Various - Armour's Monthly Cook Book, Volume 2, No. 12, October 1913

October is a fine time to plant every kind of "bulb, root and tuber," also all deciduous plants and shrubs, except those with thin bark or thick, fleshy roots (e.g., birch magnolia).

Clean up and burn diseased plants, manure the garden, plow it and leave it all winter.

Burn asparagus tops and manure the bed. Also make new asparagus and rhubarb beds and plant sets of extra early pearl onions for use next March. Put some parsley plants in a box and place it in a light cellar or in a shed.

Put some frozen rhubarb roots in a barrel of earth in the cellar where they will produce "pie-plant," for winter use. Dig chickory for salad and store in sand in a dry cellar. Blanch endive by tying lightly at the tips.

Pull up cabbages, leaving roots on, and stand upside down on shelf in cellar. Pick cranberries this month. Then cover the bog with a foot of water to drown bugs and to protect from frost. Rake up the fallen leaves and use as a mulch for flowers and shrubs. Hardwood leaves like oak and chestnut contain more plant food than those from soft wooded trees. — Garden and Farm Almanac. Doubleday, Page and Company.

Most of us could manage to be fairly happy if we really tried to make the best of things.

Don't get depressed even if things do seem to be going wrong at the moment. Depression will make matters worse rather than better. If you do your duty faithfully, the sun is sure to shine again sometime.

Many people pride themselves on their plain speaking. An ability to put things pleasantly is really far more valuable. Even fault-finding can be pleasantly done.

It always seems to me that God is probably less anxious that we should fulfil our tasks in life than that we should do our best.

Of the people who complain most bitterly that they have "no chance" probably a very small proportion would do great things if great opportunities came. "No chance" is a very old excuse.

Don't give way to selfishness – that detestable vice that we all find it so difficult to forgive in others.

Even if you don't like your work, try to do it well. It may lead on to your true vocation.

It is the frequent experience of the housewife living in the country or suburbs these days to receive unexpected visits from friends who are touring in automobiles, and she finds she must have something attractive, dainty and nourishing ready at a moment's notice to supplement the cup of tea or coffee so welcome after a hot, dusty trip. It is a wise plan to keep a variety of Summer Sausage on hand, as in a very few minutes delicious sandwiches may be prepared with this, these sandwiches having the charm of novelty. It is impossible to deal in a short article with the many varieties of Summer Sausage, but there are three or four which can be touched upon. To have a thorough understanding of their goodness one must not only read about them but taste them. They are the staple diet in many foreign countries and in the Armour brand the native flavoring has been done with remarkable faithfulness – so much so that large quantities are shipped from this country every week to the countries where they originated.

Cervelat: This sausage is made of finest pork chopped fine, smoked and air dried. It is highly spiced. A very delicious way to serve this is to cut thin slices of white bread in rounds just the size of the sausage. Put the meat, cut very thin, between the slices of bread and toast for a minute with a very hot fire. This keeps the exposed sides absolutely dry and the sandwich can be eaten without a fork.

German Salami: This sausage will be much appreciated by people who like the smoky flavor of ham and bacon. In it the meat is chopped a little coarser than in the Cervelat, and the spicing is the same as that used in Germany. Serve cut very thin, with rye or bran bread.

Lackschinken: This is a very delicately flavored German titbit. It is made of boneless pork loins cured in mild sweet pickle before smoking. It makes delicious sandwiches with white or brown bread sliced thin and lightly buttered.

Mortadella, a favorite Italian sausage, is made from lean pork ham meat chopped very fine. The flavoring is delicious, the careful blending of spices giving a distinctly foreign touch.

In many restaurants throughout the country they serve, as in foreign countries, a slice or two of Summer Sausage as an appetizer before beginning the meal. This custom is rapidly spreading into the home, and Summer Sausage now has an established place in the daily bill of fare.

In Germany the government maintains a system of education in what is called intensive farming. Through instructors who go about the country, the farmers are taught how to get a bigger yield from the same area of soil. The work of these wonderful teachers is supplemented by women domestic science teachers who in the same manner visit the homes in their districts and instruct the good Haus Frau on how to improve, economize, and systematize in kitchen and household work.

The manner in which these women instruct is, I am sure, of especial interest to the Cook Book readers, inasmuch as the method is in a way practically the same as what the Cook Book is doing. Where they teach by hand and mouth the Cook Book has taught through its exchange of ideas, contest stories, and recipe contests, the object being the same in both cases that of instruction, education and economy in the kitchen and saving of steps in the housework.

It is truly said of Germans that they are the most frugal and economical of all people. In the past the usual method has been to exert this frugality with what is already on hand in the larder left-overs, so to speak. One point of the modern instruction of these wandering domestic science teachers, as they go from home to home, is to show the economy of systematic buying of groceries, meats and vegetables. Where the practice in the past has been to buy a little, so there is not much expenditure of money, German housewives are now taught the economy of buying in bulk, because it is cheaper, and there is never any waste of food in a German home, no matter how much of it there may be on hand.

Neither is there any good reason why there should be any waste of food in an American home. Economy or frugality comes from knowing how, and not from any stingy purpose, as some ill-advised people think.

The methods of these teachers show that this wonderful nation is alive to the fact that the high cost of living is in our own waste and carelessness, that oftentimes we do not make the most of what we have or what we are given to do with.

Although a meal satisfies your hunger you should have dessert, because the educated palate craves that particular spice as a proper finish. Scientists tell us that a dinner digests better because of a tasty dessert, which, they say, gives the final stimulus necessary to dispose of the food previously received.

The simple desserts are the best desserts, and none is more pleasing to the eye and the palate or so easily made or so frequently served in an imperfect manner, than custards.