May 1949

We remodeled a porch added a bay

New foods

Minute rice is already-cooked, long-grain, white, rice. You add water and salt in measured amounts, heat to boiling, let stand a few minutes. Each grain is fluffy and tender-- just as though you had boiled and rinsed and coaxed the rice to perfection. Without any fuss, you can make expert Savory Browned Rice, Spanish Rice, Rice Pudding.

New faces for old garden favorites

More from your lawn mower

Do we need Uncle Sam's aid in housing

HOW much longer will it be true in America that "A man's home is his castle"?

Rock walls become gardens

DO you have a rock wall? You're lucky. Plant it. Right planting can improve the looks of a good wall, or hide the shortcomings of a poor one.

REVERE WARE

Corner furniture

HAVE YOU HEARD?

At last there's a muscle-saver that lets you kill weed trees and clear off brushy land without breaking your back over a grubbing hoe and ax. Chemists know it as a combination of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T (this latter I described in Better Homes & Gardens in February 1945.) Now as a brush killer, you can get it already mixed and ready for use. You apply it just above the base of the trunk or stems.

It's NEWS to Me!

Kitchen storage

Bathroom storage

Deadlier than DDT

It is called parathion (para-Thigh-own). Name any common insect harmful to plants, indoors or out, and the chances are-- with few exceptions-- that parathion will destroy it, utterly.

Spring colors work magic

For flowers to brag about--grow IRIS

When June starts "busting out all over," you can count on irises to give you a real bang. You'll get color-- great masses of it-- from these long-time favorite perennials. Now, thanks to the plant breeders, irises are available in more and different hues than ever before.

A family room means more fun year round

Families are fun-- and they certainly can have good times together if you've a room where everyone can relax and enjoy himself. Hobbies, games, entertaining, even family snacks are more fun when everyone pitches in.

BIRTH

Comprehend, if you can, how the most minute fragment of life-- a single cell, just on the fringe of the microscopic world-- can divide and redivide to make the billions of cells in the body of a baby. Think of the inordinate number of tissues and organs that sprang from this initial fleck of clay: the hair, the nails, the skin, the brain, the eyes, the ductless glands. Each step of the creative process represents a series of exquisitely intricate events, each timed to the other in hair-line sequence.

Triple-use core doubles living space

How to get elbowroom on a small lot

House o' my heart

Our home, Balla Machree, is built on a high point above the Chagrin River, an hour's drive east of Cleveland. Trees on the surrounding hills hide it from everyone but flyers.

Every man needs a corner of his own

A lot of bloom for little cash

Style on a budget

It was one of the those houses that are offered to the ill-housed third of the nation. It was a house of prewar quality only because the plan came off the drafting table when rough-plaster walls, arched doorways, and wall niches were in vogue. It was one of those over-priced houses late-comers to the wartime real-estate boom had to take or go back to their rented rooms.

ABC's of flower arrangement

There's a faster way for each job

Put your work on wheels

A pressure pan does these jobs, too

Do they groan when you arrive?

Plastic bags do all this for you and more, too

Frankly Fancy New trims with egg slices

Six quick treats with fruit cocktail

Home furnishings answers

Pint-sized kitchen nook

What do you do about Young Love?

All the good people in our block-- it is a typical Suburbia-- recently have watched the birth of a first love.

How to judge a house

Thousands of houses will be bought this spring. And a large percentage of them won't be adequately inspected before the new owners commit themselves to years of mortgage payments.

WOMEN WITH A SENSE OF STYLE PREFER FIRTH

Starter pieces

A permanent strawberry bed

Buy it unfinished

Renew that bathroom yourself

THE WATERMAN-WATERBURY CO.

"Prewar" fire insurance won't protect you!

Most homeowners haven't the fire-insurance protection they really want and can't afford not to have. Your own insurance adviser can tell you-- if you'll listen-- about homes all around you which are grossly underinsured against damage or total destruction. Even less are these residences properly insured against other hazards which every day grow more common.

Cool furniture

Our house cost us Two years and three months

In the spring of 1946 we had nearly decided to buy my mother's home, where we were living, and remodel it. Contractors changed our minds: It would have cost $5,000 at least, and we'd still have had an old house.

We shifted our porch to get more light

How to have peace at the circus

Have you ever taken your youngsters to a big event, only to have them pay more attention to the souvenir and refreshment sellers than to the performers? You planned the trip as a special treat, but it ended with everyone upset?

Balsam-Wool

Aluminum

Of all the miracle materials predicted for the post- war world, aluminum has come through in the most striking fashion. It is being used today in just about all the new ways that were forecast. And it is selling for the same price it used to.

Scrapbook of kitchen curtains

Article

For spring and everyday house cleaning

About 2,4-D

Braided rugs you can make

Braiding rugs isn't hard. Beth Jones of Los Angeles has made a lot of them-- out of old blankets and dye and heavy twine. Braided rugs are a fine thing under a pine table or in an Early American room. They hug the floor and don't curl or ridge underfoot.

Dining chests with built-in tables

Pictures in a package make things brighter

You can have too much sunshine

With only a single can of soup

Hobby cabinet

How to color concrete surfaces

Get more out of your hand tools

You can't expect to get good work out of your hand tools unless you know how to handle them and keep them in repair.

Radio-phonograph cabinet

Anyone can build this Screen of many uses

Our garage faces away from the street

Give your baby a chance to explore

Playpens, high chairs, low chairs, walkers, and little tables with seats set in, each is fine for its purpose. But none of them was intended to serve as a place of solitary confinement for your baby. Yet that's what they become all too often.

They bricked their lawn

After redesigning their garden for outdoor living, Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Diddle are ready to offer you two bits of advice on your own project. The first is to start with a good, complete plan and follow it through without short cuts. The second is to emphasize simplicity and easy upkeep.

They put a lot in a little space

Article

Ways to improve your stonework

Cabinets for special jobs

There's an easier way

Ladies--be seated

Your dog and mine

Shearing your dog's hair down to the bare skin for so-called hot- weather comfort removes natural protection against insects, sunburn, colds and is uncomfortable. However, barbering a dog for streamlined appearance is something else.

Article

MAY GARDEN GUIDE

Feed lawns with complete plant food (about 25 pounds per 1,000 square feet). Plant centipede and St. Augustine grasses in Lower South, Bermuda grass and Zoysia matrella in Lower and Middle South. Spray lawns with 2,4-D weed killer.

Midget vegetables

For flowers to brag about--Grow dahlias

Growing dahlias is a man's hobby. American males have taken this handsome flower with its multitude of types and colors as their own-- and will scream if their wives even try to pull up a weed near their dahlias.

For flowers to brag about--Grow glads

Don't leave glads out of your garden plans for this summer. One season of growing them will let you understand why gladioli are a top favorite with so many people.

Article

Dividing their space gave them more room

Article

Give your tomatoes a good start

Article

Home furnishings answers

The diary of a plain dirt gardener

May 1 In spite of cloudy chill, spring is coming on. If there weren't an evergreen in the way, you could see right from the stair landing that there is an intermediate iris coming into bloom in the back bed. There are bloom stalks shooting up on some of the tall bearded-- way ahead of schedule.

Cash for your recipe

Win $10 with a holiday bread or stuffed-bird recipe. That's first prize in our new recipe contest. Twenty runners-up will receive $3 each, so you have 21 chances to win a cash prize.

Windows bring terrace fun inside

Through the Shops

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

We've raised our goal for outdoor meals this year: 150 from May through October. (I feel safer now with a mosquito helmet to protect me from bees and yellow jackets.) But when it comes to carrying the food outdoors-- who knows?