YOUR MONEY'S WORTH
Sheridan, Mary
Your Money's Worth By MARY SHERIDAN "The numerous benefits resulting to every family from the production of a well-cultivated garden are too evident to need any remarks by way of illustration. The...
...But allow for the luxury of something you haven't grown before, even if it's one eggplant...
...15 cents), Growing Vegetables in Town and City (Misc...
...City dwellers with cars might be surprised to find how easily they can find tillable land within half an hour's drive...
...Competitor for Chamois There is a new, tough fabric that looks like chamois but costs about one-third as much...
...Get What You Like Have a garden plan before you start...
...If the agricultural extension service of your state university has a garden booklet, it is probably one of the most reliable sources for planting dates and vegetable varieties for your region...
...Transplanting is most successful late in the afternoon of a cloudy or dull day...
...Have a garden this year...
...These plans, designed to make use of savings possible from improved building techniques and standardized construction, are certain to interest anyone wanting to build a low-cost house...
...Packaged in fiber containers of one-third quart size, the convenience of the concentrated milk is made even more attractive by the price drop of two cents a quart . . . Of 26 automobile storage batteries tested by Consumers Union, two manufactured by mail order firms ranked as the best buys: Spiegel's Argyle Super Power (Cat...
...So, remembering that summer is also the time for fishing, picnics, mowing the lawn, and washing the car, don't take on too much...
...Here are some points this avid amateur has found helpful: Don't take on too big a project...
...Should a garden plot be impossible, plant something, even it's only one tomato plant or a hill of pole beans alongside the garage or backyard fence...
...You may change your mind in the course of planting, but it's vital to have a plan as a guide...
...Notes Concentrated milk, reported in this department in the December issue, has just been introduced in a big city—Boston—for the first time...
...It costs $1 from the Council at Mum-ford House, Urbana, 111...
...Modular dimensions of rooms and building materials mean great adaptability because all dimensions are divisible by four inches or multiples of four inches...
...But don't give up a garden just because you can't find an ideal one...
...Preventing and Removing Mildew— Home Methods: Sewing Machines, Cleaning and Adjusting...
...Some of the booklets which follow—The Vegetable Garden in particular—have helpful diagrams...
...Selection, Installation, Finish, and Maintenance of Wood Floors for Dwellings...
...Among the most common mistakes of beginners are planting too thickly and too deeply, and putting rows so close to one another that cultivation is difficult...
...A sandy loam, slightly acid, is regarded as the best vegetable soil...
...That little story about sums up our goods-greedy buying...
...The important thing is to plant them early, so that they can have a cool start...
...The third indispensable ingredient is sweat...
...A 20 by 50 foot garden will yield enough for a small family, and a 50 by 50 plot is room enough for almost everything you want to grow, including sweet corn...
...L 86 T 3810), $12.95 plus shipping, and Sears' Allstate Cross Country (Cat...
...Thinning, incidentally, is one of the hardest things for us amateurs to learn and is essential for well-shaped, fully developed vegetables...
...Catalogs and experts to the contrary, the Sheridan theory is that staggered planting of peas doesn't work...
...Try to make room for corn if you like it—you may want to consider a late planting of corn in pea rows...
...Or, if you locate a chunk of plowed land on April 16 and want to plant April 19, do what most people do: take your chances or (this is safer) broadcast an all-around fertilizer like 5-10-5—the numbers indicate the percentage of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash—in the proportion of 3 pounds for every 100 square feet...
...Several leisurely evenings with seed catalogs are part of the gardening adventure...
...Plant this spring...
...So far, at least, asking or advising consumers not to buy hasn't worked...
...Some of the best gardens I've seen have been produced with two tools, a rake and a hoe...
...Don't Buy an Elephant Albert H. Jenkins recently told, in Labor, an effective story of the woman who came home leading two elephants...
...It's something to look forward to, every morning and every night...
...Incidentally, there has been very little publicity—understandable because of the heavy advertising of sterling and silverplate manufacturers— about a number of handsome, well-designed stainless steel cutlery patterns now available...
...This costs 25 cents from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C. A fine household reference file has been packaged in a collection of ten pamphlets: House Cleaning Management and Methods...
...With parsley and other slow-to-germinate products like carrots, it's a good idea to mix in a few radish seeds...
...Some of them, like the lovely "Thora" design manufactured by Gense, are a competitive answer to a lean pocket-book's desire for beauty and utility at low cost . . . While all the profits reports for 1950 are not yet in, the Council of Economic Advisers estimates that profits after taxes will run about a billion dollars ahead of the previous peak year of 1948...
...buy the healthiest plants you can find on your way to the garden so that the least possible amount of time will be lost in changing their metabolism...
...1673...
...DDT for Control of Household Pests...
...any sign of uneven wear in the tread signals a trip to the garage for wheel alignment . . . There is a good looking, sturdy new variety of stainless steel cutlery at the Wool-worth five-and-tens...
...The health they afford to the family, not only in the luxuries which they furnish for the table...
...The local paper will probably announce safe planting dates...
...Six tomato plants, barring blights, will yield enough tomatoes for a small family's fresh fare and home-canned supplies for next winter's stews...
...Unless you have leisure and ideal indoor conditions, most authorities recommend buying and transplanting tomato, cabbage, and broccoli plants...
...The first printing of the book was quickly exhausted, but the Council tells me another supply should be ready "very shortly...
...If you're an office worker, a garden will push you into the fresh air and sun, and working the soil will take out more kinks from your system than the well-known ones gardening puts in...
...This "House Cleaning Packet" (Cat...
...The first radish or bean sprout is an unending annual pleasure...
...Owners of home freezers smugly claim that home-frozen peas put the commercially frozen varieties to shame...
...Stick to what you like to eat and to the tried-and-true strains over the more expensive discoveries illustrated up-at-the-front-of-the-book...
...Incomparable though the rewards of a garden are, one overrun with weeds and rotting produce is depressing and wasteful...
...Carpet and Rug Repairs...
...but, in the exercise, amusement, and enjoyment they impart in the cultivation, exceed all description...
...Despite the corn borer and its greedy demand of space, corn is one of the most satisfying of home-grown crops...
...Overnight or longer soaking of, parsley seed in water will help speed up this slow-growing herBl iwhich takes about three weeks to germinate...
...10 cents), all available from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D.C...
...For me, at any rate, despite 10 days planting difference or different varieties, peas mature at the same time...
...Fish, eggs, chicken, beef tongue, veal breast, and pork are currently the best buys in high protein foods, and by sticking to them we can help to lower the prices of roasts and chops...
...A new, illustrated pamphlet, National Forest Vacations, describes camping and picnic sites, resorts, wilderness areas, water sports, hunting, fishing, and winter sports areas available to vacationers...
...Stain Removal from Fabrics...
...A very small garden plot may mean sacrificing a garden favorite like sweet corn...
...Buy if you must but not because you might-be-sorry-later...
...most of them, for about 25 cents, will tell you what and how much fertilizer the soil needs...
...Washing, Cleaning, and Polishing Materials...
...In fact, the fruits and vegetables of a garden are the life of the family, upon every principle of enjoyment and economy...
...A plot so big that it drives you takes the fun out of gardening...
...Pertinent Pamphlets Contemporary Houses Developed from Room Units is a big pamphlet of 28 house plans based on flexible modular dimensions, as developed by research of the Small Homes Council of the University of Illinois...
...28 EM 46 F), $10.55 plus shipping . . . Car experts remind us to take better care of tires by keeping them properly inflated and by having them "x-ed" every 5,000 miles...
...Paul 1, Minn...
...Methods and Equipment for Home Laundering...
...Unless you mark rows, and have a plan as a check, you may—it's done every year—forget what you've planted where...
...Cultivate regularly, and then you can control the weeds instead of the horrible reverse...
...A recent survey of industry by the Wall Street Journal showed that factories are pouring out an abundance of consumer goods and that retail stocks, despite heavy buying, are high...
...As for garden tools, you can invest a lot or little...
...It includes a chart guide, by states, of travel directions and recreational facilities...
...HC-51) costs $1 from the Superintendent of Documents...
...1977...
...The right front tire takes the most punishment from rubbing against curbs...
...It can be used for washing walls, floors, mirrors, windows, and cars, and the manufacturer claims it not only absorbs water as effectively as chamois but wears better and will not deteriorate from salt water, gas, grease, or strong detergents...
...10 cents), and Savory Herbs (Farmers' Bulletin No...
...Resistance In a world where the individual too often resigns himself to being unable to do anything about his problems, it's exhilarating to note that the recent resistance of housewives in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago to buying the popular, high priced cuts of meat has helped to bring meat prices down...
...Long rows are tedious, and you're likely to plant more than you want of one thing just to fill out the row or, if you plant more than one vegetable in a row, to make hard work for yourself in cultivating...
...This Loren fabric (made by Loren Products Corp., 101 W. 31st St., New York City) costs 75 cents for an 18 by 19 inch hunk...
...There is more than a financial satisfaction in by-passing the vegetable bins in the grocery store for your own picked-just-before-dinner beans or peas or corn...
...The irony is that warehouses, wholesale and retail, are bulging, and that a lot of production is still for the civilian market...
...the radishes come up quickly to mark the rows and when pulled take care of some of the thinning necessary...
...Among the Department of Agriculture pamphlets you may want are The Farm Garden (Farmers' Bulletin No...
...Plant in well-prepared soil...
...Slip Covers for Furniture...
...A wheel hoe or a fancy cultivator may make gardening a bit easier, but unless you are willing to give your time and get your hands dirty, you can't have a trim plot...
...Noting the planting and harvest dates, along with the seed variety and source, increases the pleasure of gardening and helps you plan for next year...
...When her husband asked why she bought them, she said, "Well, the man said they were the last two elephants he had, and he didn't know when he'd get any more...
...Short rows of radishes and leaf lettuce, with subsequent plantings at two-weeks intervals, will give you a steady supply for the salad bowl instead of a week of over-supply and then fodder for the compost pile...
...WRITTEN in 1826, those cheerful words are pertinent in this spring of 1951, when the high prices of fresh, frozen, and canned vegetables are an incentive to raise your own to save money and to eat better...
...Getting off to a good start makes a great difference...
...A useful, all-around guide is the 25-cent Pocket Book of Vegetable Gardening, by Charles H. Nissley...
...Rake the fertilizer into the soil as you're smoothing out clumps and getting rid of stones...
...Plan your planting according to the dates recommended by agricultural authorities for your region...
...Two good Middle West ones are The Vegetable Garden by O. B. Combs (Circular 372), available free from the Agricultural Bulletin Room, University of Wisconsin, Madison 6, Wis., and The Home Vegetable Garden (B174), free for a single copy from Bulletin Room, University Farm, University of Minnesota, St...
...beating the anticipated-shortages-of-the-future has been more compelling than fighting inflation...
...Order your seeds right now, so that the fever of planting time won't find you without the varieties you want...
...If you can choose, select a level, sunny, well-drained garden spot...
...My only objection is that it's too shiny...
...If you want to give the beans a head start, soak them over night before planting...
...Peas take up a lot of room for their yield, but they are such a delicious table treat that many gardeners want them...
...Free Advice Most of the seed catalogs contain practical planting advice...
...Have short rows...
...If you know nothing about the soil's content, send a sample to the soils department of your state university...
...Tools and Sweat Staggered planting of string beans, however, works...
Vol. 15 • April 1951 • No. 4
