18fi7. 



NEW ENGLAND FAHMER. 



55 



Cake Pudding. 



Three tablespoonfuls of molted butter, mixed 

 while warm, with a cup of powdered sugar ; 

 one pint of sifted flour; two teaspoons ol' 

 cream of tartar ; one of soda ; one teacup ol 

 sweet milk ; one egg. Beat hard, and bake 

 twenty minutes in a small oval or round dish. 



Sauce. Two cups of sugar worked with 

 half a cup of butter ; one cup of wine, a tea- 

 spoonful at a time. Beat bard; set it into a 

 pan of hot water ten or fifteen minutes ; serve 



hot. 



Ginger Pudding, (from Kentucky.) 



Three cups of molasses ; one cup of butter ; 

 two teaspoons of saleratus ; lour eggs ; four 

 and a half cups of flour ; ginger and nutmeg. 

 Steam or bake. To be eaten with any kind of 

 nice sauce. This pudding will keep any rea- 

 sonable length of time, and is good either hot 

 or cold. Mary. 



Parsonsfield, Me., Nov. 12, 1866. 



Cheap Cookies. 



One cup of cream ; one-half cup of butter ; 

 one and a half cups of sugar ; two eggs ; one 

 teaspoonful saleratus. Mould as soft as you 

 can roll, and bake in a quick oven. 



Newport, N. H., Oct., 1866. Nellie. 



Remarks. — We hope that our lady readers 

 will see that this department of our paper is well 

 supplied during the coming volume. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HOUSEHOLD COjSTVENIEKCES. 



Backwardness of Farmers in the adoption of facilities — 

 Growing distaste for household duties — Domestics af- 

 ford little relief — Ambition for display — Tendency to a 

 system of communism — Failure of labor-saving ma- 

 chines — Simplicity of living and the exercise of com- 

 mon sense suggested as a remedy. 



I fully agree with Jenny and other corres- 

 pondents, who wrote upon this subject last 

 winter, that farmers are too slow in adopting 

 the modern improvements and convenient ar- 

 rangements for facilitating house work ; that 

 either they fail to see and appreciate the bene- 

 fits which science and art are continually olFer- 

 ing to man to administer to his comfort and al- 

 leviate his toils, or they are luiwilling to make 

 the eflbrt to possess them. In this respect far- 

 mers fall behind residents of cities and villages ; 

 still, there is visible progress in the way of im- 



f)rovement, and in the older States, woman's 

 abor in the farmer's household is becoming 

 more limited every year. Our grandmothers 

 performed many kinds of work that are not 

 now required of their grand-daughters. Spin- 



ning, weaving, most of the tailoring and dress- 

 making for the family, milking, bringing in 

 wood, water, &c., are no longer her unavoida- 

 ble duties. Besides this aliridgment of labor, 

 our young farmer's wife can command helps 

 and conveniences that the women of two gen- 

 erations ago never dreamed of. And there are 

 fair prospects that the farm-house will be re- 

 lieved ol the care and labor of the dairy, by 

 selling milk to supply the cities, and by trans- 

 ferring butter and cheese-making to large es- 

 tablishments. 



While these improvements are going for- 

 ward, there are heard from every side loud 

 lamentations over the drudgery of house work, 

 especially over the hard lot of fanners' wives 

 and daughters. House-work is becoming de- 

 cidedly unpopular. American girls scorn the 

 idea of doing it for others, and are hardly wil- 

 ling to do it for themselves, though perfectly 

 able. Even the foreign help who are now do- 

 ing it, c[uit it at the first opportunity. Women 

 are breaking down early in life, notwithstand- 

 ing all the abridgment of their labors and the 

 conveniences that have been introduced into 

 our houses, and they ask for a further relief. 



The truth is we are departing from the sim- 

 plicity of life of our forefathers, and are rapid- 

 ly adopting the ways of a luxuriant and extrav- 

 agant people. Ambition and pride bind upon 

 us burdens grievous to be borne. No one is 

 willing to be outdone by his neighbor. The 

 poor imitate the example of the rich. Those 

 without servants think they must do as those 

 who have them, and those with one must do as 

 well as those who have two or more. House- 

 keeping is a wearisome complication of cares, 

 anxieties and labors, and no wonder woman is 

 breaking down early in life, and sighs for fur- 

 ther I'clief. Something, it is evident, must be 

 done, if men Avish to avoid boarding houses and 

 maintain households at moderate expense. 



Whence shall come this desired relief.*^ Will 

 it be found in keeping domestics ? The ex- 

 pense question decides this mode at once for 

 the majority of families, and many women who 

 are so favored as to have them, talk of their 

 care and trouble as a burden. Will it come in 

 a further limitation of the kinds of work done 

 in the house ? Whoever reads the Atlantic for 

 1806 will perceive that Mrs. St owe in her 

 "Chimney Comer Talks," proposes a great 

 change by advocating the adoption of the 

 French mode of living. Society is rapidly pre- 

 paring for the change, and I expect, ere long, 

 house-keepers will demand that washing, iron- 

 ing, bread-making and the greater part or the 

 whole of cooking shall be done out of the house. 

 In cities and villages this may be a judicious 

 and economical arrangement ; but among far- 

 mers the plan has some serious objections, ap- 

 parent to all. 



Will the desired relief be found in greater 

 facilities for doing work ? Would that it were 

 in the power of cunning craftsmen to devise 

 means to carry on the household machinery 



