INDIANA HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 431 



the yawning gulches as deep and broad as the volcano's crater— the 

 rushing mountain torrents, the dense jungle of standing forest— and the 

 impassable regions where avalanches have crushed such forests to earth. 

 He dreads to meet again the invulnerable gi'izzly, the mountain lion, 

 the jealous red man or more jealous rival prospector. He knows that 

 those caps of spotless white that give such sanctity to the peaks, that the 

 calendar of the saints has been exhausted to provide names for, are 

 scores of nature's gi'eatest storm centers, and that a jonrney in search of 

 the north pole is to be less feared that to venture there. The realities 

 of housekeeping in pioneer days differ from the standard set up by the 

 writers of romance based on tradition, and I am ready to testify that 

 there is but little of such experiences that I would entail, if I could, upon 

 future generations. Distance has lent no enchantment to the view. 



It is difficult to separate the labors within from without the house at 

 the starting point of life in the heavy forest of this country and for a 

 quarter of a century thereafter. There was no man but at times became 

 cook, nurse or Avasherwoman, nor was there a woman who did not in 

 emergencies help to build the cabin, the stable, the crib, who did not 

 pile and burn brush and logs to make possible a garden, an orchard or 

 a field; hence, I can not confine myself sti'ictly to the indoor work, 

 although I shall attempt it for your benefit. 



My position Avas that of the first born girl in every household. I was 

 a kindergarten scholar in the school of housekeeping— and my mother was 

 the teacher. Seventy years ago I took my first lessons, and the list of 

 the few implements and utensils possessed, and their location and use 

 are as vivid to me to-day as then. The cabin with its stick and mud 

 chimney— its puncheon floor, its rude door and tiny windows, its loft, 

 its potato hole, all existed before my day. The iron crane stands first on 

 the roll of possessions, for thereon hung more that made life possible 

 than all else. It was a ti-iangular work of wrought iron with one side 

 elongated and its end upturned to prevent untimely slipping off of pots. 

 This crane was set in two iron eyes driven into the left hand jamb of 

 the fireplace, and could be swung in and out over or from the fire to 

 suit the heat for best results in the esteem of the cook. On it was hung 

 "big or little, pot or kettle," in which at times water was boiled for all 

 purposes, meats and vegetables and boiled victuals were cooked, hominy 

 and mush were made, head cheese fashioned, pumpkins stewed, apples 

 peaches and other fruits reduced to jams, jellies, butters, etc. Cider was 

 boiled to insure keeping qualities, lard was rendered from the fat of 

 hogs, and tallow from that of cattle and sheep, and in emergencies of 

 weather, the weekly washing held sway, or the soap or sugar water 

 claimed the crane. Syrup from the camp was finished there into mo- 

 lasses or granulated sugar through the skill and at the will of one whose 

 talents would have never lost the art of making the Damascus blade. 

 Clabber cheese was created there, and skim milk warmed for motherless 



