No. 7. 



Small Comforts. 



Should your correspondent, however, pre- 

 fer depositing the seed in the field, where tlie 

 trees are to remain, his next best plan will 

 be, to give the ground a dressing of ashes, 

 lime or marl early in the spring — strike out 

 his field in squares ten feet apart, and then 

 deposit four or six grains in each square, 

 covering them about an inch, and sprinklin')- 

 a handful of ashes over and around theni^ 

 These hills can be thinned the followino- 

 spring, and should any have misled, they can 

 be supplied from those hills, when more than 

 one grain has vegetated. In the course of 

 eight or ten years every other tree might be 

 ■ cut down for fence stakes, fire wood, or per- 

 haps the butt end used for board fence. I 

 have had trees ten feet high in two years 

 from the time of planting the seed. 



1 would again, sir, assure your correspond- 

 ent, that unless he prepares his " worn out 

 ground" by ashes or lime, it will be labour 

 and time thrown away. We find this neces- 

 sary in the valley of the Susquelianna on 

 " lands not worn out, and remarkably adapted 

 to the growth of locust. 



A. O. HiESTER. 



Estherton Farm, near Harrisburf;, i 

 January 27Ui, 18-10. ( 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Small Coiiiforts« 



Women's work is never done, therefore you ought to 

 lend a hand. 



The Cabmet, and other agricultural pe- 

 riodicals, have made our men folks very 

 learned on the subjects of manures, crops, 

 short-horned cattle, sheep, swine, &c. We 

 hear them often discussing these topics, and 

 they really appear to derive benefit from it, 

 for they seem to talk less of politics, and other 

 everlasting subjects about which they could 

 never come to any satisfactory conclusion, 

 since agricultural papers have been generally 

 introduced in our neighbourhood. But there 

 are some matters that we women folks, who 

 constitute a part, and we think no unimport- 

 ant part of the agricultural community, are 

 desirous should claim a share of the attention 

 of the Editor of the Cabinet; ju.st give us a 

 page or two of your useful journal every 

 month, in which to discuss such subjects as 

 may more particularly appertain to our de- 

 partment of the duties of house-wifery as con- 

 nected with agricultural life. 



If you will agree to furnish us with the use 

 of a chimney corner of the Cabinet for our 

 oiDii use, we will accept it with thanks; if 

 not, we will have a paper of our own for our 

 own use, edited by one of our own number, 

 and then look out, and stand clear when the 

 hot water begins to fly about your ears.* 



219 



* We Invite " Su.san" to occupy a place in our 

 columns every month; and would extend our invi- 



I will now tell you someof liie matters we 

 want brought betbre the public, with the view 

 of meliorating our condition, and promoting 

 the interest and coniibrt of all concerned, 

 ion may call these small comforts, but of 

 small things, great ones are composed; 

 grains of sand make mountains, drops of wa- 

 ter constitute tlie oceiui, and little babies 

 make men and women all the world over; no 

 exception Mr. Editor. The groat matters of 

 agriculture are ably and amply discussed in 

 your journal, but we want something said 

 about our own wants and wishes. 



A year or two ago you published a very 

 good essay about a "wood house," for the 

 convenience and comfort of females ; it was 

 much talked of, and every man in our neigh- 

 bourhood, except an old bachelor, approved 

 of it, and most of the men said they would 

 build a receptacle for keeping the fuel dry 

 forthwith; one even went so far as to get 

 tlie stuff for it, but afterwards used it for an- 

 other purpose, and to this day there has not 

 been built a wood house in our township; so 

 we have to burn wet wood, and go out in the 

 rain and snow to get it ; sometimes the break- 

 fast or dinner is delayed beyond the usual 

 time in consequence of the fuel being wet 

 and green, and whenever this happens, we 

 are sure to hear of it in the way of complaint, 

 although the fault lays precisely where the 

 complaint comes from. Baking, you know, 

 can't be done right without dry wood, so we 

 want you to write another essay about keep- 

 in.g wood in the dry, and having it cut and 

 split to proper sizes for current family use. 

 Many of us in our neighbourhood are bad off 

 for water, and the men don't take it as much 

 to heart as they ought to, or things would 

 soon begin to mend. Carrying water a long 

 distance is real work, and so is drawing it 

 from the bottom of a deep well, and a tall 

 pump don't work easy. A k\v ot our neigh- 

 bours have good large cisterns, with pumps 

 in them, that save much time and labour ; 

 and besides, the fine soft rain water they 

 contain is so good for washing, that I wish 

 you would give us a lift in the Cabinet, so 

 that every family may be furnished, with one, 

 even if it should be thought to be for our 

 sakes alone. Now there is the milking, 

 which you know must be done rain or shine, 



tation to other Ladies, who sustain the enviable rela- 

 tion of wives and daughters to the true nobility of the 

 country, to take "Susan's" conmiunication, or their 

 own e.\perience, for a te.xt book, and forward to us 

 their productions. We pledge more than the number 

 of pages for which " Susan" asks, and shoiijd Ihore be 

 any want of room, we will publish an occasional extra 

 as a loss ivil than that of being subjected to a sprink- 

 ling of" hot water," or entering into competition with 

 our Fair Friends. 



