April 1924

FRUIT, GARDEN AND HOME

I WISH all of you might sit at my elbow and read the enthusiastic letters which come in every mail concerning Fruit, Garden and Home. I am sure that no one else in the whole country receives such an interesting and stimulating mail from every section.

What Our Girls Have Taught Us

No Job or Occupation Can Measure Up to Parenthood

Building a Rock Garden

Have a Naturalistic Corner in Your Garden

Keeping the House a "Home"

The Part That Paint and Varnish Play in the Process

Celery In the Home Garden

This Article Will Help You With a Rather Difficult Crop

The Lure of Cosmos

COSMOS are pleasant bits of garden decoration. There is an intimate friendly adornment about them, a fascination that charms. They have color, beauty and grace, and respond warmly to decoration schemes. A garden without cosmos may be as expressionless as a face that never smiles.

"The Poor Man's Orchid"

IN selecting gladiolus bulbs, don't pick out the large ones only, on the theory that large bulbs will produce better flowers. This is not always the case, as many of the finer varieties habitually develop small bulbs.

Renewing the Hanging Basket

IN the spring the hanging basket must be renewed. Starved, leached, bulged and beaten, the poor exhausted mosses and lichens which have served as a lining for the wire basket beg to be relieved of further duty. Those who derive pleasure from associating with hanging baskets will find as great enjoyment in renewing the baskets as is derived in one full season in watching the vines and plants grow and blossom.

Grow Muskmelons In Your Gardens

Everyone Likes Them and Every Gardener Can Have Them

Homes of Famous Americans

A LITTLE while ago I rode with Paul Revere on that memorable night of April 18, 1775, when he 'roused the Minute Men to arms, and set the match that started the fire that gave birth to our country. It was a pilgrimage in patriotism, a rededication to the ideals which have made this nation great, and which we must cling to if we are to continue on the journey towards our high destiny.

Making All America a Garden Spot

The One Sure Way To Do It Is To Plant More Trees

The Virtues of Pawpaws

THE mere mention of pawpaws recalls memories of quiet country lanes blanket-stitched with tangled rusty blackberry vines, Indian summer-kissed hillsides and wild aster-dotted creek banks where one roams early. To gather pawpaws and carry them home, bury them in bran, oats, or beneath clean, sweet hay, there to remain until transformed into rich brownness, all rich and sweet, is a rare delight; but to find the tranquility and the wildness associated with pawpaws right within the confines of one's own home grounds is indeed an unexpected treat.

The Best Roses for the Busy Gardener

This List Will Be Invaluable In Making Up Your Rose List

Are You Successfully Floored?

THE floor of today is not only a floor "as is," but a paramount element of beauty in the house, hence it deserves attention. Oftentimes a room is a perfect fizzle because the floor is poorly adapted to the spirit or letter of the room-- in types of flooring, design, color or tone of color, in grain or in its application.

The Neighbors' Kids

I HAVE on my place just one tree that is capable of producing an edible-- it's an apple tree-- but it is still so young that it has had no apples. I'm afraid it is going to have some soon because this spring it had three apple blossoms on it. When it begins to bear apples I may cut it down and burn it, because I like a calm and peaceful life, with unjarred nerves, and there is nothing in the world that rouses up a man and makes him froth in the brain equal to the sight of a brace of the neighbors' kids surreptitiously whanging chunks of firewood up into the boughs of his apple tree.

The Passing of the Pantry

THERE was nothing of the dramatic in its downfall! Had there been, the time-honored pantry could scarcely have passed without some form of protest or regret. We had esteemed the pantry and considered it one of the really necessary features of even a house of modest size. We had actually thought that only the presence of a serving-pantry 'twixt the kitchen and the dining room could effectually prevent the passage of culinary odors to the living quarters.

Propagation of Hybrid Carnations

THE true garden carnation is one of the few garden plants universally appreciated not only because it occurs in the most variety of tints, has some peculiar designs, and is exceptionally vivid in color, but also because it exhales a wonderfully delicate perfume.

Try This On Your Cat

Selecting Apple Varieties for Small Gardens

APPLES were part of man's food long before the records of history were cut in stone or printed. No doubt the wild apples used by primitive man were frequently of medium size and in some cases of fair flavor, but we have no record of just how some of the cultivated varieties developed in Europe came into existence.

As double petunia seed is very expensive as well as the plants, flower lovers may increase their supply by taking slips of their plants...

Cypress is the best lumber to use for lawn furniture...

An ordinary ball of garden twine makes a good wren house...

In pruning cane fruits and gooseberries a pair of strong gloves will save many scratches and enable you to do thoro work more rapidly

Give Brooding Chicks a Chance

BETWEEN the extremes of heat and cold in a circle around a brooder stove, is a heat zone, which is the correct temperature for the chicks, and they find this zone with remarkable accuracy. When the stove gets too hot the chicks move back and when it gets too cool they get closer to the stove.

Chicken Yards Beautiful

IF you love chickens and your wife loves flowers, just have both. The flower-loving wife who agrees for hubby to keep a few hens in the back yard must resign herself to the fact that there are certain flowers, notably pansies, she will have to plant elsewhere. But there are so many available that the chicken yard may be a beauty spot.

A BARREL OF PICKLES FROM FOUR HILLS

The Climbing American Beauty rose is is very desirable for trellis or arbor planting... ...

GARDEN REMINDERS

BLACKBERRIES and soft-wooded shrubbery, except the spring bloomers, should be pruned now. Set out small fruits before the spring rains if possible.

Care of Peonies in the Spring

WHILE the peony will stand more abuse than almost any other perennial, and still give a wonderful display of flowers, it will also respond to care most gratefully, expressing its thanks in still finer blooms. There are no complicated details in the proper care of the peony, it is rather the sum total of several items that yields results.

ROSE CUTTINGS

ANOTHER LITTLE GARDEN

Well, spring is at hand, and I must confess that I am quite pleased with our progress. You readers who are wrestling with the problems of a city lot, don't lose heart. You should have an acre of thickly wooded fir and undergrowth to clear in your spare moments!

Music For Every Home

IT is quite easy to feel that the language of music is something we can all understand, and we hope to make it the language of our homes by bringing to our children the best which music can offer; but just how does music speak to us? Does it bring the same message to everyone?

For the informal garden, a field boulder makes a much more desirable support for the sundial than a formal pedestal...

Charming and Practical Household Embroideries

SOMETIMES it is difficult, when confronted with a mass of lovely colors and a pretty design, to know just how to apply the colors to the design. For that reason we are being very explicit this month.

The Concord Grape and Its Originator

THE far-famed Concord grape-- I suppose the best all-round grape ever produced-- was the result of long and tireless experiment on the part of its originator, Ephraim Wales Bull, in his sunny hillside nursery on the famous old Lexington Road, of Revolutionary fame, in Old Concord, Massachusetts.

Along the Garden Path

A WORD to plant hybridizers: Have the courage to apply a rigid test to your own creations. Too many originators are too enthusiastic in their desire to introduce new sorts which really offer little or nothing to the discriminating gardener. The higher the standard set, and the more rigidly it is applied, the better flowers we may expect for our gardens. We need quality, not quantity. A few excellent flowers are better than an acre of average ones.