October 1928

Along the Garden Path

DAN is only 5 years old, but he takes great interest in the affairs of the home. The other day his father sought to drain the water from outside the basement wall by means of an automatic sump-pump.

Wanted: A School

The Human Side of the Garden

IN a garden of China years ago there was a peony with five gorgeous red petals and a wealthy crown of yellow stamens hiding a red pistil. For years it grew in the same place, bloomed, produced its seed, and went to rest in the winter.

A House of Individuality

STANDARDIZATION, mass production, volume of sales --all are phrases heard on every side in this mechanical age. And, influenced by these ideas, many persons have tried to apply them to the creation of homes-- standardized homes.

BULBS FOR WINTER FORCING

IF you are a lover of flowers, you view the coming of winter with regret, perhaps, as one by one the perennials in the border in the garden shrivel up and the annuals are cut down by killing frosts. Often, while you wait, you visit the florist and come home with blooming plants of this kind, or cut flowers of that.

Upholstery Is Important

IT is really surprising the number of people who think of upholstery fabrics as merely covering for chairs and sofas-- something that will wear and be good-looking. The fact is that the coverings of seating furniture rank with drapery fabrics and floor coverings as conveyors of color and pattern.

A GARDEN in the CREOLE MANNER

IN the midst of a crowded city, with only a scrap of ground, and it inclosed by bare brick walls, the prospects for a garden might seem rather hopeless. But only at first sight, for further consideration will be sure to reveal undreamed-of possibilities; possibilities for a garden with many delightful features which are denied those of wider domain. A garden, for instance, where one can dig, plant, and weed to his heart's content, with no stiff knees or aching back as painful reminders of his exertions on "the morning after."

Routing Delphinium Enemies

THE perennial larkspur, or delphinium, has been known to thrive for years in neglected and unkempt plots, but nevertheless this fact is not to be interpreted as suggesting that our queen of garden-blue flowers is free from pests and always able to fight her battles without our assistance.

Homes of Outstanding American Women

SUNLIGHT, color and the joy of living are the fitting environments of Maud Ballington Booth, whose career is that of bringing cheer to many who have been deprived of the blessings that come to the average man or woman.

We Conquer a Clay Soil

CITY garden soil is often perplexing. The garden itself may have fairly good soil, but about the house and lawn there is the cellar clay, a subsoil that has come up several feet, and its ungratefulness is usually beyond description. To make a lawn of it is a problem, and then to ask shrubbery and flowers to grow in it is almost asking too much.

Frank O. Lowden in His Garden Where Fertility Is a Study

SINNISSIPPI," the Indian word meaning Rock river, was the name chosen for the vast estate at Oregon, Illinois, where" former Governor Lowden makes his home, tills his fields, and breeds his famous pedigreed Holstein cows. There you will see many shades of green in giant checks spread like a counterpane above the hills where fields are under cultivation.

Let's Grow Vegetables Worth Bragging About

THE best time to start the vegetable garden next spring is to do it this autumn! The failures of the past season are far more conspicuous now than they will ever be again, and they are therefore more valuable because they can teach us what to avoid as well as what to do to make our next season's efforts more effective.

Make Your Driveway More Inviting

ABADLY-arranged planting on your grounds may not be conspicuous when the flowers are in bloom; a poorly-planned service yard may be hidden from the street; a weedy lawn does not show in winter, but the driveway, good or bad, is visible the year round, and, in nine times out of ten, it is seen by everyone who approaches the house.

Guardians of the Garden

WHO would think of looking among leaves and stems of plants, and in out-of-theway places on the ground for nobility? And yet that is just where you are likely to find a certain royal little personage whose acquaintance is worthwhile.

A Man's Own Room

MAY I ask you housewives who read this, Do you ever wonder where on earth your husband has strayed, or why John is making such a racket in the cellar, or what wonderful thing can be up there in the attic to keep Harry so unnaturally quiet?

How to Make Garden Pottery

THE making of simple garden pottery is not beyond the average homemaker who has the average amount of time. Like many other things that look difficult to the uninitiated,it is easy when you know how.

Do You Know the Begonia Family?

GRANDMOTHER'S old-fashioned furniture, her dishes, and her needlework have all come back into fashion, so it is not surprising that the begonia, once her choicest flower, is once again gaining favor as a garden plant.

"Let's Read Aloud Tonight"

THIS month I am choosing from my crowded files one letter that seems to me fairly typical of the problem facing a great many of my readers-- ''How shall we spend our book-money to the very best advantage?"

Study Your Kitchen

HAPPY is the woman who can plan her own kitchen! She can see to it that it is light, attractive, convenient, and well-ventilated. Most of our modern houses boast just such kitchens, and it is a lucky bride who starts with such a workshop. ...

Last-Minute Serving Made Easy

WHAT is there about any individual service of food, such as an individual chicken pie, a timbale or croquette, that makes it so appealing? There is its neatness, of course, its perfection of form that is so different from the shapeless masses of creamed potatoes or stew that we usually receive at table.

Bacon--With and Without Eggs

WHAT do you consider the most popular main dish for breakfast? To that question which I asked recently of hundreds of homemakers, almost to a woman they replied, "Bacon and eggs."

Adventures in Kitchen Color Harmonies

THE kitchen, that traditional stronghold of womankind, has been the recent subject of so many rainbow-hued articles, that I modestly crave pardon for repetition, even before I say a word. I cannot herald myself as a modern Christopher Columbus, traversing uncharted seas of drab, ugly, smokestained kitchens, to sight at last a cupboard green, a flash of land-bird crimson or orange upon cerulean blue glass shelves.

Discipline Versus Punishment

AFTER we have settled, at least to our personal satisfaction, that children must obey their parents, and even after we have laid the foundations for that obedience by teaching the tiny child to obey commands, the question of discipline still looms as one of the greatest before the parents of every child.

For Better Housekeeping

HERE is an ironing board cover and pad which will fit any size and shape of board. It is furnished with non-rusting metal eyelets and six yards of lacing tape. The lacing enables the cover to conform in shape to the board and avoids the use of tacks, which are likely to tear clothes and are difficult to remove, and of thumb tacks, which usually pull out at trying times.

An Easy Way to Make Concrete Dustproof

ONE would think that concrete floors are so hard and dense that the ordinary wear they receive by being walked upon would be negligible. But such is not the case, for as many of us have observed, decided track marks or footprints can be made by walking over a hardwood floor after traversing one of concrete.

Cooks' Round Table

Cook 4 small beets until tender, reserving 1½ cupfuls of juice. Canned beets may be used instead. Dissolve 1½ tablespoonfuls of gelatine in ¾ cupful of water. Add the beet juice, hot, and stir until dissolved. Add 1½ cupfuls of flaked crab meat, 1½ green peppers, 6 stuffed olives, 2 sticks of celery, and 4 small carrots, all cut fine.

Among Ourselves

WE started the big adventure of owning a home by buying a plot of ground in a delightful suburb and deciding on a colonial house built of stone and shingles. After making our own preliminary sketches, we had an experienced architect draw up the plans in finished form. This took some time, and we grew impatient to see how the house would really look when finished.

Harmonizing the Garden Plans of a Neighborhood

WHEN an organizer or a building company has a number of inexpensive houses to build in one section of a town, he finds it cheaper to build them all alike, or at least similar in appearance. As a result of such building practice, we see in every city row upon row of little houses almost identical in type and often with similar foundation plantings.

Flower Tabloids for Your Notebook

THE Canterbury bell is a charming biennial worthy of a place in any garden. (Biennials are plants that bloom the second season after the seed is sown, and then die.) It is desirable for massing and makes a splendid specimen plant when planted singly.

It Is Always Lilac Time in This Garden

TWENTY years ago a busy housewife read a book on Luther Burbank's methods of plant breeding. Her fingers fairly itched to try some of the experiments which were described there, in her own large garden. She thought of her dahlias, her apple trees, her roses, and her favorite flower, the lilac. Suppose she, too, could produce better flowers and shrubs right there in her own garden than had been grown before.

Why I Plant a Garden

I PLANT a garden because I have the spirit of adventure. I like the smell of fresh-turned earth. I love to plant, then weed and water, watch and wait. I delight in the miracle of green shoots quickly upspringing, unfolding; the transparent tendershades of tiny seedlings growing, all even, row on row; to see plants branch and blossom and put forth their fruit.

Come to the Garden Clinic

HOW should I care for my shrubs after they are planted? The ideal way is to spade in a liberal application of rotted barnyard manure into the soil around the shrubs; then add another liberal application as a mulch, which should remain on until spring, at which time it should be spaded in and another mulch added to remain on for a year.

Power Machinery for the Home Workshop

TWO questions that come to my desk with nearly every day's mail are, "What would you suggest that would interest my boy and keep him busy about the house?" and, "What machinery, would you recommend for my home workshop?"

The Soul of My Garden

YEARS ago, as a toddling baby, I played amid violet beds and moss covered banks, starred with primroses, while gleaming white amid the fern shadows, were snowdrops, bordering the paths.

The Children's Pleasure Chest

TAGABO BEAR thinks it is October, so he is going out to have a jolly Hallowe'en. This year when you are taking your jack-o-lantern around from door to door on Hallowe'en night, why not try putting Daddy's flashlight into the pumpkin instead of using a candle? The wind always blows the candle out at the wrong time; then, too, there is no danger of fire from a flashlight....

KNOW YOUR TREES

OF the many tree species with which we come into daily contact, few can compare in natural beauty and commercial importance with the oaks. This widely-distributed genus has always basked in the light of public favor. In poem and prose the oak has been symbolic of stability-- its sturdy form embodying all the essentials of permanence.

Flowering House Plants

MANY of you have gardens which have been your pride and joy during the summer, and you dislike the thought of King Frost soon nipping the beautiful blooms, but if you will go out into your garden now in the late summer you will find many flowers that may be taken indoors and will continue to bloom thruout the winter.

A Seedling Tip

Southern Garden Suggestions

HERE in Mississippi there are two matters in particular that cannot be overlooked at this season without disaster overtaking us; they are, fighting the insects, and watering copiously.

ACROSS The EDITOR'S DESK

LITERALLY thousands of pictures of homes and gardens have been sent us by readers. We use such pictures, from time to time, as we can. A great many of the other pictures are bound in what we call "family albums." These are kept on file, and hundreds of visitors have the opportunity of seeing these attractive pictures from time to time.