the Great West

IN the very beginning, permit me to say that I have lived on the Pacific coast for thirty-nine years-- thirteen years, in Oregon and twenty-six years in California. It will be my purpose to treat all sections with fairness and impartiality.

Seasoning For Savor

WHEN you look back and remember the special dishes that tasted so good, when you were a youngster at grandmother's or at Great-Aunt Peggy's, in almost every case it will come back to you that those goodies, with their appetizing, "more-ish" appeal, were flavored by a, standard different from that of most cooks of today.

Managing the Backyard Flock

THE average city and suburban homeowner suddenly decides he is going to have chickens as egg producers and for table consumption. With the thought fresh in mind he hurriedly erects what he calls a hen house. Probably he even includes a bit of a runway. The chances are he feeds the hens table scraps of every description and more scratch grains than they will eat.

Christmas Carols of all Nations

Why Not Have Christmas Music In Your Home This Year?

Last Minute Gifts in Simple Stitches

Mrs. Hall will gladly answer any questions regarding needlework. Address pattern orders and inquiries to Mrs. Bennie Hall, in care of Better Homes and Gardens, Des Moines, Iowa. Floss may also be ordered to work designs, and needle in correct size is always included

Along the Garden Path

I CANNOT commend too highly the enterprise and vision of The Garden Flowers Society of Indianapolis in the flower shows which it sponsors each season. And none the less to be commended is the Bankers' Trust Company of that city in whose lobby the shows are held. Recently, when the annual dahlia show was held great crowds thronged the lobby.