April 1927

The Winning Power of Eternal Effort

"A Garden I Need Never Go Beyond!"

Article

My Wild Flower Corner

THE disappearance of wild flowers is due not only to the fact that picking them prevents their going to seed but to the decreasing number of places where flowers can grow as cultivation and stock-raising increase. The prairie flowers are disappearing because the prairies are being turned over by the plow, and the woods flowers are disappearing because the woods are closely grazed by cattle, horses and sheep.

Gardening on a Steep Hillside

ONE of the most individual gardens in Portland, Oregon, a city famed the country over for its distinctive gardens, is that of William Mansell Wilder, music-master and nature-lover. Back of his studio-home on Vista avenue, one of the city's busiest residential thorofares, where automobiles and street cars clang by all day and far into the night, there is a quiet retreat that duplicates in miniature all the loveliest phases of a wooded mountain-side.

Homes of Famous Americans

I SUPPOSE the philosophers will never get tired of discussing the much mooted question of what the greatest thought is that has come to man. We can all think of great conceptions that have blossomed full-blown. Into the brain of man have come questions that concerned not only himself and lifted him from savagery to civilization; thoughts that have caused him to preen his feathers with unabashed pride-- but it seems to me that the greatest conception of them all has been that of unselfish service to others.

Plant a Birthday Tree for The Baby this Year

YEARS ago, in one of the countries across the sea where each family had a little cottage home, tree planting for the new baby was a universal custom. As soon as a baby came into a home, a tree was set out somewhere near the house and named for the little one. Due to the superstition of the times, this tree was believed to exercise strong influence over the child's life. For this reason it was cared for tenderly, that it might become tall and straight and strong.

The Heart of the House

WHEN a man hurries off in the morning, bound to his daily work, where is his wife? In the Kitchen. When he arrives home at night, hungry as a wolf, where is his wife? In the kitchen!

Year-Round Beauty Thru Evergreens

APPARENTLY evergreens are becoming popular for it seems that any well-appointed yard must have one or more before the owner feels satisfied with his place. Every nurseryman reports a lively demand for evergreens and the progressive growers are planning their propagation and seedings in anticipation of increased future requirements.

Make the Architect a Partner When You Build

AND you will, of course, employ the services of a good architect in building your home, for, as I have found, an investment in his services insures not only the architecture appearance and, to a large extent, the re-sale of your house, but its substantial construction and your own freedom from liens and other financial worries."

What to do with the Walls & Floors

IF any of the readers of Better Homes and, Gardens are building or expecting sometime to build a house-- or even looking forward to re-decorating a room or two this spring it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to put this article where it can be located and actually used when the time comes for deciding on the treatment of the walls, the woodwork and the floors.

Under the Library Lamp

SOCIABLE books chosen with special attention to girls"-- that, I have been promising myself for a long time, should be the subject of one of these articles.

SIMMONS Beds Springs Mattresses

IT was the well-boxed, built-up sides, so firmly tailored that first attracted Mrs. J. Borden Harriman.

Have You a Room with an Inferiority Complex?

PERHAPS your house has a black sheep-- most houses have. It may be an alien bedroom, which was disinherited when the decorating budget was drawn, and remains sulking behind closed doors. If this is your case, as it was so recently mine, then do let me tell you how I waded in, with a courage born of despair, and aided by a little money, more time, but mostly imagination, literally made my black sheep over into a shape and color decently comporting with the rest of the flock.

Is Your Porch Comfortable?

A REALLY successful porch is the one that combines charm and comfort. To be attractive, it must be as comfortable as it looks. And to secure this "livableness" there are a number of things that the practical must consider. One of the first is size and shape.

The Soup and Salad Garden

IN selecting (if there be a selection) space for a garden, try to utilize that where the natural soil is good. Good soil is a necessity, and if your proposed soup and salad garden doesn't include it, the old soil must be renewed and enriched by adding new loam and manure.

A Talk on Hearts

HEART disease is by all odds the most dramatic means of exit provided for the human race. In books, in plays and now in the movies, it affords a sure way for getting rid of the villain when the time has come to bring on the happy ending. He is seen to clutch at his left side, look distressed and collapse on the floor, and every five-year-old in the audience knows by these tokens that heart disease has cleared him forever out of the path of the lovers.

How to Cook the Tender Cuts of Meat

DUE to the bumper corn crop last year, there is an unusually large supply of beef of excellent quality on the market. This condition makes it possible to buy high quality beef at lower price levels than usually prevail.

For Dinner on Your Afternoon Out

A WOMAN'S managerial ability may be judged by the evening meal she serves after spending the afternoon away from home. Haven't you envied the maidless homemakers who so generously and graciously invite to dinner the friends they meet by chance on the street or in the club meeting?

Simple Bird Baths and How to Make Them

I KNOW of nothing that can be put on the lawn that will furnish so much pleasure and will be of such lasting interest as a bird bath that can be seen from the window or the porch. You can make either of these simple bird baths (illustrated below) with very little expense.

We Grow Vegetables

TO most people a patch of ground fifty feet square appears too small to mention, and many larger portions of fertile soil go untilled from year to year. But the area of "Our Not-a-Weed Garden" is just that.

RE-CIRCULATING WARM AIR

Folks Not Afraid of an Idea

SOME day it may be that statues of Clifford Bloom will arise over the land and small boys and girls celebrate his birthday with firecrackers and an enthusiasm never before displayed in any cause.

Article

The Story of the Piano

WHETHER it graces the simple cottage of a working man or the drawing salon of some queenly dowager, the charm of the piano is the same. For about five hundred years past the piano itself, or one of its predecessors, seems to have been the favorite instrument with musician and music lover alike, largely for the reason that he has found a much greater enjoyment in that which yields under his hands both melody and harmony, than he has found in any instrument yielding merely a succession of single tones.

Article

Do You Know This Wild Flower?

IN the wake of melting snow come the shy blossoms of arbutus, earliest harbinger of spring, symbol of hope to the early Puritans after their first dreadful winter in New England, and a plant so attractive as to have been dubbed "the sweetest flower that grows."

Dad's Practical Pointers

THERE are so many good things to make for the garden right now. It is time for the bird houses, the rose arbor, the pools and other garden items. Space does not permit detailed description, but here are some.

Ten Weeks of Sweet Corn

I HAVE usually succeeded in having a supply of sweet corn from my home garden for eight to ten weeks each year. Sometimes even longer than that: once from July 23rd to November 15th-- sixteen weeks!

FROM WOODLAND TO HOME Pure Drinking Water

FRIENDS

Article

Salvaging Broken Treasures

Needlework Instructions

THE small "comfy" pillow has a place on every bed nowadays, whereas it was used formerly only on couch or day bed. These small cushions may be simple or elaborate, as the fancy dictates. Just now the most popular type is the cushion made of rose, blue, orange or lavender sateen encased in a sheer cover embroidered in delicate colors.

Baby Chicks in the Brooder House

RIGHT in the brooder house during the first few weeks of the life of your baby chicks is where your success or failure for a whole year's chicken business is made.

A Scarlet Barrier for the Garden

DID you ever try dividing your vegetable garden from the rest of the grounds by a solid wall of vivid, flaming scarlet, from eight to fifteen feet in height? We did this last year and the result was more than satisfactory, both from the artistic, and also from the economical standpoint, this latter point being reckoned from the results obtained for the amount of land in use.

Along the Garden Path

THE other night I got acquainted with Emerson again. It all started when that admirable new book compiled by Bliss Perry, "The Heart of Emerson's Journals," arrived. Bliss Perry has condensed in one companionable volume the most interesting of Emerson's observations as set down in his journals which, in complete form, comprise some ten imposing volumes.

ACROSS THE EDITOR'S DESK

HERE we are again, knocking at your doors! It gives one a sense of real pleasure to feel, somehow, that we are welcome! I hope it will always be so, that we can feel really friendly and sociable-- whatever the issues of the hour may bring forth, however busy and rushed we may be. One of our good friends, Mrs. B. M. Parker of Dallas, wrote this fine note to us the other day: "Your little magazine is so practical, so sincere, so human that its arrival at our home is just like that of an old friend.