1S57. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



85 



an annual party. In some parts of Holland, the 

 visitor is expected to take off his shoes previous to 

 entering a house, and in all cases he is expected to 

 clean them thoroughly, (a requirement which should 

 be regarded in all countries.) But notwithstanding 

 all this carefulness about everything that pertains 

 to their re^^idences, the persons of some of the low- 

 er classes give evidence that their personal habits 

 are not more tidy than is observed among the same 

 classes iu England, France or Germany. One of 

 the things essential to the comfort of a Dutch lady 

 is a foot-stove filled with hot embers of turf or char- 

 coal, which she not only constantly uses at home, 

 but has it carried about with her wherever she 

 goes — whether to a concert, to church, or a social 

 visit. Hundreds of these stoves are to be seen piled 

 up in the aisles of churches. 



When sickness occurs in a family, a paper is 

 stuck uj) daily upon the front door, on which is 

 written the state of the invalid's health, drawn up 

 by the doctor, which gives information to friends 

 coming to make inquiries, without disturbing the 

 family. In some parts of Holland, families in which 

 a birth occurs, enjoy peculiar privileges ; for a cer- 

 tain number of days, nothing which is calculated to 

 disturb the mother is allowed to approach the 

 house ; it is protected from legal executions, no 

 bailiff being allowed to approach it ; no soldiers 

 can be billeted on the family, and when a company 

 of troops pass by the house, the music ceases, and 

 they pass with the silence of a funeral train. 



The servants are extremely neat and tidy in their 

 appearance, and are faithful and attentive to their 

 employers ; they enjoy many privileges peculiar to 

 their class ; the family arrangements are so coa 

 ducted as to allow them to attend church on the 

 Sabbath. When a servant girl is hired, she always 

 stipulates for a certain number of holidays, to at- 

 tend a sort of Dutch Carnival, which is called Ker- 

 mis, (meaning luake or fair) which are of frequent 

 occurrence ; they swarm at these festivals with their 

 sweet-hearts ; and if a damsel is so unfortunate as 

 not to have one, she hires one for the occasion, — 

 which is not at all uncommon, — substantiating the 

 saying that "everything has its price." 



A person is frequently met in the street, of seri 

 ous and staid deportment, dressed in a cocked hat 

 and wig, a long crape hat-band, and a short cloak. 

 The duty of this personage is, upon the occurrence 

 of a death, to announce the event to the friends and 

 connections of the deceased, so that upon his ap- 

 proach to a house, the itimily are at once aware 

 that they have lost a friend. 



The Dutch have a peculiar veneration for the 

 stork, and never injure or disturb these birds. A 

 frame-v.ork, (which sometimes consists of an old 

 cart-wheel) is not unusually placed upon the house- 

 top, for their convenience, where they can make 

 their nests ; these huge nests are seen perched up- 

 on the roofs, not only of the houses of the farmers, 

 but on the gables of the buildings in the cities. To 

 kill one of these birds is regarded almost as a crime. 

 The stork migrates to the south in August, and re- 

 turns in jMay ; they take with them their young 

 broods which they have reared j indeed, the stork 

 has remarkable affection for its young. It is a mat- 

 ter of history that, during the great fire which oc- 

 curred in the sixteenth century, and which nearly 

 destroyed the town of Delft, storks were seen car- 

 rying away their young, through the midst of the 

 flames, — and when unable to save them, they per- 



ished Avith them in the flames. Stringent local laws 

 are in force in all the provinces, to protect the 

 nightingales and other singing birds, which are 

 quite numerous, from harm, and molestation, and 

 any infraction of the laws is severely punished. 



The maketing is supphed to the famihes by wo- 

 men who carry to each house what they have for sale; 

 they are frequently seen with a yoke on their shoul- 

 ders, carrying a pannier or pail at each end of it, 

 filled with butter, potatoes, fish, and in fact every 

 description of food which is required. Their ap- 

 pearance is much superior to women of the same 

 class in any other country, being dressed with care 

 and neatness ; in fact, it is a custom among the 

 people to decline to purchase of them, if they do 

 not make their appearance thus tidily attired. — 

 Correspondence Christian Witness. 



For the Netc England Farmer. 



POP CORN. 



Messrs. Editors :— I am apprehensive that the 

 value of the common (now quite common) white 

 pop corn, as an article of healthful and economic 

 food, is not appreciated. Under the Jewish dispen- 

 sation, unleavened bread was an article of prime 

 necessity, and made such by an almost imperative 

 command from heaven. It is not my purpose to 

 show how far the Jewish law of dietetics may, or 

 may not, have harmonized with the light which 

 modern science has thrown upon our physiological 

 organization ; but I can readily perceive that the 

 use of unleavened bread was instituted for Avise pur- 

 poses, quite as readily as I can appreciate the rea- 

 sons, in a warm country like Judea, for the inter- 

 diction of swine's fiesh. All leavened bread must 

 of necessity contain some substances not congenial 

 to the highest or healthiest dcA^elopment of the or- 

 gans of nutrition. The process of vinous or saccha- 

 rine fermentation, by disengaging a portion of the 

 carbon and oxygen, destroys a portion of the nutri- 

 tive matter in bread ; and in some of the lighter 

 bakers' loaves this process has evidently been per- 

 mitted to go on until about as much nutrition is 

 left as may be found in a common bass-wood chip. 

 The common hoe-cake of Virginia, Avhich is nearly 

 identical with the johnny-cake of New England, is 

 more nutritious than the yeast-risen loaves fi-om the 

 best wheaten flour, because no part of the nutritive 

 principle is disengaged by the process of baking. 

 Thus, popped corn, while it is lighter than the light- 

 est wheaten loaf retains all the original nutrition of 

 the grain, without being encumbered with any un- 

 healthy ingredient. As an article of food, whether 

 eaten dry, or in milk, it is palatable to almost every 

 one. Children consider it a great treat, and yet 

 how few families use it freely ! 



I consider the pop corn as easy a crop to raise as 

 any other. In fact, though my own experiments 

 have been on a small scale, I am satisfied that I 

 can raise as large a measure of this, as of the com- 

 mon yellow corn, upon a given space. True, the 

 ears of the pop corn are much smaller ; but then it 

 will bear being planted much nearer together, and 

 the average number of ears upon a stalk is nearly 

 double that of any other variety of corn I have ever 

 cultivated. My fowls are exceedingly fond of it, 

 and will pick it out from any other A'ariety when 

 mixed and fed to them. The oleaginous matter 

 Avhich aboui:ds in it, and the swelUng of which by 



