March 1941

How Far Does Your Neighborliness Reach?

To the ranchmen of the West the nearest neighbor may live miles away-- beyond a mountain, possibly, or across a valley. To the dweller in a city's tenements, neighbors may dwell no farther off than beyond flimsy, six-inch walls. But to most of those for whom this magazine is edited, neighbors live just beyond gardens bright with flowers-- across lawns fresh and green-- on the other side of trim, clipped hedges-- across the smooth asphalt of paved suburban streets.

"Moved to a New Home--Address the Same!"

New Tricks for Your Garden

THE last 12 months have found gardeners sterilizing soil with tear gas, stretching the life of cutflowers with secret formulas, cutting Bordeaux spray down to one fourth its old strength for black-spot control, and injecting iron into trees. Other strange things, too.

And sudden Death--in the Home

DOT MASON passed us on the street downtown this morning. She's home from college, you know. No, not for a holiday--for good-- on account of her mother.

Growing Vegetables Is Fun

AT THE request of the editor, I have agreed to step out of character as the Plain Dirt Gardener and write as an ordinary contributor about my old love-- vegetables, In so doing maybe I'm like that grand-opera singer in Chicago last fall who stepped before the curtain in all the trappings of his opera character and sang "Home on the Range" as an encore.

TRIUMPH OF THE 50-FOOT LOT

IT'S A funny thing about troubles. They may be stumbling blocks, but sometimes surmounting them clears a path to success greater than you'd hoped for.

MAKE YOUR HOME A

HOW safe from fire do you feel right now? While you're sitting here reading, are you sure flames aren't licking thru some part of your house, ready to trap and devour you --or your family-- before you even smell smoke?

Cut a Twig, Force These Blooms

OUT the window I noticed the gray bark of twigs and branches taking on a rosy hue. It's spring's first telltale of pulsing life. I know those branches are rarin' to bloom, so I hie to the garden with overshoes, pruning shears, and basket, cutting branches obliquely from plum and Pussy Willow, peach tree and crab, hawthorn, quince, and goldenbells.

In Your Garden, It's Time ...

IF MARCH comes in like a lamb, be all set to get into your garden like a lion when a few bright days come. Warm March winds dry out the ground rapidly, and many are the springs when ground conditions are better in March than in April.

Rebirth of a Salt-Box

THERE was a double purpose in the fishing jaunt the Philip Maguires of New York City took that summer day. Fish, of course. But in addition, perhaps a small house-- one they could use for weekends and summer vacations. They didn't want a new house; they wanted one that had been lived in, that had its own story to tell.

RED, WHITE and BLUE for Your Garden!

FOR you who are proud of America, for you who are grate ful, we've mapped out spring-planting maneuvers. Even tho you've never grown a flower before, you'll find these plans so simple you can follow thru to a victorious effect. Or use the flowers here to figure your own strategy-- whichever you like.

A little home Big with IDEAS

WHEN a busy architect gets around to building himself a home, he's really in a spot. Clients and possible clients-to-be watch him with that lively interests which implies, "Now we'll see just what he and his family consider perfection in a house for their own living."

Grandmother Wallpaper HAD HER NOTIONS ABOUT

WE SMILE at Grandmother, who kept her "front-parlor" shades drawn snugly to preserve the gorgeous pink roses on her walls. But the joke's on us.

Two Charming Homes in New England's Countryside

WE'D been wandering thru winding Connecticut lanes, looking for the little new house that Marion and Roland Hendrickson had built on an elm-shaded knoll near Darien. We hadn't really minded being lost, for it was pleasant country to drive in... but we were on the verge of being late for tea.

SOMETHING'S DOING AT JANE'S HOUSE

I TOOK another cooky. I couldn't help doing it; they were so good. Besides, Jane had made them "special."

A "Before and After" That Costs Nothing

IF I HADN'T been Ruth's best friend, I'd never have had the nerve to tell her that her living-room looked simply awful. You see, Ruth's a crisp new bride, long on good sense in choosing furnishings but short on experience in arranging them.

YOU'VE GOT TO HAND IT TO Fish!

Are You Really Getting Your Vitamins?

WARS cannot be won without vitamins. Guns, after all, are not much use without butter. Belligerent countries have learned that the difference between crying quits and fighting to the bitter end may be a daily supply of vitamins which in purified form would just about cover the head of a shingle nail.

Meringue Mysteries SOLVED HERE

I Houseclean Bit by Bit

WE'VE ten thumbs in our family-- all down on do-it-in-a-week-- but oh, what a week-- housecleaning.

Topsy-Turvy Biscuits Land a Prize

HERE comes the news you good cooks have been waiting for-- results on the battle between Fishy Mainstays and Biscuits-and-Muffins waged last September.

Adventures in Space-Hunting

IT'S hard to believe, I know, but the average American house built during the last 50 years puts less than two thirds of its usable space to work. Nine out of ten families are in real need of that leftover space, and most can easily afford the little expense necessary to put it to work.

They Went Wild in Their Garden

IF THEY weren't polite, the Richard M. Lawtons could laugh right out when you tell them that, my, there are so many things you'd love to grow, only you can't because you have only a small back yard; hardly space to grow a real garden.

AS YOU WHIZ

Should Your Child Obey You?

IS IT no longer "correct" to expect your children to obey? I'd have thought that a silly question, too, not so long ago. But a number of incidents lately have made me wonder whether a good many of our nicest people aren't operating under the delusion that to require Johnny to do what he's told just isn't done any more in the better homes.

CRYSTAL TEAMMATES

Furniture Styles

ONE of the most fascinating chapters in the history of Eighteenth-Century English design we owe to the brilliant achievements of a Scotchman named Robert Adam. Working with his younger brother, James, he was the only architect ever to have his name linked with the creation of a definite style in English cabinetmaking.

The QUESTION Before the House

Any good finishing formula will do a first-class job on Philippine mahogany. The only extra precaution is that Philippine mahogany should be glue-sized after rough sanding and before the fine sanding. This also applies to furniture of this wood.

Meet My $25 Study

TWO months ago what I laughingly called my study was on a direct line between kitchen and front door. My two small fry, assorted neighbors' children, a puppy, two cats, and various tradespeople trekked past me all day long; and Bessie, the hired girl, ran over me with a vacuum and a torch song each morning.

GENERAL ELECTRIC

Slip a Gay One Over on Your Furniture

They're Look-Alikes--But Only Brick-Deep

THERE stood the twin of our house! In our town of Oberlin, Ohio, we discovered a house that matched ours almost to a T. All without one another's knowing, the Comings and the Siddalls had built houses that could well pass for plan-mates.

It's News to Me!

Dear Family: "It's News to Me!" overflows this month with two extra columns of home news. News too good, it seems to us, to keep tucked away till April. The regular department is on page 136.

Back to Work Go Our Family Skeletons

SHAKE hands with our family skeletons! Fat and ugly was an overstuffed atrocity we whittled into a beauty of a wing chair. That pompous dining-room seat now makes its bow as a cozy bedroom lounger. One quite trick of a vanity grew from a horse-and-buggy dresser, the other from a derelict radio cabinet. And under the smart lines of our Lawson couch beats the faithfulheart of a mohair sofa.

Is There a Plumber in the House?

ALTHO their home was only ten years old, plumbing repair bills were already playing hob with the Smiths' budget. Together they dropped into the office of their plumber to pay a seven-dollar charge for clearing their sink drain, the second within a year.

Closets Handy and Handsome

POOR old family skeleton-- he hasn't a place to hide his head in today's expertly specialized closets! Smaller clothes closets, but loads more of them, and every one utilized to its last square inch, is our modern motto. Junior-sized affairs are worlds easier to keep in apple-pie order than were the huge old catch-alls.

For Grand and Glorious

Lions and Lambs Go to a March Party

HERE'S an exciting new party idea for March-- loads of fun but a snap to give! In honor of the month, let's label it "A Lion and a Lamb's Gambol."

MR. EDITOR: We Unearthed a Colonial

You'll find a pretty excited family down here in Independence. We've just finished remodeling a house that couldn't suit us any better if we'd built it ourselves. The rest of the family has asked me to send "before" and "after" pictures to you.

Do You Need a Basement?

BACK in the days when we used to roll in barrels of potatoes and apples for the winter, cellars had a real place in every home. That was in an age when no one could think of going without quart upon quart of pickles and preserves, "put up" and stored in the cellar. The basement used to protect the house from drafts and cold floors, and was the only place for the furnace.

How to Save Your Town's Face

SOMETHING was up on Elm Street. Along the tree-lined thorofare of white-shingled houses, a band of determined women moved. One by one, they took their stand beside the century-old elms that shaded the street. The battle of the trees was on.

A Budget That Simply Won't BALANCE

MOST folks approach the job of keeping household accounts with the gusto of taking a gulp of raw castor oil.

High Adventure Begins at Your Doorstep!

EXPEDITION! There's a ring to the word, of adventure, of strange places and new sights, and trophies to bring home. We think of Admiral Byrd in his sub-zero polar silences, and Beebe descending into the oceanic night in his bathysphere, and Akeley and the Johnsons on safari in the wild zoo that is Africa.

Along the Garden Path

MY DRIVEWAY EDGING of small concrete blocks set halfway into the ground is inexpensive and would look well in other parts of the yard. I filled the holes thru the blocks with soil and planted low-growing flowers in each.-- B. Wolf, Mass.

Back-yard Picnickers

Tips for Tinkerers

"FRANKLY," said the salesgirl, "we've stopped handling those set-back plant stands because they cost too much."

Money for Remodelers!

The Real Truth About Dogs

IT ISN'T that I dislike dogs. On the contrary, I love them. In fact, confidentially, some of my very best friends are dogs. But after all, there's a right kind of pooch for every house. That's the thing I'd like to drive home. That and a new 1941 model.

THE MAN

It's amazing how many things you dig up when you do a little excavating in your own back yard. Almost as if you were living atop the ruins of an ancient civilization.

Fun Under the Slats

THIS sounds like too much to promise, but ... If you'd like to grow choice things that now dwindle away under blistering sun or wind ...

What Gardening Means to Me

Crazy About Wild-flowers? flowers?

MY GUESS is you're one of those enthusiastic Nature-lovers who becomes dewy-eyed at the sight of the first blushing anemone. My guess is that at some time in the woods you have disregarded the signs "Don't Pick the Wildflowers" and when no one was looking pulled up a specimen particularly to your liking.

The Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

Your Evergreens Need Haircuts, Too

HI, MR. Michelangelo of the garden! Pick up your pruning shears and get to work. Out in your yard are evergreens just crying to be made more shapely. As evergreens grow, they usually need trimming, and they need it each year. Not that they should be carved stiffly like the little wooden trees in the old German farm toys.

PRETTY SURE SHOT for