1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



291 



LADIES' DEPARTMENT. 



Domestic Items. 



Washing Flannel. — If white, it should be 

 done in as hot water as possible, with hard soap. 



Shrinking of Flannel. — Enclose new Flannel 

 in a bag ; put it into a boiler with cold water ; 

 heat and boil it. It will never shrink any more 

 after this operation, and should then be made up 

 into garments. 



Fragments of Bread may be all saved by 

 making them into toast and puddings ; and they 

 also make good pancakes, by soaking over night 

 in milk and then adding an egg or two, and a 

 little salt and flour. 



Preserves — if fermenting, boil them and add a 

 little powdered salseratus, say size of a pea for a 

 quart or two, but more if much fermented. 



Feather Beds should be aired once a week ; 

 but do not hang them out of the front windows, 

 unless you wish to add a striking feature in the 

 picturesque expression of your dwelling. 



Moths. — Camphor (not tobacco) will repel 

 moths. Flannels well wrapped in linen, are 

 safe from moths. But they should be well brush- 

 ed about the first day of summer, as the raoths 

 then begin to increase. 



Suet and Mince-Pie Meat, if boiled and chop- 

 ped, may be kept a year, in a stone jar, under 

 molasses. 



Vials, with medicines, should be kept constant- 

 ly and very distinctly labelled — it would prevent 

 some fatal accidents. 



Molasses, used for cooking, is immensely im- 

 proved by previous boiling and skimming. 



Straw Beds are generally improved by being 

 boxed at the sides, or stitched through like mat- 



-The best proportions are 3 lbs. 

 salt, 10 oz. sage, 10 oz. pepper, to every 100 

 lbs. chopped meat. 



Eggs, wholly embodied in salt, the small end 

 downwards, will keep one to three years perfect- 

 ly fresh. 



Heated Rooms. 



Rooms heated with anthracite coal, and rooms 

 heated with close stoves in which wood is burnt, 

 have veay dry atmospheres. The use of water 

 in such rooms is very congenial to health, but 

 the water should not be placed in an iron or tin 

 vessel upon the stove, for the reason that it will 

 undergo that degree of heat which will make its 

 vapors offensive and injurious to breathe. It is 

 as injurious to the human system to breathe pu- 

 trid water vapors of this kind, as it is to breathe 

 the vapors from stagnant ponds in hot weather. 

 If water is used upon a stove, an iron pan should 

 be made use of, and this filled with dry sand ; in 

 the sand set an earthen bowl filled with clean 



water, which should be changed twice a day, and 

 the bowl washed and kept as clean as if used for 

 a drinking vessel. 



Where hard coal is burnt in a grate, a glass 

 globe should be suspended in the room filled with 

 clean pure water, and as the heated air rises to 

 the top of the room, it will steadily evaporate the 

 water and moisten the dry and heated air. Per- 

 sons who prefer the atmosphere of salt water va- 

 por, can add salt to the water, or if they prefer 

 an aromatic atmosphere, they can add Cologne 

 water, or any other perfume which they prefer. 

 It is as important to have clean air for breathing 

 as to have clean water for drinking. Basement 

 rooms, where hard coal is burnt, should be fre- 

 quently ventilated. Small children accustomed 

 to stay in basement rooms find a bad air near the 

 floor. This air should be removed by allowing 

 the doors to be opened frequently to let in fresh 

 air. A little care in these matters will tend 

 wonderfully to comfort and enjoyment. — Ex. 



To MAKE Good Butter in Winter. — We 

 often hear the complaint that winter butter is 

 poor. Ours (says a correspondent of the Boston 

 Cultivator) was so for several seasons. It was 

 very slow in coming, and frothy, white, and 

 sometimes bitter ; while butter made from the 

 same kind of milk in the warm season was good. 

 I devised many plans for improvement, such as 

 throwing in salt, warm milk, scalding cream, 

 &c.; but to no purpose. At length I scalded my 

 milk when brought from the cow, afterwards, 

 setting it either in a cold or warm place as most 

 convenient. I mean I communicated sufficient 

 heat to my milk to destroy the effect which frosty 

 feed in autumn or dry feed in winter had upon 

 it. Since which time we have made (with fif- 

 teen minutes churning) purer, sweeter, and more 

 yellow butter than we ever made in summer — 

 and sometimes from frozen cream gradually 

 warmed. And were it not that the increase of 

 manufactures, the pursuit of fashion, and other 

 causes combined, render helping hands in the 

 dairy room now-a-days very scarce, I should be 

 at the trouble of scalding my milk before setting 

 it, during the summer, as well as in winter, for 

 surely, butter made in this way possesses a deli- 

 cious richness and dryness which can not be 

 found in any other. 



How TO Cook Green Corn. — If the follow- 

 ing is worth publishing in your paper, it is at 

 your service, as its truth cannot be controverted : 

 Green corn, to be healthy, should be boiled till 

 it is perfectly done ; that is, if it is full grown 

 or nearly ready to glaze, it should be boiled at 

 least three hours, when it maybe eaten to a rea- 

 sonable amount, by almost any person. 



T. P. 



The above may prove valuable to those who 

 preserve the Farmer, or have good memories — 

 though not in season ^ just now. 



