April 1945

Will You Help Save 5,000,000 Americans?

"WHAT do I care," Napoleon once said, "for the lives of a hundred thousand men?" Our minds still quiver at the brutal impact of those words. But, someone might ask, what do we care for the lives of 17,000,000 Americans, living today, who will die of cancer? It is easy to react to bloodshed and violence; a stealthy killer does not so easily appall.

Electrical ABC's for the Home

WHILE your electrical appliances --your toasters or lamps or vacuum cleaners-- are doing their jobs without a hitch, do you accept their willing slavery without a thought?

Wartime Worries Dept.

Q I've just come back after 31 months in the South Pacific. Every time I hear a motorcar exhaust, a plane, or even an auto horn, I jump before I realize what a fool I am. Where I've been, the fellow who didn't jump was likely not to be left alive to jump at all. But my friends laugh at me. What can I do about it?

Make Them Good As New

IF YOU'RE plagued with a gate out of kilter, one that sags so the snapper on the gate is too low for the receiving hole on the post-- here's a cure. It's a good latch, too, because it's simple and effective and the parts required are nothing you can't get made at a blacksmith's or auto repair shop.

Is Tooth Decay on the Way Out?

SOMEDAY tooth decay may be as inexcusable as smallpox is now. We can't yet be vaccinated against cavities in our teeth, tho even this is not an idle dream.

How to Put a Guest in His Place

WHAT do you do when-- unexpectedly or not-- you have a guest or two to shelter? Does Willie double up with Pop and do Janie and Sue crawl in with Mom so that there'll be an extra bed for the visitors? Or can you graciously open a door, step aside, and wish Aunt Minnie and Uncle Fred a pleasant stay in the guest room?

Guest Room--but a Family Room First

HOW much of it do we mean when we say, "Just make yourself at home" to newly-arrived guests? We're implying, of course, that the whole house belongs to our visitors as much as it does to us; that our food, our beds, our favorite chairs, and our pastimes are theirs to share equally as members of our family.

GARDEN CLINIC

Did your carrots grow forked tails? In gardens made on heavy clay young seedlings have difficulty in developing.

At Home in New England

Give Me Annuals Every Time

TO ME, color is an emotional experience. I'm thrilled by color in masses, by a garden alive with great flowing waves of bloom. Because I know of no other group of flowers that will unfailingly fill my garden with luscious color from frost to frost, I grow annuals.

Iris Are My Hobby

I GROW IRIS because I fell in love with them years ago. How can anyone explain why one falls in love with a certain flower or a certain girl?

My Favorites?--Tuberous Begonias!

IT WAS more than 30 years ago that I rounded a corner at Cornell University and saw my first tuberous begonias. That first impression was so lasting that still these Bolivian beauties are my favorites.

Daylilies for Me

IN MY ENTHUSIASM for daylilies I make some elaborate claims. But tho I may sound like a cousin of Paul Bunyan's, I never need draw on more than my own collection of these superfine, hardy perennials to back up my claims.

We Live Better on Two Acres

TWO years ago we Robinsons lived in a New York apartment. We discovered that the unadvertised inconveniences outweigh the much boasted conveniences that living in a large city has to offer.

Be Your Own CUT and PASTE Decorator

How to Decorate With Pictures

HOW long since you've really sat down and studied the pictures hanging on your walls? Their subjects, their colors, and where and how they're hung are every bit as important to your room's decoratingas the rest of the furnishings.

Help Yourself to a Better Lawn

HERE is lawn care reduced to its essentials. They'll help you grow a lawn that is healthy, durable, and cushiony green.

We Built Our Own Circulating Art Gallery

WE CAN'T determine who gets more pleasure out of our dinette art gallery-- our friends or ourselves. It was simple to make, as you. see by the diagram, it cost little, and it gives us so much pleasure that we think some of you will enjoy adapting the plan for your own prints and originals.

Floors--Mirror Clean the Easy Way!

NEW IDEAS for REMODELING YOUR HOME

NOW, the first of its kind, we offer you this 200-page book, with more than 350 "case history" stories and "before and after" pictures selected for economy, architectural excellence, and simplicity.

Your Clothes May Save a Life

Touches That Tell

New Grace for an Old Face

WE LIKED our home when we were inside. But its exterior held no promise of pleasure and security, as any home should. It had good points for its friends, none for the passer-by. So we analyzed it, walking or driving by as if we were strangers with no friendly prejudices.

A Revolving Breakfast Bar

Seven New Perennials You'll like

Plant Hormones

PLANT hormones have startling ways. They'll open your eyes with their wonders, stimulate plants powerfully, tho they themselves are something you never see. They actually exist-- the dramatic effect they have on growth has been demonstrated by some of our most carefulinvestigators.

Young Mothers' Exchange

If your child's rubbers are a tight fit when it comes time for them to replace galoshes, slip a piece of paper under the heel of each shoe. The rubber will slide over more easily.-- Mrs. J. Brown, St. Paul, Minn.

The Man Next Door

After 20 months overseas, I've had a month in the States. It was like coming up from the furnace room to the sun porch.... I found the folks at home on their toes, making war, in their own way, like one of Patton's armored divisions.

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

To the funeral of my uncle today and then we left him out in the little country cemetery beside my Grandfather, Grandmother and Aunt Mary. Old friends that I hadn't seen in 20 years and more came to the funeral. I'm the head of the clan now, the patriarch of the tribe.

April Gardening Guide

IN APRIL the average soil really gets right for working. Ground spaded or plowed last fall will dry out rapidly. Flat ground not worked before will be stubborn about giving up excess moisture which makes the difference between good and poor working soil.

It's NEWS to Me!

Sewer sluggish but not completely clogged? Flush one of these unopened down the toilet, no oftener than weekly. The container carries the chemical intact until it reaches the obstruction, where container's wires help it to lodge and wrapper soaks away. The chemical dissolves tree roots, grease, or any organic matter to a free flow again.