294 



NE\"r ENGLAND FARMER. 



Junk 



I 



STOVES. 



The quantity of air that ruslics up a stove- 

 pipe in windy ■weather, in much f^reatcr than 

 ■when it is couiparativcly calm, unk'BS the room is 

 uncommonly tight. On this account every stovc- 

 ipo ought to have a valve or damper to rogu- 

 ate that quantity. But there is another rea- 

 son Avliy there ought to be a valve : when the 

 fire is newly kindled, much smoke has to pass off, 

 and may need the whole capacity of the pipe ; 

 but wnen tlie Avood is nearly reduced to coal it 

 may be partially closed ; and during the process 

 of combustion, they who sit near the stove ought 

 to be attentive, and regulate the draft according- 

 ly. Since I Avrote last, a valve of this description 

 has been fixed in tiie pipe ; and I am satisfied 

 that in windy weather, one-half of the wood is 

 saved. In calm weather, it is of less account, 

 though still very useful. 5^" The fire now keeps 

 as well through the night a.s on a hearth. 



An Inv.\lid. 

 — Country Gentleman. 



fialries' JDcpavtment. 



WHY DON'T LADIES LEAEN TO COOK. 



Among the common things to the teaching of 

 which public attention is now so strongly direct 

 ed, it is to be hoped that the art of cookery — one 

 of the commonest, and yet,a2)parently, one of the 

 most neglected of all — will not be forgotten. The 

 instruction of the female peasantry in this useful 

 art would be as advantageous to themselves when 

 married and settled on their own hearths, as to 

 tiie families of the middle classes, in which before 

 marriage they officiate as domestic servants. Emi- 

 gration and abundance of employment have given 

 to the servants at home the uppcrhand as com- 

 pletely as if they were in Australia. On all sides 

 wo hear complaints of the difficulty of finding, and 

 of retaining when found, a cook who can roast a 

 leg of mutton, and make batter pudding or pea- 

 soup. In point of fact, we have heard of ladies 

 who have it in serious contemplation to dispense 

 with servants altogether, as the least troublesome 

 alternative. Without wishing matters carried 

 quite so far, we are convinced that many of our 

 fair friends would lose nothing, cither in point of 

 respectability or happiness, while they could add 

 at least one-third to the effective incomes of their 

 husbands, if they were to spend a little more time 

 in their kitchens superintending the preparation 

 of the family dinner, instead of contenting them- 

 selves with ordering it — if, indeed, they conde- 

 scended to do even tliat. Some forty years back 

 ladies were driven to slioemaking as a fiishionable 

 way of killing time. Why not try a little cook- 

 ing? Thanks to the nu)dern stoves with their nice- 

 ly arranged skillets and stewpans, which science 

 and skill have sul^stituted for the blazing kitchen 

 hearth of other days, young ladies of the nine- 

 teenth century just passing its j^rime, nuiy cook 

 without Boiling their fingers or injuring tlieir com- 

 plexions. Were it not ho, we would not recom- 

 mend them to cook. We would rather live on 

 bread and cheese all our lives. 



It will be said, perhaps, tliat our notions with 

 regard to female education and employment ai-e 

 too antiquated — that in these matters, as in every- 



thing else, a new era has dawned, and the solid 

 course of in.stvuction now given in colleges for la- 

 dies will be triumphantly appealed to. Ladies, 

 however, who possess these solid acquirements — 

 who like Lady Jane Grey, prefer Plato to a pic- 

 nic — will be least likely to neglect the economy of 

 the kitchen. They will thoroughly understand 

 tlie dignity of the employment, and call to mind 

 all the poetry of cooking. To say nothing of the 

 dinner which Milton describes Eve as preparing 

 when "on hospitable thoughts intent," there are 

 the Homeric banquets, at Avliich kings literally 

 "killed their own meat," and at which queens 

 and princesses turned the spit for the roasting, 

 or drew the water and chopped wood for the boil- 

 ing. Cooking is classical, and no lady will dis- 

 dain to take part in it who has read of these 

 feasts in the original Greek. Let it be observed 

 that it is the middle and working classes on 

 whom we wish to urge the importance of the 

 study. An earl's daughter can afford to be so ig- 

 norant of common things as not to be able to rec- 

 ognize chickens in a poultry-yard, because they 

 do not run about with a liver under one wing and 

 a gizzard under the other, though our modern 

 poultry shows, it must be confessed, have done 

 much to dissipate this error. A knowledge, hoM'- 

 ever, of the art of cooking is of more importance to 

 the wives of the laboring population tiian to those 

 of the middle classes, because it is the art, Avhen 

 properly cultivated, of making a liitUegoa great 

 way. A French arm.y can subsist in a country 

 where an English one would starve, and chiefly 

 for this reason — -a French soldier can cook. — 

 Mark-Lane Express. 



ENGLISH RECEIPTS. 



Tea Cake. — Rub into a quart of dried flour of 

 the finest kind, a quarter of a pound of butter ; 

 then beat up t\vo eggs with two teaspoonfuls of 

 sifted sugar, and two tablespoonfuls of washed 

 brewer's or unwashed distiller's yeast ; pour this 

 liquid mixture into the centre of tlie flour, and 

 add a pint of warm milk as you mix it ; beat it up 

 with the hand until it comes off without sticking ; 

 set it to rise before the fire, having covered it witJa 

 I cloth ; after it has remained there an hour, 

 make it up into good-sized cakes an inch thick ; 

 set them in tin plates to rise before the fire during 

 ten minutes, then bake them in a slow oven. These 

 cakes may be split, toasted, and buttered after 

 they are cold. 



Icing for Cake. — Beat the white of one egg 

 perfectly light — then add eight teaspoonfuls of 

 loaf sugar, pounded fine and sifted, very gradually, 

 beating it well ; after every spoonful, add one drop 

 of the essence of lemon, or rose-water, to flavor it. 

 If you wish to color it pitik, stir in a few grains 

 of cochineal powder or I'oso-piuk ; if you wish it 

 blue, add a little of what is called powder-blue. 

 Lay tlie frosting on tlic cake with a knife, soon af- 

 ter it is taken from the oven — smooth it over, and 

 let it remain in a cool place till hard. To frost a 

 common-sized loaf of cake, allow the white of one 

 egg and half of another. 



Pleasant. — Going to "meet her by moonlight," 

 and after waiting for two hours, to find yourself 

 still "alon?." 



