May 1924

FRUIT, GARDEN AND HOME

WE can be terribly absorbed in our business; we can be so interested in the garden that nothing else really seems quite so vital; we can chase the various rainbows of our lives to the uttermost parts of the world, but, when all is said and done, there is nothing quite so interesting and vital as the little children.

Where the Lure of the Summer Trail Is Irresistible

Vacationing With Your Automobile

THE popularity of a gasoline gypsying vacation needs no elucidation here, for the fact that more than five millions of motor vacationists marched up and down the length and breadth of the North American continent last year is proof conclusive that the newest avocation is here to stay. Just as long as the automobile is popular, just as long as states and federal organizations go on building better highways-- just so long will the motor car be a favorite plaything at vacation time.

When You Plant the New Shrubs

A Correct Start Is Necessary for Strong and Vigorous Growth

How to Fruit Fancy Tomatoes

A Home Gardener Shares His Experience With You

The First Year With My Lily Pool

It Has Opened New Worlds To Us and Is a Permanent Fixture

How To Grow Dahlias

THE dahlia is a native of Central America where it attains a height of more than ten feet, and it was Humbold who found a bright red and a yellow flowering form. In growth this wild dahlia is extremely straggling and loose and has very little in common with the garden forms.

Homes of Famous Americans

CALL it Fate or Chance or Destiny-- what you will-- but some men seem to be pursued by a sinister influence which thwarts their ambition and blocks their way to the reward which they often seem richly to deserve. Sometimes it is the things that men do that damn them; again, the things they don't do. And the more they seem to deserve better of life, the harder it is to reconcile ourselves to that which overtakes them.

Birds of City Lots and Gardens

IT is hardly necessary to point out that the birds to be observed in a city garden or lot will vary according to the part of the country it is in. In California, for example, the list would be quite different from a record for Kentucky, for Florida, or for any of the New England states. This being so, we may make our selection in any part of the country, and the reader may compare those enumerated here with those observed in his or her own section.

What's Wrong With the Home?

"Not a Home Has Been Broken Up On My Street in Sixteen Years"

The Things We Don't Do!

It is said that there is a law of compensation; that we pay for everything, real or fancied, that we get in this life. Years ago, one of my friends told me with a catch in his throat, an experience he had had. "I came home from the office," he said, "tired and worn out.

The Range of the Oil Range

THE oil range has at last come into its own! No longer is it the step-child of cookery, or the makeshift in the kitchen. No! It is the range which now stands on its own feet, and very steady ones at that, and even better, the range that stands on its own prowess, its own abilities, its own merits, having beautifully discarded a clouded (often very smudgy clouds, too!) past, and that has risen as it is today, to a possibility undreamed of in the days gone by.

Suppose You Choose Frame

THE outer walls of any house properly demand much attention-- not only because of their bearing upon the artistic development of the exterior, but on account of their effect upon the inner wellbeing of the house. The selection of a material for their construction is, therefore, one of the most important problems at the outset of any homebuilding project. Perhaps if there were fewer materials to choose from, the problem would be far easier to solve.

What Is a Good Refrigerator?

A GOOD refrigerator has four points of merit that every prospective purchaser should keep in mind. They are, Cleanliness, Insulation, Durability and Circulation.

GARDEN REMINDERS

DAHLIAS should be planted about May 1st. As the eyes are at the base of the old stem be careful in dividing to cut a portion of the stem with each tuber. In planting lay the tuber flat, six inches deep and cover three inches. As they grow, draw soil in and cultivate often.

Vines for Distinction

DID you ever notice that when you are traveling thru the country you seem to recognize a distinct personality about the different homes you pass by-- that some of them will be unpleasant, even frowning in their impression of you, while others will call out a welcome to you, making you want to stop and rest awhile within their vine-wreathed verandas.

You Can Control the Rose Insects

Roses have a deservedly popular place in gardens, scarcely a garden being without their beauty. Unfortunately, roses are attacked by everpresent insect pests, which destroy the foliage and so weaken the plants that bloom is injured or destroyed. On the other hand, only a little care and the proper use of the sprayer and spray materials will do away with the whole trouble.

Preparing Peonies for Exhibition

THIS season's show of the American Peony Society is to be held at Des Moines, Iowa. It is expected that those having this show in immediate charge, profiting by the lessons learned from the National Show held in St. Paul-Minneapolis last June, which, by the way, was the greatest peony show ever held in the world to date, will put on an exhibit of peonies that should prove a Mecca to every peony lover residing in the United States and Canada.

My Experience With Poultry

WHEN I moved into a house on Vine street, I found in the back yard the remnants of a chicken park, and a fairly good chicken house. I was told the previous tenants made money selling fresh eggs, so why could'nt I? However my chief ambition was to have "fried chicken."

Chickens That Do Not Scratch

MANY a man who has a small yard and home would like to keep chickens but refrains from doing so because he does not like to keep them closely confined. Of course, you cannot have a garden and keep chickens on the same ground, but you can keep guinea fowl right in the garden and they will not scratch out the plants.

Fruit Questions Answered

SUGGESTION FOR HOME PLANTING SCALE

Watering Shrubs

THE home gardener has always been seeking an easy underground method of watering his shrubs. Spraying the surface of the soil is not entirely satisfactory because the ground bakes when it dries and the foliage of some plants scalds badly when spraying with cold water is followed by a blistering sun.

Tags Which Stay Readable

Music For Every Home

FOR the past few years, a number of American communities, including several of our largest cities, have set aside one week which they have designated as Music Week. During this week special community activities in music have been featured, and the result has been a noticeable increase in the interest of good music.

Fascinating Embroideries for Summer

Here is a sketch of my own bedroom, ready for summer in gingham dress of orange, yellow and white combination with a bit of black in the squares. The embroidered bands were done separately, for they were easy to carry with me while I visited the neighbors, and it was hardly a full morning's work to stitch the widths of gingham together and insert the embroidered bands.

A Wild Flower Garden

SPEAKING of back yards, the most fascinating spot in our back yard is the small plot occupied by a wild flower garden; and no other portion of our acre and a half of land gave us the pleasure that this otherwise useless bit of earth yields.

Along the Garden Path

IT is a wonderful privilege to hear from so many of you each month, to read your letters, learn your plans, hear your home-making experiences and perhaps see a picture of your home or your yard. I wish I might have space to print every one of your letters. They would form a great volume of human interest. Just the other day, a mother of seven children read an article in the magazine which touched her so much that she wrote the following.