78 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



For the New England Farmer. 

 STRAY HINTS FROM MY KITCHEN. 



Being in season, or more properly not being in 

 season, is one of the greatest trials a woman has. 

 Now, young wife, allow me to give you a few 

 hints about this matter. Hurry your work, but 

 don't let your work hurry you. Do to-day's work 

 to-day — don't let it go until to-morrow. Com- 

 mence getting dinner half an hour too early rath- 

 er than five minutes too late — for what woman 

 wants her "better half and all the hired men 

 sitting round, while she is dishing up the dinner, 

 and wondering what makes her so Hushed and 

 nervous ? 



Who would not be nervous to know a scowl 

 was on the brow of the lord of the house and no 

 sentiment of pity lurked in his heart for the poor 

 tired wife, just because she was belated. Man 

 never will pity a woman who is behindhand — so 

 let me say again, be in season. Do things right. 

 Some wives seem to act as though they thought if 

 a thing was done, no matter how it was done. 

 Remember the old adage, "Whatever is worth do- 

 ing, is worth doing well." Let your meals be al- 

 ways nicely prepared, and your food well cooked, 

 even if your husband is an "easy man," as I have 

 heard wives say, and never "rinds fault." If a 

 man never complains, it need not be taken for 

 granted that he is suited with anything, no matter 

 how poor. Man has much penetration, and knows 

 even better than some women suppose when 

 things are done in "apple pie order." He may 

 not openly complain, but he feels more for saying 

 less. 



If soup is the order for dinner, let it be soup, 

 not a mixed mass of meat, bones, potatoes and 

 water. Don't throw the ingredients into a pot, 

 boil them up a spell and pour them out expecting 

 to find a dish worthy the taste of an epicure. To 

 cook well, and make palatable food, great pains 

 must be taken, and strict attention paid to the 

 work. We cannot stand in the street door and 

 gossip half an hour and expect all things to work 

 right in the kitchen. We cannot sit down to read 

 a fascinating book an hour and find the soup all 

 seasoned for the table, when the monitorial clock 

 rings out the hour of noon. No, no ; we must 

 attend patiently to our work, and little by little 

 find it to be right. The proper way of making 

 soup is thus : 



Put the meat into cold water and set it over a 

 slow fire that it may boil gradually ; by that means 

 the goodness is extracted. Pare your potatoes 

 and lialf or quarter them — not slice them. Slice 

 onions, if they are used, and put in when you do 

 the potatoes. Season the soup before you put in 

 the potatoes, by putting in pepper and salt and 

 tasting till found right. After the potatoes and 

 onions begin to boil, lightly drop the dumplings 

 upon the top, and cover the pot closely that the 

 steam may cook them. The nicest way to make 

 them is to take one pint of flour, one teaspoonful 

 of cream tartar, one-half teaspoonful soda dis- 

 solved in hot water, a little salt, and milk enough 

 to wet them up. Make them stiff; divide them 

 into about four dumplings, and if good they will 

 be plenty for a family of four or five. Don't cook 

 them more than twenty or twenty-five minutes. 



Make a soup exactly according to these direc- 

 tions and you will have the satisfaction of know- 

 ing it is good — if no one else speaks of it. Thus 



it is with all our labors ; if we do well, we know 

 it ourselves, if others do not seem to. Have a 

 rule for doing everything, which rule you can ob- 

 tain by marking how you do a thing one time 

 when wrong and doing different till perfect, re- 

 membering only the perfect trial. There is a mo- 

 notony about woman's work that is very tiring 

 and discouraging. Day after day and week after 

 week, she must go over the same routine of duty, 

 and she must indeed be a poor pupil who cannot 

 learn to do well. Sarah. 



Remarks. — Excellent. It is wonderful how 

 smoothly and pleasantly life passes along when a 

 proper regard is paid to all the little details of our 

 business, whether it be in the construction of an 

 oration, the building of a house or a ship, or mak- 

 ing a good soup or loaf of bread. Read this brief 

 article, girls, as it may tend to secure a life-time 

 of domestic happiness. The comforts of a life 

 have often hung on a more slender thread than 

 this. When our correspondent speaks of the 

 special duties of men, we may take the liberty to 

 speak as freely of them. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CARE OP SHEEP— CURE FOR DISEASES. 



Mr. Editor : — Being engaged in sheep hus- 

 bandry, I am interested in everything that per- 

 tains to the health of the flock as being the foun- 

 dation, the grand secret of success and profit. 



If the flock is diseased, in vain does the shep- 

 herd bestow care, and attention, and good keep- 

 ing, for surely the enterprise will prove a failure. 



To the inquiry of "Constant Reader," as to the 

 cause of his sheep having sore eyes and sore 

 mouths, I think the first cause is humors in the 

 blood. The past season has been one unsuited 

 to the constitution and habits of the sheep ; they 

 do best when the season is dry and warm. 



Their "tastes leading them to browse, and the 

 almost continual wet weather of the past fall, and 

 exposure, produce irritation of the eyes and lips, 

 consequently inflammation and a bad state of the 

 blood ensue, causing the eruption or scab on the 

 lips which resemble warts. 



I would give them salt, regularly, once a week. 

 Good Turk's Island salt, two quarts to the bun- 

 dled, and more if they will eat it. Once in two 

 weeks add half a pint of sulphur to the hundred 

 to cleanse the blood. 



For the sore eyes wash with a weak solution of 

 copperas water. It is also the best remedy to al- 

 lay inflammation on horses I ever tried. 



For the sore lips tar and sulphur is a sure cure. 

 At this season the tar will need to be warmed ; 

 then mix in the sulphur ; not so much but that 

 you can apply it to the affected parts with a stick. 

 One thorough application usually cures. Be- 

 smearing liberally with the tar the noses and lips 

 of the entire flock at shearing and again in Au- 

 gust, will prevent the disorder. Salting regular- 

 ly once a week, summer and winter, with an oc- 

 casional dose of sulphur, will make sure the health 

 of sheep, with plenty of good keeping and not 

 exposed to diseased flocks. 



Gardner Herrick. 



South Reading, Vt, 1864. 



