38 



HOME AND FLOV^'EBS 



mauds much attention. The lower the tempera- 

 tine at which it is cooked the less trouble there 

 will be in digesting it, although it requires 

 enough to develop the flavor. Butter loses in 

 cooking some of its volatile acids, and an un- 

 healthy acid is developed. M^ats fried in butter 

 are not as healthful as when they are broiled. 



LETTEKS FROM OUR READERS 



"As I am a farmer's wife, I would like to read 

 the best methods of doing our work. No one 

 but a farmer's wife could write a practical 

 lesson, because the writer must know the lack 

 of conveniences in the average home of a 

 farmer. Housework in a village or city is as 

 different as the sun and moon. The practical 

 application of the best methods of making the 

 hard work and monotony of rural life easier is 

 what we need. I could write of many farmers' 

 wives who need help, who are tired and dis- 

 couraged, who must wash, bake, scrub, mend, 



A GOOD SITE IS A PAYING INVESTMENT 



and sew late at night to keep their families 

 fed and clothed, wno have no time to read. 

 Such women need encouragement." 



Sherman, N. Y. 



About twelve years ago six busy housekeepers 

 — neighbors— ^formed a reading club. We first 

 used C. L. S. C. books, buying and exchanging, 

 getting along with as little expense as possible. 

 So when we heard our state would furnish a 

 traveling library we speedily availed ourselves 

 of this munificent offer, and I have never seen 

 a day since that I have not been thankful that 

 our state sends the helpful books for the use 

 of clubs which otherwise could not have them. 



The first year we had a library of twenty-five 

 to thirty books on the American poets; then 

 American prose next year; then two years of 

 English literature; then Florentine art, and by 

 buying Perry pictures and by securing pictures 

 from the state we were enabled to get a gopd 

 idea of the old Florentine masters. This year 

 we have Venetian art, and have been studying 

 Venice and St. Mark's Church. While shut in 

 by snowstorms we greatly appreciate studying 

 these beautiful cities and works of art. I be- 

 lieve we can not overestimate what this is doing 

 for the country and little towns where libraries 

 can not be had. We now have three of the trav- 



eling libraries in this place, used by the different: 

 clubs. 



Broad Creek, Va. 

 I want to write you what we did with our 

 beef last winter. The meat was ready to hang; 

 up to cool soon after Thanksgiving, near the 

 end of a severe cold snap. In about three days 

 it was taken down and cut up. The leaf tallow 

 was tried out immediately, and when the quar- 

 ters were cut up all the chunks of fat which, 

 could be taken off were set aside to be tried out. 

 The beef hung in a slatted corn-crib until it 

 was cut up and packed away. The rendered; 

 tallow was poured into the largest pans, kettles,, 

 and pails we had to harden. There were seventy- 

 five pounds of nice, clean fat this time, whichi 

 was sold. 



The quarters were cut up to afford us the 

 greatest amount of drying beef ; the rest fur- 

 nished roasts and boiling pieces. 



Father brought home a hundred pounds of ice,, 

 which was used in an ice-chest we had, the same 

 being placed in the corn-crib. The liver, tongue,, 

 and hea:ct were put in here, also all the roasts 

 which could be crowded in. Every available 

 plate, tin, and pan were put in the coolest 

 empty room in the house, and each was filled 

 with scalded pot and oven roasts. Later these- 

 were thoroughly baked again, and exchanged 

 for the pieces of meat in the ice-box, which 

 were cooked and set away. In this way we had 

 fresh roasts, etc., for a long time. The liver 

 Avas fried, and used as we wanted it. The' 

 heart and tongue were boiled, trimmed, sliced, 

 and put up in quajt jars in vinegar, seasoned' 

 with allspice and cloves.' The knuckle joint s^ 

 (soup-bone joints) were boiled till the meat 

 on them was teuder, and mother filled six pint 

 jars with the liquor, covering it with a little 

 melted fat, which hardened, and has kept per- 

 fectly. 



All the meat which was not put in the ice- 

 chest and the cool room was packed in a barrel 

 down cellar. Father likes a vinegar or molasses: 

 barrel for this, but once we had to endure a 

 whisky barrel. I hope we shall never have 

 another. He packs the beef himself, and uses, 

 alternate layers of coarse salt and beef, filling 

 the barrel up with water enough to cover all 

 completely. The meat is put in solid with the 

 drying pieces on top. A board, small enough to 

 go inside the barrel, and a heavy stone, keeps 

 everythiug under the pickle. In ten days or two 

 weeks the drying pieces are taken out, drained,, 

 and slipped into thin muslin bags, with a stout 

 string through a convenieut part of each piece,, 

 when all the pieces so covered are hung up on two 

 eight-foot poles, the ends being slipped through 

 rings set in the kitchen ceiling, near, but not 

 over, the cook stove. Here they remain till quite 

 firm, when the strings are cut anel the pieces- 

 are put away. We have wrapped each piece in 

 paper, and then packed them in ashes in a box, 

 but this last time we tumbled them all right 

 into a small cracker box in the pantry closet, 

 and they kept all right. The last pieces were' 

 moldy, though, and had to be washed. 



Our corned beef is not gone, and what is left 

 is getting very salt. Last week the brine be- 

 came curdled. We took the meat out (there is: 

 not much left), washed it off,, and repacked it. 

 The brine was brought upstairs, boiled, and 

 skimmed, and then poured back over the beef. 



Very truly, C. A. Stebbins. 



