December 1927

A Fairy Trumpet Calling

Planting for Christmas Joy

OUR neighborhood in Minneapolis was radiant last December with living Christmas trees, gay and happy in their necklaces of green and blue and rosy lights. Snuggling close to our doorways they whispered to us, "Thank you for letting us live here," and sparkled and sang "Merry Christmas" to all who passed by.

Transplanting a House and Building a Garden

THE Man who sits across the table from me seems a paragon of all the virtues. He can look forward to putting his day-after-tomorrow's cake upon the shelf and leaving its consumption for some time still further distant, if by so doing he thinks he may arrive at a keener appreciation of its plums and spices.

Houses Must Have Good Walls

THE owner of a house buys a new suit of clothing every now and then, but the house itself must stand or fall in its original investiture.

William Allen White In His Garden

IF you are ever in Emporia and have the chance, ride over the town with William Allen White. It will be a joy to you to see the supreme, yet quiet happiness that he takes in the strides it has taken toward beautification under the tutelage of her first citizen, whose own garden began the pioneering crusade for beauty, almost thirty-five years ago.

Delphinium Goes to College

WHEN the larkspur of Grandmother's garden went to college, the professor improved upon her form and color and called her henceforth by the fancy name, delphinium. This delphinium, growing on erect spikes and wearing a mantle of heavenly blue, was pronounced by most of us a perfect flower.

Those Friendly Winter Birds

WHEN the frost is on the punkin' and the fodder's in the shock," when the noisy blackbirds gather in great flocks in your trees and waken you at daylight with their discordant chatter, when the first red and yellow leaves float lazily down to rest on the brown bosom of Mother Earth, then you may begin to look for the winter birds.

How to Achieve Homelikeness

WHAT a tremendous affair the furnishing of a room-- just one room-- is, to be sure! Last month I started out to tell what to think of when furnishing a living room, expecting to finish the subject in one article, and all I managed to discuss was the chairs.

Beauty in Vegetable Gardens

I HAVE always loved to read of the "kitchen garden" of English stories, with its borders of spice pinks, banks of cabbage roses, and hedges of fragrant lavender; and long before I had ever seen such gardens in their home setting, or before our own garden-makers had fully awakened to the fact that the vegetable garden might be a thing of beauty if artistically planned and planted, I had been tempted to tuck in rows of trimly-growing flowers between our beets and carrots, to border our long path thru the vegetable garden with gorgeous zinnias and to transplant cosmos in the asparagus bed.

The Art of Book Giving

ONCE upon a time I knew a woman, a book-lover. Because she herself so loved books, she enjoyed giving them to her relatives and friends as gifts. She had an understanding of people as as well as an understanding of literature, and it was her pride that every book she gave away went to somebody who would appreciate and cherish it.

Toys That Teach

THE seven-year-old son of kindly, democratic parents went one day to play with a little boy whose home was near the northern summer resort where the seven-year-old's family was staying. The host, overjoyed to have a playmate, for neighbors were few and far away, brought out his treasured toys, one at a time, for the admiration of his guest.

Christmas Cakes From Abroad

SOMETIMES we Americans think that we have the best of everything in the cookery line, without stopping to consider that many of our European friends have been developing their cooking for ever so many hundred years more than we have been in existence.

Try a Christmas Picnic

A CHRISTMAS picnic may sound chilly but it does not have to be, for there is nothing to be found in the laws of picnies which says that they must be held out of doors. The important thing about a picnic is not that it is held in the open or under cover but that it has an informal atmosphere about it.

For Better Housekeeping

Lawn Hints From Golf Greens

THE velvety rag-like surface of good golf greens has become the envy of many a home gardener. Every man or woman who is interested in his own home grounds is sure to have the conscious or subconscious thought after the triumph of a twenty-foot putt on a superb green: "Why can't I have a lawn like this?"

Christmas Song at the Door

AT no time in the history of our nation has there been a greater hunger than at present for a practical, warm-hearted human sympathy that would manifest itself in actual results. In the presence of the iron and acid sophistication of our modern civilization, with its high-pressure competition and intensity of living, we have departed from many of the warm and natural things which for so long a time were the constant source of happiness and inspiration in so many lives.

Better Bungalows for Birds

IF you would have your birdhouses occupied there are a few essentials to which you must conform. The most important of these is that the house should look as tho nature had provided it. The best material to use in birdhouse construction is either bark-covered wood or weather-beaten boards.

Jack Pine's Magic Key

JACK PINE of the northern woods is often called a "scrub" because of small size. But Jack Pine has a secret for winning his way in the world that most trees do not know.

Two Graceful Iron Standards

THE art of the ironworker lends itself in a charming way to the construction of a support for a bird cage, for its dainty curves and lance-like upright are far removed from the atmosphere of heaviness which some might erroneously associate with the wrought metal.

Tips from Garden Notebooks

ONE way of solving your weed problem is to space your garden rows so that a common iron-headed garden rake will just nicely go between them. Then when the weeds begin to appear go thru your rows twice a week with a vigorous scratching motion of your rake.-- W. A. S., North Dakota.

Radio Has Come a Long Way

Along the Garden Path

AN experience reported by my friend Franklin the other morning is the kind that gets me all interested. "Do you know," he said, "I came down town with the express intention of getting an early start at my desk. It was six o'clock, and I had visions of a long and profitable forenoon of work.

Christmas Suggestions

THERE are really several good workdays yet to come before December 25th; time enough to make a good many smart little gifts of the kind that will carry the seal of our own personality and our good wishes to our friends.

Across the Editor's Desk

AIR castles! The stuff that dreams are made of! But no suspension bridge, sky-scraper or subway was ever built without a dream.