February 1926

How Foolish To Think It Doesn't!

When Winter Comes

WINTER may be just what you make it, or what it makes you. Either the cold season of the year may lock you up indoors with Jack Frost your jailer; or you may defy King Winter and trample him beneath your feet said feet being clad with any of the three S-tools of winter sports: ski, skates, or snowshoes.

What Radio Brings to Our Home

IT all started with the crystal set I carried home one cold January day a year ago-- a crystal set with yards and yards of dime-store wire and a pair of earphones guaranteed not to flatten one's ears nor affect one's hearing. In spite of a cruel northwest wind I immediately drafted masculine aid; the set was hooked up and that night I tuned in for the first time on the local station. I do not remember whether the celestial music was "Heme, Sweet Home" or "Turkey in the Straw," but it played its way right into my heart and I knew then I could never be quite content until I had a real radio-- one to share with the family without having to turn the earphones against a tin pan to form a "loud speaker."

Homes of Famous Americans

IF you go to Slabsides and I hope you do you'll be thrilled the moment you step from the train at West Park-on-the-Hudson. To the west crowd in the hills, sheer granite sentinels that on this October morning are a riot of flaming color, catching something of the symbolism of the setting sun and flaunting their pinions and banners like streaming hosts hurrying on to the invisible empire.

Grapes for the Home Garden

NEARLY everyone likes grapes, but, as is the case with many other fruits, to appreciate fully the highest quality of any variety of grapes one must eat fruit properly grown and permitted to ripen on the vine. The home gardener who grows his own fruit knows the ultimate quality of well-ripened grapes and his friends marvel at the difference between his fruit and the fruit they procure from the grocer, which has often been produced in some remote section of the country and picked before fully mature.

"Ding" Makes a Garden

MILLIONS of newspaper readers know "Ding" as the greatest modern artist in the virile realm of the cartoon. The hundreds of people who are so fortunate as to call Jay Darling their friend know him also as one of the greatest artists in the gentle business of living.

Making the Rose Universal in America

AROSE for every home a bush for every garden," is the phrase used as a part of the seal or insignia of the American Rose Society, organized a little more than twenty-five years ago for the plain purpose of making the rose universal in America.

The Bluebonnet, State Flower of Texas

WITH the coming of commerce those things that so enriched Texas history are all but gone. There are few mustang ponies to be tamed.. There are few bronzed cowboys to tame them. The great ranches upon which boys became fearless riding men are giving way to the plow, the hoe and the mower.

The Cold Frame and the Compost Heap

THERE are two very important accessories of even the small home garden the coldframe and the compost heap. I should not attempt to run even a little garden without the aid of the former, and I consider the latter a necessity, if anyone has the least idea of the economic conservation of by-products.

I Hope You Know Her, Too!

EACH evening she grows expectant, listening with eager ears for a footstep. When it falls on the step, she fairly leaps to the door, her eyes dancing like a child's, her arms outstretched, her heart racing. It is so, no matter how the years have spun Time's endless cord and moved on. Her love is ever young, vibrant, eager.

How to Succeed With Celery

UNTIL several years ago this most succulent of vegetables was entirely absent from the average family table save for several definite periods of the year such as Thanksgiving day and Christmas. It was about as periodical and coincident in its appearance as the historical cranberry. It is no longer considered luxury but now is a common article in the diet and available practically thruout the year.

Mv Four O'Clock Garden

WHY don't you play golf?" ask some of my friends. "I don't need to play golf," I reply, "for I have a few square rods upon which I dig and plant and transplant and sow and clip and divide and spade and scratch and experiment with growing, propagating of living things. This gives me the exercise, relaxation and pleasure all I need and takes up all my time.

Hints and Suggestions for Tree Primers

THE fruit trees around our homes are nearly as close to us as our children. There is pleasure in watching their spurts of growth and their little eccentricities, in gathering the first dozen immense peaches from a precocious little tree- there is quiet amusement in watching a boisterous young plum wo make its prodigious growth.

The Evolution of a Little Flower Border

OUR little flower border stands just below our vine clad terrace wall. Year by year it attracts the eve of the passerby. It delichts especially those who pass it daily going to and from their work for they become intimate with its many moods. It interests visitors, too, who get acquainted with it as they walk up the entrance path.

A Little Spanish Bungalow

Landscaping Gives the Finishing Touch

THE four wheels on my car have just brought me home from a six-thousand-mile trip across the country, during which time I observed much. Before we left home my wife said to me, "There is something wrong with our house." We were put in front at the curb, where our heavily loaded car stood waiting for us. I looked at the house. Everything seemed familiar, in place, neat and tidy. I shrugged my shoulders- yet I, too, felt that something was wrong, or missing.

Nature Lore for Youthful Readers

WHEN cannon balls roared around Gettysburg and over the battlefields of Maryland during the days of the Civil War, more than one onlooker stood silently rooted to the spot. Not from terror, however. No doubt those sturdy spectators, loyal native Americans that they were, would bravely have entered battle if they could.

Under the Library Lamp

I FIND I can't continue this department without devoting one number just one to the particular books, good and bad, that are being most widely read in the United States today.

Making: the Most of What We Have

WE rent! I hate to admit it, but it's true. I feel as if I had just declared that I have the leprosy or live in an almshouse. We read so much nowadays about the horrifying and awful effect that renters have on the nation, but if the glib writers who own a city home, a country estate and a flock of motor cars deplore the fact, we deplore it even more.

Gardening With Annuals

ANNUALS, those delightful things which spring up quickly from seed, and flourish and bloom luxuriantly the first season, have a niche in American gardening which is entirely their own. No other plants are able to compete with them or give such complete satisfaction in so many ways.

Planting the Small Vegetable Garden

EVEN tho your garden is covered with snow it is none too early to be planning what vegetables you will plant this year. You may not be able to include all of the following varieties in your city lot garden but by figuring out succession plantings and utilizing all the space it will be possible to crowd in a good many different vegetables even on a small plot of ground.

Getting Title to That Home

THE big celebration of home ownership is the paying of the last installment. When the program for buying a home is well under way, a careful watch should be kept for short cuts. If you have started in a small way with a limited first payment, you are probably paying an exceptionally high rate of interest; as your equity increases you can frequently find ways for changing your purchase plan to reduce the interest rate, or increase the credit against principal or even to reduce the amount of your payments so as to divert a portion of the outlay to other purposes such as enlarging the home or beautifying it and thus increasing its value.

Make a Basket for Your Garden Flowers

NO receptacle for garden flowers is quite so charming as a well-designed basket. And it is such an easy matter to give the basket just the right color for any special flower. It is an interesting problem in color harmony to work out combinations for your favorite flowers and you can, if you make it, have a basket designed in both shape and color for each of the flowers you like best.

The Control of Fire Blight

TN spring, when the young tender twigs of the apple tree suddenly turn brown and many of the clusters of blossoms are blasted, in fact when the tree looks as if it had been lightly swept with a hot flame, that is fire blight. This is a most aggravating disease on most varieties of apples since it causes the destruction of much of the new growth without killing the tree.

Folks Not Afraid of an Idea

AUTOMOBILES get both praise and blame for a great many things. Like the little girl with the curl, they may be "very, very good," or they may be "just horrid." It all depends upon your point of view. For ten or twelve years now, because of the ease with which they can travel, folks everywhere have been able to enjoy the out of doors as they never could before.

Twelve Ways to Improve the Home

I have been so much interested in the "ways to improve the old home" which have appeared in past issues of Better Homes and Gardens that I should like to tell of a method devised by my husband to make washing day easier.

Garden Reminders

FEBRUARY is an interesting month to gardeners everywhere. In the central portion of the United States it is still too early for much actual gardening but many things may be done in advance of the planting season; southern and western neighbors, however, are more fortunate and are already busy with spring work.

Dad's Practical Pointers

GOOD, practical ideas which other readers can use are always welcome to this department. There will be room for one or more reader contributions each month this year, and if you have something you would like to pass along, and make a little money too, send in your favorite kink.

Solving the Terrace Problem

TERRACES surely are problems that is most of them, for to the average lawn they mean just a continuous watering and difficult grass cutting to keep them at all presentable. Even after the sod is started on steep slopes it is hard to keep sod intact for there is the hot killing sun of August, with extreme drought periods, not to mention small boys using them as sliding places.

Adventuring In Color

LIKE some far distant land of romantic lure, color holds the promise of much adventure stirring, appealing, ever fascinating! Yen- tees into the realm of color are, of course, not invariably successful: in fact, they are sometimes decidedly unsuccessful, simply because they have been undertaken with too little preparation.

Saving Trees From Damage By Grading

TREES often suffer or are killed when grading of ground is done close to them. In one class of cases it is due to cutting main roots. Perhaps this oftenest occurs when pavements are laid. When the roots are in the direct line of the pavement damage can seldom be avoided; but wherever possible all roots should be left intact.

A Hotbed for the Garden

IT occurred to me recently that hotbed making time was at hand. Accordingly, I summoned my helpmate in conference and we decided that a small frame would be sufficient for our needs this year. The hotbed, I explained to my rife, who is new to the gardening game, advances the season several weeks with such vegetables as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant even in such a benign climate as ours in Los Angeles.

The Bachelorbutton

A Poultry Coop for Fifty Hens

A POULTRY house to accommodate fifty hens requires a ground space 14 feet long by 12 feet wide. The house may be made eight feet high in front and five feet high in the rear. The feed yard need not be over 30 feet by 20 feet, therefore, the back lot of almost any city or town residence affords sufficient space for this size flock.

A Home Made Brooder

THE home-made brooder described herewith is one which I have tried and found successful. It will care for about one hundred chicks and has the advantages of low cost, ease and simplicity of operation and perfect safety from gas or fire.

Blossoms for the Night Garden

WHITE blossoms like pearls belong to the night. One cannot know the full beauty of a garden until he has planned to make it a night garden as well as a spot of beauty during the daylight hours. The rich and glorious colors of red roses, golden gaillardias, purple pansies, and pink and rose and lavender asters and chrysanthemums become dull at night.

Onions for the Small Garden

A HOME garden wouldn't be complete without a row or two of green onions to start the spring garden off properly but to grow sweet, mild Spanish onions weighing from a half to a pound each seems beyond the limits of small garden possibilities, yet for the gardener who knows how, growing these superior onions is not only possible but highly desirable and a comparatively easy job,

Leaf Spot of Peach and Plum

THE existence of a tree depends in large measure on its leaves. The moment the leaves fall the vitality of the tree suffers and particularly is this true with fruit trees. The growth is often stunted, the fruit buds will be weakened or may not be formed, resulting in poorer yields. Such is the effect of the bacterial shot-hole disease on peaches, plums, prunes and apricots.

A Border of Lavender and Gold

IN designing this border, I am considering you have a vacant plot of ground between two buildings, perhaps an unused chicken yard with hennery remodeled into a garage (why not, stables have been transformed into fascinating homes), or a service-yard until boundaries of lattice fence.

American Music of Tomorrow

OF all the nations in the world in which the art of music has been nurtured and in which it has come to its present high state of development, America is by- several hundred years the youngest, yet we stand today on the threshold of an era in which we shall see America as a nation fast assuming the musical leadership of the world.

The Problem of Babies and Housework

I AM a better housekeeper now than I was before I had my baby. Why? Because I had to organize my household duties and put into practice a system of work or let my baby, my husband, my home, or myself suffer.

Roast Duck for Sunday Dinner

DO you grow tired of chicken for Sunday dinner or of baked ham or roast beef or whatever your customary Sunday dinner meat may be? Then try duck for a pleasant change. My surmise is that after a trial you will wonder why you have not served this good meat frequently.

Needlework Directions

FEW homemakers can resist the charm of a dainty Colonial bedroom set. The shown at the bottom of the em-broidery page this month is unusually 'mealing, first because of its beauty, and second because it is so easy to make.

A Company Shelf

WHETHER one lives in the suburbs and far away from the corner store, or in the crowded city, there are always times when company appears unexpectedly and it is inconvenient to leave long enough to purchase supplies. Sometimes one is all alone in the house and there is no one to entertain the guest, sometimes meal-time is at hand and everyone is hungry, sometimes the hour is late and the shops are closed.

Along the Garden Path

WE can ever be thankful, I think, because we do not all have exactly the same likes and dislikes; one of the peculiar interests of gardening is that there are so many widely different viewpoints. One gardener goes in for formal plantings, another for the informal some without any plan at all.

Concerning Tiger Lilies

FOR a gorgeous display of color and a brilliant mass effect during midsummer, commend me to the Tiger lily Lilium tigrinum), but let it be with a contrasting background. How much more striking would have been the planting herewith illustrated had the plants not been in such artificial-looking clumps and had shrubbery or hardy perennials been in their rear!

Successful Culture of Ever bearing Strawberries

HAVE you failed with everbearing strawberries? If so did you ever stop to think that perhaps the fault lies with you rather than the berries. I do not know how many have told me in the past that they could not raise everbearing strawberries successfully for any length of time. This is all a mistake.

ACROSS THE EDITOR'S DESK

I WANT to tell you a story. The other night one of our circulation managers was having trouble with his radio. He called the local dealer and asked that a service man be sent to his home. The dealer sent out Gaston de Reginier, a Belgian. M. Reginier promptly corrected the fault with the radio; he seemed so cultured and talented that our circulation manager was moved to visit with him.