March 1956

1956 Home Improvement Contest

THIS CONTEST covers any improvement to your home and surrounding property. There are four divisions-- Exteriors, Interiors, Additions, and Kitchen-Utility areas-- explained in detail further on. You are officially entered in the contest when we receive a Preliminary Entry Form from you. Besides one printed on page 9 and elsewhere in this issue, there'll be others in following issues of Better Homes & Gardens, as well as at retail stores and financial institutions cooperating as contest headquarters.

Surprising country-even for Texas!

Tucked away in the southwest corner of Texas, Big Bend National Park, second youngest, sixth largest is probably the least-visited big park in our country.

Plan a place to live outdoors!

New protection for your children in the battle against RHEUMATIC FEVER

"How do you tell an 8-year-old boy he has heart disease? How do you explain that he must never run, or jump, or climb trees again? How do you tell him..."

Escape from blindness

Early in 1940, Dr. William Feinbloom, a New York optometrist and one of the most restless inventors and innovators in his field, was in Los Angeles giving a series of lectures. A friend on the staff of the California Institute of Technology phoned him.

How WOMEN can cut the family tax burden

Every year, over one and a half million citizens--many in the under-$10,000 income brackets-- pay more tax than they need to. The average overpayment amounts to $75 per person, which means that some taxpayers-- perhaps you --paid several hundred dollars too much. If the mistake is picked up, you get a refund-- sometimes several months later. But if your error isn't caught, you lose.

YOU and boredom

Have you heard the Latest Garden News?

Have trouble telling when a watermelon is ripe? Then you'll welcome a new variety developed at the Missouri Experiment Station by Dr. A. H. Hibbard.

HERE'S YOUR Decorating preview

Furniture designed to have removable covers ensures you of attractive, perfectly fitted pieces. A completely upholstered line of chairs and sofas has removable upholstery that is kept snug by removable back and arm buttons, and hooks and springs under the bottom of the piece (as well as the usual tuck-in and zippers found in slipcovers). Snaps, zippers, buttons, or lacings securely hold coverings on chairs with frames of wood or molded glass fiber.

How to Enjoy every inch of your lot

The St. Lawrence Seaway: plush perches for sidewalk superintendents

How to mix your old and new

Color and ideas cover up the past

Here's more proof that yesterday and today can go together

THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: PART ONE OREGON

Make it an Oregon vacation this year-- you'll be glad you did. Oregon's fine highways skirt America's most magnificent coast line, a masterpiece of wave-sculptured cliffs, rocks, beaches, and headlands; follow the Columbia River gorge; circle Mount Hood and Crater Lake and thread along the picturesque Rogue and Umpqua. They lead to sparkling lakes deep in the forest, fringed with lily pads and teeming with fish; to quiet valleys where lush wild berries cluster on rambling roadside vines.

It'll make you want to build a new house

Need another bathroom?

Bring spring indoors

How about a desk in four kitchen?

Table trends ... silver serving dishes

Ideas galore for your windows

Decorate with family interests

Your child's health whit about house calls?

Some doctors and many medical centers make no house calls whatsoever. They maintain modern medicine can accomplish quicker cures in one office visit than any number of bedside calls.

Safe driving

Even the best drivers can become involved in an accident. But, the good driver knows what to do when one occurs. Here are the things you should do in order of importance.

New life for an old porch

How to take off old finish

Old house that doesn't show it

Put your dining area to work

What your children's dreams can tell you

"I had a funny dream last night," Jane said. With studied nonchalance she spooned her breakfast cereal around the bowl.

Moneysavers for the handyman

What to look for in a SAFETY BELT

The automobile safety belt is finally winning popular acceptance. Five years ago you couldn't give them away; nobody wanted a safety belt in a family car.

How to cut in a door or window

This old house took A turn for the better

Fit furnishings to your space

What makes a house click in its climate?

Storage planned for yon to build

By building it themselves, They got the house they wanted

How to keep cut flowers longer

If you let a few rules become habit when you're working with cut flowers-- garden-grown or from the greenhouse-- you'll find they repay you with extra days of pleasure.

Bright ideas for older homes Add life to tired rooms

A new assault on Arthritis and Rheumatism

Probably no group of people has gone through more ups and downs, more cycles of hope and despair, than the 10 million victims of arthritis and rheumatism. That's been especially true in the last 6 years.

Personal help in home building, remodeling, and decorating

When you're looking for ways to make your home more comfortable and attractive, look for this seal. It identifies the Better Homes & Gardens Home Planning Center, where you can get personal counsel on your home-planning problems.

Pets aren't a health menace

I have a parakeet that seems to have a cold, as it wheezes when it breathes. What do you suggest?

LAWNS-how to build them

Now's the time to...

Rake leaves or other mulch from beds before spring bulbs come up. Tops growing under heavy or packed mulch become distorted and yellow.... When snow is gone, use broom rake to remove rubbish accumulated during winter from lawn. Sow grass seed in bare spots while soil is still honeycombed with cracks. Clean out leaves and paper from under hedges and shrubs....

What games for your lot?

Get your trees in top shape now

Six steps to bigger and better PEONIES

The diary of a Plain dirt gardener

March I Well sir, today was neither lion nor lamb. Just a sort of an old muley-cow day. It did thunder and lightning a bit in the wee hours but that was all over long before breakfast.

Strawberries

Try these handy clean-up aids

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Red-headed Jerry Detwiler, the eager young college senior, asked our wise Grandfather Hillis how to make his girl marry him. "Son," said Grandpa, "if she doesn't want to, you can't. If she does want to, there's no way on earth to prevent it."