May 1946

To the Future--Without Fear

NOW that the fullness of spring is here, it is a melancholy commentary on man that he seems so out of season. Nature renews herself. Warmth and song are in the fields and hills. Man alone, among the works of Creation, has winter within him, his heart and mind still locked in a kind of ice.

Bigger, Easier Loans for Remodeling

REMODELING loans, up to a maximum of $5,000 for 7 years and 32 days, are available under liberalized regulations of the Federal Housing Admininstration.

Timetable for Vacation Plans

PLANNING a trip? So, apparently, is a large part of the population! Americans love their homes. They love them the more for the wholesome American custom of locking the front door at least once a year and setting out for a complete change of pace, people, and scenery.

New Under the Sun

New hope for elms. DDT promises to be the major weapon in stopping the spread of Dutch Elm disease. According to Dr. P. P. Pirone of the New Jersey Experiment Station, the new insecticide is highly effective against elm bark beetle, the pest which spreads the disease from tree to tree.

Thru the Shops

Catch the thoughts that come in the night and save them for morning. When you pull out the pencil, the little bulb lights up. Any pencil makes a good light switch, but a little one with a great, big, transferable eraser comes along. Convenient by bedside or telephone, Tel-O-Lite, brown plastic, $2.75 ppd.; or with 6 months' paper supply, $3.50 ppd. M. C. Flynn, Inc., 43 E. 59th St., New York 22, N. Y.

Guide for Home Planners

WHEN you sit down to decide what you want in a home, whether you're going to build or buy, the time has come to assume your most coldly analytical frame of mind. That home probably represents the largest single investment of your life.

High Comfort at Low Cost

SATISFYING, convenient indoor-outdoor living, hallmark of the best in modern home design, is expertly provided for newlyweds, a family of three, or the couple whose children have grown and gone, in this-- the fifth of the new series of Better Homes & Gardens Five Star Plans.

The Peonies Men Grow!

THERE'S something about a peony, a clean-smelling, husky bloom, that appeals to a man. Doctors, lawyers, merchants, bricklayers, cartoonists, engineers, printers, and plumbers all admit it. At the peak of the peony season, a man's wife may upset all his plans for gloating over rival peony fans by cutting his prize blooms for church or party just before the gloat session can start. But that won't stymie those plant orders-- "for just a few more, my dear."

Annuals Give Yon Color Plus

Article

FURNISHING NEWS

THE best of today's new furnishings emphasizes usefulness; the trend is to eliminate work and extra pieces. Constructed to make life easier for you, the new pieces have, designs that are simplified.

Article

Same Lot--More Living

YOURS-- from lot line to lot line. That's the idea. To make it so, your property needs definitely marked boundaries. Carry the plantings to the street walk if you like. Flowering hedges provide many a bouquet and require less attention than all-green, clipped ones. The neighbors like them, too.

No Place to Live

That Added Touch--in a Hurry

Here Are the 1946 Refrigerators

TO GET refrigerators to you quickly, many manufacturers have brought out models that are almost the same as their prewar designs. Often, however, there are hidden changes on the inside. Lessons learned in the manufacture of war equipment have been applied to refrigerator production. Sometimes it's highest precision building, sometimes refinement of detail or type of material used.

Is Your Boy or Girl Rebellious?

IT'S a blow that never fails to strike. The first time your hitherto loving and adoring child talks back and definitely shows antagonism, something grips at your heartstrings-- and it hurts.

Top-o'-the-Range Omelet

Too Much Sun?

Spring House-Cleaning Roundup

WITH the last speck of dust swept out of each corner, you'll want to add finishing touches to your home-- slipcovers, drawer linings, knickknacks. Below we've listed little tricks of trimming, easy ways to keep your house looking starched and shining, that other house-cleaning homemakers have sent in to share with you. You'll find that day-to-day upkeep will prevent collection of grime, that pick-up-as-you-go habits will save on tedious scrubbing and back-breaking cleaning jobs.

Bran

from a Dozen Eggs

How to Repair Screens

What Do You Know About Health?

THIS is a quiz for the whole family. It is designed to show how up-to-date you are in your knowledge of the advances made-- and the problems still to be solved-- in a field which affects every one of us-- health. A public-health worker scored 76 on this test; a nurse, 82; and a physician, 95.

Tame Those Spring Rains

OUR garden was almost washed away. The neat rows of vegetables were wiped out, and along the foot of the garden slope was an irregular mound of soil with young lettuce, beet, and bean plants embedded in it like raisins in a cake.

When My Husband Paints

THERE is an old story about a fly who sat on an ox's back and announced complacently, "Today we ploughed." I hereby scornfully disclaim any resemblance to that fly. When my man does a job around the house, chances are that after he's finished he is as fresh as a daisy, but I am worn and frazzled.

Claw-Proof Sill

Emergency Flour

ARE you about ready to dip into your new sack of emergency flour, and are you wondering how that next pie or cake is going to look and taste? Below we've tried to anticipate your questions with answers from our Tasting-Test Kitchen.

Memo: To My Architect

For winter bouquets

Bring in Those Flowering Branches

We Put Our Baby in Pictures

OUR Jane is the subject of decorations on her nursery furniture. Tho only 2½ years old, she has given us so many ideas for illustrations that our hardest task has been that of elimination. Eventually, we may use the surplus suggestions to decorate the inner walls of her clothes closet, or as a border around the playroom.

It's NEWS to Me!

Window ventilator-- when it's in, rain and dust stay out. Wire mesh, coated with clear plastic Vimlite, is fixed in a series of vertical baffles over a single layer of galvanized screening. This arrangement stymies everything but fresh air and healthful sun rays.

It's NEWS to Me!

Play bench with built-in fun for young beachcombers-- without a trip from home. Sky-blue canopy moves to shade pool, tilts on finished oak uprights to meet any degree of sunshine. Made of heavy, green, water-repellent duck, Sunny Play Beach measures 3' x 6', has steel corner seats and braces, metal pool drain.

The Man Next Door

This brave new world has engulfed the young couple that lives above the 2-car garage across the street. "I was horn in an 11-room house that cost $5,000 to build," the young fellow says, "and now we find it will take $5,430 to build a 4-room house, 26 by 26.

No-Spill Red Tray

Pots for seedlings

Wildflowers Easy to Grow

Best Animals for Cutting

Young Mothers' Exchange

TRAILERS, quonset huts, dinky apartments-- even tents-- are serving as temporary homes for young married couples during the present housing shortage. Whether doubled up with relatives or living in the confines of a remodeled filling station, Young Mothers are learning to get along with less space, to appreciate habits of neatness.

$70 FOR YOUR Prize Recipes

YOU are full of spring Stardust and planning frivolous meals with leafy lettuce and tossed salads. But we in the Better Homer & Gardens kitchen already are looking months ahead to the holiday season, wind-whipped appetites, sprigs of pine and holly, golden, roasted birds, Christmas confections-- and our December issue.

A Little Crust Goes a Long Way

20,000 Children Die Needlessly

ANY accident to a child is bad, but it is doubly tragic if it could have been prevented. Last year, more than 20,000 children were fatally injured in the United States. Some of them would be alive today if their parents had used more forethought.

4 Ways to Grow a Pantry Outdoors

How Well Do You Treat Your Dog?

THERE'S no getting around it. A dog is all tilings to the one he loves, all things that are fine and noble. He holds nothing back. Guile does not fit into his world.

Gauge for Planters

Better Than a Barrel

LUSCIOUS home-grown strawberries can be yours if you have an outdoor space 6 feet square for a strawberry pyramid. Last year I picked strawberries daily from May until frost. Years ago when Grandmother filled a barrel with soil and planted strawberries in holes drilled in the sides, she was necessarily limited to growing only a few plants.

Five Supports for Tomatoes

DDT WALL AND DRAWER PAPER KILLS INSECTS

DARK drawers and closets need no longer be a commissary for silverfish, moths, and other destructive insects. Ready-pasted wallpaper and heavy kraft lining and wrapping paper now contain enough DDT to kill the common household varieties of insects.

It's NEWS to Me!

The Sceret of Seasoning ought to be printed on drool-proof paper. It's crammed with recipes that sound so good you'll be tasting them as often as possible while you're making them. They interpret the vague directions of a good cook-- "a dash of this and a dash of that"-- into reliable terms of specific seasonings

RECOGNIZE and honor this emblem, symbolic of honorable service to America in its hour of crisis

We Spent a Night in Our Guest Room

WE spent a night in our guest room, while our own bedroom was being painted.

OVERFLOW ROOM

Six Lilies to Plant in May

THE DIARY of a Plain Dirt

May l On this May Day morn it was 32 degrees and heavy frost outside-- with terrific damage-- and before the day was over, it was zero inside. Now this isn't as mysterious as it sounds.

May Garden Guide

MAY, to me, is the month of apple blossoms, tho the pink-and-white blossoms share honors with the hawthorns, peaches, and plums. Memories of this May flower show come back to me again and again thruout the year.

Foresee New Uses for 2,4-D

RECENT experiments conducted by scientists at the Beltsville, Maryland, research station of the United States Department of Agriculture and at Michigan State College point to even wider uses for the various new weed killers based on 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, the chemical compound popularly known as 2,4-D.

DDT to Date

IN THE calm afterglow of excitement which greeted widespread distribution of DDT, merits and demerits of the insecticide for home use can be evaluated.

Are You Appreciated At Home?

A famous pyschologist presents a recipe to make family life a richer and fuller experience.

A Case of Nonsupport

It's NEWS to Me!

Screen-storm window unit. This is a housewife making her winter home into her summer home. She has just pushed up the storm sash (where it stays till needed again) and is pulling down the screen. She hasn't had to lift out windows or lift in screens-- no heavy work, no storage problem.