February 1935

Across the Editor's Desk

THE home life of Abraham Lincoln as seen by his next-door neighbor is the subject of a chatty communication from one of our friends and readers, Frances Rialle Graves.

IT'S news TO ME!

If the area of the sidewalls of a house is 3,922 square feet and the ceilings 1,575 square feet, how many feet of lath will it take to build? At what cost for lath? In fact, how do you know how many square feet of surface area there are in a particular house?

Lincoln AMONG THE TREES

NATURE made a man of her own when she made Abraham Lincoln. She weathered him into her own particular design; marked him with the rain and the wind, snow and sun, then offered him as a support and shelter to his panic-stricken world of men.

A Parade of Champions

FROM various countries and from all sections of the United States plantbreeders sent an unusually interesting collection of new flowers and vegetables, and it has been a difficult task for the twenty expert judges to choose this limited number which we proclaim the very cream of cream of flowers and vegetables.

"I Like to Be in Hot Water All the Time"

RECENTLY a group of my neighbors and I were talking about water. We agreed that there is nothing better than a drink of good cold water, but none of us could picture being comfortable in a home that had only cold water. Hot water, we insisted, was necessary for washing dishes, bathing, laundering clothes, scrubbing, and general cleanliness.

Wisteria--the Favorite of Vines

TO ME the wisteria is quite the loveliest of hardy vines. I have seen it in Portland, Maine, carefully trained across the front of an old sea captain's house, its drooping clusters gray against the white clapboards, or ramping along the eaves and ridgepole of a gray-shingled cottage, and it is equally lovely festooning the columned porticos of a Georgia plantation house.

Friend Husband--Gardener?

WHEN you read Better Homes & Gardens you instinctively feel that every man, particularly if he is a husband, loves to garden, but I know one who doesn't, for I live with him.

Table Pieces You Can Crochet

ANY achievement that adds beauty to one's possession and satisfaction to the possessor is well worth the effort-- jolly well worth it where crocheting is concerned, for it's a sheer joy-craft!

This is the way we Wash Our Clothes

FOR white clothes that have been soaked, the temperature of the suds can vary between 125° and 160°. For white clothes that have not been soaked, water more than 140° should not be used, for it will tend to set any stains that might be present. For colored clothes, the suds should be from 100° to 110°, or just a little more than lukewarm.

What to Do Till the Tree Doctor Comes

THE natural conditions found in the forest are generally most favorable to tree growth. When excavations are made near a tree, usually some roots are cut, reducing the food supply. In grading, we often raise or lower the ground level, and are quite likely to damage the tree by smothering the roots or exposing them to air.

The Poets Made My Garden

HAVE you ever thought of a poet as a garden necessity? Be as efficient as you like, flaunt your capacious toolhouse, wave your battery of hoes, sprayers, and trowels about-- I still insist, you need a poet. He's a marvelous modern aid.

THE Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

Old Dinner Bell. This afternoon when playtime came the boys and I went in to Potter's lumber yard and I did order a new post for the old dinner bell that stands at the back and a new post for our mail box and a new clothes pole. This latter is to be one that fits in a concrete hole in the grass and can be taken down after use.

What! Borders Again!

Give Me A Man Cook Every Time!

I REVEL in man-cooks. I like 'em no matter whether they're professional or amateur, so long as the food is good.

How to Begin a Garden in February

THINK of it! Less than a hundred years ago few Americans knew there was such a thing as a seed catalog. What would we do without them now? How convenient it is to have them arrive after we have rested from the hustle of the holiday season and before the bustle of spring is upon us!

Important News CASH AWARDS! for Endorsed Recipes in February

WE ARE pleased to announce the continuance of special cash awards for recipes mailed and received during February: For the one endorsed recipe chosen as the best, Better Homes & Gardens will pay $5. This outstanding recipe will be named "The Dish of the Month," and will be illustrated in a photograph in a later issue of the magazine.

This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes

Bluing may be added to the last rinse if desired, but it does not whiten clothes; it merely blues them and should not be necessary if proper washing methods are used. Liquid bluing is likely to cause spots of rust due to iron. The powdered bluing is good, but the water should be kept in motion and the clothes should be dropped in one at a time and not allowed to stand in the bluing water for long.

Benefit Yourself ...Favor Us

"I HAVE been married less than two years; before then I knew very little about cooking and homemaking. I have felt no hesitancy in using any food product and recipe advertised in Better Homes & Gardens, nor am I doubtful of the practical uses of the household supplies and equipment so advertised."

ENTER THE NEW $5,000 Better Homes Contest

WE OF Better Homes & Gardens are proud to give you here the details and rules of the 1935 Better Homes Contest; proud because the contest this year not only provides thousands of dollars in cash prizes for home improvements, but also because it gives an immediate and practical incentive to those who want to build new homes by providing a special section with cash prizes for them.

PEQUOT

Quick Turns on the Griddle

SNOW outdoors on the window sills, steam coming up in the radiator, coffee bubbling in the percolator, and the tantalizing odor of cakes baking on a sizzling hot griddle! Howdy Boy! It's Sunday morning with pancakes for breakfast.

John Paul Merrill, of Bristol, New Hampshire

Correction!

About Those Dishes Some pointers on getting children to help

ALICE hadn't wanted to do the dishes, no indeed. She had opposed the idea with all the energy and ingenuity her ten years could muster, because the other girls were out playing and she wished to be out playing, too, and because she didn't like to do dishes.]

Garden-Club Members

Uncommon Hedges

Send for these Garden Charts!

DURING the last few months we have had a great many requests for a convenient chart which would tell how to grow the commonest flowers.

THE FASCINATION of the EVERYDAY

THE steel wool you often use to smooth surfaces before you paint and varnish and to clean pots and pans is real steel, stranded. Nothing whatever is added to produce it, and no chemical process is employed to refine it.

Potato Salad as GRANT WOOD Likes It

Along the Garden Path

THE trouble with me as an artist is that whenever I make a little sketch it turns out to be bad in the end because I am always anxious to shade it just a little too much, or put a fancy border around it, or do something else to ruin it; and give me a paint brush and I am not willing to paint a chair or table any one color.