FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 161 



The matter of a dry cellar is very important and one of the most per- 

 plexing as well as vexing questions housekeepers have to meet is how 

 to manage with damp mouldy ones. One mistake is in digging the cel- 

 lar too deep, thus making it damp and unhealthful. The drain should 

 be of glazed sewer pipe, it will cost some more at first but one cannot 

 afiford to use common drain tile. Cement the joints thoroughly lest the 

 drain be stopped by the roots of shade trees and clover plants. 



My thought of true domestic economy is making best use of every- 

 thing we possess. Nothing is more priceless than time, too many 

 houses have everything in the wrong place. How many houses have 

 steps between the kitchen and dining room and closets with hooks 

 so high a woman has to climb a chair to reach them. The house com- 

 fortable is quite as important as the house beautiful. > 



Do away with the space under the kitchen stove. Every housekeeper 

 knows how diflficult a place it is to sweep clean. Either buy a range 

 without legs^ or else take off the legs and put the stove on a raised 

 platform built of brick, or of wood, zinc covered. 



The sink is the center piece of the kitchen, there should be no dark 

 little closet underneath to breed mould and cock-roaches, have it 

 perfectly open to be swept like any othe rpart of the floor. Places for 

 pots and pans can easily be found in the cellarway or now as agate 

 ware is so popular and is displacing the heavy iron pots, these utensils 

 can be hung over the kitchen stove. A china closet opening both to 

 kitchen and dining room is a convenience. Another comfort appreci- 

 ated in hot weather is a refrigerator, this with a drip pan can be placed 

 anywhere. 



A chamber maid in a hotel can arrange a half dozen mattress fur- 

 nished beds while the maid in a farm house is making one fitted with 

 straw and feather tick. I think the bed springs made of best quality 

 woven wire with center reinforced by coil spring are to be preferred to 

 the higher priced ones made entirely of coil spring, specially where two 

 are to occupy the same bed. There is. however, no money to be saved by 

 buying a cheap mattress. The best no doubt are the cotton felt ones. 

 These are just a few of the many perplexities the housewife meets on 

 her way. 



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