348 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



^Domestic JDepartmmt. 



Domestic Endearments. — I hold it indeed to be 

 a sure sign of a mind not ]ioiscd as it ought to be, if 

 it be insensible to the pleasures of home, to the little 

 joys and endearments of a family, to the affection of 

 relations, to the fidelity of domestics. Next to being 

 well with his own conscience, the friendship and 

 attachment of a man's family and dependants seem 

 to me one of the most comfortable circumstances of 

 his lot. His situation, with regard to either, forms 

 that sort of bosom comfort or disijiuet that sticks 

 close to him at all times and seasons, and which, 

 though he may now and then forget it, amidst the 

 bustle of jjublic or the hurry of active life, will re- 

 sume its place in his thoughts, and its permanent 

 effects on his happiness, at every pause of ambition 

 or of business. — Selected. 



Learn to cook well. — The health of the family 

 depends iipon it. We know there are those who 

 associate luxury, efFcininacy, and all dependent ills, 

 with every attempt of the kind recommended. But 

 we do not believe that health is promoted by eating 

 raw carrots or doughy bread, — or that, to secure 

 long life, it is necessary to turn cannibal. Nor were 

 men made to graze like cattle, or eat food like dogs. 



Nor is it necessary, in order to shun the errors of 

 which we speak, to rush into the opposite extreme. 

 Good cookery does not consist in producing the 

 highest seasoned dishes, nor such as to foster a mor- 

 bid appetite ; but in preparing every dish well, how- 

 ever simple or common it may be. There are, for 

 instance, families who never eat any good bread from 

 one century to another, and have no idea in what it 

 consists. Nor are meats cooked any better within 

 their precincts. Those little, simple, and healthy 

 delicacies, which the good housekeeper knows intui- 

 tively how to produce, are never seen here. Even a 

 dish of potatoes cannot get themselves w^ell boiled. 

 A member of the family might as well fall among 

 the Hottentots, as far as any proper nursing is con- 

 cerned. These things ought not to be, nor is there 

 any need of their existence, if the wife has any 

 just notions of her obligations to herself and those 

 about her. 



The science of bread making, of meat broiling, 

 stewing, roasting, and boiling, of vegetable cooking, 

 and of jireparing the multifarious small dishes of all 

 sorts, which go to make pleasant the table, and all 

 about, are hers, — hers to understand and practice. 

 — Prairie Farmer. 



A Substitute fok. Tea. — Dr. Graham, an old 

 and experienced physician in London, says, " I may 

 state on very respectable authority, that the first 

 leaves of whortleberry, properly gathered and dried 

 in the shade, cannot be distinguished from real 

 China teas." 



Bojis' il'fpartmeut. 



A DOCILE, SAGACIOUS BuLL. — Boys, whcn you 

 come to be grown men, and have stallions, bulls, and 

 rams for breeding on your farms, among other good 

 points, or qualifications, don't forget what we think 

 the most important, namely, a gentle disposition, or, 

 in other words, kind temper. Many persons have 

 been killed by ferocious males, and even females ; 

 you will see, therefore, that in propagating such ani- 

 mals, you endanger your own lives as well as those 



of others. Our rule is, however good an animal may 

 be in other respects, if wanting in docile disposition, 

 not to breed from it. 



We will now tell you a story of a Durham bull 

 which belongs to Prince Albert, the husband of 

 Queen Victoria, of England. This bull is kept in 

 the little park at Windsor, so called, to distinguish 

 it from the great park, at the head of which stands 

 AVindsor Castle, one of the largest and most magnifi- 

 cent buildings in Europe, and the principal summer 

 residence of the Queen and Prince. This animal, 

 possessing a kind temper, had been taught to work 

 alone in a cart, like a horse. He made himself very 

 useful in this capacity ; and was of such great 

 strength, that he would take a load of more than 

 six thousand pounds (three tons) along a level road 

 with as much ease, and perhaps more, than any one 

 of you could trundle a wheelbarrow load of dirt not 

 weighing over one hundred pounds. 



Well, one day, after a hard morning's work, they 

 turned him out into the park to feed and refresh 

 himself on the rich grass that was growing there. In 

 the same pasture was another bull, which proved to 

 be of a vicious temper ; for no sooner did he es^oy a 

 farm laborer from the adjoining field attempt to pass 

 through the pasture, than he commenced bellowing 

 and pawing, and then rushed forward with all his 

 might, determined to gore him to death. The fero- 

 cious beast had knocked the man down, and was in 

 the act of stooping to toss him on his horns, Avhen 

 the kind tempered Durham bull, seeing his extreme 

 danger, set off on a full run to his rescue. He came 

 up with such prodigious force as to knock the wicked 

 bull prostrate at a single blow of his head. He then 

 commenced affectionately licking the fallen man, 

 which so revived him, that he turned over, and per- 

 ceiving that it was the friendly Durham bull, he at 

 length got strength to rise up, when, mounting the 

 back of his dumb friend, he was soon carried out of 

 danger. 



Now, boys, you will see the safety of possessing 

 good-tempered animals ; and there is not only supe- 

 rior safety, but greater utility, in them ; for they will 

 consume less food, do more work, give more milk, if 

 females, and finally fatten better, and of course be 

 more valuable through life and in the end. — Amer- 

 ican Agriculturist. 



Cjcaltl). 



Honey is, according to Mr. Milton, who has lately- 

 published a treatise on bees in England, a universal 

 specific ; and among its other valuable properties, he 

 declares that it prevents consumption, and states 

 that that destroyer of human life is not known in 

 countries where honey is regularly taken as an arti- 

 cle of food. Those who have less faith in the specific, 

 may perhaps attribute the cause to difference of 

 climate rather than to honey. The Italian singers, 

 it is also affirmed, are greatly indebted to honey ; but 

 their practice is to sharpen it with a few drops of 

 acid, though they sometimes take it in a pure state. 

 — Albany Cultivator. 



IliPE Fruit and Dysentery. — There is a perni- 

 cious prejudice with which people are too generally 

 imbued ; it is, that fruits are injurious in the dysen- 

 tery — that they produce and increase it. There is 

 not, perhaps, a more false prejudice. Bad fruit, and 

 that which is imperfectly ripened, may occasion 

 colics, and sometimes diarrhrea — but never epidemic 

 dysentery. Ripe fruits of all kinds, especially in the 

 summer, are the true preservatives against this mal- 

 ady. The greatest injury thcj' can do, is in dissolv- 

 ing the humors, and particularly the bile, of which 



