354 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Pomestic Department. 



Letteu to CorNTUY Girls. — I have wanted, 

 girls, lor a long time, to p;ivc you a long lecture on 

 dress ; not because you do not think enough about 

 it, but because you do not think right. It is a very 

 important matter to be well dressed, and most people 

 feel this ; but very few ever learn the art. Women 

 waste more time and money disfiguring themselves 

 than in all other occupations and amusement. Yes, 

 and they waste health and happiness also. There is 

 an inconceivable amount of worse than useless sew- 

 ing done in this country. Thousands of women ruin 

 their health, send themselves to an untimely grave, 

 putting in stitches that are neither useful nor orna- 

 mental. I believe you country girls are peculiarly 

 addicted to this folly. Miist of you make your own 

 dresses, and few of you understand it well ; conse- 

 quently, you imagine the more stitches you put in, 

 the better. 



Then, from want of properly cultivated taste, you 

 are addicted to buying cheap finery. You need not 

 deny this to me, for I know you too well. I have 

 carried my slippers to meeting, and hid jny coarse 

 shoes behind a log, a little too often not to know how 

 country girls dress. Your storekeepers know it 

 too, and bring out such a parcel of cheap, tawdry, 

 inany-colored finery as would be likely to take the 

 fancy of a set of Indians. If they can get a lawn or 

 a calico with sixty-seven dozen colors in it, so much 

 the better. You buy it, — spend a great deal of time 

 to make it nicely, — spatter it over with rufHes, folds, 

 and frumplcs, that would disfigure any thing. Then, 

 the first time it is washed, fifty-two dozen of the 

 colors fade ; you have a dirty rag that is fit for 

 nothing but to wipe the floor. 



You lament the loss of your money ; but what of 

 your time? The habit of sew, sew, sewing at a gar- 

 ment sixteen times as much as is necessary to make 

 it, has become an evil of suflicient magnitude to 

 require legislative interference. I once saw a city 

 lady go to the country for health, pale, nervous, cross, 

 miserable, with a little child as miserable as herself. 

 By way of enjoying fresh air and exercise, she sat 

 down and sewed diligently, for two full days, to jiiake 

 an apron for the child. There were folds, buttons, 

 and braid, frumples, and fandangoes past count; 

 and she had some dozen to make of that same sort, 

 while the poor little child martyr was condemned to 

 imprisonment and stripes, to prevent its disfiguring 

 the evidences of its motlier's insanity, which it wore 

 on its poor miserable little person. I never felt more 

 strongly tempted to do any thing, than to roll mother 

 and child, finery and work-basket, in a mud-puddle. 

 I really thought her husband should have been enti- 

 tled to a divorce. Health, happiness, and comfort 

 ■were banished from his fireside by the sewing demon. 

 She completely ruined her own health sewing, then 

 murdered her children by inches, to keep them from 

 spoiling her work. A woman who cannot make a 

 half dozen bibs for children in one day, and with all 

 the re<iuisites of comfort and convenience, should 

 never take her needle in her fingers. — Mrs. iSwinhelm. 



Pumpkin Pudding. — Take a pint of pumpkin that 

 has been stewed soft, and pressed through a colan- 

 der. Melt, in half a pint of warm milk, a quarter of 

 a pound of butter, and the same quantity of sugar, 

 stirring them well together. If you can conveniently 

 procure a pint of rich cream, it will be better than 

 the milk and butter. Beat eight eggs very light, and 



add them gradually to the other ingredients, alter- 

 nately with the pumpkin. Then stir in a wine-glass 

 of rose water and a glass of wine mixed together, 

 a large teaspoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon 

 mixed, and a grated nutmeg. Having stirred the 

 whole very hard, put it into a buttered dish, and bake 

 it three quarters of an hour. Eat it cold. — Rx- 

 change. 



|)outl/s department. 



Temperance Fables. — The rats once assembled 

 in a large cellar, to devise some method of safety 

 in getting the bait from a small trap which lay near, 

 having seen numbers of their friends and relations 

 snatched from them by its merciless jaws. After 

 many long speeches, and the proposal of many elab- 

 orate but fruitless plans, a happy wit, standing erect, 

 said, '* It is my opinion that, if with one paw we 

 can keep do.wn the spring, we can safely take the 

 food from the trap with the other." All the rats 

 present loudly squealed assent, and slapped their 

 tails in applause. The meeting adjourned, and the 

 rats retired to their homes ; but the devastations of 

 the trap being by no means diminished, the rats were 

 forced to call another " convention." The elders, just 

 assembled, had commenced their deliberations, when 

 all were startled by a faint voice, and a poor rat with 

 only three legs, limping into the ring, stood up to 

 speak. All were instantly silent : stretching out the 

 bleeding remains of his leg, he said, " My friends, I 

 have tried the method, and you see the result ! 

 Now, let me suggest a plan to escape the trap — 

 Do not touch it.' ' 



The Labouer. 



The laborer, the laborer ! 



God's nobleman is he : 

 Ilis works are graven in the soil ; 



They float on every sea ; 

 The keystone in the social arch, 



Utility his crest ; 

 His days are spent in manly toil, 



His nights yield balmy rest. 



C)ca[i\) Department. 



Frauds in Vinegar. — It is not generally known 

 to what extent the adulteration, or rather the coun- 

 terfeiting, of this article is carried on in this city. 

 Under the name of vinegar, deadly poisons are sold 

 in large quantities. The mode of this dangerous 

 swindle is, to manufacture a spurious article from 

 vegetable or mineral poisons, to wit, of sulphuric 

 acid, or of nitric acid, or citric or tartaric acid,s — a 

 sufKcient quantity to give to a barrel of Croton a 

 sharp, pungent, acid taste. This, colored with sour 

 beer, or burnt sugar, is sold for " cider vinegar," or 

 is sold uncolored for '• white wine vinegar." Sul- 

 phuric and nitric acids, by their common names of 

 oil of vitriol and aquafortis, are known by all to be 

 deadly mineral poisons ; and the others, though to a 

 loss degree, highly injurious. A mock article, called 

 vinegar, can be manufactured of any of these ma- 

 terials at an expense of ten cents per barrel, exclu- 

 sive of the cost of the barrel. — Farmer and Me- 

 chanic. 



