June 1934

Across the Editor's Desk

A CERTAIN home has won national distinction because of its architectural beauty and general attractiveness. But there must be some indefinable charm about it that escaped even the judges. Or we might say that this charm was realized by them in a subsconscious way, and could not be translated into words.

THE CHALLENGE

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

June Now comes the glory monthiris still here, peonies coming into their fullness, and roses at the door. To get ready for it, I worked hard and fast this day-- mowed the lawn, hoed, then packed my grip.

IT'S news TO ME!

For parties, picnics, and church dinners a foods manufacturer offers free tested recipes that tell the amounts of ingredients needed to make dishes in a quantity serving 21, 48, or who's coming! There's coffee-- that's important-- and such good foods as meat loaf, salads, and hot breads.

When I Helped Bob and Betty PLAN their Rose Garden

WHEN I met Betty downtown one day last June she told me that their roses were turning out to be one of the high delights which she and Bob had dreamed about for months.

Cottages in the Country

MOST of us, I think, are conscious of the need of a little cottage tucked away somewhere within fifty or a hundred miles or so of town, a place to which we could pick up and go on week-ends.

Along the Garden Path

Do YOU know the beautiful true story about Elizabeth, queen of the little kingdom of Thuringia, who was so charitable and kind to her people that she was canonized St. Elizabeth? I have found it among my clippings.

I HAVE Daylilies Blooming 100 Days

DO YOU want plants so full of the zest for living that they need no staking, spraying, or fussing over?

"Here's My Idea of a Room"

I'VE been dreaming about "My Idea of a Room" for ages, and the nice thing is that when my sister gets married this June I'm to have our room all to mvself!

"Here's Mine"

EvERY so often someone describes the boy's room-- what it should be like and what it should contain. My idea of a perfect boy's room differs slightly. Mothers should take heed and not pester us with their desires to put up fancy window sets and other feminine frills.

The ONE with the Net and the ONE with the Sword

HE other day in my garden I watched the working out of a vendetta between two specially ordained enemies a vendetta which has been going on relentlessly for countless centuries.

How to Photograph Your Garden Flowers

A CHICKADEE clinging upside-down on a flower stalk gets a view of my garden that I will never have. So does a hummingbird; imagine being suspended in mid-air in front of a deep-throated columbine almost as big as yourself. And there's Senor Bullfrog sitting on a lily pad and solemnly blinking at a waterlily, like some fat old connoisseur in a museum.

3RD PRIZE CLASS 1

Deep IN THE Forest

TOOTLE-OOT, ACES." The Pipes of Pan lead us to a real adventure. What is he saying?

"Come on out and Play"

NINE months to study books; three months to learn the things not in books.

Downright Delicious!

DESSERT is ready and it's ice cream!" Such a statement is greeted with cheers in the households I know about because undoubtedly ice cream is a favorite summertime dessert.

A Snip Here and a Nip There

GOOD habits in plants can be produced with a little work. You can have willful, spoiled plants or plants trained to meet your ideal of graceful form and with more profuse bloom. A snip here and a nip there will usually correct their habits. As the twig is cut so will the tree grow.

Removing Guesswork From the Art of Cookery

HAVE you sent your favorite recipe to us for endorsement by our Tasting-Test Kitchen? Thousands of you-- women, and men, too-- have done that and have received Certificates of Endorsement.

It's Blossomtime

THE hostess for the afternoon, gowned as Mistress Mary of the old nursery rhyme, Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

Will JUNE Bring Roses to Your Garden?

THE Better Homes & Gardens Home Service Bureau has prepared three excellent leaflets to help you with roses. The first, B-G-38, "An Expert Tells You About Roses for Your Garden," was written by Dr. J. Horace McFarland, editor of "The American Rose Annual," and for many years president of the American Rose Society. He condenses rose culture in this leaflet to a few helpful but success-giving hints.

Coming in the JULY

HOW to care for your garden in July? Henry L. Merkel tells you in his story "Cues for Garden Care When July Wilts Your Pep."

Symbol of Welcome

Kin to an Orchid

A SPANISH sailing vessel, so the story goes, bound west from Central America on its way to the Orient some thousand odd years ago, was shipwrecked on the Island of Hawaii, and the Captain and his blonde sister and a few Portuguese pineapples were the sole survivors.

Strawberry Shortcake

HaMLIN GARLAND was the first person to debunk the beautifully idyllic stories of rural America and to write honestly and realistically of life as it was really lived. His "Daughter of the Middle Border," written in 1921, won the Pulitzer prize for biographical fiction.

How They're Pronounced

Aluminum Riddle of the Ages

POTS and pans of bright aluminum-- light weight, heating five times as fast as iron or steel, and easy to keep clean-- do you know from where the metal they're made of comes?

The Stories of More Prize Winners!

We Turned to the Brook and Said "Yes!"

THE house itself was mediocre: some good points, lots of bad ones, and entirely too small for our needs.

The Stories of More Prize Winners

Our House Looked Cramped

We Had Home Fever

Cool Curtainings For Summer

The summer urge in curtaining is for some airy, cottony material that flutters in the slightest breeze-- with color that suggests coolness! How refreshing we find dark brown with white, chartreuse, and Chicago-blue (that particular yellow called chartreuse thus combined with the brilliant blue used in building-exteriors at the Century of Progress last year).

Confessions of a Good Cook