NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



167 



-, to consider all such 



ing- school of Madame — 



things 'vulgar,' and 'unlady-like.' I accompanied 

 the younger members of the family here this morn- 

 ing, in an exploration of the mysteries of the place. 

 No sooner did we make our appearance out of doors, 

 than we were saluted by dogs of all degrees, and each 

 had the honor of an interview and personal recep- 

 tion, which seemed to be productive of pleasure on 

 both sides. Then some of the horses were brought 

 out of the stable, and a parley took place between 

 them and their fair mistresses; some favorite cows 

 were to be petted and looked after, and their good 

 points were descanted on with knowledge and dis- 

 crimination; and there the basse cottr, with its vari- 

 ous population, all discussed and shown with such 

 lively, unaffected interest, that I soon saw my fair 

 companions were 'born to love pigs and chickens.' 

 I have said nothing about the garden, because you 

 know that it is especially the lady's province here. 



"An Englishwoman with no taste for gardening, 

 would be as great a marvel as an angel without 

 wings. And now, were these fresh looking girls, 

 who have so thoroughly entered into these rustic 

 enjoyments, mere country lasses and dairy maids ? 

 By no means. They will converse with you in 

 three or four languages; are thoroughly well 

 grounded in modern literature; sketch from nature 

 with the ease of professional artists, and will sit 

 down to the piano-forte and give you an old ballad, 

 or the finest German or Italian music, as your taste 

 may dictate. And yet many of my country-women 

 of their age, whose education — wholly intended for 

 the drawing-room — is far below what I have de- 

 scribed, would have half fainted with terror, and 

 half blushed with false delicacy, twenty times in 

 the course of the morning, with the discussions of 

 the farm-yard, meadow and stables, which proper- 

 ly belong to a wholesome country life, and are not 

 in the slightest degree at variance with real deli- 

 cacy and refinement. I very well know that there 

 are many sensibly educated young women at home, 

 who have the same breadth of cultivation, and the 

 same variety of resources, that make the English 

 women such truly agreeable companions; but alas, 

 I also know that there are many whose beau ideal 

 is bounded by a circle that contains the latest fash- 

 ionable dance for the feet, the latest fashionable 

 novel for the head, and the latest fashionable fancy 

 work for the fingers. 



"If I have unconsciously run into something like 

 a sermon, it is from the feeling that among my 

 own lovely country women is to be found the 

 ground-work of the most perfectly attractive femi- 

 nine character in the world. But of late, their ed- 

 ucation has been a little vitiated by the introduc- 

 tion of the flimsiest points of French social require- 

 ments — rather than the more solid and estimable 

 qualities which belong to English domestic life. 

 The best social development in America will, 

 doubtless, finally result from an internal movement 

 springing from the very bosom of our institutions; 

 but before that can happen, a great many traits and 

 refinements will necessarily be borrowed from the 

 old world — and the larger interests, healthier home 

 tastes, and more thorough education of English 

 women, seem to me hardly rated so highly by us 

 as they deserve. Go to Paris, if you will, to see 

 the most perfect taste in dress, and the finest charm 

 of merely external manners, but make the acquaint- 

 ance of English women if you wish to get a high 

 idea of feminine character, as it should be, to com- 



mand your sincerest and most lasting admiration 

 and respect." — Ohio Cultivator. 



SCIENTIFIC MODE 



OF ROASTING MEAT, AM) OF I'REl'ARING STEWS 

 AND SOUP. 



Cooking meat by boiling it slowly in a large 

 quantity of water, which is afterward thrown away, 

 is probably the most wasteful manner of preparing 

 food that has ever yet been devised; and roasting 

 it is a little better, as a great portion of nutritious 

 juices must fly off during the process of its exposure 

 before the fire; and yet how many families pique 

 themselves on their economy, because they never 

 have any thing but plain roast and boiled. 



When meal; is exposed to the fire, to undergo 

 the operation of roasting, "the albumen of the juice 

 of the flesh begins to coagulate at a temperature of 

 105.5 degrees, and it is completely coagulated at 

 140 degrees (Berzelius.") At this temperature, 

 however, the coloring matter of the blood is not 

 coagulated, and it requires a temperature of 150 or 

 158 degrees to make even the outer part of the meat 

 appear what we call done. "In the interior of a 

 large piece of meat," Liebig observes, "we can 

 tell with certainty the temperature which has been 

 attained in the different parts, by the colors which 

 they present." In all those parts which appear 

 underdone, the temperature has not reached 144 

 degrees. "In the cooking of poultry, the flesh of 

 which is white, and contains little blood, the tem- 

 perature of the whole need not exceed 130 or 140 

 degrees." The flesh of poultry or game is, there- 

 fore, much sooner cooked, and with a smaller fire, 

 than an equal weight of beef or mutton. 



By enveloping small birds with slices of fat ba- 

 con, "the extraction of the sapid constituents from 

 the flesh by its juices, and the evaporation of the 

 water, which causes hardening, are prevented; and 

 the surface is kept in a tender state during the 

 process of roasting." 



In making soup, the opposite process to that re- 

 quired for boiling meat must be adopted. If the 

 meat "be placed in cold water, and if this be 

 brought gradually to the boiling point, there occurs, 

 in the process, an interchange between the juices 

 of the flesh and the external water." The soluble 

 andsapid constituents of the flesh are dissolved in the 

 water, and the water penetrates into the interior of the 

 mass, which it extracts more or less completely. The 

 flesh loses, while the soup gains, in sapid matters; 

 and by the separation of albumen, which is com- 

 monly removed by skimming, as it rises to the sur- 

 face of the water when coagulated, the surface of 

 the meat more particularly loses its tenderness and 

 shortness (as it is called,) becoming tough and 

 hard. The thinner the piece of flesh, the more 

 completely does it acquire the last mentioned qual- 

 ities; and if in this state it be eaten without the 

 soup, it not only loses much of its nutritive proper- 

 ties, but also of its digestibility, inasmuch as the 

 juice of the flesh itself, the constituents of which 

 are now found in the soup, are thus prevented from 

 taking part in the digestive process in the stomach. 

 The soup, in fact, contains two of the chief consti- 

 tuents of the gastric juice. 



In makingf stews, the same process is observed, 

 but the heating is stopped short before it reaches 

 the boiling point. 



(3^ Brave actions are the substance of life, and 

 good sayings the ornament of it. 



