March 1928

Along the Garden Path

A SOPHISTICATED critic says there is no music in the song of birds. The futurist hears music in the strident roar of wheels on stones, the hammering of rivets, the grinding of brakes, the clashing of steel beams and other clangors of modern civilization. It would be strange indeed if he could fail to hear music in the rippling song of a wren or the full-throated madrigal of a bobolink.

The Fortune of One Home

New, With Charm of Old

TO many a home-builder has come the problem of how to possess the beauty that seems to be inherent in so many really old things, without at the same time giving the appearance of affectation or sham. Those who rebel against the garishness of blatant newness and shouting modernity, but hesitate to pretend age, are indeed confronted with a puzzling dilemma.

Health Insurance for Asters

IF you are eager to grow fine healthy asters with luxuriant bloom, be sure to take out plenty of health insurance for them during the first few weeks. That is the conclusion I have reached after growing them on a large scale here in my Kansas garden.

The Azalea, Pride, of Portland

WHO can resist the appealing charm of a golden-haired, blonde child, full of health and rosiness, frolicking, laughing in the sunshine? To me the rosy-golden hardy azaleas in full bloom are like hundreds-- thousands-- of such adorable cherubs, reaching up their glowing little faces to be kissed again and again by the sunshine!

Homes of Outstanding American Women

WHO is the outstanding woman in American political life today, among those holding appointive positions?" I have asked dozens of women all over the country-- dozens of men, too, for that matter! And the answer in every case has been the same: "It is Mabel Walker Willebrandt, Assistant Attorney General of the United States."

Build Your Own Log Cabin

LOG cabins used to be possible only for those who were extraordinarily well-to-do. Times have changed, for which let us give thanks, and now almost any of us who are' equipped with ambition and a desire- for Nature's companionship can build our own little log houses, adding to these later as our needs or our where- withal may increase.

What "Belongs" in a Cabin?

FURNISHING the vacation home is great fun, for it affords an opportunity to create beauty at surprisingly low cost, either of money or time or labor. Then, too, you may indulge yourself in as vivid colors as you wish without being held down by the fear that you will soon tire of your color scheme.

Backyard Fruit Possibilities

BIG, fresh, juicy raspberries, picked from your own vines out back of the garage and served with the dew still on them, or those that are mashed in little wooden baskets which do you choose?

Reforming the Dining Room

ARE you tired of your old dining room? Many people are, you know. If you are, why not have a new one? Now don't be alarmed.

Skyscrapers Give Home Builders A New Idea

THERE is nothing new under the sun," said the sage, but then, he lived in the days before the skyscraper, the radio, and wrong telephone connections.

Profit From Lawn Experience

IS your lawn weedy? Do you have trouble getting a "catch" when the bare spots are seeded? Does your lawn turn brown and die during hot, dry, August days? If you are experiencing lawn troubles of any kind, the results of a comprehensive lawn survey recently conducted in Evansville, Indiana, during which most ills to which a lawn is heir were expertly diagnosed and prescribed for, may prove helpful in solving your own turf problems.

Healing Sick Shade Trees

TREES, like human beings, require nourishment, and .a well-balanced diet is not only conducive to a good, healthy and vigorous growth but actually assists the trees in resisting attacks by insects and diseases.

Topping It All Off

PUTTING aside all aspects of home-ownership except that of finances, the topping off of the house is a problem that might well command as much consideration as all the rest of the building problems put together. If any portion of the exterior of a house is hard pressed to resist the elements of nature, the roof most certainly, literally as well as figuratively, tops the list.

Romancing in Rare Woods

SOME hobbies are useful, some are merely ornamental, but the hobby of Dudley W. Eaton, a Midwest attorney, is both, for it has helped to furnish his home. In the basement of this attractive gray-shingled house one may find a completely equipped workshop, where he "romances in woods," turning exquisite lamp standards and in many other ways demonstrating his skill as a cabinet maker.

Brighten All the Corners

THERE is something about the springtime with its flowers and bright green foliage that makes us want to fix things up. Porches, front doors, and roofs that have begun to take on a drab look, were hardly noticed in the winter. But when spring comes, it is a different story.

Everybody Wins This Game

THERE is a garden game in which anyone who is living in a home, whether it is rented or owned, big or small, with a wide expansive yard or a bit of a lot wedged in between the homes of neighbors, can be a player. This game is the community garden contest. Whatever the prizes are or whoever gets the award, "you win if you lose."

American Art Pottery

IT is no longer necessary to depend heavily upon the Old World for beautiful art pottery. The United States is now the home of a national ceramic art of which any nation might feel proud. Four years ago the General Federation of Women's Clubs held an exhibition of American pottery in Paris.

An Invitation to a Garden

IT was while out strolling one evening in our town that I found the talking gateway. A natural opening in a high thick hedge of barberry, thru which one glimpsed the blooms beyond, plainly said to me, "Come in: if you love flowers, you are welcome," and so I walked in.

What Kind of Town is Yours?

DID you ever stop to think that the appearance and general equipment of a town have exactly the same effect in pushing the town ahead or holding it back that personal appearance and general grooming have in advancing or retarding an individual's success?

Making Citizens in Camp

WHO would overlook an invitation to attend a summer camp? The mention of the word calls to mind immediately visions of woods, lakes, wild flowers, singing birds, fishing and all of the other joys of a life that is close to nature. And when camp life can be linked up with the building of citizenship and the training of future home-makers, what a vista of beauty is opened up!

You Can Paint Glowing Scenes

WHETHER you have ever held a paint brush in your fingers or not, you will enjoy making some of these lovely little pictures, glowing with color, which we call opalescent silhouettes.

A Talk to Fathers Only

SIX drafts of this article, ranging thru the airily facetious, the ingratiating, the femininely appealing to the gloomily portentous have been written and torn up. Sitting down to the seventh effort, it is borne in upon me that there is no need to approach this subject as if it were an international crisis.

Cleaning Made Lighter

THE day is past, or should be, when the whole family is relegated to oblivion for house cleaning. I can easily remember how uncomfortable everyone was made when a room had to be cleaned, before the day of vacuum cleaners and modern aids. Today, things are different, and yet, as of old, if there is any one way to get pleasure from house cleaning, it is to see results.

For Children and Grown-Ups Too

IT seems strange that we should persist in talking about the home-maker's responsibility for three meals a day when- in reality if she has small children that number rarely fits the case. With two small children she is much more likely to find that she is preparing five meals each day, to say nothing of mid-morning and afternoon lunches which are advised for some children.

Hints from Half a Dozen Housekeepers

ARE you annoyed every time you need spices in a recipe, at the bother of hunting thru an array of none-too-neat packages, lifting up each one in turn and finally finding the ones you want at the very end of the list?I used to be thus annoyed, for I have a collection of about 30 kinds of spices.

Planning a Workable Laundry

MONDAY, in the good old times, was a day for hard labor for all the "womenfolks" of the family. The bench was carried out from the woodshed and the wooden tubs were brought up from the cellar. These, with a wringer and washboard, completed the equipment for the day's work.

Plant Secrets Worth Knowing

TWO hundred years and more ago, folks did not know how new fern plants got their start. Ferns do not have flowers, as other plants have, and how there could be seeds without flowers was a puzzle. For this reason, our grandfathers, both in this country and in the Old World, believed that fern seed was invisible.

A Base for Your Sundial

THERE is about a sundial something of peculiar interest and appeal perhaps because it suggests an age before alarm clocks were common and before the noon whistle shrilled its daily announcement of the sun's arrival at the zenith. That was an age when every garden of any pretensions had a sundial.

How Music Grew by Way of Instruments

THE early operas departed but a little way from the early church music, retaining for a long time the old church modes. These, however, were eventually discarded in favor of the modern major and minor scales which were much better suited to harmony. In the same way did instrumental music begin as a mere adaptation of choral music, and it was very gradually that its writers developed an instrumental style of writing as little by little they came to know and understand their instruments and their possibilities.

Covering Unsightly Places

Now for a Martin House

WHEN the March Better Homes and Gardens arrives it is time for the household mechanic to build bird houses, and to make, repair or paint window screens, so that by the time these articles are needed the paint will have thoroly dried.

Do You Grow This Flower?

The Girl's Room

THE girl's room! Now, isn't that indefinite? Just as if there wouldn't be as many kinds of girls' rooms as there are girls! We know very well that Josephine, Janet and Jill wouldn't all choose the same belongings any more than we should want them to.

Timely Garden Reminders

LAWNS should be rolled while the ground is soft. In raking, do not tear up roots of grass, simply remove rubbish. Scatter seeds in bare spots. Commercial fertilizer applied in spring will improve impoverished lawns. Do not burn off grass.

Three Wrought Iron Candlesticks

HERE are shown three candlesticks any one of which is an object to which the artisan may point with genuine pride. There is something so homey about candlelight, something so pleasant and reminiscent of quieter, more sedate days, that candle-like effects are appreciated by most of us.

The A B Cs of Flower Growing

Aquilegia or columbine is a satisfactory perennial for the flower border. Buy good seeds and sow in a well-prepared seed bed when all danger of frost is over; or set plants, purchased from a reliable dealer, in late autumn or early spring.

How To Sharpen the Lawn Mower

NOW is the time to put your lawn mower in shape for spring work. By proper care and use your lawn mower should last a lifetime. Lawn mowers, like automobiles, however, are subject to an excessive amount of abuse and lack of care and should be given a general overhauling at least once a year.

The First Wild Flower of Spring

WHAT is the first flower to bloom in the spring? Most people would reply hepatica, bloodroot, spring beauty or anemone, but these guesses are all wrong. The earliest of all flowering plants is the lowly skunk cabbage. Indeed, so early do these flowers bloom that they frequently poke their hoods thru the snow, occasionally appearing during February.

The Children's Pleasure Chest

BOYS and girls everywhere are going in for gardening. Some of them are raising flowers and vegetables and selling them to make spending money. Most of them, tho, have gardens just because it is such fun.

Across the Editor's Desk

THIS is the largest issue of Better Homes and Gardens ever printed. We have the subscribers to thank for this, for they have made it possible by giving us more than a million circulation, hence a greater power of usefulness. The members of the editorial staff have worked hard to make a selection of material for this number that will please the readers, and we hope we have succeeded in that respect.