232 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



household labors as their mothers. A young lady 

 can master many of the sciences, become accom- 

 plished in the elegant attainments of refined so- 

 ciety, and be a thorough housekeeper, without any 

 detriment to her character as a lady? Domestic 

 employment must be ranked as a fine art to be 

 appreciated. 



If there is no one but the wife to perform the 

 menial duties that devolve on a farmer's wife, pro- 

 cure help for her at once. The farmer has his as- 

 sistants — why not the wife ? Keep things in or- 

 der about the farm. Don't draw water from the 

 well by a pole with pail attached ; you may some- 

 time see your wife floating in the water down there. 

 But, then, hunting wife No. 2 is such a delicious 

 business. No. 2 would undoubtedly have that 

 well fixed to suit herself. 



I presume my friepd will perceive this is no 

 ideal sketch. Mrs. S. A. Mighill. 



Georgetown, Mass. * 



For the Nero England Farmer. 



METEOROLOGICAL RECORD FOR MAY, 

 1864. 



These observations are taken for and under the 

 directions of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The average temperature of May was 59° ; av- 

 erage midday temperature, 65 p . The correspond- 

 ing figures for May, 1863, were 59° and 67°. 

 Warmest day the 31st, averaging 74° ; coldest 

 day the 3d, averaging 39°. Highest temperature 

 86° ; lowest do., 36°. 



Average height of mercury in the barometer, 

 29.11 ins. ; do. for May, 1803, 29.23 ins. Highest 

 daily average, 29.42 ins. ; lowest do., 28.83 ins. 

 Range of mercury from 28.75 ins. to 29.42 ins. 



R,ain fell on fourteen days ; amount of rain 3.14 

 ins. Ten stormy days, and 3.02 ins. of rain in 

 May, 1863. There was no entirely clear day ; on 

 three days the sky was entirely overcast. High 

 winds occurred on the 2nd, 3d, and 24th ; at oth- 

 er times wind moderate. The comparison of the 

 temperature of the month of May, 1864, with that 

 of May, 1863, indicates warmer nights this year 

 than last ; which have contributed much to assist 

 forward vegetation. A. C. 



Claremont, N. H. 



Correction. — In my meteorological table pub- 

 lished in your paper of May 28, the record of 

 the months of January, February and March was 

 for the years 1860-1-2-3-4. Therefore the table 

 should be cut in two between December and Jan- 

 uary, and the lower part moved one place to the 

 right, putting the date 1864 over the right-hand 

 column, then the whole will read correctly. As it 

 now stands it • reads entirely wrong for the three 

 months named. A. C. 



A Preventive of Bots in Horses. 1 will 

 give you a remedy for bots which I have used, and 

 known others to use for twenty years with entire 

 success. Get some salt from a fish barrel and 

 feed the horse once a week, and he will never be 

 troubled with bots so long as the treatment is con- 

 tinued. My way of feeding is to mix it with 

 claan salt in the proportion of about two parts of 

 the latter to one of the former, and give a small 

 handful once a week. If this is done from the 1st 

 of January to the 1st of July, there is not much 

 danger of bots. S. F. B., in Iowa Homestead. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MAKING BREAD. 



Sugar and molasses are so high at the present 

 time, that every good wife is trying to use as little 

 as possible. A.nd therefore, to fill up the place 

 once asigned to cake and gingerbread, something 

 else must be prepared. I know of nothing beWer 

 than good, light, sweet bread and nice yellow but- 

 ter. As far as I am concerned, I ask no better 

 supper than I can make from those two articles, 

 with a bit of cheese and a cup of tea, enriched by 

 a spoonful of cream. Milk, cream, cheese and 

 butter farmers' wives always have ; then let them 

 learn to make nice bread and they can live, let 

 the war last as long as it may. Allow me to give 

 you my way, and if you will try it I will warrant 

 good bread, unless the flour is too poor to deserve 

 the name. 



Take one yeast cake at tea time, soak it in milk- 

 warm water, thicken with flour, about like (what 

 farmers' wives call) flap jacks; let it stand in a 

 warm place, covered, until bed-time. Then take 

 one pint of pretty warm water, a little salt and 

 your yeast made from the cake, and add enough 

 flour to make the whole a batter about the same 

 consistency as you did the yeast cake. Cover it 

 and let it rise until morning. Then add a small 

 half-teaspoonful of soda, and flour enough to make 

 it very stiff. Take it out upon your board, knead 

 it thoroughly and divide into loaves ; fill your 

 baking pans half full, set it in a warm, but not hot 

 place, say up on the mantle shelf, if you have one, 

 and let it rise until the pans are just full. Then 

 put into a hot oven ; bake very quickly. Take it 

 out, wrap it up in a cloth dipped in cold water, 

 and if, upon cutting, you don't find good bread it 

 wont be like mine. Your children will take it in- 

 stead of cake and gingerbread, and say not a word. 

 Your husband will make his supper of it and for- 

 get his usual piece of pie. Your neighbors will 

 all inquire ''how you make such nice bread," and 

 go and do likewise. 



If you .have good, nice yeast, so much the bet- 

 ter ; use one cupful for a pint of water. I use 

 yeast in the winter and buy yeast cakes in the sum- 

 mer. Sarah. 



Cabbage Fleas. — A farmer in Chatauque Co., 

 N. Y., writes to the Farmers' Club of the Ameri- 

 can Institute : "I want to tell my experience of ten 

 years in cabbage raising. I first learned of a Swe- 

 dish woman. Seeing some very nice plants, I 

 wished to know how she raised them without the 

 lice or fleas destroying them. She said she took 

 droppings from the hen-roost, a small quantity ; a 

 little new milk, enough to soak what seed she want- 

 ed to plant ; put in her seed, mixed all together, 

 let it soak for a few hours— eight, ten or twelve. 

 She said fleas never would disturb the plants. I 

 thought as I had lost plants from fleas eating them, 

 I would try her method. For ten years it has proved 

 a success. I select a sunny spot near the house, 

 so as to throw on the slops from the kitchen. I 

 make the bed loose by putting on leached ashes 

 and hen manure. When soaked enough I sow the 

 seed, stirring it in well, then if it should be a dry- 

 ing sun, sprinkle on water often, say three or four 

 times a day. Sow the seed as early as the ground 

 is fit to work, set the plants in place when three or 

 four inches high, keep them well watered and the 

 ground nicely worked, and you can raise cabbage. 



