May 1929

For Better Home Financing

IN THE articles on financing the home, by Wain-wright Evans, in this magazine, it will be seen that building-and-loan associations and other first-mortgage institutions are doing excellent work in showing the prospective home owner the way to the goal of his heart's desire.

Along the Garden Path

MAY is the joyous month of the year, when old and young are working in their gardens. Perennials are now coming into bloom, but the various bulbous flowers are putting forth every effort to distract our attention from their fair sisters. The unwise annuals are growing, preparing for their profusion of bloom, overlooking the fact that other plants are conserving some strength for another year.

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

MAY 1. Verily I did awake to aching bones because of much kneeling to transplant yesterday. Yet in spite of such, I donned my overalls and began to put into effect my summer schedule of garden work by getting in a few licks before breakfast. After I really get into gardening, I find that I can't get enough done in the garden between 4 o'clock and dark. So I must work early in the morn and dew.

From Wall Street to Kitchen

I SHALL never forget the day that Roger's letter came. I had just returned from a meeting called to discuss efficiency methods and had been voted the best manager in the company. That was because my department got results with the least waste of effort and time.

Your Dream Home Brought Down to Earth

LET us assume the Edwin and Marian have definitely made up their minds that they want to own their home; that they understand the price will be higher by installment buying than if they had the ready cash and could Pay the whole price at once; that it means ten, twelve, or fifteen years of steady monthly, semiannual, or annual payments which will be larger than the payments they would have to make if they were merely renting; that this means sacrificing some other things in order that they may have a very vital sort of freedom in the end; and that it is well worth what it costs, provided it does not cost too much relative to their income.

The Vines Are Gay Garden Adventurers

ADVENTURING plants are such gracious and lovely additions to the garden that I hope I may be permitted to sing their praises loudly. They deserve a place, and a prominent one, too, in every landscape picture. But, alas, how often they are overlooked in the flurry of getting the garden planned, the rose garden established, and all the perennials one wants.

My Steep Bank Becomes a Garden

THERE is nothing so exquisite or so eagerly responsive as a rock garden, when winter has really left his last calling-card, and the warm south wind and the friendly sun are caressing things back to activity after a long, long sleep.

A Home for Sunshine

HOUSES vary with the climate to almost as great a degree as vegetation does. One could be set down in any part of the world, and by looking at the homes of men, be able to decide the location of the place from the styles and types. It is not chance alone that gives houses in similar climes similarity of characteristics, for houses are fundamentally shelters of men.

Friendship gardens

IT MUST have been either a humorist or a philosopher-- perhaps a combination of both-- who initiated the friendship-garden idea. I am sure they must have flourished in the sixteenth century, and that poor young Ophelia plucked her pathetic little funeral flowers from just such a quaint spot.

A Garden-minded California Town

FOR seven years the little town of Corona, California, has had a garden section in connection with its Women's Improvement Club, and when the California Federation of Women's Clubs decided it was the proper thing for all clubs to have garden sections, the Corona club thought it would be a friendly thing to let its sister members of the county know what it had accomplished during the years of its existence.

Homes of Outstanding American Women

ONE of the best friends that I had as a child was Daniel Boone. Daniel Boone, who was always gentle, always patient, always kind, always at my service. Many of the happiest hours of my life I owe to him.

Puzzling Over the Tulip Groups

FOR the man who orders tulips without having a definite knowledge of the kinds, I want to lead you thru the maze of tulip sorts. The salesman in a seedstore and the packer in a nursery want to satisfy you. Catalogs are written for your benefit. Single Early, Darwin, Rembrandt, Breeder, Bybloemen, Bizarre, Mendel, Cottage, and many other names are placed in the catalog for your help, not for confusion.

Designing the Gay Plant-Box

A WINDOW box or porch box can add great beauty to the home. It is the design, the arrangement of the choice plants, that makes the success of a flower box. There are certain definite rules of procedure that should be followed.

Is There an American Architecture?

IN THE February issue of the magazine, I traced the development of American architecture from that of the early Greek and Roman civilizations thru the various ramifications and developments up to and thru the influence which creates the Colonial, which rises and declines into the Greek Revival and ends in the mid-Victorian.

A Chemist Looks at a Home

CHEMISTRY enters the home, most often unidentified. The home builder usually is not conscious of the relationship between modern facilities and the contributions of the chemical laboratory.

Centers for Home Comfort

RATHER interesting are these three table groupings that we show. Two are distinctly in the modern maimer, and one shows the best of the older furniture in a similar grouping.

AMONG OURSELVES

WHEN I came to northeastern North Dakota, from nearly a thousand miles south of here, I found that some of my friends actually thought of this country as a frozen waste, with practically no summer in which to raise crops and gardens. No doubt there are many other persons who have always thought of it in that way.

Flowering Hedges for Boundaries

FLOWERING hedges! The words recall to my mind a spring in Redlands, California, where nearly every place, be it cottage garden or large estate, has its boundary of roses. It would seem that easterners go to California, admire and marvel, and then come home and plant the same sort of hedges.

How to Lay Stepping-Stones

STEPPING-STONES are paths of invitation, leading us to unexpected beauty spots in the garden; perhaps to a point of interest at the end of the path. Even a few stones will seem to suggest that there is something to be seen where they lead.

Exit the Temperamental Egg White

FANCY one of these light, airy May clouds slightly browned and served hot. A thoroly successful meringue is like that, a thing of dreams and poetry to one who loves his food. But how is one to describe the perfect angel-food cake? The cook who can make a fluffy fine-textured angel food not once, but every time she attempts it, is ranked with the superlative cooks in our town, even tho, owing to a school of home economics here, we are quite exclusive and particular about our cooking.

Old and New Cake Pans and Cakes in Review

IF YOUR cakes appear the same from week to week, it is time to look to your pans. Several new kinds are on the market. There is one fashioned for checkerboard cake which is worth investigating, now that layer cakes are being employed so extensively by the smart hostess.

Getting the Home Ready for Summer

SUMMER sunshine shows up faded and soiled coverings on upholstered chairs and davenports. When they cannot be recovered permanently on account of expense, slip-covers are the way out and are considered anything but a makeshift. The professional decorators' chief delight is the use of them for new as well as old furniture.

A Satisfactory Room for a Real Boy

IN THE present wave of "doing over" rooms, a room that offers a splendid field for your talent in decorating is sometimes overlooked-- your son's room. Boys of ten aren't very critical so far as interior decoration goes, and it may seem inappropriate to buy new things for a lively youngster who will promptly scratch them up.

Handling the Nervous Child

IT IS so easy to write an article telling how to handle a nervous or sensitive child. The method is simple, and one that can be applied by any intelligent parent.

It Is a Joy to Sew the Modern Way

AS A LITTLE girl, I listened wide-eyed and eager to the stories my grandmother told me of the first sewing machine she had seen. It was in Kentucky, and they had gone to a fashionable home for Sunday dinner. The machine was exhibited to the guests, but never a stitch was taken on that day.

Modern Pieces That Fit In

HOW will the old order in interior decoration combine with the new? That is the question many people are asking themselves these days as they note the growing popularity of the new period furniture, the "Modern."

The House That Book-Lovers Built

SINCE taking you last month on a tour of inspection thru the downstairs of the House That Book-Lovers Built, I have been longing to go upstairs on a similar tour. However, since I remembered with a certain embarrassment (Even book editors have their finer moments, you know!) our first stolen visit, I resolved to take my manners well in hand this time, and to ask the mother of the family to be my guide.

When a Girl Entertains

A GIRL probably loves a party more than anyone else in the world, whether she be 5 years old or 15. When she is 5, she enjoys going to parties more than giving them, but as she grows older, she learns it is much more fun to give them.

Aids to Better Housekeeping

THE closet transformation is on! No longer will we be satisfied with closets with deep, dark caverns. It seems that there has been an expose of closet conditions in the American home. For a long time we have heard mutterings that denoted all was not well, such as when father lost his favorite shirt and had to remove half the garments in the closet before he succeeded in bringing it to light.

An Artist Looks at His Garden

GREEN GABLES, as it is today, is the result of more than nine years of pleasurable effort on the part of Mrs. Russell and myself to transform the house and grounds as we found them when we came here in 1919 to something "nearer to the heart's desire," to use Omar's phrase.

A Vacation at the City's Gates

WHAT to do with the children during the long summer vacations is always a vexing problem to city dwellers. Farm children have a multitude of sports and chores to keep them out of mischief, but the poor youngster whose domain is a microscopic bit of ground past which automobiles whizz at a rate that keeps his mother constantly anxious; whose playmates are "the kids in the block," no matter how man j' and how ungrammatical; whose best-loved amusement is likely to be movies showing two-gun men in action-- what of his vacation?

These Are Mothers' Methods

FEAR, the psychologists tell us, often comes to little children between the ages of 3 and 4. It came suddenly and without warning to my little boy shortly before his fourth birthday. He had always been satisfied to go to sleep in the dark until this particular night, when he cried out in terror after I had put out the light.

Prepare Now for Winter Bouquets

FORTUNATE are the people who can count their gold in the autumn in the form of a good supply of carefully dried everlasting flowers and seed pods for material for winter decoration.

Inviting Bird Guests to Our Homes

WHERE birds are invited and protected, they come, bringing with them a variety of beautiful songs and calls, dresses of numerous but harmonious colors, and activity that seems never ceasing, a veritable pageant of the avian world. In this pageant the sympathetic human observer will see much that will interest, entertain, and instruct.

A Destroyer of Angleworms

Papering the Soil for a Mulch

THE old saying "There is nothing new under the sun" seems to be contradicted by developments in the realm of modern gardening. True, to anyone familiar with gardening practice, there is nothing particularly new about the word "mulch."

A Playhouse for Daughter

WHAT is a playhouse made of? Lumber? Yes, and shingles, nails, windows, and rocks, and lots of honest-to-goodness hard work and thought. But most of all, precious little-girl dreams, which will turn into memories of happy days persisting thru all the rest of life.

A Vacation at Home

AT THE beginning of last summer, sister and I found ourselves face to face with a vacation-less and a trip-less future during the warm months. We faced the future as optimistically as possible and decided to enjoy our home and our friends as never before, for our home is cool and pleasant always.

A Plea for the Hardy Pinks

WE HAVE learned many things from France, bless her, and we can still learn many things from her-- we are far from having drained the cup! Particularly is this true in regard to flowers.

Melody Versus Scales

A YOUNG mother was telling me the other day about the surprises that greeted her when she accompanied her 6-year-old boy to school at the start of the last term. She was conscious of the usual mingled feelings.

Come to the Garden Clinic

A week or ten clays before they bloom, give them a liberal watering with ammonium sulphate or nitrate of soda, dissolved at the rate of 1 tablespoonful to 1 gallon of water.

How to Spray the Small Garden

EVERY year the ways to fight plant pests get easier! No matter how little a fellow may know at the start about bugs and blights, he need only use his own eyes and the rules and hints given here to beat these pests and to grow as good crops as the man who can call them all by their right polysyllabic cognomens!

Landscaping a Garden in a Patio

THE charming Spanish-type house shown on page 18 instantly suggests a patio garden. Fortunate indeed is the owner of a house with a patio, for here he may enjoy an outdoor living-room with the bright blue, semitropical sky for a ceiling, a room surrounded by trees and shrubs, and an enjoyable place to which to escape on a hot summer day.

A Rainbow Round the World

CAN a rainbow reach round the world? Some form of the iris flower whose name means "a rainbow" is to be found all the way round the northern hemisphere from California to the Atlantic coast and on to China and Japan. In the far north it brightens Alaska and cold Siberia.

The Chîldren's Pleasure Chest

MY BIRTHDAY comes on April 25. It is so near the first of May that Mother decided I could have a real May party.

Favorite Feathered Friends

ONE thought of him, one sound of him, one sight of him, fills us with the inspiration of springtime activities. That's the delightful character which the bluebird possesses. His sweet, melancholy song and his carefree nature accent the joyous spirit of the living outdoors!

A Dresser for Old Pewter

IN these days of little cupboard space, making a collection of anything, old glass or china or pewter, becomes quite a problem. For that matter, just having an ordinary amount of dishes is sometimes difficult. I solved my problem by having an old chest of drawers made into a dresser.

Our Wayside Garden

THE house at Forest Wild Farm stands some little distance back from the highway. It used to be something of a task to keep the sides of the lane, leading from the house to the public road, in a sightly condition. The wild carrot and other plants of this kind came up year after year and threatened to spread into the fields, in spite of an occasional mowing during the summer months.

KNOW YOUR TREES

THIS beautiful tree deserves more than passing interest, not only because it is one of the most important commercial species of the eastern hardwood forests, but because it is the only remaining native species of the genus Liriodendron-- the last remnant of a former extensive tree group found in our country, which in prehistoric times was composed of numerous species occupying the greater part of the northern hemisphere.

Two Garden Tips

IF YOU are a lazy gardener, or do not like to get your hands in the dirt, specialize in petunias. I think they give more for the least care than any other flower. Just set out the plants in May or June, according to location and climate, where the showers and sun can get at them, and they will do the rest.

ACROSS The EDITOR'S DESK

IF CHILDREN feel at home in your house, it is homelike. This issue, which again breaks the record for size, with 164 pages, was planned with children in view. Each month some special thought is emphasized. Do you like the idea?