April 1950

They furnished with an eye to the future

"We wouldn't let you have a child"

Is your home good enough for a child to grow up in? "What a question!" you say. Doesn't it offer warmth and comfort, food and clothing, everything a child could want or need? You might even go so far as to say any child would be lucky to have as good a home as yours.

Now you can spray away CRABGRASS

Best news of its sort since DDT hit flies and 2,4-D hit dandelions is that this spring there is a new chemical out that really kills crabgrass, nastiest of all lawn pests. It is called PC, short for potassium cyanate.

Your family-living room

HAVE YOU HEARD?

A new and promising development in the fight against Dutch elm disease is a chemical announced at the meeting of the American Society for the Advancement of Science in New York. The chemical not only acts as an antidote, but also eliminates soil conditions that make elms susceptible to the fungus. It is recommended as a preventive for elms in threatened areas, but will also save trees already infected if the disease hasn't gone too far.

What's new in home furnishings

Does your house have lots of windows? You know how that cuts down on space for furniture arrangements... but furniture designers are meeting your problem with new lower pieces that go under the window sill and don't block the view. Especially popular are coffee tables, often 5 or 7 feet long, low and sturdy as benches. There are lower-backed sofas and even backless day beds to place close to the glass.

Double your drawer space

A shot von take to help you "take it"

The biggest health news of the year, and perhaps of our anxiety-ridden century, is that we now have wonderfully good reason to expect that many kinds of mental illness and conditions loosely described as "insanity" will soon be conquered by chemical treatment. Not only insanity, but all those milder upsets with mental angles which can work havoc in any family: Mother's nerves, Dad's ulcer, Johnny's behavior problems, depressed feelings associated with childbirth or change of life, worry, nervous breakdowns, hay fever, and other psychosomatic (mind-and-body) complaints.

Simplified construction keeps costs low

The house you see on these pages-- Better Homes & Gardens Five Star Home No. 2004 --has been a long time a-building. Actual construction took only a few weeks, but behind this creation of Designer and Builder Cliff May, Los Angeles, lie 20 years of study. Barker Brothers furnished the house.

Privacy makes better outdoor living

The difference between just another back yard and real outdoor living starts with privacy. You and the rest of your family want a spot where you can doze in the sun, read in the shade, or eat an outdoor meal without feeling that you are in a showcase for neighbors and passers-by to view.

Big effects needn't cost big money

Count four pennies wisely

You name it--the lakes have it!

"There," the father said, standing the little girl on her own two feet, "I promised I'd carry you across the Mississippi River-- and I did!"

Plan your new house for additions

If you could predict the future, you might never have to remodel. But changes in families, in ways of living, and in equipment for the home will continue to make you feel the need for remodeling.

Color schemes--personally yours

You look your best when you feel your best. And you don't have to read a book on the psychology of color to know that you're at ease with some colors, vaguely uncomfortable-- or definitely irritated-- with others. You like colors that like you. You soon grow fond of a dress that never fails to evoke the compliment, "You look wonderful in that color."

How to arrange spring's first flowers

Change your table with the season

When spring and summer come, you plan lighter meals with garden-fresh foods, slipcover your upholstered furniture, replace heavy draperies with crisp curtains.

These take care of your floors

To ease your underfoot housekeeping chores, here are helps. We show you how the right piece of equipment and the proper cleaner or wax work together to cut the time and energy you spend on floor care. For instance, a long-handled applier and a good floor cleaner equal a spanking-fresh floor without scrubbing. Or a sprayer plus self-polishing wax equals a floor that shines without rubbing. And paste or liquid wax plus an electric polisher equals a hard, long-lasting gloss without elbow grease.

Contest for cooks

We have $70 waiting for you cooks who send in the best recipes for sausage fix-ups or spice cookies and cakes. If you are first-prize winner, you will be chosen Cook-of-the-Month for November and receive $10. If you are one of 20 runners-up, you will be sent $3 and have your name published in the November Honor Roll.

How do you measure up?

A year-around terrace room

How far can you go with a new porch? As far as you want to carry the roof, the C. W. Morse family, Santa Monica, California, would say. The Morses had a flagstone terrace and outdoor barbecue fireplace surrounded by a low stone wall adjoining their small back porch. The wall had been well constructed, had right-angled corners; and the paved terrace provided a ready-made floor for a new room.

Closets can double as partitions

Is this your problem?

How to choose dishes you'll enjoy

What a power mower will do for you

Buying a power mower isn't like buying a dozen eggs. You have to consider your own special lawn problems before you make your final decision on the particular mower to take home. The final decision is a big one. What kind of cutting action should you get: reel, rotary-blade, rotary-disc, or sickle-bar? Will you want gasoline power or electric power? How wide a cut?

Shelves find work for your forgotten space

Paper products speed your housework

Work is easier in this kitchen

How to get ready to build

You can't start too soon to prepare for building. But you can start building too soon. Before you do anything, ask yourself some questions. First,

Daytime uses for your bedroom

Accessories--from potato-chip cans

Not quite bright!

"That night," Jim Wattriss told me, "I wanted to kill my own child." That night his doctor had said, "You've got to face it, Jim. Your child has a weak mind."

Landscape your own home--III

Foundation planting is a simple art, but a much misunderstood one. Because every house is different, no person can make an ironclad set of rules good for every possible situation. But by combining a few simple principles with some common sense, you'll have no trouble working out an attractive planting that suits your own house.

Secrets of the well-groomed man

Fringe glamour

Are you a good judge of homes?

Shutters make doors decorative, too

The man who hurries home to dinner

I think my wife Caryll is a very good cook. I sing her praises from the bus tops. So I have given myself the pleasant task of recalling some belt-tightening experiences at the table in my home, where, thank heaven, my wife is the cook.

Bedroom wardrobes you'll want to look into

Local pride is worth money

The air view of Claremont, California, (below) tells an important story about home-town pride. Three years ago Claremont had no city park and no prospect of getting one. That's where local pride stepped in; the people themselves rolled up their sleeves and turned an orange grove into the park their city needed.

how-to helps

Handsome Magazine Binders-- Each holds six copies of Better Homes & Gardens. Set of two makes a valuable permanent file for the year. Now you can preserve the hundreds of ideas and the wealth of information in each issue. Make your copies of Better Homes & Gardens a reference library for the continued improvement of your garden and your home.

Enough wastebaskets save steps

Study corner for the man of the house

Small in size--big in use

Let that housework go!

I have found myself humming a little song lately, the tune of that old spiritual, "Let My People Go." But the words that are in my mind as I hum are "Let that housework go!"

Fit your house to your lot

Your new home It may be a sprawling Ranch-type, or a snug two-story.

More room for dining

House with a hole in the middle

Budget dress-ups for your kitchen

You can't believe your eyes

Your dog and mine

Right at the moment he jumps, seize his forepaws and step sharply on his back toes (photograph). Also scold. Stick to it-- and be consistent. Don't fondle the dog for this display of affection one minute and then censure him for it the next. He'll soon catch on.

GULISTAN CARPET

Electric cords--how to hide them

Cape Cod charm--Ranch house living

How to build a workbench in one afternoon

Here is a rugged workbench without ruffles or frills-- one which takes no cabinetmaker's skill to assemble, no expensive hardwoods, no machinery to fashion joints. It is a workworthy bench for a beginner, or for an expert doing any kind of hobby or repair work around the home.

Make your kitchen jobs go like clockwork

Know-how for screen repairs

There's a trick you should know when you replace the screening on your windows and doors. Of course, you could just lay the screening in place and tack it down.

Add "peace of mind" to your home building

Building a home is a business, just as is setting up an ice cream stand or opening a bank. And-- just like other businesses-- it has risks: your contractor may go broke, a windstorm may level your half-built house, a passer-by may get hit by a falling brick.

Drawers add new use to drop-leaf fable

When ceiling-track draperies divide the space Your bedroom can work overtime

What do the other kids say about your youngster?

It's only natural to assume that other boys and girls like your youngster. But what do you really know about it-- how he rates in that frank and honest give-and-take world to which you, a grownup, are a foreigner? Do his contemporaries think of him as friendly or unfriendly? Have they tagged him as honest or dishonest? Do they think he's bossy, timid, quarrelsome, or a show-off? Would they like him for their best friend?

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Yon can drill holes in almost anything

Planning makes a back yard livable

You should always have a before picture taken if and when you acquire a yard which is a forlorn dump of abandoned junk-- old gas stove, a moldy baby buggy, a broken chair, weeds waist high. Then, when you start to change it into a livable back yard, you can see how well your work and ideas pay off.

Floor coverings

Are these your teen-agers?

You've seen them. The gangs of boys who hang around the lamppost at the corner of your street. The groups of boys walking about whistling at the girls and making senseless remarks to passers-by. The vacant-faced teen-agers listening to the juke box at the soda fountain.

If you're a handy man you can have Better attic storage

Where to see your color schemes

Where to have family fan in the lake country

Main vacation centers: Willmar, Fergus Falls, Alexandria, Little Falls.

APRIL GARDEN GUIDE

Sow tender annuals such as ageratum, balsam, coxcomb, marigolds, and zinnias in Florida and along the Gulf Coast. Half-hardy and tender annuals may be planted in the Middle and Upper South.

Try a trellis for problem spots

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Garden clinic

Grow your plants in good soil

Your lawn this month

Over most of the country, the first mild days of March and April start lawn grasses into active growth. Before the middle of April, mowing may be necessary, and regular mowing required till fall.

The diary of a plain dirt gardener

April 1 Fooled again-- this time by a cold, dismal day, bits of rain; and nary a thing done outdoors. And a hundred and two things that ought to be done all at once, if I don't get behind.

Plans and Home Plan Book

Better Homes & Gardens Five Star Home 2004, shown in this issue, is one of the series of one- to four-bedroom homes which make up the Five Star Home Plan Service. These homes, designed by America's foremost architects, range in style from Cape Cod to Contemporary, Traditional to Ranch type.

How to choose and use wrenches

Do you know you should always pull on a wrench, not push? If you push and the nut breaks loose unexpectedly, you're pretty certain to bark your knuckles.

How to choose the right door

When you plan a new house, or remodel your present home, give more than the customary afterthought to the doors you will use. Properly chosen doors will give your house character, increased utility, and comfort.

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The MAN NEXT DOOR

The first sign of spring in our house is when nobody jogs the thermostat up to 80 as soon as my back is turned.