462 



NEW ENGLAND FAJIMER. 



Oct. 



in all that is tolerated in our fashionable system, if 

 it deserve the name of system, of cookery. If there 

 be anything that for the sake of gustatory enjoy- 

 ment, or for that of still higher happiness, demands 

 the plowshare of reform, it is our modern cookery. 



Of one thing, at any rate, your correspondent 

 may be unhesitatingly apprised, with regard to 

 bread-making. In no possible case should any far- 

 inaceous substance be changed by fermentation, — 

 The only legitimate cookery of meal is that which 

 I have above alluded to, viz., by making it into 

 what might be called oricular bread, or what is 

 usually called unleavened cakes. 



AuhurndaU, July, 1857. W. A. Alcott. 



Note. — If I have studied brevity too much in 

 the foregoing, your numerous readers will find it 

 out. If you should not complain, and the public 

 sentiment should demand it, it would give me a 

 pleasure to expand thoughts a little more, and thus 

 eeem less dogmatic, as well as more intelligible. 

 No subject is of more importance than that of 

 manufacturing and circulating pure human blood ; 

 whereas all now manufactured is believed to be 

 more or less imperfect. 



WOIJK-SHOPS AND STORMY DAYS. 



Every farmer who has boys should provide them 

 a work-shop. It may be a building erected on pur- 

 pose, or else partitioned off from the carriage- 

 house, corn-house, or other out-building. Let it be 

 neatly made, and not unpleasantly situated, for it 

 should be attractive and not repulsive to those for 

 ■whom it is intended. It should be tight, and fur- 

 nished with a small stove, so as to be comfortable in 

 winter. It should be provided with a work-bench 

 and vice, a shaving-horse for using the drawing- 

 knife, and perhaps a small foot-lathe. The two 

 latter are convenient but not essential. The tools 

 should be two or three planes, augers of different 

 sizes, a few chisels, a brace-bit, drawing-knife, saw 

 and hammer. A small part of these will answer, 

 and others may be added — the cost of the tools 

 varying from five to twenty-five dollars. 



Such a work- shop will afford several important 

 advantages. The greatest is the assistance it will 

 render the cause of practical education. The best 

 inheritance any man can leave his children, is, not 

 wealth to support them, but the ability to help and 

 take care of themselves. A young man, whose nat- 

 ural ingenuity is so developed by practice that he 

 can at any moment repair a rake, adjust a scythe, 

 fit in a new hoe-handle, set a clock in running or- 

 der, saw a broken harness, make a door-latch fast- 

 en easily, set a gate in good swinging condition, 

 sharpen a pen-knife, give edge to a pair of scissors, 

 mend an umbrella, repair a cistern-pump, white- 

 wash a ceiling, paper a room, stop a leaky roof, 

 make a bee-hive, bottom a chair, and black his own 

 boots, will pass through the world more comforta- 

 bly to himself, and profitably to those around him, 

 and be far more worthy of the hand of the finest 

 young woman in the country, than the idle and 

 sluggish pretended gentleman, with pockets full of 

 cash earned by his father, and who is obliged to 

 send for a mechanic for all these things, which he 

 is too helpless to perform himself. Dr. Franklin 

 said, "if you want a good servant, serve yourself;" 

 and, "if you wish your business done, go ; if not, 



send ;" and these sayings apply with especial ap- 

 propriateness to such as have those jobs to perform, 

 commonly known as "odds and ends." 



Another important advantage afforded by such a 

 work-shop is its moral influence in furnishing pleas- 

 ant employment to boys during rainy or stormy 

 weather or other leisure hours, and lessening the 

 temptation to frequent taverns, and to attend places 

 of diversion — often leading to the most pernicious 

 habits. 



Another, is the actual saving of expense to the 

 farmer, in having around him ingenious boys, who 

 will repair immediately any broken article, and 

 save the cost of carrying it to the neighboring vil- 

 lage, and the delay and inconvenience, often much 

 greater, of waiting till it is mended. They will be 

 able also to manufacture the simple wooden imple- 

 ments required for farm use. 



To keep every part of a farm and premises in the 

 best and neatest order, cannot be accomplished un- 

 less the owner or his sons are of ready and active 

 hands. Those who depend on hired men to per- 

 form the innumerable little services which this con- 

 dition of a farm requires, will find that these ser- 

 vices must be connected with an amount of con- 

 stant observation and thought which cannot be se- 

 cured by simply paying wages. It is therefore es- 

 sential to educate the young managers to use their 

 own hands, and become habituated to hand-work 

 and thinking together; and the various operations 

 connected with the work-shop will be found a most 

 important auxiliary in accomplishing this very de- 

 sirable result. — Country Gentleman. 



THANK GOD FOR ALL. 



BT CHARLES SWAIN. 



Beside yon oak a rustic roof appears, 



A cottage garden leads unto the door, 

 A few wild plants the lowly casement cheers, 



And all around looks neat though all is poor. 

 There Philip dwells and takes a neighbor's part, 



Though little be the means his help to test ; 

 Yet still, though poor, he says, with grateful heart, 



'Tis well to labor— and that God knows best 1 



The hare flits by him with her dewy feet, 



As blith of heart he quits his cottage gate ; 

 The golden village lane with dawn is sweet. 



And Philip feels cont nt, though low his state ; 

 For labor unto him can joy impart, 



'Tis independence to his honest breast ; 

 And still, though poor, he says with greatful heart, 



Tis well to labor, — and that God knows best '. 



His wife beside the door waits his return, • 



His children's voices meet him half the way. 

 And while the sun within the west doth burn, 



And bird and brook sing sweet the close of day, 

 Philip forgets his toil, his chair to find, 



By little arms and little lips carest ; 

 And gazing round, exclaims with grateful mind. 



Thank God for all, — thank God, who knoweth best I 



Barley Bread. — The Maine Farmer commends 

 the use of barley for bread, and speaks of receiving 

 from Aroostook county a specimen of flour from 

 grain cut August 3d. The Maine farmers acknowl- 

 edge early barley bread, taken hot, to be a real lux- 

 ury, and especially so as it comes at a season when 

 the meal and flour chest is low, and Genesee rather 

 high. The average yield of barley on new land is 

 larger than wheat. 



