MONTHLY 



JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE 



NO. 6. 



DECEMBER, 1845. 



VOL. I. 



THE HOUSEWIFE'S DEPARTMENT.... POULTRY. 



' Take weapon away, of what force is a man ? 

 Take huswife from husband, and what ia he than ? 



As lovers desireth together to dwell, 



So husbandry loveth good huswifery well. 



Though husbandry seemeth, to bring in the gains, 

 Yet huswifei-y labours, seem equal in pains. 



Some respite to husbands the weather may send. 

 But huswives' affairs have never an end. 



As true as thy faith, 

 Thus huswifei-y saith. 



I serve for a day, for a week, for a year, 

 For life-time, for ever, while man dwel'eth here. 

 For richer, for poorer, from north to the south. 

 For honest, for hardhead, for dainty of mouth. 

 For wed and unwedded, in sickness and health. 

 For all that well liveth, in good commonwealth. 

 For city, for country, for court, and for cart, 

 To quiet the head, and to comfort the heart." 



To ALL GOOD Housewives, greeting— /rom the 

 Editor of the Farmers' Library : 

 In the sixteenth century reigned in England 

 that sanguinary villain, Henry VIII. who cared 

 not so much about chopping off a ivife's head 

 as j-ou would for the cutting off that of a favor- 

 ite turkey. History says '• he made himself so 

 much feared that no English king had fewer 

 checks to his power; and liberty and constitu- 

 tional equipoise were out of the question during 

 the whole of his reign — or, what is worse, the 

 forms of them were rendered pvrcly subservient 

 to his passions." If he ordered a law to be 

 passed, it was done ; and no sooner was it 

 passed than by his will he could have it ex- 

 punged. Vv''ell, it was in the latter part of the 

 same century that gave birth to this licentious 

 despot, that lived one "Thomas Tusser, Gen- 

 tleman," author of a poetical work on "Five 

 Hundred Points ok Good Husbandry, to- 

 gether WITH A Book of Huswifery," — to 

 which last the above lines make the preface — 

 and we beg you will let them do the same for 

 what follows. 

 (5611 



How vain would be all advice to the bna- 

 bandman, and aU his ov^^n care and industry — 

 according to our obseiTation, which has beea 

 " pretty considerable," — if he be not seconded 

 and encouraged by smiles and good manage- 

 ment on the part of the housewife within her 

 department. 



" \Vlien husband is absent, let huswife be chiefs 

 And look to their labour, that eateth her beef. 

 The huswife, so named (of keeping the house) 

 Must tend on her profit, as cat on a mouse." 



Hence it is that we propose, but mind we 

 do n't yet absolutely promise, to open, and to fiJl 

 as well as we can, a Housewife's Depart- 

 ment, in at least every quarterly or third nnm- 

 ber of the Farmers' Library ; for why, seeing 

 that 



" What husband provideth with money his drudge, 

 The huswife must look to, which way it dot& 

 tnidge." 



as Father Tusser says — why, say we, should 

 she, too, not receive all the aid and enlighten- 

 ment that can be given in her peculiar sphere 

 ol' action ? It was, therefore, good ladies, in the 

 hope, rather than in the confidence of ability to 



