April 1941

A LEAGUE OF HOMES FOR Permanent Peace?

EVERY loyal citizen is ready to do all in his power to defend his country against a foreign foe. For women as well as men, this goes without saying.

I Double-Crossed My Termites

YOU can give the credit to the termites-- they're at the bottom of the whole thing! If they hadn't gnawed away a portion of the bedroom roof and treated me to a cold shower too early one rainy spring morning, I might have sold the house, as I had intended for six months.

There's S-P-A-C-E in This "Tuck-Away" Home

EVER watch a mother hen shelter her brood? You'll remember, then, how she ruffles her feathers as she clucks to her chicks, how she makes enough room under her wings to offer haven, yet keeps herself the tiniest target possible against storm or marauding hawk.

Grow Your Own Vases

ELEGANT ladies of ancient China found it fashionable to carry caged crickets in their bosoms or suspended from their girdles. They made their elaborate little cages of gourds; and on cold nights they inserted cotton padding for the crickets to sleep on.

PYREX

BREAD FIGHTS A FAMINE

MALNUTRITION of many types is widespread and serious among the American people. In the midst of food surpluses, both rich and poor alike are suffering from vitamin and mineral hunger. And the greatest shortage of all is in the Vitamin B complex.

"I was only trying to help ..."

I'VE finally finished building a new wing on my house up here in New Hampshire. All the carpenters and masons and plumbers have packed up their tools at last and gone home. Now maybe I can get back to work again.

GARDENS IN A HURRY

THE wiseacres will tell you that, if you want a real garden, you should have started last fall. Or better still, last summer. But that's no good to those of us who get a real honest-to-goodness garden itch only in the spring. We want a garden now, in a hurry.

THE BACK YARD'S THEIR FUN-SPOT!

APRIL Indoor GARDENING GUIDE

APRIL Outdoor GARDENING GUIDE

IN APRIL we're off to another garden symphony-- a symphony of color for the summer. The warm yellow of narcissus, bright red of tulip, and deep blue of hyacinth welcome us. Dark shady corners are brightened by Virginia Bluebells with a nodding trillium here and there; little narrow ledges are crammed full of deep blue grape-hyacinths; rock walls ooze Alpine Rockcress, with its clean white flowers against a background of green leaves.

CARRY ME BACK TO OLD Viroginia

"HEAVEN and earth," wrote Captain John Smith, "never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation." He was describing his yet unborn state of Virginia to the boss, King James, back home in England.

FOR GRAND AND GLORIOUS Weekends

Flower arranging is easy when you know how... Here's How

LOOK at the lines of that race horse! Haven't the new 1941 cars beautiful lines? Ah, the rhythmic lines of that dancer!

Here's An Idea!

THERE'S not a single decorating trick that nets us more exciting results on as little investment as slip-covering. Color, we're solidly convinced by now, is by far the most important ingredient in any successful room recipe. And slip-covers are a magnificent inspiration for injecting new youth and freshness into our down-at-the-mouth rooms.

It's "Children the Sumans' First" at

WHEN Doris Suman, assistant sales manager of the world's largest home-furnishing store, gives advice to customers on home-planning budgeting, and decoration, she knows what she's talking about. You see, she has not only a delightful home of her own, but four husky youngsters as well, ranging from Michael, 12 years old, down to young Mary Elizabeth, just a few months old; and she has been combining a career and homemaking for some fourteen years!

Six Lessons in Charm ... for Your Home

IT STARTED IN A STORYBOOK

FOR some, building a house may be very simple-- I envy those fortunate souls to whom a home is just four walls with a roof that doesn't leak. People like that are so basic. They terrify me a little.

This Little Room Takes to Water Like a Duck!

"HONESTLY, Mrs. Holbrook, can a room be 100 percent washable --walls, floors, rugs, and furniture-- and still be traditional, livable, and lovely?"

THERE'S A FOR Cabinet

"VERY nice," she said. "Just like a picture in a magazine. But it's not the kitchen for me. I use my kitchen! I want things where I can get at them. I'll grant this is much prettier to look at. But-- where is everything?"

Why Do It the Hard Way?

MRS. BINKS always walks from her kitchen into the dining-room when she wants to see what time it is, altho there's an elegant, chromium-trimmed clock in the kitchen. A queer streak? Not exactly. The kitchen clock happens to be mounted squarely above the window.

Tuck in a Nap Nook or Window Seat

THAT perplexing window of yours --there in a corner, in a recess, or a bay-- can mean just so much waste space, unimaginative and rather lonely. But slip in a couch or build in a permanent window seat and, incredibly, the whole room comes to life, takes on new comfort, new friendliness.

The Man Next Door

On a mild late March day, with the wind in the south, you can almost sniff the spring tripping northward from the sub-tropics. It will trip and fall headlong in several snowdrifts, tho, before it finally arrives.

THERE'S A Wild Cherry Tree in My Dining-Room

THE old wild cherry tree which sheltered me in youth is under my protection now.

Furniture Styles AND HOW TO RECOGNIZE THEM

HIGH on the list of illustrious Eighteenth-Century English designers and cabinetmakers is the name of George Hepplewhite. Details of his early life are scanty. Even the certain date and place of his birth are unknown. He was apparently apprenticed to Gillow at Lancaster for a few years. Later he established his own shop in the parish of Saint Giles, Cripplegate.

Paper Your Room With a Snapshot

"PHOTOMURALS? Never heard of them!" You'd have said it yourself a dozen years ago.

A Home in "The Town That Time Forgot

BIG-CITY STREETS are crammed every workday evening with workers on their way home to yardless, garageless, gardenless apartments. Always they dream of rambling homes with acres of yard around, in quiet suburbs. And often their dreams come true.

It's "Home" to an Architect

WHAT does an architect do in his spare time? Just what you or I would do, most of them-- whittle, read, play golf, or just sit and lap up the sun. Most architects, that is. But we know an exception. He's Architect F. Earl DeLoe, of Orlando, Florida, who's had a lot of fun designing a home of his own that's tiny, but big enough to hold himself and his wife without a bulge.

MAKE YOURSELF A Norwegian Kitchen

THEY'LL go fast at bazaar tables. They're just the happy thought for showers if you're caught short with your gift list. Aha! Here are answers-- pieces you can do swiftly. Or be selfish. They'll make your own kitchen colorful, gay, and unusual --light-hearted as a Norse fiddle.

Chips & Shavings

OF ALL the quaint objects that have come out of attics, barns, and antique shops, the cobbler's bench is one of the most appealing. In practical terms it serves as a choice coffee table; it holds magazines and serving trays, and has a handy underslung drawer for books and knick-knacks.

ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

EASIEST WAY I'VE found to mark garden rows is to take a piece of barbed wire the length of my garden, put myself on one end and my wife on the other, and seesaw the wire back and forth so the barbs mark the row. Then we step to the next row, and the next.-- Floyd Youngs, Wyoming.

"Cakes Lusciously Layered" ARE

How to Buy a Garden Rainbow for 30 Cents

SHAKE the china pig-- shake him hard! Spend your extra pennies this spring for seed of annual pinks. Spend your nickels and your dimes.

Save Your Glassy Odds and Ends

ODD TUMBLERS, empty glass jars, and little purse mirrors certainly do pile up in the average household. But give them a chance and they become amusingly decorative and highly useful.

What's in a Name?

"WHAT'S in a name?" the poet asked. Perhaps he was right about the rose, but his maxim doesn't apply to all flowers. Take the iris, for example.

Garden Gig

FOR FUN SWING A Family Album Social

EVERYBODY loves a "dress-up" party-- if it doesn't involve a pile of work and expensive rented costumes. So let's swing a "Family Album Social" with Grandmother's old red velvet album setting the style parade. There'll be old-fashioned food, old-fashioned games, and all the ancient bric-a-brac we can unearth for decorative atmosphere.

You Mix 'em to Suit!

SEVERAL friends ask the same question: "Insurance companies offer so many different policies these days that I'm confused. Isn't there some way to understand better what they're all about?"

Now You Can Build With Plywood

FROM CUBBY TO Dressing-Room Closet

FROM SPRING TO FROST It Blooms Continuously

IF YOU'VE been looking for a flower which will bloom from spring continuously until a killing frost--or all year in protected gardens of California, Florida, and points south --then the new double gerberas are the plants for you.

5 Ways to Keep Your Taxes Down

FACED with inevitable big increases in Federal defense taxes during the next few years, the American home-owner would do well to take steps to stop the upward surge of his local property taxes. There are ways to do it.

"Hens Are Our Hobby"

MYSTERY OF THE FLYWAYS

SUDDENLY out of a March sky still thick with a last threat of snow there comes a flash of blue; on the blustering airs drifts a low, sweet warbled whistle, like a contralto robin song. And it's the bluebird back again! March seventeenth, by my records in northern Illinois-- and as punctual as green on St. Patrick's day, just as, I see from my well-worn bird diary, he was last year.

My Dye Kettle's My Decorator

WHY not dye it? That's the theme song at our house-- and the results are glorious!

We Parents

A FRIEND of mine, brought up by a mother with a particularly beautiful garden, once said to me, "My happiest childhood memories are of the lovely thoughts that came to me while working with those flowers!"

Baby Clinic FOR PUZZLED PARENTS

I wonder if the strain of your trying to protect the lovely new house has aroused a feeling of resentment against the whole thing? Few youngsters grow up without ever defacing wallpaper-- perhaps you expect too much of her. Maybe she has too many toys, or they break too easily. ...

I'd Love a Room That Color!

A Color Adventure in Our OLD Kitchen

WE SIMPLY can't keep guests out of our little old kitchen. Not that we want to, you understand. Chances are we lure them back there ourselves-- just to strut our prized new room.

Thanks for the Inspiration Mr. Editor!

NO TELLING where you'll find the things you search for. Look at us, the Edward MacMenomays, for instance-- we went looking for a home in the country where we could enjoy freedom, fresh fruit, and vegetables. And guess where we found it! Right on page 20 in the January, 1937. Better Homes & Gardens.

For Your Easter Dinner

Shivery Eggs FOR YOUR Easter Dessert

Ubiquity

More Than We Bargained For

ALL we wanted was more sleeping space and another bathroom. We didn't want to move to get it, tho, because we'd grown attached to our lot full of shade trees and our home full of the scars made by growing children.

IT'S NEWS TO ME!

Indoor Gardening Guide

Fresh Start vs. Head Start

LIVING in a house and learning its faults before you remodel it makes the job easy-- you know what to do for the cure. But to see a house and say, "We'll buy it for its yard and trees, and for what we can make of it"-- well, that takes imagination!

Lady, Take Heed!

Clever Ideas for a Song

IF YOU move from a post in Arizona to a pillar in Illinois with seasonal regularity, you can't be elegant-- not in the army. But you can be original. And the same holds if you've a home of your own, a yen for adventure, but a slim budget.

Article

Oh Builder Spare That Tree!

STAY your ax a minute, Mr. Home-builder; that tree may look as if it stands right where your house must go, but I think maybe there's a way to save it. Cut it down and it'll take you a long, long time to grow another, you know.

So--You're a Show-off!

HE'S the pertest, most natural show-off in the canine world, this Wirehaired Terrier who has a family tree tall enough from which to hang himself.

Let's Make a Moss Garden

OF COURSE you can make a moss garden. There's a kind of moss for every spot, wet or dry, sun or shade, along the waterside or tree trunks, in barren soil or in rich, moist, woodsy spots.

The Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

Aprill We have guests in our home. And of all the hard luck-- this morning something went wrong with the sewer. Stopped up. Much embarrassment. We phoned the plumber and out he came.

Orchids AT 30 BELOW

ORCHIDS in your own garden? Exquisite oddities whose hardiness has withstood temperatures below zero, in some areas 20 to 30 below? Flowers which compare favorably with the orchidist's pampered darlings? Right. These can be yours.

Amazing Log of the Flyways

Is Your Garden Well Gated?

It's News to Me!