February 1929

The HOMES of WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN

AT Mount Vernon, Virginia, and at Hodgenville, Kentucky, are two houses that are endowed with indescribable beauty. One is a planter's mansion; the other is a crude log cabin; but they are of equal rank in this nation of free and fair opportunity, for each, at one time, was the home of a man who eventually held the highest office in the land.

Along the Garden Path

PRESIDENT-ELECT Herbert C. Hoover, who will take office in a few weeks, is strongly committed to a policy of building better homes and safeguarding the welfare of American homemakers.

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

SIXTH-- The state nurserymen's association was meeting in the city today, and I went in. On the program was Dr. Maynard, professor of marketing in the school of commerce at the university. Sell people the idea of more beautiful homes, not nursery stock, he told the nurserymen.

The All-American Garden

EGYPT has its lotus, Ireland its shamrock, France its iris, and Scotland its thistle, but the United States has no national flower, altho there are within its borders more species of wildflowers than in any equal area of land in the world. With a population heterogeneous in nature and living under a wide range of conditions, America has developed no national characteristic truly representable by any flower.

Is There an American Architecture?

THE question, "Is there an American architecture?" most certainly must come into our minds when we see American streets on which, side by side, are houses called English, Spanish, Colonial, Italian, French, and endless other names. I say "called" other names, because I wonder if men from the countries after which the houses are named would recognize them. An Englishman once, when shown a house called English on an American street, looked at the house with great curiosity, and as he passed, he made this comment, "Oh, really, if that is an English house, then it is the first English house I have ever seen, and I have lived in England all my life."

I Learned About Gardens From My Own

THE first summer after we were married, I said to my wife, "Sure, and we'll grow some vegetables in our back yard," for such we had, back of our little rented frame. So I dug over the hardpan clay that had been scooped out of our cellar, and I planted things-- beans, peas, tomatoes and such, and with the loving care I gave them, they flourished.

When You Buy Perennials

WHAT? Twenty-five cents for a little plant like that?" asked the good woman in an indignant tone of voice. "Yes, m'am," I replied. "I worked all last summer to grow that little plant."

A Home Designed for You

HOUSES, houses, houses-- the world is full of people and their houses. In large groups called cities, in smaller groups, and on scattered farms, there are houses. Wherever man has settled, houses grow up to form the center of his life, the place of beginning as well as the end of it. Being so closely associated to the life of man, it is no wonder that they take on many of his characteristics and seem to express not only the personality of the person who builds them, but the very spirit of the age in which they are built.

Oregon Learns From Portland's Work

BOYS who build birdhouses in Portland are more numerous than those who rob nests.

23 All-Season Bloom in the Border

IF we are to regard our garden designing as the building up of a series of lovely pictures to be presented to our view against a proper background, rather than as the gathering to-gether of a heterogeneous mass of bloom, we should appreciate to a larger degree the importance of careful composition.

Homes of Outstanding American Women

SEVENTEEN years ago, a young writer, with only a few short stories and some experience in reporting to her credit, sprang into the ranks of "best-sellers" with a single bound. This bound was made because of a story which depicted the problems, the joys, and the sorrows of an average American family, so wholesomely, so vividly, so joyously, and so tenderly, that it seemed to almost all readers of the book as if their life histories had suddenly been spread out before them.

AMONG OURSELVES

WHEN we made our garden by the sea, so much of our budget was consumed in fencing and clearing away the dense growth of firs, cedars, maples, ferns, and wild vines of almost every variety, that little was left for flowers.

The Melting Pot for Plants

IN a small valley amid the intricate system of mountain ranges of Tibet a small party of hunters are slowly moving toward a snow-capped mountain arising in the distance. Eight copperskinned natives keep the tiny pack mules moving, while the lone white man at the head of the procession picks his pathway with precision.

Palms--How And Where To Use Them

OF all the interesting plant life in Florida, nothing else interests the newcomer to the state or the visitor quite as much as do the various varieties of palm trees which grow there. They have more of the real spirit of the tropics, and no other family of plants contributes more of the storied luxuriance of tropical foliage.

How to Grow Bramble Fruits

THE pruning of raspberries and blackberries is perhaps the most interesting operation connected with their culture. Thru pruning the grower becomes more intimately associated with his plants than thru any other operations, thus learning to know and understand them.

Furnishing the Child's Room

FROM the physical standpoint, we have long recognized that a child's room must have plenty of fresh air and sunlight, proper exposure, radiation, ventilation, lighting-- matters which concern his physical well-being.

Hardy Vines We All Should Know

THE charm and grace that hardy vines lend to any home and garden is at once so apparent and delightful as to demand permanence. At present they are not as widely known among amateurs, nor as widely planted by professionals, as their value warrants.

Dealing With a Problem

A GROUP of mothers I know who had been engaged in child study for several years embarked at last upon an elaborate program for dealing with their individual problems with their various children.

New Treasure for the Reading Family

HERE I sit at my desk completely surrounded by new books. I am feeling myself a sort of puzzled island, confused as to latitude and longitude, lost in a sea of literature. Why must there be so many new books? Why can't the publishers give them to us in smaller quantities, so that we may have the leisure to enjoy what has appeared before?

Good Things From Out the Fry-Kettle

UNIQUE is the word that best describes the meals you can achieve with the aid of the frying-kettle. The most ordinary foods take on an air of smartness when fried intelligently.

Salads Add Zest to the Winter Table

WE are advised that salads should appear once or twice every day --this, in order that we may get the minerals and vitamins they contain. But "salad greens" are scarce in the winter, and, unless we are near the city markets, where the choice is not so limited, we are forced, bluntly speaking, to take what we can get.

For Better Housekeeping

WHO EVER heard of cooking in paper? Well, anyway, it is possible. We know, because we have tried it in the Better Homes and Gardens' "testing-tasting" kitchen, and it works! The new cookery parchment paper has at least a dozen uses around the kitchen, but perhaps its most interesting use is the steaming of vegetables, meats, and fish.

What You Should Know About Dablias

What are the various types of dahlias? Dahlias are classed under seven main heads: (1) Cactus: a type that is double and fluted with long narrow petals. The semi-cactus type is double, but the rays or petals are not so long as in the true cactus variety.

Do You Want to Raise Iris?

Where shall I buy iris? Buy iris from the nearest iris specialist. If you buy from a general nurseryman, be sure that his catalog is up to date and that he is not carrying varieties that have been listed for discard by the American Iris Society. If you are buying expensive varieties, I would recommend "shopping around," because the prices vary.

Goods and Chattels

A FORTUNE-TELLER told me, years ago, that wedded life would find me continually moving from place to place, and, believe me, she never prophesied more truly. In seven years we have moved eight times and lived in six different states, to say nothing of traveling 400 miles, more or less, each summer to spend vacation at our camp in Maine. But if one's husband's occupation is unstationary, one must learn thru experience, either happy or sad, the best way to enjoy a movable home.

Two Garden Yips

A Practical Plan for Success

SOME day you may build a house, and the first thing you will consider is the plan for that house. You wouldn't attempt to build without one. But whether you build a house or not, you are going to live a life. Why not also have a plan for that? Why not build your life as securely, as beautifully, and as attractively as you would build your house?

Grand Opera in the Home

IT all came about in the most natural manner, without anyone's telling him that he ought to like it. Being 13 and a perfectly normal boy, not too bad and certainly not too good, the announcement that he preferred grand opera to all of the other kinds of music that came over the radio was something of a surprise to the members of the family group. Without any other music training than might be obtained from singing songs at school once a day, without being told he ought to like the opera because of the fine old classics, he had discovered them for himself.

Expressing Yourself In Your Home

IN these days of ready-cooked foods, ready-made clothing and ready-decorated houses, there seems to be so few ways left for a woman to express her personality and exercise her individual tastes in and about home.

A Good Idea for Garden Clubs

WE have a plan in our garden club which has become so interesting that I must pass it on. Some of our members have beautiful blooming shrubs in their gardens, so the chairman of our club asked each to give her a list of the shrubs for reference. We are to note carefully the exact time of blooming.

If You Would Have an Early Garden

THIS article is written to aid those ambitious amateur gardeners who want to reap the fruits of their toil at the earliest possible moment. Probably more disappointment follows this "earliest" business than any other effort in gardening. Seeds sown and plants set out while the soil and the weather are too wet or too cold are almost sure to suffer; for tho all may not be killed, the "stand" of the plants is likely to be so small that a second sowing or planting must be made.

Come to the Garden Clinic

SPRINGTIME is lawntime, and even in the North where it seems very early, we should give our lawns first consideration. Following are some questions which are very frequently asked:

Toolcraft Conveniences

THE craftsman's first concern is to learn to read a drawing. Mechanical drawing is the language of the arts and crafts, and every well-informed person should know enough about drawing to be able to follow the plans of the workman and to work out his own ideas on paper.

Tips for the Handy Man

TO bore holes in glass, grind the point of a three-sided file as shown by the drawing. Place the shank of the file in a hand drill, and operate it as you would any drill.

The Children's Pleasure Chest

FOR Daddy's birthday, I made some little favors. I bought some colored candy gumdrops, a package of little round candy mints and some tiny stick candies. I put one of the little round mints at the side of the gumdrop and stuck a stick of candy in the middle, straight up and down. These represented candlesticks, just like the pictures you see in the middle and at the bottom corners of this page. They were much better than candlesticks, tho, because they could be eaten.

KNOW YOUR TREES

THE natural beauty of the horse-chestnut or buckeye tree, both of which are members of the small but very distinctive genus or tree group known botanically as Aesculus, rarely fails to arouse comment on the part of those that view them, especially in the early spring. At this time, their unique appearance is heightened by clusters of small white flowers, borne on long upright stems which protrude from among the foliage, which has itself just recently become a part of the trees' early raiment.

ACROSS The EDITOR'S DESK

HERE is a little of what we might call "family gossip": Frank I. Solar, toolcraft editor of Better Homes and Gardens, is also teacher of manual training in Northern high school, Detroit. He is so interested in better homes that he has organized a "Better Homes Household Engineering Class" of adults. It meets two nights a week and studies subjects that have to do with handcraft about the house; for instance-- radio mechanics, the care of tools, simple electrical problems, and draughting.