May 1925

What to Look for in June

WE have certainly enjoyed getting together the material for the June issue of Better Homes and Gardens and we are sure that you are going to get just as much enjoyment out of reading it. In the first place F. E. Brimmer has prepared an article for you on auto camping called, "Our Better Camp Home," which is going to make you want to get out the old car right away and start on such a vacation as the author describes.

Minnehaha Falls in the Springtime

Our Work for National Parks

"The National Parks Lady" Tells of the Fight for Better Parks

How We Made Our Tiny Pools

WATER adds the completing touch to the beauty of a garden. Perhaps no other feature adds so much charm as does the pool, whether it be formal or informal, mirror or bird pool, fountain or lily pool. An informal pool set in some corner planting with a seat nearby (as in the picture at the top of this page) affords a quiet place for rest or for enjoying the antics of the birds and the beauties of opening bud and swaying leaf reflected in the water.

Feeding and Caring for Shade Trees

TREES are almost human in their response to good care. When planted in poor soil and left to take care of themselves they either merely exist for a number of years or at best grow very slowly. Undesirable varieties of trees such as the Carolina poplar, box elder, tree of heaven, and soft maple, of course, do the best under such care but scarcely reach maturity before they begin to break down and decay. Hardwood trees like the oaks and sugar maple are naturally slower in growth but with proper handling can be encouraged to make two or three times the normal season's growth.

Homes of Famous Americans

Quincy Mansion, Home of Dorothy Quincy, Wife of John Hancock

Tall Bearded Iris

A Perennial Par Excellent for Every Garden

Yellow Roses for Our Homes

What Varieties to Use in Bringing Brighter Colors to Your Garden

Renewing the Youth of An Old House

Remodel the Home to Fit the Family's Needs

Vacationing in Your Own Backyard

You Can Enjoy the Fun of Real Camping Without Leaving Home

Radio for Every Home

IN three short years radio has grown from a mere pigmy to a colossal commercial giant, and from all appearances will continue to grow beyond all expectations of even the most optimistic. The earlier sets, in fact the sets which were sold during the first two years of this great radio era, were designed for economical volume production. Anything that could be made to work in any manner at all was entirely satisfactory to a thrill-mad public that absorbed factory outputs and clamored for more.

That Yours May Be Beautiful

THERE is no word, phrase nor definition that I know of which describes interior decoration so briefly and accurately as an old nursery rhyme that comes to mind. Of course, you remember the one beginning, "There was a little girl--" A change of the pronoun in the last two lines is the quickest analysis of interior decoration I have ever come across-- "And when it is good, it is very, very good, but when it is bad it is horrid."

Wheel Hoe Gardening

A FEW years ago I bought a wheel hoe with all attachments except a seeder. This I did not need because at the time my garden was too small to make it necessary and because I felt that I could buy one at any time I might need it later. No other garden implement I have ever bought has proved so good an investment. It has saved an enormous amount of time, labor and back-breaking; and tho it has had the hardest kind of use only one tooth (a narrow "sweep") has been broken. The machine and the other attachments are good for many years more hard usage, tho it will not be long before some of the original bolts and nuts will have to be replaced.

Things to Watch in Buying a Home

How Unscrupulous Speculative Builders Deceive the Buyers

A Comfortable Home

Summer Garb for the Home

WHEN a home is suitably arrayed in summer garb, the warmest weather loses much of its poise-disturbing power. It is fortunate, therefore, that the equipment of a home for comfortable summertime use is not at all a matter of lavish monetary expenditure, but merely of proper foresight and sound judgment. Indeed, very often, nothing is required beyond the elimination of such elements as needless furniture and accessories, objects of excessive ornamentation and heavy draperies of dark color; for, when these are banished, an interior immediately assumes the appropriate summer atmosphere of simplicity and spaciousness-- qualities strongly suggestive of the boundless outdoor world!

Markers for Your Garden

YOUR flower garden will be an attractive spot even in that bleak time before the seeds spring up if you mark the rows with brightly painted markers. Not only in the springtime but all summer long the markers will add bright spots to your garden and will make themselves useful by forming supports for vines and for straggling plants.

A May Breakfast for a June Bride

Carefully Laid Plans Make Entertaining Easy

Colorful Effects for Bedrooms Beautiful

THE pretty Colonial girl scarf and cushion illustrated at the top of the opposite page is made on a background of sheer cross barred muslin and placed over a foundation of rose-colored sateen. The edges are hemstitched and finished with dainty lace. The pieces may be made any desired size and the pillow foundation may be made round, oval or square as the fancy dictates.

Garden Reminders

Seasonable Suggestions for the Month of May

Insuring Future Happiness

YOUR son or daughter is your dearest possession and as such is, in your estimation, entitled to the best things our land affords. Are you as a parent, doing your part to help them with a training in one of the most vital "little" things of life-- the matter of planning and accomplishing a sure financial success?

Service-Saving Suggestions

IN the home which has only one servant or none at all, every dainty service-saving trick should be used which will give distinction to the meal. Every time-saver in beforehand preparation and in after-clearance should be employed, too.

Even the Hens Fit In

OUR new house was built while we were in La Jolla for the summer," said Mrs. Howard Dunlap of Emporia, Kansas. "The little stucco chicken-house, built in with the garage, occasioned no little speculation in the neighborhood. The college president, who lives down the block, confessed that he thought it was to be an ash house.

Practical Pepper Growing

PEPPERS, one of the easiest crops to grow in the home garden, very often fail to produce because some simple rule has not been followed.

DAD'S PRACTICAL POINTERS

THE walk leading from the curb to a neighbor's home was laid several years ago by a contractor who took the work on a job basis. There is an abrupt fall from the lawn to the street, and this contractor slighted his duty in one respect. He failed to allow for erosion at the top of the slope.

Music at the Time of George Washington

Popular Songs and Dances of the Revolutionary Days

Lawn Hints

Plan for Brussels Sprouts

ACROSS THE EDITOR'S DESK

I FEEL it a real privilege to call your specific attention to the guarantee of advertisements appearing in Better Homes and Gardens. You'll find the guarantee appearing at the top of page 5. A number of readers have asked us recently whether we stand back of the advertisers who appear in these columns. We do. Our guarantee is broad enough to protect you in every way whenever you have a legitimate complaint, and it means that in case some advertiser may fail to live up to his bargain with you, Better Homes and Gardens will either secure redress for you from him or stand any loss incurred itself.