100 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



quently opens avenues for thought and action 

 of deep and lasting value. 



But even the readiest mind is glad of some 

 hints toward the acquisition of knowledge, or 

 the means of its availability. Much informa- 

 tion may at times be recalled or revived by a 

 word spoken in season. And it is the design 

 of these papers on Domestic Economy to af- 

 foi'd just that assistance to those inexperienced 

 women, Avho doubt the strength of their un- 

 aided capacities in fulfilling the duties of home- 

 life ; to furnish just those hints to those thought- 

 ful ones who know what great need there is of 

 reminding often, even the wisest and most tlis- 

 creet, of the happiness that can be found in a 

 well-ordered household, and how it can best be 

 promoted. 



Sometimes the hint or help may come, as in 

 the subject of the first papers, by showing how 

 to bcautif\- the home. Again, it may apjiear 

 in advice for keejiing all things in good order 

 and cleanliness. Now, it may be the way to 

 mend a rent; to patch a hole ; to "maF old 

 claes look a'maist like noo" ; to fabricate gar- 

 ments or furniture. Then, it may be the prep- 

 aration of food, or the treatment of the sick; 

 the care of the little ones and their amusement ; 

 the training of older children, and their occu- 

 pations. 



Whatever topic is considered, it is hoped 

 that its suggestions will be found worthy of 

 adoption ; and that, in following its teachings, 

 many an anxious and overtaxed housekeeper 

 will find her labors lightened, her cares lessen- 

 ed, and all the inmates of her family made 

 richer in health and happiness. 



CHAPTER I. 

 HOUSE PLANTS— THEIR CARE AND CULTURE. 



Everybody loves flowers. There is a charm 

 in their delicate fragrance and evanescent beau- 

 ty, that awakens in the heart the fenderest 

 emotions. Even the roughest natures are filled 

 with awe as they observe the wonderful mech- 

 anism of the plant, and gaze on its exquisite 

 texture and coloring. 



From the earliest ages, flowers have been 

 used as types of the holiest sentiments, and as 

 tokens of the highest joy, no less than as per- 

 sonal ornaments and household decorations. 

 So great had become the passion for flowers as 

 an article of display among the Romans, that, 

 in the time of CJiccro, sumptuary laws were in 



force for the prohibition of their use by certain 

 classes of the people. Among the Eg^-ptians, 

 also, in the days of their highest civilization, 

 the taste for flowers, especially the rose, for 

 purposes of adornment, was very general. It 

 is said that Cleopatra paid a sum of money, 

 the value of more than one thousand dollars 

 of our currency, for roses to strew the floor of 

 her supper-room at one entertainment; and, 

 long before this, the Greeks had introduced 

 the narcissus, the violet, and the rdse, from 

 Persia, — where they -were grown in great per- 

 fection, — to ornament the altars of their gods, 

 and to twine into garlands for their youths on 

 festive occasions. 



From Persia, tkrough Constantinople, and 

 thence over Europe, came our most familiar 

 flowers ; whose individual characteristics still 

 remain the same as in those remote ages. To 

 Holland, among modern nations, belongs the 

 honor of having paid greatest attention to flori- 

 culture. The Dutch supply the whole world 

 with bulbous flowers. Their taste for flowers 

 originated in the twelfth century, growing out 

 of a need for patterns in their manufactures of 

 ornamental lace and linen goods. 



The custom of cultivating plants in pots and 

 boxes is very common all over southern Eu- 

 rope, where they are hired by the day for the 

 decoration of churches and private dwellings ; 

 beside which, nearly every family has its favor- 

 ite floAvers blooming in the same way upon the 

 roofs and balconies. Everybody knows how 

 much the French peasant and the English cot- 

 tager love to brighten their little windows with 

 a daisy or a violet, while now and then a more 

 ambitious flower from the garden or hot-house 

 of some neighboring nobleman puts forth its 

 graceful foliage, and opens its petals with in- 

 creased brilliancy, before the admiring eyes of 

 half-fed and scantily clothed children. 



And here, in our own country, if the people 

 of the rural districts, with abundance of wild 

 flowers easy of access, and having gardens for 

 the more hardy kinds, seldom cultivate window 

 plants, in the villages and manufacturing towns 

 one can scarcely pass through a street without 

 finding his attention arrested by a gay gerani- 

 um or verbena, nodding at some window pane. 

 The operative in the mill has her shelf or stand 

 for floral treasures ; and side by side with 

 clumsy iinitalions of silk and cotton, they grace 

 the milliner\s litttle room ; while their beauti- 



