86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



on the farm? Do they thoroughly know what the best of 

 bread is? How often do they from inclination place hot 

 biscuit on the table ? Now forgive the gentle imputation, 

 fair ladies, for we have eaten good bread and as well-cooked 

 food at the hands of some of you as can be prepared, and we 

 have as sadly seen food placed on the table which was dan- 

 gerous to eat, and all, we believe, because there was culpable 

 ignorance about the cooking and preparing of it. 



If accurate returns could be made of the food in farm- 

 houses, should we not find first-class pies, cakes, and dough- 

 nuts, and the best of bread, good coffee, and properly-cooked 

 meats, in a small percentage ? Now, pastry and all that class 

 of substances are the poorest foods that can annoy the 

 human stomach ; and, sad as it is true, they are American 

 and mostly New-England foods. 



It is just about as easy, — certainly after we know how, — 

 and makes a home more attractive and delightful, to have 

 nicely-prepared food for the family, even though it be very 

 plain food. A little more care makes amber-colored coffee, 

 clear as a gem, rather than the muddy stuff we are so often 

 called upon to swallow. And most emphatically tea doesn't 

 want to be boiled in order to make it palatable, or even suit- 

 able to drink. When shall we learn, on the farm and else- 

 where, how much not only character, but morality and reli- 

 gious life, may be influenced by the condition of the stomach 

 and bowels? and when shall we learn that the condition of 

 stomach and' bowels depends greatly on the food and drink 

 we put into them, and not always the kind we put into 

 them, but the method in which it is prepared? 



It has been said that the frying-pan belongs to us Ameri- 

 cans as a national emblem : at least it is very universally used 

 in many of our households. It is a simple, easy, and hasty way 

 of treating many kinds of our food ; and almost every farmer's 

 wife is sure to have pork and lard ready and in abundance, 

 which are the essentials to this article of kitchen apparatus. 

 And on one side of the stove, with a real brisk fire, we set the 

 pot boiling or steaming with potatoes and vegetables, and on 

 the companion orifice of the stove put the frying-pan, a thin 

 plate of iron, close to the intense blaze, and at this heat place 

 some tender meat or vegetable, not to be cooked, i.e., made 

 soft and more digestible, but to be toughened, hardened, and 



