x AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Two Things You Need 
FIRST: The only Sanitary method of 
caring for garbage, deep in the ground in 
metal receiver holding heavy galvanized 
bucket with bail. No freezing. No odors. 
Avoid the battered can and scattered refuse 
resulting from removal of frozen contents. 
Health demands it. 
=s"2-——_ | Underground Garbage Receiver 
| rbot Refuse Receiver 
SECOND: This clean, convenient 
way .of disposing of ashes from furnace 
or hot water heater, cellar and yard 
refuse. Fireproof, flush with floor. 
Abolish the old ash-barrel. 
Nine Years in practical use. 
IT PAYS TO LOOK US UP. 
Sold direct. Send for Circulars on each, 
Cc. H. STEPHENSON, Mfg. 
21 Farrar Street, Lynn, Mass. 
House Plants 
The Dracena is an excellent 
house plant with its magni- } 
ficent leaves falling gracefully 
about the stems; it isquite as f 
sraceful and in some respects } 
,} as popular as the Palm. 
We have a large stock of J 
Winter House plants, fully 
described in our catalogue, 
which we send free. 
COMPETENT GARDEN- | 
ERS AND ASSISTANTS 
Any lady or gentleman re- 
quiring their servicescanhave 
them by applying to us. No 
fees. Please give particulars regarding place. 
Julius Roehrs Co. Rutherford, N. J. | 
Opens with the Foot 
*mace wae. 1 
eS) 
Dracena Victoria 
Exotic 
Nurseries 
Easy to sweep into oF, EE La ae ee Ge an 
ee MORGAN DOORS 
DON’T COOK THE COOK J] | csacksrshtink. writelor ine catalog of feriora 
ae MORGAN CO. Dept. A Oshkosh, Wis. 
We | “ECONOMY” GAS 
For Cooking, Water Heating and 
Laundry Work also for Lighting 
*‘It makes the house a home’’ 
Send stamp today for “‘Economy Way”’ 
Economy Gas MachineCo. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
Gas is automatic, 
Bristol’s Recording Thermometers 
Continuously and automatically 
record indoor and outdoor atmos- 
pheric temperatures. Useful and 
‘ornamental for country homes. 
’ Write for illustrated Bulletin No. 
124 and No. 125. 
THE BRISTOL CO. 
Waterbury, Connecticut 
““ Economy ”” Sanitary and Net-Poisonous 
Are you ever 
going to build? 
If so, you might just as well try to do without nails as § 
without the Annual Building Number of HOUSE & & 
GARDEN. It will tell you how to secure the mcst 
economical and convenient floor plan, what it would ccsi § 
to substitute stucco or stonework for shingles on the out- § 
side walls, what are the merits and defects of the various § 
heating systems, how to secure a paneled interior without 
great expense, how tiling could be used for walls, floors 
and decoration, how to insure a dry cellar, how to select 
lighting fixtures to fit your appropriation, what are the 
newest things in decorative hardware, how to install a 
sewage disposal plant, what are the best types of casement 
windows. It will help you to decide whether you want 
Drive the Nail home right 
| now—the first and most im-  2hitectural style would best suit your individual tastes and 
your building site; and it will show you scores of the finest § 
photographs obtainable, picturing the best houses of § 
moderate size the country over, outside and in. 
This Special Building Number is but the first of six issues that you | 
cannot possibly afford to be without. In April appears theGarden- | 
ing Guide, another Special Issue, with the aid of which your next 
year’s garden cannot fail. Then in June, the AnnualSummer Home § 
Number comes to you—an inspiring revelation of what can be done 
in the building, equipment and planting of a bungalow, shack or 
other type of temporary home in which to spend the summer or 
vacation days. To make it worth your while to subscribe now, we 
want to send you 
Inexpensive Homes of Individuality 
a book of 64 pages containing 108 illustrations and floor plans of ff 
the best houses of moderate size built to-day. It offers an excep- | 
tional opportunity of studying in detail some of the best designed @ 
smaller houses of various architectural types the country over, rang- 
ing in cost from two to eight thousand dollars. It is printed on the 
best stock, with a wealth of information in captions under the 
superb illustrations, and contains an introduction on the ‘Choice 
of a Style for the Country or Suburban Home,” by Frank Miles ff 
Day, Past President of the American Institute of | 
Architects. It is a lasting source of inspiration and 
suggestion. 
We offer you this book and six monthsof HOUSE 
& GARDEN, beginning with the Annual Building & 
Number and including the April Gardening Guide 
and the June Summer Home Number, for a dollar 
bill. This offer, of such unprecedented generosity, 
is made solely because we know that, once acquainted 
with the magazine, you will never be without it in the 
future. Fill out the coupon now to take advantage 
of this remarkable opportunity. 
McBRIDE, NAST & CO. 
Publishers 
31 EAST 17th STREET 
& portant nail in the making 
| of that ideal home of yours. 
5 
hs" 
INNNVMULLUNNNNN 
—— 
SLT 
McBRIDE, NAST & Co., Publishers 
31 East 17th Street, New York 
Gentlemen :—I enclose $1, for which please send me 
HOUSE & GARDEN for six months, and INEX- 
PENSIVE HOMES OF INDIVIDUALITY. 
NEW YORK Jf 
MUNN HN NLU. TULL UU 
to build a new house or remodel an old one, what P 
January, 1912 
What a boon to such a one a cookbook in 
her own language would be! 
I really and truly believe that cookbooks, 
and other literature which deals with the 
housework, should be a part of the kitchen 
equipment, as much as the dishpan or 
broiler. This would help in more ways than 
one. Nearly every woman loves to look 
over a cookbook, and the one who has the 
meals to prepare enjoys it most of all— 
needs it most of all. 
Even the expert cook who must keep help 
would find it easier if the cookbook were 
there on the kitchen shelf, for the maid to 
prod her memory with. And how much 
misery might be saved if the young house- 
keeper would regularly study the cookbook 
with her maid! This surely should be a 
common interest, and to work together 
would be a great comfort to maid and mis- 
tress alike. Both have much to learn in 
most instances, and here would be the word 
of authority. 
Most maids would like to know more than 
they do of the finer parts of cookery, if for 
no better reason than to be worth more 
wages, though a large number wish to know 
how for the pleasure of knowing. How are 
they to become more competent unless their 
employer is willing to help them along? 
Here comes in the need of kitchen literature. 
If a Pole, Swede, German, or Italian is in 
the kitchen, what a joy it would be, what a 
help, to have a ‘cookbook in her own lan- 
guage! 
I had a Finnish maid brought to me from 
the steamer. She was bright, big and 
strong, and always very willing; but not 
one word of our language did she know. In 
a few days she had written out quite a 
vocabulary of the kitchen furnishings, and 
soon I was able to tell her the ingredients of 
cake and other things. She wrote these 
down in her language, and soon had a book 
of recipes. In those days I could not have 
found a cookbook in her language. Now it 
is different, for I think I am right in saying 
that cookbooks are published in nearly 
forty languages. 
If mistresses would only help their maids 
to help themselves, and furnish stimulating 
reading along their lines, much of the ser- 
vant problem would be solved. Domestic 
science may in this way be brought into our 
homes, and not kept for places of learning. 
VACANT LOT GARDENING 
HE American Civic Association is con- 
cerning itself with a projected “Vacant- 
Lot Gardens” campaign, that will tend, it is 
hoped, to bring about civic betterment 
through the cultivation and beautification of 
vacant lots in cities. In this connection, it 
is interesting to note the progress made by 
the Garden Lot Club, of Minneapolis, Min- 
nesota. 
In 1911 this club had planted in vegeta- 
bles and flowers 360 vacant lots, or approxi- 
mately 2,225,000 square feet, of which 
2,000,000 square feet were planted to vege- 
tables. The city was divided into six dis- 
tricts, about sixty gardens to a district, and 
each district was in charge of an assistant 
gardener, furnished by the Minnesota Farm 
School. Each individual having a vacant 
lot garden thus received careful instruction 
in gardening. An idea of the extent of the 
work will be offered in a statement showing 
that the club gave out 28,000 cabbage and 
tomato plants on May 25, and there also 
were given out on May 11, 22,000 packages 
of nasturtium seeds. So great was the 
stimulus to gardening in the city that. the 
stores in the same season sold 40,000 pack- 
ages of nasturtium seeds, and it was esti- 
mated that fully 25,000 to 30,000 homes 
