January 1933

ACROSS THE EDITOR'S DESK

PERHAPS you have asked yourself the question-- "In which issue of Better Homes and Gardens did I read that?"

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

JANUARY 1. As we drove thru the mountains today on our way home from a holiday trip east, Donald, [the Dirt Gardener's 7-year old son], kept pestering me to stop to dig him an evergreen. The hills were coveredwith em by the millions, it seemed-- rhododenrdons, mountain-laurels, hemlocks, spruces, pines, and what-not.

A Success Plan for Your Life

THIS YEAR, of all years, it is highly important to avoid overdoing in budgeting. There must, of course, be adequate provision both in orginal appropriation and reserves for minimum essentials. There should also be a generous margin of unmortgaged income with which to take advantage of the present buying opportunities which this year offers.

Put Your Attic to Work!

AN ATTIC is an extravagance. The idea of putting it to work is by no means a novel one. It is, in fact, a recognized and reoccurring subject in Better Homes and Gardens. And rightly so, for instead of building a new house or an addition to increase the accommodations, the attic offers an inexpensivesolution.

YOU Can Get a REMODELING LOAN

This Is the Way We Iron Our Clothes

NOW we iron the easiest way, that easiest way depending upon the type of electrical ironing equipment we select to suit our individual family needs. If all of the laundry work is done at home, then certainly the ironing machine, with its ability to cover a large amount of surface in a small amount of time, is the answer to easier ironing.

Eleanor Goes to the Dentist

ELEANOR brought home from school one day a slip of paper which had been sent out by the Iowa Bureau of Dental Hygiene, of the State University of Iowa. We must take it to the dentist, she said; he was to examine her teeth and sign the slip, and Eleanor was to return it to the school.

A New Kind of Yard and Garden Contest

You wanted me to tell you what we did in our Junior Garden Club last year. Well, you'd hardly believe it, but they let us take charge of all the grownups in town.

A Room That Grew Up With the Children

THIS is the story of a playroom which started as a nursery for three little children and grew up with them. Fundamentally the room remained the same thruout all the years. The changes made from time to time were dictated by the growing tastes and development of the children.

Then I Met a Lady Who Owned a GLASS GARDEN

ONE MORNING as I stopped to look at a flower cart on the corner, I saw an English Primrose. It was the beloved Primula that I had grown for so many years in a garden in the country that was no longer mine. I promptly bought it and took it home, where it bloomed for three short days and then died.

The Club Has a Family Party

CERTAIN months automatically bring certain interests to clubwomen. January finds us pretty much in the holiday spirit still. I have always maintained that club plans and programs, embracing as they do cultural progress and civic betterment, gain flavor from a third ingredient, and that is just downright, wholesome fun.

To Counselors

I THINK the plan outlined in Wayne's letter and suggested by Helen Field Fischer, of Shenandoah, Iowa, is a beautification contest which will interest everyone and is easily workable in a small town, a country community, a large city, or in the isolated country home. It is a plan that will be equally fair to rich and poor, to home-owner, or home-renter.

Your Home Service Bureau

FOR JUST TEN cents you can get a book-et, "Cooking for the Crowd," which will prove useful to you on dozens of occasions this winter and spring.

ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

WINTER in the northern states is the night of the garden, when we all sit around the fire and look backward and forward at our gardens. Some of our time in the evening is spent in conversation, some in reading, some in merely sitting and thinking. The garden books which come to our hands are many and various these days. Some are old reliables to which we constantly refer.