March 1947

Now Yon Can Build a Home

CHANGES in the rules governing home-building came as good news to hundreds of Better Honmes & Gardens families. These changes, in the direction advocated by this magazine in November, mean that 1947 may be the year when you will attain the new home you have long been awaiting-- a decent home, built of good materials, with room enough to turn around in.

Among Ourselves

Some of the names you see most frequently in Better Homes & Gardens don't belong to staff members. They identify a small group of highly talented individuals known as "writer-scouts."

How We're Getting Along

WASHINGTON-- Mr. B's government agency grinds out reports on the state of the national economy. But this 40- year-old federal worker who makes $50 a week doesn't need one of them to tell how he's faring in the postwar world.

Mr. X barely manages to make ends meet on $45,000 a year

SAN FRANCISCO-- Mr. X's income in 1946 was $45,000. But, says he, "I am now living more frugally than at any time since I was married. In terms of purchasing power my net is not even close to what I was making 15 years ago."

Do We Have to Have War to Work Together?

As 1947 unfolds, the average man in each victor nation finds himself wondering what victory accomplished. An end of the fighting, yes-- something for which we must never cease to be thankful. Let us never forget that today's confusion is the aftermath of slaughter, that famine, economic upheaval, political uncertainty would have been worse for each month war might have continued.

Roll Out the Barrels!

Radiant Heat vs. Rhode Island Winters

AFTER living in comfort thru five of New England's rugged winters with radiant heat, Antonio Cirino is ready to go out stump speaking in its behalf.

New Under the Sun

The new insect killer, 666, is particularly effective against spinach aphids, insects often uninjured by the common insecticides because they remain hidden on the under sides of leaves. 666, known to chemists as hexachlorocyclohexane, vaporizes readily, releasing fumes that kill those insects not hit by the dust itself, according to Entomologists Dwight Iseley and F. D. Miner, of Arkansas.

Styled for Small Quarters

Garden Clinic

I Have a Perfect Husband!

IT SEEMS strange to me that women are blamed for so many failures in marriage. After all, it's a partnership in which both persons promise to love, to honor, and to cherish or obey. Let more husbands live up fully to those promises and more wives will stay put.

What America Needs Is A Good Hot Bath

THE war years were an excuse. There was no time then. There were no machines for grading, no men to heal the torn earth with shrubs and trees. But there are men now, two million unemployed, men with few industrial skills, but quite able to scrub America behind the ears.

They Found Acres of ROOM ON A CITY LOT

Solar House FOR A SMALL LOT

"BUT YOU can't build a solar house on a small city lot!" Architect David Barrow heard this objectionmany times.

Nature Helps You Decorate It

Home, Home Off the Range

HERE'S HOW TO Match Your Flowers With Your Want List

The House That Terry Built

ABC'S of Table Furnishings

MODERN furnishings aren't just a passing fad. They're planned to meet the needs of today's simple, easy living. Some, like the ones we have pictured here, are so well designed that we think they'll earn a place in the ranks of all-time table favorites.

Furnished After 5 p. m.

AS SOON as the last patron has left her fashionable shop in Elmhurst, Illinois, Jean Keithly hurries home to work on her little red, white, and green house.

Their Home-Town Headaches Are the Same as Yours!

SKEET BRANDON'S new Plymouth will do 90 on a frisky spring day. But it takes him longer to drive to work in his home town, Newcastle, Indiana, than it used to take his grandfather to cover the same distance behind Gus, a horse who would just as soon have stayed home.

When Yon Build--Take a Peek Into Windows

"WINDOWS are holes in the wall expected to perform contradictory functions-- which is why people have so much trouble with them.

IS THERE A Prefab In Your Future?

SOMEDAY, in the not-too-distant future, you'll be able to order your new home from a catalog, just like a rose bush. That's assuming, of course, that your budget doesn't permit you the luxury of a customtailored house, carefully fitted to your exact ideas.

Adaptamania

The Cleaning Closet

Cleaning Made Easier

The Cleaning Basket

Smart Service for Cheese

Prizes and Publicity for Cooky and Fruit Recipes

NEW recipe contest open now awards $70 to you for Delicious Drop Cookies or October Apples and Pears. Top prize of $10 and six certified copies of her recipe go to Dish-of-the-Month cook, plus star billing in our October Cooks' Round Table.

Accessories to an EGG

Room for Two Little Girls

Are You a Fair-Weather Mother?

ARE you the kind of mother who says "no" when a gang of snow- covered, or wet, muddy children, your own heading the lot, asks to come in and play?

Kitchen Jobs Are Easy With Brushes

Quiz in Black

Meet the Primroses

San Diego's Civilian Again

TAKE everybody's ideas about southern Southern California vacations, mix lightly, and it comes out San Diego.

Young Mothers' Exchange

YOUNG Mothers' Exchange is preening itself these days over the international flavor it is acquiring. Readers in Canada, British Guiana, Ecuador, Australia, and our own Alaska and Hawaii have written in recently, and they're all so interesting.

We Have a New Kitchen--I

We Have a New Kitchen-II

We Have a New Kitchen-III

GROWING PAINS

Like most 12-year-olds, I talked too much. One day at boys' camp I sat, uninvited, by the side of a much admired young man counselor. We were perched on a boulder overlooking a swift mountain river. He was engrossed in sandpapering a lemonwood bow, as I pestered him with countless questions and opinions.

Closets Quelled Our Quarrels

IT HAPPENED one morning a year ago. Sue, then 16, and Betty, 7, had quarreled until we were all glad when breakfast was over. They had been having arguments for a long time. Too much difference in ages and interests. I knew, was the cause.

Clutter Catchers

A Little Bit Elegant A Little Bit Homey

And They Call It Progress . . .

An anonymous public benefactor has perfected an all-plastic flyswatter that exudes a delightful perfume as it is brandished thru the air.

Outgrown Curtains?

How to Keep a Dog Well

IF YOU'RE anxious to keep your dog healthy, we sound a warning against the well-meaning friend with "helpful" advice.

This is ADAM

UNTIL the four Adam brothers arrived on the furniture scene (about 1758), designers were having a heyday with curved shapes and elaborate carving. By contrast, the straight, severe lines and classical oval shapes of Adam designs were so drastically simple that they almost became the modern of their day.

They Mix Equal Parts of Antiques and Flowers

Report Card for Parents

Tips to Take You Places

LAST summer's accounting revealed that the 169 National Park areas had struggled thru the biggest guest list in their history. In Rocky Mountain National Park, for example, it was almost 20 percent larger than in the previous record year of 1941.

How to Clean a Clogged Drain

Helps Around the House

YOU can increase the usable space in your linen closet by building in half-width shelves between the original ones. The narrow shelves are ideal for towels, napkins, pillow cases, and such articles are much more accessible than if the shelves are full width.

Starting Right

SO YOU'RE going to have a baby-- the doctor has confirmed it at last? Lucky you! And now your most important job is to care for yourself so that baby and you will be strong and healthy.

Mr. D gets fewer haircuts tho income is $4,457, up 60%

DETROIT-- It seems to Mr. and Mrs. D that they ought to be better off than they are. Their annual income has climbed substantially from prewar days to $4,457 now. They've been paying off on their home and have accumulated $600 in government bonds.

Mr. H lives well on $10,000 salary, but now can't save a cent

CHICAGO-- Mr. H, $10,000-a- year executive of a medium-sized manufacturing company, is earning 40 percent more than in 1940.

We Use Shelves Instead of Tables

DOLLAR STRETCHERS

Country Place--Just 15 Minutes From Hollywood

THE William Sterlings (she is June Vincent of the movies) wanted a small place in the country. A place where they could bask in the sun on the patio, or curl up with a book in front of the fire, far from the whirl of Los Angeles.

Virginia Invites You for Garden Week

APRIL turns all Virginia into a garden. And this April 28 thru May 4, all Virginia will, for the first time since the war, celebrate that time-honored, all-state at-home: Garden Week.

MARCH GARDEN GUIDE

MARCH puts gardening activities in high gear everywhere. Drying spring winds make the soil firm enough to support wheeled tools again. Lawn grasses resume active growth, and you should be ready to start mowing when the grass is 2½ inches high.

Garden Clinic

SOMEWHERE in the early days of rock gardening the myth sprang up that rockeries were ideal solutions for any number of difficult landscape problems. "Probably nothing has ever caused as much trouble for homeowners as this quaint notion," says James H. Bissland.

Garden Furniture

MARCH is a good time to get your garden furniture in order and to plan for new pieces. Repair broken or wiggly braces and legs. Smooth over rough edges that have been snagging clothing. Rustic types of furniture can be spliced without ruining their appearance.

DOLLAR STRETCHERS

Have a Lawn to Brag About

IS YOUR lawn so spotty it looks as if it had the mange? Would you like it to be something a golfer would covet for a putting green? Yours can be as good a lawn as you want. Here are the tips I've found pay off in lawns to brag about-- ankle-deep carpets, velvety green all summer:

THE DIARY OF A Plain Dirt Gardener

March 4 What a day. It was spring. Summer, in fact. Thermometer up to 70. Grass showing signs of perking up. Lines of narcissus well defined around borders of beds. Birds paid little attention to feeders, so maybe bugs are beginning to stir. Nary a chance to do outdoor work.

Give and Take With Your Neighbors

THE next time a would-be expert on property laws tells you that "your home is your castle," or "you own from the center of the earth to the sky above," brother, reach for a grain of salt.

The Merry-Go-Round

Astonished

DOLLAR STRETCHERS

What Do You Know About Colds and Respiratory Diseases?

ACCORDING to all evidence, the common cold results in more absenteeism in industry and schools and lost time in the home than any other disability. It is doubtful if any health subject has stirred more interest or caused more study than colds.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

More and more, dinner at home with the children becomes the pleasantest and most refreshing event of the day. When we dine out we feel as if we are missing a good dinner party.