May 1930

MANY mothers are pioneers without knowing it

Along the Garden Path

AS I WRITE this I am in Florida, eating a grapefruit in true Florida style. It is peeled around the middle, cut in half, held in the left hand, and squeezed to a narrow point to fit the mouth. The pressure is changed until the half is eaten. I might add, for Northern readers, that a half grapefruit so eaten seems very large. It is quite squirtless but, perhaps, advisable to be eaten out-of-doors. For the last few days I have been a walking advertisement for grapefruits and oranges.

The Roving Gardener

MAY is another busy month in the garden, for the chances are you did not get all the needed propagation done last month and most of us don't get round to sow many perennial seeds until along in May.

The Rock Garden You Can Have

A CHARMING rock garden, like happiness, may be awaiting you in your own back yard. Be it ever so small or ever so large, natural woodland, or treeless flat, there is a kind of rock garden to fit your place, providing, of course, that you are one of those who yearn for a rock garden and are willing to work to accomplish it.

Paneling Need Not Be Expensive

THERE are two popular fallacies that unfortunately seem rather firmly fixed in the minds of most people. First, there is the impression abroad that the use of any sort of paneling on walls necessarily means a considerable expense-- much more expense than treating the walls some other way.

Rebuilding With Fine Instinct

WHENEVER I see one of the tiny stone cottages of our eastern Pennsylvania countryside, built years ago for some modest family of working people, I think of Padraic Colum's poem of the old, wandering woman:

I Find Peony Culture Easy

THE history of a new peony variety from the sowing of the seed to the time when the variety is offered for sale is to me a thrilling story, and I hope I can transmit this same thrill to my readers.

An Old, Old Book Taught Me About Delphiniums

AS A SMALL child my grandfather taught me to refer to books for my knowledge of flowers. He was constantly speaking of "The Table of Herbs," and some time after his death I found this little book, "A Table of British Herbs, as Also the Planets That Govern Them."

Fontaine Fox Talks About How He Built His Home

ON AN afternoon in mid-October one of America's most famous cartoonists sat in the living-room of his house at Roslyn, Long Island, and discussed houses and their building. A pale autumn sun was sinking behind woods that still showed the glory of gold and russet and brilliant-scarlet foliage.

The Garage Grows Up

THE motor car has, these many years, ceased to be a horseless buggy, and, by the same token, the garage is no longer a carriage house nor yet a stable. The automobile, in fact, is more of a piece of furniture than a wagon, a vehicular davenport, if you will allow.

Alter or Add to Your Home

IT IS likely that no one ever built a house of average size without wishing within a few months or years that it contained one more room or one more bathroom, another closet, or some extra space somewhere. This is only natural, as the wants of the average family increase from year to year and what seemed ample at the time of building is quite likely to be cramping long before the family is ready or able to forsake the house for newer and larger quarters.

My Mouth Waters for Strawberries

WE PAT ourselves on the back because of the high efficiency of our factories and the finished products they turn out, but how many of us realize that the humble strawberry plant is a factory whose efficiency and finished product put to shame even the greatest of human efforts at manufacturing?

You Can Build a Brookside Garden

ONE of Nature's most frequent combinations of materials is rocks and water, and the use of either material in garden design seems to demand the other. One of the best ways to combine the pool with the rockery is by using small artificial springs originating up in the rockery, the water tumbling down over the rocks in a little rill which finally comes to rest in the cool, quiet waters of the pool.

The Friendly, Useful Lights of the Garden

LIGHTS in little gardens-- cheery gleams with black elfin shadows about them, the soft glow from a luminous ball held up close to the branches of a tree, light filtering down thru the tracery of vines from a high-swung garden lantern, the flashing brilliance of a fountain spray under a strong, steady beam, the sharp clear outlines of a statue with soft, thick shadows below it, the clear rays of a reading lamp in a screened gardenhouse, swaying lanterns on party nights, wide circles of light in which to play or garden in the cool of the day-- why do we not see more of these?

The Stories Our Grandparents Told Us

NOT all our grandparents were pioneers, of course, but our country is so new and the westward trek so recent that it is safe to assume that the great majority of them were. And this is why a first-rate pioneer book, the story of the settlement of any corner of this vast land, needs little publicity to make it a success.

Four Small Homes With All Essentials

IT DOES not need to be large in order to be beautiful, that home which we plan to make our very own some day. For, whether it is to have five rooms or fourteen, we can only be in one room at one time.

Helen Keller Sees Flowers and Hears Music

MY MOST startling lesson in seeing and hearing, in learning of the unseen personality of flowers and of the enchanting inner beauties of the world of sound, came to me today, as I visited for an hour with Helen Keller, who can neither see nor hear, and yet finds joy in a flower garden and in the music of the spheres.

How a Teacher and an Architect Utilized the Basement Room on Their Sloping Lots

WITH so many building sites comprising sloping ground, designers of small houses are beginning to pay more attention to the possible intensive use of the basement for other than the often questionable practice of employing it for garage space. Presented here are two newly built homes, where, in each case, the grade of the lot was frankly admitted, with an attempt to take the greatest advantage of it.

Make Habit Your Servant, Not Master

IN MY first article on the creation of a home I noted that in making her plan for a home the homemaker must recognize her habits and those of her husband in the very beginning. By this time it must be clear to my readers what I meant.

What Life Insurance Can Do for You

ANOTHER important "wrinkle" in insurance, says my friend who has been explaining the subject to me, is what we call the "installment" policy. Your widow, let us say, has $10,000 coming to her at your death. She lets some foolish relative or some dishonest promoter talk her into an unwise investment of her capital and loses it.

What Fun Is This School Yard!

"OH, I SHOULD never want to go home if I went to this school," enthusiastically exclaims a Master Gardener as our merry troop of Junior Garden Clubs stops before a school in the Kingdom of the Landscape Architect.

What Is Style in Garden Design?

THERE was a day for diminutive parasols, hoop-skirts, and long, net gloves of black without fingers-- a day when men wore touches of lace at their cuffs and queer collars that stuck out like horns from either side of their necks and-- a place where hollyhocks, bachelorbuttons, and roses had as their background the stately rhythm of the dim white pillars of a Southern Colonial mansion. They are the style-marks of early Southern Colonial days.

Painted! There Is No Lovelier Wall Finish

TO MOST persons a painted wall means a plain wall. But this is not necessarily so. There is just as much opportunity for variety in walls that are painted as in those of any other type, if not more. For there can be variety of texture, finish, and pattern as well as of color.

Putting Color to Work for You

WITH the color terms explained and the properties defined in the April article, we are now in a position to consider the manner of using color in the house.

When the Bicycle Club Rides

WE ALL knew something was up when we received the invitations to Betty's party. On the wrong side of the basket cut from brown paper we read, along with the date, time, and address, the words, "Sports clothes and old clothes are the smart togs to wear."

How to Behave Nicely at Home (A Family Code of Manners)

THERE is a man in our town whom we shall call Mr. Smith. When out in a crowd he is the life of the party-- gay, amusing, clever-- a good story always at the tip of his tongue, a good fellow among the men, a charmer among the women. But when at home he is a confirmed grouch.

What Shall the Family Have to Eat These Days?

WITHOUT doubt the modern conscientious home-maker has an occasional pang of envy of the woman who knows nothing at all about proper diet. As knowledge of nutrition has increased we have had to add more and more factors to the list of things to be considered as we plan, cook, and serve the meals. We find that satisfying the appetite is one thing, feeding the family properly is another.

MOST colors are conceived as patterns in the mind

The Care Your Trees Require

IN ORDER to grow and maintain healthy trees, they, like men, must have light, food, water, and air. All green plants must have light in order to build plant tissue. Some trees require direct sunlight to live, others can live in partial shade.

Are You Teaching Your Child to Get Along With Others?

A WOMAN of very high attainments was listening to a description of a nursery school in which special pains were taken to help children of pre-school age in their social adjustments. She asked many questions about the method of instilling social confidence in shy, sensitive children.

A Play Yard for Your Youngsters

SPACE at the extreme rear of many city and most suburban lots can easily be made a distinct asset by laying out a well-appointed play yard. Children will play with boats, dig holes, keep unwelcome small animals, and accumulate junk, and if a place is not provided for such activities the house become their arena.

Beauty Emerges From Ugliness

GO OUT and walk thru the streets of your city and along its borders, the city limits. Perhaps you, too, like citizens of Red Wing, Minnesota, may discover natural beauty that has always been there, waiting to be uncovered and developed.

Aids to Better Housekeeping

DURING the summer months short-order cookery is convenient for the homemaker but not always satisfactory. With an appliance shown on this page, you can do a variety of things well and easily. It looks like a waffle iron. Well, it is, sometimes; other times it is a pancake griddle; then, again, it is a sandwich-toaster or a hot plate

May Notes From a Gardener's Scrapbook

MAY is one of the great test months in the Northern garden. It is a test of our foresight in planning and planting materials for early bloom. Except for bulb gardens there are relatively few gardens, especially during early May, that are as interesting as they should be.

Artcraft for the House and Bride

EVEN the very busy woman can afford the few hours required to translate the ideas described into clever gifts for the home or for the bride of next month. And, a handmade gift does have an individuality subtly expressive of its maker!

Building Questions Answered

WE WISH built-in bookshelves, but the house is already built. What disadvantages do we suffer by building them in now?

A Trellis and Seat for Your Garden

BACK in the stone age Mrs. Caveman brushed against the thorns of a rose bush in trying to effect an entrance to the family cave, and Mr. Caveman, or more likely it was the cave-lady herself, braced the dead limb of a tree against the bush and the first trellis came into being.

LET'S PAPER THE GARDEN THIS YEAR

WOULD you have a garden of flowers or vegetables that will transcend in beauty, or quality, or quantity, or all three, anything that has ever before bloomed in the same soil? Would you spend your day-light-saving twilights just watching your garden grow instead of gathering backaches a-pulling weeds?

Prices of Artcraft Articles

My Lawn Notes

SEEDING. The customary seeding rate is 2 to 4 or 5 pounds to each 1,000 square feet; the best time to sow, early September. Three or four days before the seed is sown, fertilizer should be applied and watered in. After seeding, one-eighth inch of top soil should be applied, the ground rolled, and another light application of top soil made once or twice during the growing season.

For-get-me-nots

FORGET-ME-NOTS play an important part in our literature but are lacking in many of our gardens. In this section of the country (the East) at least, the name is more generally applied to the native Bluet.

The Children's Pleasure Chest

PATCHES and Cream Puff and pink little Wag sat with their heads close together on a dewy bright morning in early May. What they were talking about might have remained a mystery forever if the words had not fallen and scratched themselves deeply into a stone nearby.

ACROSS THE EDITOR'S DESK

DID you ever make a prophecy and then look back later to see whether it had come true? Well, it gave me something of a thrill the other day to look back over the files for the past three years, for I could see a number of prophecies made in the latter part of 1927 that are now rapidly becoming facts.