November 1941

Courage in Adversity

WHEN food for the winter depended upon a good crop in the field just outside the door, men's hearts swelled with gratitude for the rain, as wild men, to this day, thank God for plentiful game and a good run of fish.

Tax Relief for Home-Owners

WHAT would you think of a family that built a modern, model home but had an old-time wood-burning range installed in the kitchen?

A House That Looks at a Mountain

SILHOUETTED against the lofty Sierra Madre mountains, the George C. Woodburn home in Altadena, California, looks like a wee mite. But as you enter the old-fashioned garden within the neat picket fence, the mountains are momentarily lost to view and the house assumes its true proportions and rightful charm.

THE DIARY of a Plain Dirt Gardener

Nov. 1 This morning found me in St. Louis, and shortly after out to the Missouri Botanical Garden to visit George Pring, the superintendent. I went with him out to the arboretum at Gray's Summit and was delighted to see the progress being made toward developing this into one of the finest arboretums in the country.

From Bare Bricks to Beauty

YOU couldn't help looking at our fireplace when you'd walk into our living-room. There it was, a focal point across one entire wall, with bookcases flanking either side. But it was too much an earmark of an era long past. We had to do something about it!

Our Cinderella's the Belle of the Block

IT WAS easily the most unattractive house in our neighborhood in Oak Park, Illinois-- big, dreary, and with that down-at-the-eaves look neglected houses always get. We're glad, tho, that our future home was such a frump. Otherwise we'd never have noticed and bought it, and then what a fine home we'd have missed!

Is Your House

Sitting Pretty?

A WEST-COAST friend of ours who occasionally photographs Hollywood cuties for the magazines was telling us the other day how disillusioning his last job was. He was shooting one of the current young things and she was really a darling. Not too meaty but full of the nicest curves in just the right places.

Our "Cake and Frosting"

WHEN we first saw this house, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, our mouths watered-- it reminded us so much of a slice of red devil's food cake topped with frosting! The stained red cedar siding and black slate roof crowned with a white Cape Cod chimney were responsible for the confectionery effect.

Music for a Guy Like Me

YOU'RE a guy who'd give anything if you could learn to like music, are you? Have you ever given more than a smitch of your time to trying-- say to listening, playing a few records, or the like?

November Indoor Gardening Guide

new growth of apple trees ripens rather later and the trees will be freshly dug. Most nurseries dig all of their fruit trees in the fall and store them over winter, so the trees you buy in the spring are stored trees. Select trees for straight stems, long growth, and a fibrous root system. Trees with

NOVEMBER in the garden is get-ready-for-bed time, but many litde things done now while you are taking advantage of every pretext to stay out-of-doors will make the garden work run more smoothly when the rush hits next spring.

Make Your Window Garden Sing with Color

WINTER'S coming. Snow, Sleet, and wind. Even so there can be a whiff of spring in your home... a flash of color... a window garden.

Strictly Sentimental

THIS is the house that dreams built-- the dreams of pretty Ann Rutherford, M.G.M featured player, her mother, and her grandmother. It's a house in which the vivid personalities of three delightful women, of three generations, have been richly expressed. And it's every inch a livable little house for that very reason. There's the red plaid study (see cover photograph) that's all Ann, from its merry color theme to its lighthearted informality.

Modern Swings Into Its Stride

NO QUESTION any longer about it! We Americans have gone wholeheartedly overboard for Modern home-furnishing. We've watched it climb from awkward self-consciousness to gracious beauty. It fits our small homes and matches our modest budgets. It's a wizard at spacesaving and an expert at adaptability.

If you want your curtains in period If you want to slip-cover your couch

Scrapbook of Bookcases

"JUST A LITTLE HOME-BUT Brimful of Ourselves"

Fly ALL YOU LIKE!

PROFESSOR JOHN K., of a famous Eastern university, is an authority on an important branch of paleontology. As such he's often asked to come to this or that college, some distance from his home, to lecture on his specialty. He often uses airplanes.

WHIMS & HOBBIES

How's Your Buymanship in Decorative Fabrics?

STUMPED by the need of adding a slip-cover, finding something lovely (but oh, so practical) for a window, or dressing a whole room in fresh new fabrics? Shopping for them can be a delightful adventure with big returns, or a pretty sorry business-- just depending on how well armed you are with facts and figures before you pop on your hat, pocket your checkbook, and sally storeward.

Make the Most of Your Dough

EVERY mother's daughter of us ought to know how to make baking-powder biscuits-- but perfectly! Fact is, it's a snap if you're wise to a few rules that don't always come with the recipe. And once you're onto the plain sort, then Parker House biscuits, drop biscuits, and scones are in the bag

Article

Yonder's a Wee Scot!

OUR pictures should show an ice-cold stream trickling its brown waters down a hillside purple with heather-- 'twould be only fitting for this cottage which, not only in name but in size and low roof, so clearly suggests the small, whitewashed cottages of Scotland. "Wee Scot" is its name henceforth.

Old-Fashioned Flowers

COME with me thru the garden gate! A white gate set in a mellow brick wall, it leads into no ordinary garden, but back into the year 1760, where Roger Buckleigh, a gentleman of King George's turbulent colonies, is strolling among his flower beds. Like all ardent gardeners, Roger and his lady will be happy to show us their best blooms.

HELP YOURSELF TO THESE Garden Ideas

When you are braiding spent daffodil leaves and urging forget-me-nots to grow over the remains of tulips, we don't bother because our spring favorite is Allium triquetrum, a bulb so prolific it isn't necessary to cure-off foliage to insure next year's crop of early flowers.

Color Spices My Drab Spots

Sunroom for a Couple of Sea-Lovers

Good Gardens ARE MADE Under lath

DOES THROW YOUR CHILD Reading FOR A LOSS?

IS YOUR child a poor reader, a worse speller, and maybe a pretty atrocious penman to boot?

Baby Clinic

We Asked for a Lot and Got It!

WE WHO build our homes from scratch, knowing nothing about contractors' methods and architects' planning, are like a young couple with their first baby. We fumble inexpertly with technical jargon, demand the impossible, and stand amazed at the growth that goes on in spite of us

Swiss Without an Alp

THERE isn't an Alp within yodeling distance of our home city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin-- Swiss cheese is about all it has in common with Switzerland. But that didn't stop us from building the Swiss chalet we'd always wanted right on Milwaukee's Woodburn Avenue.

How to BAMBOOZLE YOUR BURGLAR

LOVE may laugh at locksmiths; but after the lovers have married and settled down, the locksmith ceases to be a joke. He becomes an ally almost as important as the plumber or the man who calls for the garbage. If it weren't for him, the happy couple would have no more privacy than a gold tooth.

Coming Next Month

NO USE being stingy about good news. Just because everything says, "Don't Open Till Christmas" is no reason why we shouldn't give you at least a hint of what's in store for you when you open your copy of the December Better Homes & Gardens. So here's a sample of the reading that's to be yours, and soon:

Patterns Make Them Easy to Build

Let's Idle a While and Whittle

"WHAT you need to do," I tell 'em, "is learn to idle!"

the man next door

My wife's brother-in-law has rigged up a marvelous contraption, a bathroom scale which rings an alarm clock when he steps on it and registers over 190 pounds.... Then he squares away to a meager five strips of bacon, four pancakes, and three fried eggs.

Frame Your Picture House with SPLIT RAILS

DAD'S Practical Pointers

Perhaps better than soap or wax, vaseline will prevent drawers from sticking. Rub it generously and thoroly into the wood at contact points. Its effects are lasting. Mrs. Harold Rotzel.

Article

Article

Article

Which Plants WILL MAKE YOUR WINDOW Sing With Color?

SO IN A month your neighbors will be wintering in Florida! And Uncle Louis and his family are taking the train to Southern California!

Window-Garden Accessories

These Plants Do Queer Things

SOME flowers are extremely vicious, quite as wicked in their flowerlike way as a tiger or a shark. Some are regular gangsters and others are incredible in habits and temperament.