August 1937

ACROSS THE Editor's DESK

Since this question appeared in our May issue, we have received many interesting and enlightening answers. One of the best is from Mrs. C. Perley Hutchinson, of Webster Groves, Missouri, who says: "Because it is character-building. It gives a couple, young or old, a united interest. To the young it calls for sacrifice, self-denial, effort-- something to live up to, a standing in the community, and a pride in achievement. To the old it is a dream fulfilled, a safe harbor, a place filled with memories; and to the life well lived the memories are more sweet than bitter, the struggle forgotten, for happiness remains."

THE Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

Aug. 3 Believe it or not, we've had rains, and weeds are springing up everywhere. So cultivation was in order today to get ahead of them.

IT'S NEWS TO ME!

IT'S a wonderful idea to save a tree, especially when that tree is a family heirloom in your own back yard. And of the money we've spent on our place this year, we really feel that what it cost to have the big old maple in our back yard repaired will give the most lasting gain in our investment.

YOU CAN'T BEAT NEW ENGLAND

WHILE down on Cape Cod last summer I drove over to the shore to buy some lobsters fresh from the pots. Outside "Captain John's" little shack of a fish-market sat three grizzled sea dogs, enjoying their after-breakfast pipes. Simply to be agreeable, I said casually: "Morning, gentlemen. Think it's going to clear up?"

Try Living Outside

TRY living outside the rest of the summer. You needn't go to the South Seas for the experience. But it's not enough to install merely a rustic seat for comfort at the end of the garden path. Rather, the kind of outdoor living which seems to suit everyone and gives the greatest pleasure is that created by some charming "betwixt and between" place which offers all the comfort of home outside.

WHERE THE STOCK EXCHANGE STRIKES ROOT

IF CHARLES R. GAY had to make a choice, he would rather make his garden grow than be president of the New York Stock Exchange. As a matter of fact, he does the first and is the second; and tho his mind is busy in Wall Street, his heart is in his brick and shingle home in Flatbush, and in the country place on Huntington Bay, near Huntington, Long Island, where he lives in summer. That's where his garden is-- 35 miles from the steel and stone canyons of lower Manhattan.

What's Your Score

THE garden season is in full flight. Over the country, thousands of us who garden are rising with the birds, nursing sore muscles, and squinting prophetic eyes skyward, looking for signs of rain. So varied is gardening that garden enthusiasts are found in all social and economic strata. Considering them all, tho, is there such a thing as a perfect gardener?

WE FOUND BURIED Treasure

IF SOLVING problems gives individuality to a house, then this house has plenty of it. The original, built just after our village had been burned by the British at the beginning of the Revolution, was a simple, well-constructed building with good lines; but in the course of its long life it had accumulated all kinds of bulges and appendages that had to be ripped off to get down to the good stuff beneath.

DON'T LET THEM FOOL YOU

YOU don't buy furniture as often as you do clothes. If you did you could go ahead as recklessly as you wished and I wouldn't say a word. But in most people's lives the purchase of furniture for even one room is an event.

Article

A HOME WITHOUT Any HEADACHES

BESIDES its trim beauty, this small gardened home has qualities that will improve upon acquaintance. For instance, after you've lived in it two years, you won't be saying, "If I had a dollar for every time I've tramped down that passageway to the basement..." because it has been designed with an absolute minimum of hall space. It has been created for the average Great American Family-- two adults and two children --and planned to accommodate them with a maximum of privacy in the least possible space, and at a cost within the reach of most of them.

WITH WINGS WIDESPREAD

SPOTLIGHT YOUR LITTLE TABLES

IN ANY smartly tailored room the little occasional tables have been just as thoughtfully chosen as the easy chairs and sofa. And why not? You wouldn't select your costume with care-- then walk out with just any bag and gloves. And it's just as important that the small table harmonize in scale, color, and style with the other furnishings in the room.

MEALS Under the Sky

SOME people "eat to live" and I'm just plain sorry for them. Not that I exactly do the reverse-- but I do get a lot of fun out of eating, and the sort of meals I like best are al fresco (fresh air) ones. Plenty of pure, untrammeled air is the best appetizer in the world. A dash of it does things to even a limp lettuce sandwich!

The Great American Dessert

THO history may credit a pre-Christian Roman emperor with the discovery of ice cream, it was Hostess Dolly Madison who brought the discovery to the light and delight of the modern world and established the delicacy as the great American dessert. And American it has remained, for England is as chilly towards ice cream as towards any other extreme, and France finds it lacking in subtlety.

Parent-puzzlers IN PERSPECTIVE

MARGARET was a shy little girl of 10. "She can't say what's inside bothering her, or even express her happiness," her mother said. Exactly the opposite was Margaret's younger brother, a happy-go-lucky youngster who made friends everywhere. Certainly in comparison with him, Margaret's friends were few. Making new friends was a long, painful task for her, tho once a friend, always a friend.

Make 'em AND WEAR 'EM

LOOKING for an excuse to play hooky from housework and get out in this grand summer sunshine? Then here's our answer-- bright summer togs that are fun to make and still more fun to wear while you garden, laze at the beach, or take your handiwork calling.

FOR Summer Lounging

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

My sentimental neighbor on the corner began a few years ago to give his wife a present on the birthdays of each of their four children, and it's amazing how this pleasant custom has spread thru the neighborhood, just by word-of-mouth promotion.

THE Question BEFORE THE HOUSE

WE LIVE in a house we like very much, but due to the ravages of age the plaster is cracking in several of the rooms, and we want to do something about refinishing. Can you recommend any of the modern wall-paneling treatments?

The Exact Cost to Build

AND SO INTO THE Night

AS EVENING shadows fall and darkness swiftly cloaks from view the beauties daylight offers, we may, by a simple flick of a switch, make the garden glow with new beauty and give it an enchantment far greater than its daytime appeal.

"Cracks You Can't Laugh Off"

Tomatoes Take Prizes

THE tomato-- a fruit to the gardener, a vegetable to the grocer boy, a "love apple" of dubious worth to a past generation, a fountain of vitamins to the present --is all things to today's cook. Tomatoes with meat, fish, eggs, cheese, vegetables; in soups, sauces, salads, even in shortcakes; tomatoes as such, as juice, as catsup; in fact, tomatoes in hundreds of good recipes are proof enough that Cooks' Round Table cooks have originality, that they know their flavors.

A High-up Sprinkler

IT MAKES LITTLE difference what the sprinkling job is, you can usually find a sprinkler of one kind or another that will answer the purpose. It may be a single, stationary spray, a rotating type, or, for larger areas, an underground pipe system with many outlets.

Delphiniums STEAL THE SHOW

DO YOU long for dozens of delphiniums? I did, so I set to work finding out the why and wherefore of these majestic spires of blue and mauve and deepest purple. I grew tired of buying just a few choice hybrids and never giving way to the delightful abandon of nicking all I wanted.

ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

COLOR in the garden is as personal as a handkerchief. One man's harmony is another's pandemonium. To you my rhythm may be dull repetition; my floral accents may call for help; and my basic hues may seem as uninspired as a radio announcer's advertising plug.