June 1947

Kitchen With Elbowroom

SOME women like their kitchens as compact and efficient as the front seat of an automobile. Others contend that the kitchen is where they spend most of their time-- why not make room for a little charm?

How to Do Nothing

First of all, there's sitting, which we do remarkably well. For that we have a chair shaped to fit a weary body (1). It's very strong --holds up to 250 pounds-- but weighs only 14 pounds itself, if you must lug it around. Folds flat for storing and unfolds for use with almost no effort.

To Help You Do Nothing

For Gorgeous Late Blooms

July is not too late to set started tubers of cannas and dahlias, or clumps of montbretias and gladioli in spots left open by digging the tulips. Dahlias will need staking, and each stake should be set before the tuber is planted.

Sister's Room

Scalp Ringworm Won't Take a Vacation!

MOTHERS! An epidemic of ringworm of the scalp is sweeping the entire country, attacking your children. Your help is needed to stop it. Precautions must not be relaxed during the vacation months, or the infection will continue to spread.

Farewell to Mosquito and Chigger Bites

BUGLESS picnics are here. This summer you'll be able to stay outdoors after sunset without becoming a free lunch counter for thirsty mosquitoes. Yes, no more slapping battles or nipped ankles is reality.

Helps Around the House

Did you ever grope blindly for a bath towel, and discover there weren't any on the rack? We had our builder construct a linen closet between the bathroom and the bedroom, with a door on each side. The door on the bathroom side is glass and opens at the foot of the tub.

Yes, There's Nothing Like a Table-Tennis Table

THERE'S nothing like a table-tennis table for filling that, wasted space in the basement rumpus room. Not only will it add untold rumpus, but it's almost sure to overflow into the laundry area with amazing effects on both your game and the clothes.

Summertime

WHAT good is the kindly sun, unless it cheers you, or the blessing of shade, unless you're under it? Why leisure, if you can't relax, or shining mountains, with no one to see?

Let's move Out!

MAN is an outdoor creature. We turn to the sun as naturally as the sunflower. Come June, and we can no more stay indoors than a rose can stay furled in its bud. We have to move out into the green world. We have to get the air in our lungs, the starlight into our eyes again.

It Rambles Where You Want It

WHEN you buy a lot, you've taken a big step toward determining the final shape of your new home. From that day on, such things as sun, wind, views, slopes, and trees will guide every step in your planning.

Do You Simmer in Summer?

NOT many years ago, when homes were large and ceilings were high, heating was the big problem. Homes remained comfortably cool during the summer.

Does Your Home Give You Neuroses?

General manager of the Atlas Gismo Company, fortyish, Republican. Henry was a great big, hearty fellow. He had always been even-tempered and happy-go-lucky. Then one evening he came home as usual, planning to burrow into his old brown leather chair with a good detective story. That was when it happened. His chair was gone! In its place was a delightful reproduction of one made to measure for Martha Washington.

The Mayor Has the Biggest Little Back Yard We Know

A 15-FOOT trailer showed Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Gardner of Ventura, California, how they wanted to live and entertain. Gardner, who is the bona fide mayor of Ventura (population 13,000), and his wife had used a trailer for hunting, fishing, and camping trips. They knew how much careful planning and a compact design can count toward easier living and entertaining.

Yon Can't Talk That Way About Mother!

A LOT of people have been going around saying the American mother is a viper. If they knew more mothers like Janette Stevenson Murray, the American Mother of 1947, they wouldn't talk that way. She has 5 children and 10 grandchildren and three college degrees, and she never has been idle or useless in her life.

COLOR Quick and Low-Cost

Informal Cloths for Your Table

THE cloth on your table, like the rug on your floor, should enhance everything that is set on it. So when you select a tablecloth or place mats, keep your dishes, glass, silver, and other accessories constantly in mind. Is your choice suitable for the period of your other furnishings? Does it harmonize with their texture and design? Will it play up their color? Is it similarly formal or informal, elegant or inexpensive?

It's All in the Approach

A Home Can Welcome Children

IF YOURS is a typical Better Homes & Gardens family, you have two or three bright youngsters. They're angelic, we're sure-- on the day before Christmas.

Your Boy or Girl Needs The Kind of Security That Counts

I'VE just bought a small farm for my boy," a man who can afford such things said the other day. "I want him to have some security."

Those Teeth Will Come

HAVE you ever seen a child growing up without any teeth? I haven't-- and, according to medical history, very few people have. In a very occasional youngster, one or two of the 20 first teeth may fail to develop. But these cases are unusual. For a child to erupt no teeth at all is such a rare abnormality as to merit the amazement of scientists as well as lay persons.

How to Choose an Heirloom

THERE it is, rich and gleaming in the jewelry-store window. The silver tray you've always dreamed of. (Or maybe it's a pitcher for Susan's wedding gift, or a comport for the Clarkes' anniversary.)

Storage at the Sweeneys'

Frozen Raspberry Puree

Report Card for Parents

How much help should you give your sons and daughters when they are deciding upon their futures? In this month's test (see March, April, and May, 1947) Drs. Lester and Alice Crow ask you some questions to check whether you are giving this important matter enough concern-- or too much. This last can be as detrimental to your youngster's success as not enough interest!

Garden Clinic

OREGON TRAIL

Now You Can Ride the New Trains

WHAT'S your chance of riding a postwar train this summer? Good, and getting better.

Notes From a Psychologist's Scrapbook

They Park Where Their Car Used to--I

They Park Where Their Car Used to-II

$70 Prize Money for Your Winner Recipes

WE'RE already making plans for your first 1948 issue of Better Homes & Gardens. In the Tasting-Test Kitchen, these plans include your recipes for Top-of-the-Range Dinners and your Choicest Cupcakes. Help us out and win a cash prize!

How to Fix a Window

When a window sticks, the cause may be excess paint, wood swollen by dampness, or a broken sash cord.

Confessions of Good Cooks

Frenrh-Toast Sandwich: Leftover meat or cheese sandwiches are delicious dipped in beaten egg and fried like French toast. Use 2 beaten eggs and ¾ cup milk. Brown sandwiches in hot fat. Saves throwing tag-end sandwiches away and solves your lunch problem deliciously.--

It's Jelly Magic!

TIP a glass of quivery fruit jelly into a crystal server when you have hot baking powder biscuits. And you know good eating's guaranteed.

Abracadabra, Shoe Box to Cape Cod

Do You Worry About Termites?

THERE'S a lot of loose talk about termites every spring. You've heard it-- and it may have worried you. But there's no sense in worrying until you know what there is to worry about.

Take Your Dog on Your Vacation!

ONCE more the old problem bobs up... "What to do with the dog when we go on our vacation?" Some people get away for a whole month-- even spend an entire summer far from the city. Or they go for long auto tours-- sightseeing, fishing, or just "bumming around."

LIVING FURNITURE PERIODS

Floor Plugs Where You Want Them

IT'S been the pet peeve of our renting career. We've never had enough places to plug in our electric gadgets. The worst example was an eight-room house (built about 1900) which had just seven outlets. The final outrage was that singleton in the upstairs hall-- it served four bedrooms.

Concrete Blocks Make Sandbox

They Moved--Out-to the Porch

Save Your Spruces and Hollyhocks

AT LAST there is a way to keep spruces, hollyhocks, and phlox green all summer. Two new chemicals, azobenzene and HETP*, now ready for home garden use, provide sure death for redspider-mites and spruce mites. These pests spin dusty webs, sprinkled with red-peppered dots, sickening forerunner of sucked-dry, rusted leaves and bare branches.

Apartment Full of Ideas

JUNE GARDEN GUIDE

INSECTS won't be such a problem now that we have DDT. Experience last summer showed it highly effective against elm-leaf beetles (which spread the dread Dutch Elm disease), rose chafers, Japanese beetles, leaf hoppers on roses, and lace bug on chrysanthemums and asters. Even gladiolus thrips are controlled. DDT's lasting quality is so good that you don't need to apply it at intervals closer than three weeks. And since DDT kills any insect that crawls across a treated area, there's no need to keep the new shoots constantly covered.

How to Make Cut Flowers Last Longer

Do: Use the package of flower preservative that most florists send with your flowers. It will prolong the life of roses several days. For carnations, add ½ teaspoon of boric acid to 1 quart water.

Roses for Our City's Front Door

MOTORISTS enter town thru a nine-mile rose garden when they come to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. More than 15,000 roses have been planted by a citizens' committee in the past 10 years--and the planting project is only half done. The roses are grouped by colors, so there's nothing spotty about the planting. No bed contains less than 20 plants. Some are huge masses of 500 roses.

Children's Day June 8

More Beautiful America

THE DIARY OF A Plain Dirt Gardener

Last night Maggie, Donald, and I came to my brother's house in Greenville. This morning, as we left, we drove out to the cemetery. Maggie had cut some peonies, Memorial daisies, and other flowers at home yesterday, and these we placed on our family lot.

Help Save tour Elms!

AMERICA'S elms need help. Wartime neglect left our favorite shade trees weakened-- ready victims of raging epidemics of two deadly "wilts," phloem necrosis and Dutch elm disease.

DOLLAR STRETCHERS

A Rose Is a Rose

Article

How to Get Rid of Crabgrass

AT LAST there is an easy, surefire control for crabgrass, public enemy No. 1 for home lawns. If you already follow a good lawn routine, about the only extra labor needed is to apply two sprays of a 2,4-D weed killer.

A Page for Children

Want to get rid of QUACKGRASS?

Flag Day June 14

The Crickets' Song

GROWING PAINS

As early as I can remember, it was my chief delight to ride my tricycle into my aunt's flower beds, sinking the wheels in the soft dirt, unconsciously destroying many beautiful and expensive plants. Correction had little effect in changing my idea of amusement.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Timetable for fathers: When a boy's feet are too big for his father's old shoes, it's time to stop spanking him... And when you stop spanking him, it's high time for a more explicit consultation with him about sex.