October 1926

What Is Your Home Worth?

Possibilities for Planting Wall Gardens

PROFICIENT planters of flowers and shrubs for centuries, the English stand today as probably the foremost teachers of matters horticultural. And on the pages of their annual catalog no course appears more alluring than the one on wall gardens and no professors more qualified to conduct it.

Showing Civic Pride With Trees

THE comfort to be derived from trees has long been recognized. The first comers to America appreciated this and as the towns and villages grew they saved the fine big shade trees. The parks and commons were tree inhabited.

The Proper Way to Remove Branches

I HAVE recently been much interested in the healing of wounds on trees, especially of those made by pruning. Anyone who will examine trees, particularly in old and neglected orchards and city shade trees, will easily find countless cases where branches have been improperly cut off and decay has followed. The photograph in the center of page shows a case in which a limb was cut off leaving the lone stub seen at the top.

The Third Season in My Garden

FOR the benefit of those readers who have not followed the discussions of our backyard gardening experiences in these columns, I want to say in the beginning that our place is just an ordinary city lot, fifty by approximately one hundred fifty feet in depth, out on the edge of town where the view is good and the air excellent.

How Shingles Help in Remodeling

IT was a quaint little house, typical of so many in our New England towns. The porch, with its jig saw ornaments on the posts and the low irregular roof lines proved that the cottage was built long after the zenith of colonial architecture and still it was far from modern. It had stood under the shadow of its churchly neighbor for many a year and had gradually outgrown the neighborhood with its modern buildings, and now its appearance presented a relic of bygone days.

Homes of Famous Americans

WHAT a hard, grumpish old world this is! The day is here and altho the sun shines and the breezes blow, the path is full of sharp stones and close-hedged with briars and brambles. Even the pasture that lends enchantment to the view is full of thistles and Spanish needles and sand burs.

Let's Have A Fireplace

NO matter how big a house is-- or how small, for that matter-- it takes a fireplace to make it home. Somehow, a hearth seems to embody the essential quality of home in a way no other one feature can. What if we do have furnaces to heat our houses and gas ranges to cook our food? Such utilitarian equipment conjures up no such visions as does the mere thought of an open fire on the hearth.

The Decorative Value of Paintings

I SHOULD like to say a word in favor of pictures in the home, so many of which have been banished to dark closets, like naughty children, or are hiding away patiently waiting to be remembered, like ghosts of a mistaken past.

More House in Less Space

WOULD you prefer to deduct $500 from the cost of your prospective home, or would you rather spend just what you had planned on and add an extra room? It's your option." A very attractive option, too, I decided, but it was not quite clear to me, so I had to question the architect.

Succeeding With Your Ferns

FERNS, the ideal house plants, graceful and beautiful with delicate, lacy leaves, always green and comparatively easy to care for by one who knows something of the nature of the plant, frequently die when brought into the home from the florist shop or the field.

A Patio-Planned Bungalow

The Oft-Neglected Bedroom

WHY are bedrooms so frequently neglected even in homes of otherwise pronounced artistic merit? Sometimes, undoubtedly, the neglect is entirely unintentional; often being traceable to an underestimation of the decorative possibilities latent in all bedrooms. Less creditable to the owners, however, the neglect is perhaps more often due to a niggardly and insincere policy, whereby the bedrooms are allowed to suffer in order that the rooms to which visitors have easy access may blossom forth.

A Plot Plan for Unit House No. 14

Nature Lore for Youthful Readers

FROM August to the first of October, some strange-looking wildflowers make their appearance. They are as blue as the back of father bluebird's coat in the springtime, and they grow nestled cozily together in groups among the leaves of the plant.

Under the Library Lamp

THERE is one thing that Every Woman Knows, and it isn't what Barrie thinks it is, either. Every woman, and especially every mother, knows to her everlasting regret with what ease a book-agent can sell her his unwanted wares. It is hard enough for a woman to withstand a smooth-tongued household agent selling anything, but it is next to impossible for her to resist the earnest-faced visitor (feminine gender) who assures her that Stepping-Stones of Motherhood, or The Child's Complete Educator, is the set of books which will solve her every problem-- that it is the one thing every mother owes it to her children to buy.

Garden Reminders

OCTOBER work in the garden consists mostly in finishing the harvesting of the year's crop of vegetables; cleaning up the home grounds and working ahead for another year. In last month's issue of this magazine explicit directions were given for the harvesting and storing of vegetables so it will not be necessary to repeat that information.

Wooden Novelties

THERE are many useful little novelties that the handy person can make from wood. When these little novelties have been enameled in suitable colors they will make bright little spots about the house. As gifts they will have the added value of being something you have made yourself.

Prepare Now for Next Season

ONE of the things which ail experienced gardeners advise most forcibly is that of making definite preparations in the fall for the next season's gardening operations. If the decision to have a garden has not been made until spring, or if the gardener lacks the foresight that is necessary for the work in the fall, hurried preparations and delayed planting the following spring are likely to be the result.

Adding Comfort to the Home

THE insulation of garage walls is a comparatively simple and not a costly operation. It will save coal or fuel oil if you heat the garage and in any case the car will be warmer on cold mornings, making it easier on the starting battery and the temper as well.

Better Basement Ceilings

THE insulation of the basement ceiling is sometimes omitted, but it is neither a safe nor an economical thing to do. The cost of the necessary materials and their application is small as compared with the advantages that a basement ceiling brings, since the house is not as comfortable, clean or fire-safe as it will be when this detail of construction has been completed.

A Garden for a Playmate

KENDALL mustn't touch the lady's flowers! No, no! Come away!" Kendall obeys, after one long lingering glance backward at the gorgeous crimson of tulips and the blue and lavender and pink of hyacinths. Kendall, five years old, has arrived at the flower-garden age.

Folks Not Afraid of an Idea

WE have got to get away from the sophistication and decadence of metropolitan life, or we are all in for trouble."

Modern Flower Pictures

Dad's Practical Pointers

THERE seems to be a general impression that after a short time you cannot obtain blueprints. A number of folks have written us lately asking if they can still obtain certain sets of blueprints which appeared some time ago. We want you to know that you can still obtain copies of every set of blueprints which have been prepared since the blueprint features were started.

Fall-Planted Grapes Bear Early

SEVERAL years ago I planted a small vineyard on my suburban lot in the late fall. My main objects were to get an early crop as soon as possible, test as many varieties as I could, and to secure as long a succession of fruit as possible. Twenty-one months later we began to enjoy the fruit.

Poultry a Profitable Hobby

SOON after I graduated from college and was offered a position on the editorial staff of a magazine, one of the biggest things I had to consider in making my answer was the fact that I would not be able to enjoy the pleasures of life out-of-doors as I had been accustomed to them until that time.

Budgets for Two

MAYBE some people are born with "budgeting" minds. I wasn't. I've always hated keeping accounts and adding up figures. The only way I ever saved any money, even when I was a not-so-awfully-poor working girl, was by having liberty-bond and savings-account payments painlessly deducted from my salary before it reached me.

A Rockery and Bird Bath

A ROCKERY lends an added feature of attractiveness to the garden spot. It forms an intriguing focus that allures the eye and works a transformation in an otherwise commonplace garden. But when one can have in the same piece a lovely rockery and an inviting bird bath for our feathered friends, one is assured of having an unusual garden ornament.

Beware of Take Music Publishers

IN response to the many requests which have come for information as to the proper procedure in the publication of a song, let the warning again be sounded, "Beware of fake music publishers." In the first place, do not submit poems or compositions to publishers until you have mastered at least the main essentials of literary or musical composition.

Building Healthy Bodies

NOW let us suppose that we have as our audience the young father and mother with a baby, sound mentally and physically, which has just come into the world. How I envy them that little mass of raw material, which they can shape in a fashion wholly good and beautiful!

Deliciously Cutting the Meat Bill

IN all probability, if a vote as to the best liked meats were taken among western civilization, we would find that beefsteak would be elected to the culinary honor. Indeed, there is a club in England known as "The Beefsteak Club."

Embroideries for Dining Room and Bedroom

Needlework Directions

NOTHING is more attractive for the bedroom in summer-- and winter, too, for that matter-- than a dainty set made of some sheer material such as organdie or lawn posed over a foundation of colored sateen.

Mrs. Washington's Gingerbread

I WAS interested in the article in the May number of Better Homes and Gardens, telling about the mother of George Washington, her home life, and how she entertained. It is said that she loved her home and garden, and altho in those days there were plenty of servants, she did many things herself.

Perpetual Poinsettias

ACROSS THE EDITOR'S DESK

I KNOW of no better way in which to illustrate what we mean by repeating so often that Better Homes and Gardens is getting "bigger and better with each issue" than to call your attention to the fact that this issue is 32 pages larger than the October issue a year ago. And last October was 20 pages larger than the preceding October issue! In other words, this issue which you are now examining is exactly twice the size of the magazine two years ago!