April 1940

ACROSS THE Editor's Desk

SPRING is the one season of the year that we are all prone to hurry along in its coming. Autumn we accept. Winter we endure and make the best of, once it enfolds us. Summer creeps upon us while we are too busy to take note. But we wait for Spring, and watch for it, and read into the first sign of relaxing Winter a forecast of early buds and lovely blossoms.

THE DIARY of a Plain Dirt Gardener

April 1 On or about March 1, I did set down a long list of things to be done this month. Well, I've been fooled, good and proper. All the days of March have fled, and sad to relate, much on that list hasn't been done. There are weeds to be cleared out, both dead and green, from perennial, shrubbery, asparagus, and strawberry beds.

The QUESTION Before the House

It's not hard for an electrician to enter the attic and drop wires to given points in sidewalls for such lights as you require. While doing this, have a number of receptacles placed at various points in the baseboard so that you may enjoy several scattered lamps, and have places for connection of vacuum cleaners.

Prune Your Way to a Better Lawn

I'M A lawn doctor. I get around and I see a lot of sick lawns. I see so many of them I sometimes get sick myself. For they're pretty ratty.

Notes on Planting Your Parking

LITTLE JIMMIE THOMPSON got his picture in the paper last night. Did you see it? On page three. Good-looking kid. Curly black hair, laughing eyes, a grin as big as a slice of watermelon. Nine years old, the paper said. But that picture, of course, was taken before it happened.

Slip-cover Be Smart!

SLIP-COVER be smart! And be sleek and well tailored! Good grooming gives you the right to a place in the well-dressed home that formerly snubbed you. Remember? It won't happen again if you make your 1940 debut in a wise choice of this year's big, bright crop of especially styled slip-cover fabrics. You'll be a sensation!

A MODERN Goldilocks FINDS A "JUST-RIGHT" BED

WHEN Goldilocks came to the Three Bears' beds, she found that Papa Bear's was "too hard," Mama Bear's was "too soft," but Baby Bear's was "just right." And she settled down with a great sigh of relief and satisfaction to a real night's sleep.

Four American Versions OF THE SAME ROOM!

THIS is the plaintive theme of so many letters we've received from families all over the country that we decided to do something about it. The "something" is a living-room, built with the co-operation of B. Altman & Company, which might be found in any typical American home from Maine to California. It measures 13 x 21, has the requisite number of windows, doors, and walls; the simplest of woodwork, a ceiling, floor, and fireplace.

Draperies Frame Your Windows With Beauty

LAST month we studied glass curtains and problem windows, leaving draperies and valances strictly alone. So now let's round out the picture with a review of what to choose, and why, in those most important of all background features-- our draperies.

Dollars and Sense in Home Planning

RIGHT now in your neighborhood there may be two houses going up with the same number and size of rooms, the same materials, the same conveniences. Yet one costs more than the other but doesn't look as inviting. If you are about to build or remodel and are therefore interested in the reasons why, these two pages will give you some of them, and help with your plans.

Two Little White Homes in the Country

WHEN the Dutchers bought their acre-and-a-quarter lot in Westchester County, New York, they found themselves with a discarded cow pasture fringed with woodlands, a spring that had never been known to run dry, and the inevitable problem of deciding the kind of house to build in keeping with their bank account.

UNCLE SAM, LANDLORD

NINE thousand feet up in the timber of Roosevelt National Forest, with mountains sweeping upward on two sides and a mountain creek of freshly melted snow water tumbling below, sits a small log cabin-- our cabin, built there with the permission of our landlord, Uncle Sam.

APRIL Indoor Gardening Guide

DO YOU believe in old wives' tales? Putting oil on rubberplants, and chicken bones in the bottom of a flower pot? The other day I was told if I wanted to pep up my houseplants to bury a piece of beefsteak in each pot. If this gave my plants the worms, a slice of raw potato on top the soil would lure the worms to the surface and I could sneak up and grab 'em.

APRIL Outdoor Gardening Guide

THE sun is coming back. Ripe, fat bulbs and tubers await its signal to spring forth. Old dry coats of leaves and stems are waiting for you to take them away from all of the gay bustle of straining young shoots.

How to Build a House by Remote Control

MAYBE I get discouraged too quickly. But when Emmie and I saw what happened to the Bronsons when they built their house, we swore we'd never get into anything like that.

Put you Into Your Kitchen

"AND this is the kitchen!" Julie was personally conducting me on a tour of her new home-- and I was enchanted! Every room proved her excellent taste and her clever way with color. Then came the kitchen, so white, gleaming, and streamlined that it might have been carved from frozen blocks of snow, frosted here and there with chromium.

Save Their Eyes AT HOME--AT SCHOOL

WHEN our children come into the world, all but a few have good eyes. By the time they're 50, the majority will have developed serious eye defects-- UNLESS WE DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Mushrooms--Oh Boy!

A HOT PLATTER ... a thick, man-sized steak perfectly browned and fairly bursting with tantalizing juices ... bits of crispy green water cress dotted here and there ... what more could one ask? Mushrooms! Small and whole, or large and sliced, delicately broiled or fried, glossy with butter, well-seasoned, heaped in abundance over the aforementioned steak-- that makes a dish indeed fit for a king!

"Dedicated to the BEST COOKS in the World"

"We Feed Custards to Company"

DO YOU make custards for the young and apologize to your hubby? Then you're in for a mental somersault. For out of our recent Cooks' Contest for Custard Desserts and Meat Sundries have come a host of all-family desserts and company specials. First prize of $5 to Mrs. George B. Zier, Lorain, Ohio, for luscious Lemon Custard in Meringue Cups as nice a dessert as ever topped off a spring luncheon.

Your Kitchen Cut-ups

IT CAN and has happened here! There's been a cutlery revolution, and out of it has come a fine new army of kitchen knives that's turning meal-making into a speedier, easier, and far more enjoyable job.

From Attic Catch-All to Family Den

THE prettiest room in our house, complete with built-in bookcases, linoleum, and a warm-air heating system, cost us exactly $57.87!

At Last I Have a REAL Terrace

FOR YEARS I wanted a terrace. For years I carried around in my heart the picture of my ideal terrace. All that time I never had a real terrace for the same reason that my maiden aunt never had a husband. It must be thus and so-- exactly thus and so.

Annual DO'S and DON'TS

DO Annuals merit a self-respecting place on any home grounds. But we haven't learned yet, some of us, how best to use them. Growing in flower boxes, of course, is one of the best things they do. You can use nearly all the shorter ones in this way successfully. But until you've tried gate boxes of Sweet Alyssum, porch tubs of clarkia, or pool-side boxes of ornamental grasses like pennisetum, you haven't even begun to see what annuals can do.

For Home-Builders

Look Before You Use!

A PARTNER in one of America's largest and most popular home-furnishings stores waved his hand despairingly as he said: "We have nearly 20,000 different items which carry printed instructions that should be read and followed carefully if people want to get the most for their money.

Walnut in the 18th Century

IN YOUR friends' homes, in the stores, everywhere these days there is a swing toward early Eighteenth-Century English furniture designs reproduced in American walnut. And you're writing us puzzled questions. Wasn't mahogany the only wood of the Eighteenth-Century cabinetmakers?

"Meat Miscellanies"

Planned to the Last Inch

NESTLED in the foothills of the Berkshires, 70 miles from New York City, lies the typical little New England village of Newtown, with a range of larger mountains stretching off to the northwest and meeting the sky where they fade into the horizon.

We Wanted a Hidden Garden

WE WANTED a Hidden Garden. We were so possessed by the idea, goodness knows, that it all but flavored our food those days. We wanted the dramatic effect of rounding a corner and coming suddenly upon a perfect gem of a little informal garden. We wanted it so much we were ready to carve-- à la Gutzon Borglum-- a new face on our rough slope left where the builder piled the soil excavated from our house basement.

Colonial Clicks Wherever It Goes

SOMETIMES the best way to talk about houses is to talk about hogs. One hog that makes a nice lean slice of bacon for your breakfast table is the Duroc.

To Quilt IS SMARTLY MODERN

TO Grandma, something quilted meant something nice and warm to snuggle under in bed. Still does, but today its handsome texture is big news in other fields. Peasanty sports clothes, draperies, upholstery, and slip-covers claim it, and amateurs and experts all over the place are relearning the simple old art of quilting.

Daintiness for Your Daughter

WOULDN'T you like to create a bedroom, all dainty and feminine, for your young daughter?

If You've an Old House...

FORTY years ago Attorney G. P. Short climbed to the top of a hill overlooking Ellensburg, Washington, and built his home there. It was a big square, solid place with double front doors, such as the town bank president might have built. For years it stood almost alone on the hill. ... and ...

Once a Useless Door, Now a Beauty Spot

ANY superfluous doorways in your home? Plenty of us are pestered by the things, especially if our houses were built some years ago, when architects seemed to live by the formula of when in doubt stick in a door. Too, revamping an old home often leaves us with an unneeded exit from a room, left in and allowed to spoil good wall space because it seemed too much trouble to plug it up.

Here's an Idea!

You Take Your Choice

RICHARD C. believes that if more of us understood the many different settlements that are possible with life insurance, endowments, and deferred annuities, we'd be even more interested in these things. To illustrate, he brought out a deferred annuity he began when he was 37. Now he's 50.

Add a Writing-Nook to Your Upstairs Hall

HAVE you ever wished you had a wee writing-nook somewhere in the house-- say in the upper hall? Someplace you might drop down when in the mood and pen a note or plan a menu? Because your well-equipped writing-table is down in the livingroom or study, the chances are the note never gets written and the bright luncheon thought is forgotten.

Rustic Chairs TO MAKE YOURSELF

A FEW rustic chairs may come in mighty handy next summer when a boisterous motoring party swoops down upon your cottage quite unannounced. Besides, they're rather nice to have around anytime, and furniture built of material found near your cabin is usually most picturesque and harmonious.

Design in Living, Luscious Fruit

SAM HOPKINS was one of these never-satisfied fellows. "We need more garden space," he'd complain. "All of us. We need room for a couple of apple trees, a plum, and a pear or two. A man can have a lot of fun with a little orchard."

Easy to Make-for your home and garden

Barrel Beverage Cart This novel vehicle is reminiscent of an oldtime sprinkling wagon with the top sliced off. But in the house it will be found more useful. Two lids slide out the ends to reveal a capacious hold filled with glasses and bottles. One needn't be a carpenter emeritus to build a passable copy.

Beginner's Fool-proof Hardy Garden

IS YOUR knowledge of garden-lore embarrassingly limited? Do you like to putter in the garden, yet shy from devoting every spare hour with hoe, trowel, or pruning knife in hand? Would you like to have a garden, yet feel that your pocket-book won't stand up under the strain of realizing your desire?

How Do You Sleep?

"Babies Were Meant to Live!"

I Modernize MY ANTIQUES

THOUGHTS of housecleaning invariably find me in the storeroom, attic, or basement, shaking my head sadly over the accumulation of years --whatnots, ancient vases, massive picture frames, a sampler, and bric-a-brac without end. It's my annual gesture, before I put them all back to gather dust for another year.

Summer Cottage IN CONNECTICUT

WHEN you enter this summer and weekend retreat, you don't really leave the outdoors-- for stretching out before you from the windows is a sweeping view of Candlewood Lake and the surrounding hills.

Handle With Gloves

THE loveliest hands I've met are dishwashing, dust-mopping, and gardening hands-- kept soft and lovely by gloves. And since I refuse to let anyone else's hands across the table be nicer than mine, I've joined the smooth-hand homemakers who tackle their jobs with gloves.

It Was Fun to Make Our Garden Furniture

SOLID wood wheels, rawhide thongs, and rough-hewn appearance fit this furniture to your garden. And it's fun to build. We know. We built it.

Slight Changes-but What a Difference!

Along the Garden Path

THREE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS to the tulip disease known as "fire" are: mulching beds; cultivating plants in wet weather; and permitting animals to run thru tulip plantings and bruise stems and leaves, allowing botrytis spores to enter.-- Phyllis Hope, Ind.

Article

Working Drawings

Tuliptime!

Whims & Hobbies

Movie star whims: Edward G. Robinson is a string saver.../ Claudette Colbert is an old-shoe saver... Connie Bennett likes to shop around for unusual, but cheap, cotton materials that look like expensive ones-- to use for draperies and such and confound her friends.

Garage Summerhouse

THE great American custom of living out-of-doors during hot summer months is gradually becoming more difficult with the increase of pests such as mosquitoes. In seeking to solve this problem I found that to build a screened-in porch on the house or to construct a summer-house would cost anywhere from $100 to $300.

Make These OF DISH TOWELS

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Probably the best behaved man in town was the lawyer in the next block, until his wife began to act jealous about nothing and put ideas in his head.

Article

SOD'S BODKINS!

IN MUCH the same manner as a bodkin pierces a hole in the cloth of a hem and tunnels a ribbon thru it, so caterpillars act on various parts of your garden flowers. But the tape drawn by the sod's bodkins is one of infestation and destruction.

This Prexy Bred Iris

IT'S NEWS TO ME!