December 1947

New Under the Sun

Contrary to what you may have thought, leaves on evergreen trees and shrubs don't last for the life of the plant. Tests in Colorado show that the leaves usually live only 4 to 10 years. Longest life recorded was 32 years for leaves of an Engelmann spruce. Because leaves die at different times during the year, casual observers are unaware of their loss. Some new leaves start each year.

Does a war trophy menace your home?

A BAZOOKA rocket, a war souvenir, proved more interesting than cakes and ice cream for five small children attending a birthday party in Newark last year. For the kids, the rocket was a wonderful object. But when it exploded, all five were crippled for life.

Gift blankets

IT'S especially fun to give presents that are in season. Perhaps that's one reason blankets have long been favorites for Christmas giving.

Today's bargain: 16 extra years!

"WHEN your time comes, you'll be there," Uncle Benjamin used to say. Uncle Benjamin meant that health and accident precautions were useless and unnecessary-- if you were scheduled to meet your Maker, you couldn't postpone the occasion.

Hand tools you should own

A COMPARATIVELY small investment in ordinary hand tools can pay large dividends. Now, when wages are high and repairmen hard to find, you need tools more than ever so you can do ordinary repair jobs yourself.

I ended up in the attic

I LIKE guns. I collect them as a hobby, and like to have a couple of the boys in now and then to talk about guns. We take them apart, argue good points against bad, and overhaul them while we're talking.

From a decorator's home

Double-purpose room

They needed more room

This Christmas calls for fresh decorations

Home is where the hearth is

GRANDPA LEWIS used to fuss around about fireplaces the way some modern architects do. "Dirty things ... no way to warm a man's bones ... roast in front and freeze behind."

A portfolio of fireplaces

How to build a fire

I NOTICE that very few folks down in the settlement use their fireplaces much, maybe because they don't know how.

Drew Pearson's house in historic Georgetown

Why Marriages Fail

IN 1948 more than 1,000,000 eager, hopeful, verymuch-in-love couples will pledge themselves in holy wedlock, vowing to take each other for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, until death do ten part. And it's a conservative prediction that this coming year more than one-third that many marriages-- somewhere between 300,000 and half a million-- will end in the divorce courts!

Better lamps--the difference lies under the shade

WHILE lamp designers have been attracting attention with handsome new styles, the lamp engineers haven't been sleeping. Shadows, glare, wasted light have all come in for a share of their research. Thanks to them, you can now buy a lamp that's not only a wonder to see, but a wonder to see by, too.

How much for the furnishings?

IF YOU are in the market for a new house these days, one that is reasonably well-built and has two bedrooms, it will cost you about $10,000.

How to be successful with house plants

Did you ever wish you had a green thumb? Do you know what those who have green thumbs really do to keep their begonias, African-violets, ferns, and ivies thriving?

Walls of glass

IF YOU are like most people planning a new home these days, you're hoping to have big, big windows. You dream of morning sunlight flooding thru the house, of rooms that seem to go on and on because there is no wall to break the view.

A ranch house from the ranch country

IT'S something of a phenomenon, the way ranch houses have captured the fancy of American families. This style of home is now five times as popular as it was prewar, Better Homes & Gardens research shows. It ranks second only to Cape Cod as a national favorite. Among families building $10,000-$15,000 homes, and among all West Coast families, it has gained unchallenged leader- ship.

Article

Little tables to hint for

ALONG about this time every year, you start hearing casual remarks about sleds and dolls and imported briar pipes. And how much easier those hints make your Christmas shopping! Now it's your turn to give Dad and the youngsters a little tip on what you want.

More power to your workshop

MEN who work with wood-- amateurs and professionals alike-- agree pretty generally that four power tools will equip your home shop for practically all of the essential shaping and finishing you'll ever want to do.

Smart cook!

Smart cook!

Etiquette of Christmas Cards?

IT WAS Christmas, 1846, when Joseph Cundall, a London artist, made the first Christmas card. In the 101 years since, a lot of etiquette rules have grown up to guide card senders. How many of these do you know?

It takes food to make a fatty

THE parents of an overweight boy or girl usually know all the answers to why their child is fat ... except the most important reason. Friends and relatives are always ready with an explanation which doesn't help much.

Coins for Christmas

MONEY is the safest gift of all. At least it will never be a white elephant. But doesn't money look like an easy out-- a quick, lastminute gesture, bare of even a tinseled ribbon? Doesn't sending a check or currency tactlessly suggest the need for it?

GROWING PAINS

When I was a boy, we lived in a town where smoke made it hard to keep things spic and span.

Why Bobby is afraid of the dentist

"GET into the chair, Bobby. The dentist won't hurt you." These are the most fearful words that a dentist Can hear.

how-to helps

Dream Dollhouse. It's a wonderful gift for a little girl-- this 32" dollhouse that you can make yourself with full size pattern and step-by- step directions. The house is a white colonial, with two-story porch columns-- truly a dream house for a tiny homemaker. Ask for No. 3.433, Dream Dollhouse, only 50 cents.

What makes a good wife

IF I were a wife, I would try to understand that my husband doesn't care a rap whether his surroundings are antiseptically clean or not, so long as they are comfortable. If it entails the slightest confusion to have the house cleaned up, he'd prefer to have it left dusty-- and peaceful.

Let the youngsters help you entertain!

DON'T you like to enjoy yourself at your own party? I do. You can't, tho, when there is the hovering worry that the children will act up.

Which sex is best?

RIGHT about now, some three- quarter million boys and girls are penning letters to Santa, punching up that kindly gentleman about a long-promised puppy.

GARDEN CLINIC

Here's how to build a folding rack that will hold your tomato plants off the ground. The fruit then will ripen evenly and will be free from rot, out of reach of snails and similar pests.

Which name claims the fame?

TEST your knowledge of famous persons by giving the correct last name, and matching it to the right first name, in each of the following 18 questions. (Sample question: Was Teddy or Franklin a Roughrider? You know at once that the last name of each is Roosevelt and that Teddy is the correct answer.)

Basic rules of fireplace design

A BAD fireplace is worse than no fireplace at all. To be of greatest service, a fireplace must be out of the way of traffic thru the room.

There's a Limit!

Dips

They're one of the easiest snacks there are to fix. And there has never been a guest yet, or a snack-loving kitchen prowler, who hasn't thought the whole idea fun and said so-- while fixing another bite to pop into his mouth.

$70 for Chiffon Pies and Meats

YOU can win a prize of $10 or $3 with a chiffon pie or barbecued- meat recipe. Your chances are good, for 21 can win! If your recipe is best, you'll be our July Cook-of- the-Month, receive $10, and the star position in our July Cooks' Round Table.

Sew a new scheme for jour bedroom

There's life in the old suite yet

GARDEN CLINIC

DECEMBER GARDEN GUIDE

PLANTING can continue for roses, trilliums, and bluebells, and many kinds of bulbs until the soil freezes. If winter mulches are needed in your locality, now is the time to apply them. You don't need to wait until the soil freezes-- and more gardeners each year are finding it often best to be sure that they don't wait for frost. Straw, hay, leaves, peat, vermiculite, and redwood make good mulching materials.

GARDEN CLINIC

December is not too late to plant oxalis for spring blooms. Oxalis bulbs are small, so you can put three in a 6-inch pot to get the typical spreading mat of cloverlike leaves quickly. You have a choice of yellow, pink, or rose flowers.

THE DIARY OF A Plain Dirt Gardener

Dec. 4 Went to meeting of our men's rose club tonight. Tonight's program was a progress report by members of new things learned during the year. When we were all thru, it was apparent that we were agreed that we had less black spot than last summer.

Most costly home

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

My neighbor in the unremodeled mid- Victorian house has a scheme for winning the Russians over: Send 'em 50,000,000 Christmas cards. He's incredulous when his son tells him they'd exclude them as capitalist propaganda.