February 1950

Be a help instead of a headache

When radio's Henry Aldrich overturns the ink bottle, gets suspended from school, or falls in love with the wrong girl, no one who has a teenager of his own is surprised. Every dad and mother who has ever had one is familiar with the bumbling, awkward, troubled youngster we call an adolescent.

Sectional furniture

More space or better space?

Should a house have a basement? In spite of all argument, the answer remains: Some houses should and some shouldn't. Should your home have a basement?

You've heard the stories, Here's the simple truth about Rh blood

The hospital's "agony room" was heavy with smoke. Expectant fathers, laboring in anticipation, were sweating out the final moments of a long ordeal.

They cured their kitchen headaches

Get the space you need in a revolving closet

More storage in spare yon already have

HAVE YOU HEARD?

Last November this column mentioned the chemical, maleic hydrazide, which slows growth without harming plants. More proof that it really works comes in a report of tests made in California by Dr. J. E. Knott. Doctor Knott sprayed portions of his pyracantha hedge with maleic hydrazide. It grew less than an inch in two months while unsprayed parts of the same hedge grew 12 to 15 inches.

Their hobbies built a home

In our town of Phoenix, Arizona, the Amos Hoffs have completed their most ambitious family project-- a unique house-on-a-mountain-- and their fellow citizens behold it with cordial awe and envy. For it bespeaks a way of life, a pattern for family success in our times-- a pattern so simple and down-to-earth that any of us may hope to follow it and share the happiness it produces.

A Five Star with 10 extra features

What sets your house a part from others? What makes it yours? You'll find the answer in the extra features you've added, the special provisions that make it fit your family.

Landscape your home grounds-I

The biggest discovery you can make about outdoor living is that its enjoyment is a matter of planning rather than spending large amounts of money. There is nothing mysterious or difficult about making your own landscape plan. Moreover, it is fun, cuts down costs, tells you where you are going and what you'll have when you are finished.

Flowers tucked among rocks

You can live in a kitchen like this

Modern kitchens are laborsaving wonders, but a lot of people-- like the Franklin Floetes, Des Moines, Iowa-- think something has been sacrified to make kitchens efficient.

Furniture makes four house a home

Furniture should be comfortable and useful-- as well as beautiful. Chairs are made to sit in, tables to put things on. The best chairs for your home, therefore, are the easiest to sit in. The best tables hold lamps most conveniently.

Put four money on the inside

Old houses that you can buy for remodeling aren't expensive. It's the remodeling that takes money. But by remodeling with the help of professionals, you can get the home you want for less than it would cost you to build from the ground up.

Lots of mountains for your money

A young husband and wife, with two sleepy youngsters in the back seat of their shiny car, drove up to the rustic entrance of the Skyline Drive at Front Royal, Virginia, one day last summer. A Shenandoah National Park ranger, in a broad-brimmed hat, stepped out of his booth to collect their 25-cent toll. The man at the wheel handed him a quarter, and then asked, curiously:

These make your washing easier

This article is for you if you own or plan to buy a conventional washer (with agitator and wringer) or a semiautomatic washer (spinner type, or one that cuts out part of the customary hand operations). Here we show you how you can use these washers to save minutes and energy, get the best results.

Cash in on sandwich and relish recipes

Let's have your family's favorite sandwich or spicy relish for this month's recipe contest. There will be $10 for the winner and $3 for each of the 20 close contenders. The first-prize recipe and seven others will be published in the September Cooks' Round Table.

Quick color change for white kitchens

Ideas from the Sunkist Kitchen

To serve your family the tenderest most delicious pan-fried fish they ever tasted, tenderize it with lemon.

Confessions of good cooks

It makes cents to sew this way

Stitch in no time. Keep some needles threaded in the colors you most often use-- especially white, black, navy, and brown. Take the repair stitch as soon as possible after the break occurs. Resew the button that loosens; backstitch on the armhole when the thread breaks and interrupts the symmetry of the seam. Reinforce the garter that pulls loose from the girdle, or lengthen the garters when they are short, to save the hose.

How to buy lumber

You can save money and get better results on your home repair jobs and workshop projects if you order your lumber as carefully as your groceries. Like eggs and milk, lumber is graded according to quality. But there are more grades of lumber, and more prices.

how-to helps

Complete Circus Group-- Youngsters' eyes will light up with excitement when they see these clever little circus animals. Especially treasured because Dad made them. Easi-bild pattern 3.448 includes zebra, elephant, giraffe, ringmaster, and cage. Only 25c.

Electric roaster? Here's an idea

Quiet garden on a busy street

Are you style-wise?

Informal family kitchen

Your youngster can have cancer!

Is there any chance that if the doctor gives your boy or girl a real physical examination he might discover cancer? You have probably always thought of cancer as an adult affliction, yet actually it kills more youngsters from 5 to 9 than any other disease. Some youthful cancers are discovered only after exhaustive tests to determine the cause of some baffling, chronic ailment.

Your dog and mine

Do dogs catch colds? Mine coughs and sneezes, has watery eyes and all the other symptoms of a cold.-- A. H. W., Illinois.

Garden clinic

The 12 most common planting mistakes

The big mistakes in gardening aren't use of the wrong plant food, or planting too deep, or making a bad choice in insecticides. Those are all details, easily learned and easily corrected.

Have you tried a little praise?

"I'm going home and surprise my family." So said a mother leaving a meeting where we had discussed the need of growing boys and girls for praise, and the good effects which praise produces.

How to be handy with a hack saw

For hard cutting, your No. 1 tool is the hack saw. Start to repair a child's wagon, weatherstrip the front door, or get out a rusted bolt, and soon you need a hack saw to cut iron, brass, lead, rope, or plastic.

"But the other kids do it!"

Are you tired of having the habits and tastes of your boy or girl dictated by the crowd? You're not alone. Thousands of parents the world over are suffering this problem with you.

Valance lighting--easy on the eyes

Practicality comes first

FEBRUARY GARDEN GUIDE

Plant roses, the sooner the better; in Florida and the Gulf Coast, it's your last chance. Don't prune roses until after the last killing frost. Around the Gulf Coast this is likely to be about February 15; Macon, Montgomery, Jackson around February 28; Raleigh, Atlanta, Memphis around March 15; and the Upper South around March 29.

Article

The diary of a plain dirt gardener

Feb. 1 Ground covered with snow and thermometer down, down. So all I managed to get done for beginning of this dismal and dingy month was feed the birds outside-- grain, sunflower seeds, suet, and peanut butter. Inside, I contemplated things.

Garden clinic

Garden clinic

books for every use

You'll find a Better Homes & Gardens book for almost every home-making need. Check over this list and sec. Better Homes & Gardens books mean better living for you and your family. Just use the convenient coupon below for ordering.

New face for an old garden

Many garden-remodeling jobs fail because the owner hesitates to change or remove some of the existing features. But Mr. and Mrs. Derrick B. Maturin avoided this mistake when they made over their garden at Piedmont. California. Working on the advice of Landscape Architect Floyd H. Mick, they made a complete change and did it economically because material from the old garden was used in making the new one.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

This is the week we had planned to take a southern winter vacation. But we're spending it snug at home, planning a northern jaunt next summer.