March 1933

Across the Editor's Desk

MR. WALKER came in wearily on a late train and went straight to his hotel to bed, for he had to get up at 5 o'clock to catch another train. Just as he was moving thru the hazy borderland of grateful sleep the telephone bell in the next room, seemingly right near his head, set up a terrific din. Of all irritating things-- when he needed rest so badly!

A Long Chance You Needn't Take

PERHAPS you have only recently set out to do one of the finest things in all the world-- provide a home for the woman you love and the children you adore. Your prospects are rosy. All you need is a few years of success and the mortgage on your home will be cleared away and you can forget and ignore the leaner years.

STOP, LOOK, LISTEN!

IT SEEMS the time has come when you would like to know just what ideals Better Homes and Gardens has in mind for rock gardens. Thousands of rock gardens have been built thruout the United States, and we have received scores of pictures of them for use in the magazine, and it would seem that there are many different ideas as to what a rock garden should be.

In Monterey We Made This Garden

WHEN my husband and I discovered the Old Whaling Station in Monterey we had the answer to a five-year search for a plan that would suit the taste of this pair of native Americans and the style of California.

Stuffy, Dull, and Dreary Renovated, Revivified, Remodeled!

IN RENOVATING, revivifying, remodeling the middle-aged home, the plan, which we considered in last month's Better Homes and Gardens, is paramount, but if the interior appearance has not advanced with the replanning, certainly the alteration is far from successful. Truly good planning results in good elevations, interior and exterior, theoretically; but, actually, special attention must be given to each and every wall.

Mother of 1,000,000

YESTERDAY I watched a honey-bee die among the flowers-- her wings frayed and ragged from long use, her body old, her vital forces completely spent. I had been watching her for some time when she abruptly stopped her work on a dandelion near my doorstep. For a full minute she groomed herself carefully. Then suddenly she dropped from the blossom.

We Show You Some New Wall-Coverings

The Vegetable Garden Can Be Beautiful

THERE is real beauty in ordered rows and vari-colored green as well as in vegetables themselves. Take, for example, rosette lettuce, gray-headed cabbages, creamy-white cauliflowers, red-stemmed beet tops, filmy-leaved carrots, curly kale, green-blossomed broccoli, shiny-leaved peppers with their green and red fruits, and greatleaved corn with tasseled ears.

My 13 Tricks for the 40-Minute Gardener

LIKE most garden-lovers, I would enjoy grubbing in the dirt and puttering around with growing things from morning till night, but since my profession is not gardening, this must become my hobby, and I must devise many short-cuts and tricks so I can satisfy my garden ambitions in about 40 minutes a day.

We Looked at It With Outrageous Pride

THIS is really the story of the evolution of a gardener. Years ago the entire space behind our house was chicken yard. From the back door thru the length of the chicken yard was a grape arbor, and it was here that as a child I first dimly sensed that there might be something mysterious and wonderful about this thing the grown-ups called Nature.

Four Fathers Tell Us--What They Think of Child-training

"BUT your articles are all from the mother's point of view," objected a gentleman for whose opinion I have a high respect. "Fathers aren't interested in the daily care of the child-- that's the mother's business. The father is the disciplinarian, the one who makes things happen, the fellow who teaches the boys to be good sports and helps them to develop in outdoor activities.

Plantainlilies

TRUE garden aristocrats are plantainlilies. At first sight they inspire respect and admiration. But to know them is to love them. They combine vigorous dignity with a peculiarly individual charm. They cast a wholly different spell over our hearts than do the lovably frivolous and excitable pinks or the barbaric, triumphant Oriental Poppies or butter-yellow daffodils shining in the April sun.

On the Mark! Get Set! Let's Go!

OH, BOY, Oh, girl! Here comes March with a whirl of the most interesting and exciting garden adventures.

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

At last it's March-- the month of great expectations If weather is just right there will be bloom in the rock garden, shrubs and evergreens can be moved, perennials can be transplanted or divided, and all sorts of digging done.

More Ideas From a Handy Man's Sketchbook

I WONDER if Robert Louis Stevenson had the handy man in mind when he wrote, "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

These Will Make the Baby Really Comfortable

We Visit a Lilac Sage

LILACS-- purple lilacs, white lilacs, roseate lilacs-- lilacs in all shades that lilacs ever assume surrounded us. Now and then a honeysuckle bush, a rhododendron, a spirea, tried to make known its presence, but you could almost hear the lilacs shout at these intruders: "Step back.

The Children's Pleasure Chest

WOULD you like to write a story about a little Cottontail Rabbit named Hoppity Jump-- or about his cousin, the swiftrunning hare?

Your Home Service Bureau

THE ROCK GARDEN, ITS CONSTRUETION AND CARE," is the name of a 64-page booklet which you will want to add to your garden library. It is well-illustrated, and gives you complete directions for planning, building, and planting a rock garden. The price is 25c. Other Better Homes and Gardens garden services include:

Early Flowers This Way

Timely Tips

This is the way to

What They Think of Child-training

father's place, then, to see that she does-- it's his fault as much as hers if the children do not have proper food and training. Also, after I had stayed at home a few days and heard how many times the word 'Mother' was called in that house in a day, I realized that the most a father can do while he is at home is none too much.

Our Fence

GENTLEMEN!

Mothers' Methods

MY 9-YEAR-OLD son had become very neglectful of his personal care and appearance. No amount of persuasion or punishment seemed to make him keep his hair combed, his shoes polished, his clothes brushed, or any of the other things which make a boy neat. With four other children to take care of, I did not have time to keep after him constantly, and it was only when we tried this "bait" that Bernard lost his careless ways:

Our Baby-Health Service

A Real Boy's Room

IF YOU live in the average American home, I wager that the door to Junior's room is closed tightly when company comes to lay off its wraps in your best bedroom.

Presto!

ALTHO we live in a restricted neighborhood where back yards aren't allowed to be cluttered with unsightly buildings and where home-loving families diligently labor to keep their grounds beautiful, one serpent rears its ugly head-- the trashburner!

ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

IT'S 23 minutes of 6 in the garden, according to Keith Ward's cartoon. That's pretty early rising for certain sleepy-head plants and some gardeners. Sometimes there is no use getting up too early. Last winter when you rose too early perhaps you found the house was cold. That's exactly what the plants are finding during March.