1863.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
343 
The practical lesson now aimed at, is, tli.it when 
we heat the ah- of a room by a stove or furnace, 
we make it a drying Bpbngc, and it sticks up the 
air from the surface of our bodies and from the 
lungs, and not only produces unpleasant sensations, 
but injures the health, to say nothing of its drying 
out and cracking or warping furniture. To remedy 
this, there should always be an artificial supply of 
moist ure to the air when heated by a store or fur- 
(Tue open chimney or grate carries off so 
much air, causing the introduction of fresh cool 
air, that t lie dryness is not so greatly felt.) A wide 
open vessel of water on a stove, partially supplies 
moisture. But even this is not enough for the 
greatest comfort and health. A cloth frequently 
dampened and hung on a chair or frame near the 
stove, is preferable. Everyone must have noted 
the balmy effect of a few clot lies hung on a frame to 
dry in a hot room. We heat our whole house by a 
hot-air furnace in the cellar, as being the most 
economical as well as Jfic most convenient and 
comfortable method. Bui tie: warm air comes up 
saturated with moisture derived from a wide vessel 
placed within the furnace cover, just over the fire, 
and always kepi supplied with water. The lack of 
sufficient water apparatus has caused many, other- 
wise good, furnaces to be thrown aside as disagree- 
able and unhealthy. The so-called " burned air " 
is simply deprived of sensible moisture. A stove- 
heated room may be made far more pleasant by 
supplying plenty of moisture. 
Let Teachers, ami Sextons of churches, net upon 
the above suggestions, and keep a spacious wide- 
mouthed evaporating vessel upon the stove. If 
this does not suffice, and at anytime the pupils 
appear specially restless, try the hanging of a few 
clamp handkerchiefs or garments on chairs near 
the stove. The effect will often be almost magical. 
How to Pickle Cucumbers- 
In response to several inquiries from Agricultur- 
ist subscribers, we publish the following directions 
given by Mrs. Haskell, in her Housekeepers' Ency- 
clopedia : Cut the cucumbers from the vines with- 
out bruising the stems; lay them carefully in a 
basket ; take them to the cellar ; sort and pack 
them in barrels, putting different sizes in separate 
barrels, spread a layer of salt between each layer of 
cucumbers ; there should be sufficient salt to en- 
tirely cover the pickles between the layers. Con- 
tinue to pack the cucumbers dailyas they are pick- 
ed, never using any but line cucumbers, discarding 
all that are crooked or of slow growth. Keep 
boards over the pickles, and weight to press them 
under the brine, which will be formed without the 
addition of water, with the juice extracted from the 
fruit by the salt. Pickles packed in this manner 
may be preserved for years, if there are no impuri- 
ties in the salt ; but if the salt is mixed with lime, 
they will soon soften and spoil. In two mouths 
after the barrel is tilled, take them from the brine, 
freshen and green. To green cucumbers, prepare 
alum-water; put the pickles in a vat or boiler, 
lined with tinned copper; heat the alum -water, and 
pour it over the pickles. This is the process 
which is usually employed by pickle-makers, except 
that they throw steam into the vats to heat the 
alum-water, and if managed properly the pickles 
may be greened with less action of copper than 
when scalded in the usual method in bright brass 
kettles. Take the pickles from the vat when a lit- 
tle green, and pour over them water boiling hot. 
If not greened sufficiently, repeat the hot water 
until they are the desired color, and when cold, put 
them in good vinegar, let them remain until quite 
soured; then change to pretty strong vinegar, 
which will keep the pickles hard and sour; add to 
a barrel six large peppers, without bruising, and 
keep the pickles under the vinegar with weights. 
To B>y«' ivil.li SsassiacJi.— Miss Lizzie M. 
Coggeshall, Piatt. Co., 111., sends the following di- 
rections in answer to the inquiry iii the October 
Agriculturist: Cover the berries with water and 
boil them an hour. Strain off the juice and add a 
tablespoonful of copperas to each three gallons of 
the liquid, stirring it in thoroughly while boiling 
hot. Wet the yarn in warm water, put it into 
the hot dye, and occasionally stir it up, while the 
yarn is taking the color. The color will be purple, 
and it can be made darker, by boiling the berries 
in an iron pot. — Another correspondent writes : 
"For one pail of rain water, take G qts. of the ber- 
ries, soak them in iron 34 hours; then take them 
out and put in the yarn. Stir it often aud keep the 
dye hot, but not boiling, while soaking. If you 
wish to color black, set it with copperas ; it needs 
no setting unless to color black." 
Meals for a Week. 
Some months since a correspondent requested 
through the Agriculturist " Basket," that some 
one would furnish a list of meals for a week which 
should combine economy aud good fare. Several 
communications have been received, of which we 
have space but for the following. " II.," of Rail- 
way, N. J., writes : "My living expenses being re- 
duced since the war from $3000 per annum, to less 
than the fourth part of that .sum, economy is the 
strict rule : and I send you an account of one week's 
meals of our family of five (three adults and two 
children, one an infant). The cost is estimated a 
little 'too high, as the month just past averaged 15 
ceuts per week less. 
Breakfast. — Each morning buckwheat calces, cold 
meat, tea and coffee; excepting that on Monday 
and Thursday, eggs are served instead of cakes. 
Dinner. — Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, roast- 
beef, potatoes, turnips, and bread pudding — omit- 
ting the pudding on Monday. Wednesday, roast- 
pork, potatoes, turnips and onion sauce. Thursday 
the same with pancakes. Friday, corned beef, po- 
tatoes, turnips aud batter pudding. Saturday, the 
same except bread budding. Tea at each dinner. 
Ten. — Toast, preserves, tea and coffee, and twice, 
fried kidneys extra. 
The cost of the above meals was, say 
14 loaves of bread, 5c. eae.ll "OjlO 1 ^ lbs. of beef, He. .84 
5 His. of pork, 10c. .50 
2 beef kidneys, 5c.. 10 
Onions, ' 10 
Synip, 1 quart 14 
'.i doz. eggs, 20 ets. .60 
i lb. flour 3 
Nutmeg, yeast, se.lt. 25 
5 lbs. granulated sugar, 15c. .75 
2 lbs. brown sugar, lOcts 20| 
1 lb. of coflec, Its' 
i, lb. of tea. 88c 22 
4 lbs. of buckwheat, 161 
2\ ll.s. of belter. 28 els 77 
14 pints of milk, 6c. per qt 42| 
Total expense for the week ;-;o. 10. 
Tea we drink weak ; coffee very strong. Potatoes 
aud turnips are my own growiug, and preserves 
made from fruit of our own raising. Beef at 8 ets. 
is the rump which hung for a week, roasted slowly 
say :i}{ hours, and well basted, is equal if not supe- 
rior to porterhouse roast." 
Anothereorrcspondeut, "C," at Andovcr, Mass., 
gives the following: "Breakfast. — Monday, toast- 
ed bread, either Graham or brown, also white 
bread ; sauce and cheese, or broiled salt fish. — 
Tuesday, milk toast and doughnuts, crust coffee or 
cocoa shells, and boiled eggs. — Wednesday, warm 
biscuit and molasses gingerbread, with some slices 
of cold meat left from yesterday's dinner. — Thurs- 
day, hot Indian breakfast cake, cold bread, baked 
apples, cheese, beefsteak and baked potatoes. — 
Friday, griddle cakes aud roasted apples, chocolate 
or tea, cold bread and hash.— Saturday, toast dip- 
ped in hot salted water and buttered, mashed or 
roasted potatoes, cold meat or boiled eggs, and 
doughnuts.— Sunday, fish balls, a hot breakfast 
cake of Graham flour or fried hasty pudding; pick- 
les and horse-radish. 
" Dinners. — Monday, beefsteak, potatoes, squash, 
bread aud butter, baked apples or sauce, and apple 
or squash pie. — Tuesday, roast beef, or fresh pork, 
boiled squash, turnips, cranberry sauce or pickles, 
and pie or puddings. — Wednesday, remains of yes- 
terday's meat warmed up in the gravy, squash, tur- 
nips, potatoes, pickles or sauce, and pie or pudding. 
Thursday, soup made of the bone and remnants of 
bcof or fresh pork, and bread pudding. — Friday, 
cither veal cutlets, tripe, sausages or steak, with 
boiled rice or rye mush.— Saturday, salt fish, boiled 
carrots and beets, potatoes, drawn butter and pork, 
with scraps, pickles, and boiled apple pudding. — 
Sunday, baked beans anil Indian pudding. 
" For another week's course, as dinner h the prin- 
cipal meal, say :— Monday, boiled corned beef, pota- 
toes, squash, cabbage, turnips, carrots, beets, and 
baked rice pudding.— Tuesday, cold corned beef, 
with yesterday's vegetables warmed over, apple 
pie. Bread, butter and potatoes are of course 
requisite at every dinner. — Wednesday, a chowder, 
or fresh fish in some form, mince, apple or squash 
pie.— Thursday, boil a leg of mutton, or cut it into 
steaks and broil ; serve with drawn butter or caper 
sauce ; potatoes, squash and turnips, and pudding. 
Friday, make a soup of the remnants of mutton, 
having saved the water in which it was boiled ; or 
chopthc remnants fine and warm upiu some of the 
broth, adding pepper, salt and butter: toast slices 
of bread and spread this hash upon.it, break eggs 
into hot water, and when cooked skim them out, 
and lay upon the hash ; this is very nice. Pie for 
dessert. — Saturday, ham and fried eggs, broiled 
steak or fi ied pork, fried apples aud potatoes. Pie 
or pudding.— Sunday, steak, stewed or scolloped 
oysters, cranberry pic, with custard or squash pie. 
" Supper. — Monday, fresh cold bread, sauce or 
roasted apples, or preserved canned fruit witli su- 
gar sufficient to make it palatable ; ginger snaps. 
Tuesday, hot toasted bread, simple sauce of some 
kind ; plain cake. — Wednesday, toast, sauce, cup- 
custard, and plain cake. — Thursday, cold fresh bis- 
cuit, sauce, cranberry or apple puff's. — Friday, new 
raised bread, cold tongue or ham, sauce and cake. — 
Saturday, milk toast, gingerbread, picked salt fish. 
All remnants from every meal should be carefully 
looked after, that nothing be lost. When it is not 
desirable to have meat at breakfast, this bill of fare 
will extend over three weeks instead of two, by 
serving up for a second dinner what would other- 
wise appear on the breakfast table. By these rules 
a family may live well and yet inexpensively. 
I give several rules for preparing soup, etc., re- 
ferred lo in the above bill of fare : 
" Dumplings fur a sonp.—To 1 qt. of flour, add 3 
teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, 1 of soda, salt, 
milk, just sufficient to wet the flour; drop this by 
spoonfuls into the pot of boiling soup, after having 
put in the potatoes, and boil three quarters of an 
hour, or even an hour. The soup is made by simp- 
ly boiling any kind of fresh meat either cooked or 
uncooked, in water for 4 hours, adding three or 
four onions, and a carrot or two with pared pota- 
toes ; season with salt and peppers. 
"Apple Dumpling. — Butter a tin pail, and line with 
a paste made as for cream of tartar biscuit, with the 
addition of a piece of shortening as large as an 
egg. Mould it a little, but have the dough soft, till 
the pail about two thirds full of apples, quartered. 
Cover with dough over the top, then put on the 
pail cover, and place the pail in a kettle of water, 
aud boil three hours. Do not let the water rise so 
high as to boil over into the pail, and aud have an 
inverted plate or saucer in the bottom of the kettle 
in order that the pudding may not burn. 
" Crumb Qriddle Cakes.— Soak bread crumbs in 
milk (which should be decidedly sour,) overnight. 
In the moruingmasli the bread, and add a little sal- 
cratus, salt, aud flour, aud bake like buckwheats." 
Double Heeling Stockings. 
Miss S. R. Bowman, Philadelphia Co., Pa, writes 
to the American Agriculturist as follows: "Sol- 
diers very soon walk through the heels of theii 
stockings. Now if the good ladies who knit so 
much, will only make fine double heels, in the fol- 
lowing manner, "the boys " will probably foot up a 
victory in " double quick." Take two balls of yarn, 
and on the right side knit one stitch with oue 
thread, aud the next with the other, and so on 
accross the needle. This alternating makes a loop 
on the inside, which renders the heel very thick 
and durable, without making it any wider. On the 
wrong side, take both threads together, and knit 
as one, in the usuai way." 
t3PFor other Household Hints see Basket. 
