March 1943

The Battalions OF LIFE

A CERTAIN man who fought in the last war is unable to understand how this war can possibly be won, because he isn't enrolled in the fighting services. It is incomprehensible to him that a military leadership so obtuse as to be indifferent to the value of his experience and patriotism could possibly lead to victory. Perhaps he hasn't stated the case to himself quite so baldly, but such is the real essence of his thinking.

Everyone Can Grow Strawberries

IN A SMALL HOME GARDEN where space is strictly limited, the strawberry is by far the best fruit to plant. It's good in any garden, anywhere, any time, the country over

"TODAY We're Planning for TOMORROW"

Dear Editors: I guess the reason we like Better Homes & Gardens so much is that you don't lose sight of the main issue-- that most of us are going on living in spite of everything, and the plans we make now will determine how worth while that living will be in the future.

War Comes to Vermont Attics

HOW TO PLAN AND PLANT THAT Vegetable Garden

HERE in these plans and charts is the basic information you need for starting your vegetable garden this year.

Grow the BIG 3

THESE THREE-- tomatoes, beans, carrots-- are probably your best three all-around home-garden vegetables. Tomatoes and beans produce more food per square foot of garden than any other. All three are comparatively easy to grow. Successive plantings give you food thru the season. And tomatoes can be juiced, beans dried, carrots pit-stored to give you vitamin-rich eating thru the winter, too.

Short-changed on Closets?

THERE'S no worse pain in the neck than a home that's been short-changed on good closets. But we should tell you! So take a heart-warming look at what you and your handy-man husband or favorite carpenter can do about it.

Why Waste the Front Yard?

IT'S a queer American notion-- that gardens belong only in the back yard. If you haven't planted your place yet, or if you've no room in the back yard for vegetable and fruit-growing because your back yard is your flower and ornamental garden, how about moving some of the flowers around front?

Nimble Fingers Did It!

"WORRIED or weary? Put your fingers to play!" That's the sort of thing Marion Bowen believes in, and practices, whenever there's a spare hour to be smuggled out of her strenuous days. And the beauty she's woven for her home in these forget-it-and-relax moments will set your own 10 fingers dancing!

More Light From Your Lamps

THIS is no time to let your lights fade into an unofficial dim-out. They should-- and can-- be burning brighter than ever, and on the same amount of electric current.

HOW TO Restore Old Furniture

Coming Miracles in Family Health

You have everything. The world's at peace again, and your son or your husband is back from overseas. Your home's the way you want it, bright and cheerful with comfort and color. Outside are the growing things you've set out, waiting for spring's touch. You settle back in your chair.

Six-Room Success Formula

TOO MANY small homes are a hodgepodge of undersized rooms thrown together with no particular theme in mind. At any rate, that's how the Dr. E. E. Butlers of Louisville, Kentucky, feel about it. The important thing in home-planning, to their way of thinking, isn't the number of rooms, but how they're arranged. Rooms have to be shifted and mixed according to a careful formula before any house is a well-integrated home.

It's Easy to Fix a Formula

YOU mothers of tiny new Americans are making-- I'm sure of it-- a very special effort to be your babies' milk supply.

Super Suds

Help Yourself to These Food-Savers

I've found that the fruit sirup from my home-canned fruits is a grand sugar-saver, and makes desserts twice as good. I use it as part of the liquid in rice puddings, brown betty, and tapioca, also in gelatine salads and desserts. I even add it instead of water when baking apples.

9 THINGS That Needn't Happen to Your Child

THE doctor was two hours late for our appointment, and when he arrived, he looked completely worn out.

MASONITE PRESDWOODS

Early Plans Speed Spring Work

AS CLEAN-UP TIME draws close this year let's get all the tools ready and go at it with a definitely planned schedule in mind. Pick up all old fruit lying on the ground. Apples that were infected with scab are a perfect source of reinfection on rainy days this spring.

HERE ARE Ideas!

ISN'T IT ALWAYS the arms and headrest of your chair slip-covers that soil oftenest and wear out first? Here's how I've solved it.

Grow These "Different" Annuals

LAST summer I had a very unusual border for the annual garden. The flowers came on from the middle of July until frost and a daintier border can't be imagined: the plants stood less than a foot high, and the blossoms, about an inch across, suggested the pleasant faces of violas. Colors were fantastically lovely-- white, yellow, pink, lemon, orange, crimson, rose, blue --many shades, with piquant markings on all.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

"If someone designed a snappy uniform for us," says Phyllis Gowan tartly, "it might drive home the truth that we homemakers in the kitchen are at war as much as any girl in a cartridge factory or in a WAAC uniform."

March INDOOR GARDENING GUIDE

Social Security Pays Until 18, Not 21

Better Homes for Birds

We'll Buy Bonds for You

THE DIARY OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

March 1 No, folks, this month didn't come in like the cold, roaring, toothy critter of tradition. It was a black lamb this time-- mild, but dark and cloudy.

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