22 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



The dinner is at six, and consists of meat and 

 one vegetable, and something as a salad. _ I have 

 seen a piece of meat, cooked without onions and 

 garlic, and swimming in gravy. The salad is 

 dressed with oil and vinegar, the rule being a 

 spoonful of \-inegar to three of oil, with pepper, 

 salt and mustard, and also a little onion and gar- 

 lic. The conmienceraent of dinner is, of course, 

 soup, as this is invaluable in every continental 

 familv. There are also soup shops, where a pint 

 or a quart can be purchased every day, between 

 four and six. But as often as once or twice a 

 week, they have a boiled dinner, what they call 

 pot ail feu. In America the liquor in which meat 

 and vegetables are boiled for such a dinner, is 

 thrown away. It must certainly contain the best 

 juice of the meat, and be very good and nourish- 

 ing. In Europe it is every drop saved and eaten. 

 They fill an earthern pot with meat and vegeta- 

 bles, never omitting the onions, and let it boil 

 away one-half. For the soup, they season it with 

 pepper, and sometimes with sorrel, parsley, and 

 other herbs and spices, and thicken it with ver- 

 micelli or crumbs of bread. Whether it is deli- 

 cious or not, it certainly seems too good to throw 

 away. American housewives, who may be obliged 

 to practice economy, can at least try it. Children 

 may be taught to like it, and must not be told it 

 is an institution of economy merely. 



The dessert is almost invariably bread and 

 cheese in ^vinter, with a little comfiture. I do not 

 mean to say that every family lives in this way, 

 but I have been in many, and seen little difference. 

 One is expected to take a bit of cheese about an 

 inch square, and a tea-spoonful of comfiture. The 

 little shop windows are also lined with jars of pre- 

 serves, which are sold in quantities of two or three 

 cents' worth, like anything else. 



Cheese in the same way, a bit a few inches 

 for dinner. The pepper and salt are no exceptions 

 to the three cent rule, little three-cornered papers 

 being the only receptacles for them. Cinnamon, 

 cloves, nutmeg and similar spices have no location 

 in a continental family, where they never make a 

 pudding or pie, or cake of any description, and 

 where they would consider it the greatest extrava- 

 gance to eat such things. We are talking of fam- 

 ilies who have a regular income of $600 or $800, 

 $1000 or $1,500 a year. Such a femily does not 

 allow the whole expense of the table to be more 

 than $8 or $10 a month each person, and we know 

 those who limit it to $5 or $6, and yet who live 

 very comfortably. — Cot: N. Y. Com. Adv. 



What is done with Herring. — The editor 

 of the Calais (Me.) Herald, in noticing the large 

 "catch" of herring this season, saj's : "Owing to 

 the low ])rice of smoked herring, converting them 

 into oil is just now a more profitable business, 

 Three hogsheads of fish make a barrel of oil, 

 which is worth about $17. In some of the weirs 

 100 hogsheads are caught at a time. A boat load 

 constitutes from five to ten hogsheads. They are 

 salted before being boiled ; the salting occupies 

 about twenty-four hours, after which the fish are 

 put into kettles which hold about 70 gallons each, 

 and placed over the furnace, the boiling process 

 usually occupying one hour. Fourteen hundi-ed 

 gallons of fish can thus be disposed of in a day in 

 one establishment. This would make forty gal- 



lons of oil. The pressing process occupies but 

 a short time and the oil is immediately fit for use. 

 At present the oil commands a high price, mak- 

 ing it much more profitable thus to dispose of the 

 fish than to sell the smoked herring at 35 cents a 

 box." 



OLD EAGIiES AWD THEIK NESTS. 

 The Girard (Pa.) Union gives the following in- 

 tersting account of a couple of old eagles, their 

 troubles and their constancy. It says : Sixty 

 years ago, when the township was first settled, a 

 pair of eagles, the white-headed or bald species, 

 had a nest in a tall tree on the farm of Mr. Kel- 

 ley. They were not disturbed, and for twenty 

 years they occupied the nest, annually rearing and 

 sending forth a brood of eagles, when a violent 

 storm overturned the tree, and of course destroyed 

 their habitation. They then rebuilt their airy 

 house on a lofty and inaccessible sycamore, on the 

 farm of Richard Pettibone, adjoining Mr. Ivel- 

 ley's, and enjoyed perfect happiness for forty 

 years longer, raising to eaglehood two or three 

 chicks yearly. A few weeks ago, a high wind 

 wrenched off a limb containing the nest, and threw 

 it on the ground with such energy that it was torn 

 to atoms, and a very young, and very bald eagle 

 killed. The nest was very large, being made of 

 about ten bushels of sticks and leaves. This aged 

 and persevering couple are now making a third 

 nest on another sycamore near the one lately de- 

 stroyed. How old these birds are, is not known, 

 but that they are the same pair found there by the 

 earliest settlers, there is no doubt. They are so 

 long familiar with the presence of men, that they 

 can be approached within a few feet ; and their 

 great age, constancy and friendliness, have given 

 them the respect of the neighbors, who would turn 

 out and mob the unlucky sport Avho should at- 

 tempt to shoot or despoil this royal family. 



HOME AFTER BUSINESS HOURS. 



The road along which the man of business trav- 

 els in pursuit of competence or wealth, is not a 

 macadamized one, nor does it oi'dinarily lead 

 through pleasant scenes and by well-springs of 

 delight. On the contrary, it is a rough and rug- 

 ged path, beset with "wait-a-bit" thorns, and 

 full of pitfalls, which can only be avoided by the 

 watchful care of circumspection. After every 

 day's journey over this worse than rough turnpike 

 road, the wayforer needs something more than 

 rest ; he requires solace ; and he deserves it. He 

 is weary of the dull prose of life, and athirst for 

 the poetry. Happy is the business man who can 

 find that solace and that poetry at home. Warm 

 greetmgs from loving hearts, fond glances from 

 bright eyes, the welcome shouts of children, the 

 many thousand little arrangements that silently 

 tell of thoughtful and expectant love, the gentle 

 ministrations that disencumber us into an old and 

 easy seat before we are aware of it ; these and 

 like tokens of aflPection and sympathy constitute 

 the poetry which reconciles us to the prose of life. 

 Think of this, ye wives and daughters of business 

 men ! Think of the toils, the anxieties, trie mor- 

 tifications and wear that fathers undergo, to se- 

 cure for you comfortable homes ; and compensate 

 them for their trials by making them happy by 

 then- own fireside. — Exchange. 



