146 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
much ley injures the clothes and hands. I know 
no exact rule. But people living in a hard water 
region, should provide themselves with good rain- 
water cisterns as soon as possible. 
A woman should dress for her work. Ton and 
I would agree that a washerwoman would look 
ridiculous, dressed in silk, with lace under- 
sleeves on her wrists, while working at her tub. I 
wonder what your ideal would be of a suitable 
dress for washing day, with its various exercises at 
the tub, over the stove, hanging out clothes, clean- 
ing the floor, etc. Let me give you mine. 
I wish you could go into my kitchen, as baby and 
I have just been, and see what I shall describe. 
The dress I saw five minutes ago, was an old one, 
somewhat faded and patched. It was made of thick 
goods, cotton and wool, a small plaid. The dress, 
lined throughout with drilling, was cut in Gabrielle 
(or basquine) style, a loose, easy fit. It was worn 
without corsets or whalebones. The waist and arm- 
holes were sufficiently loose to give the arms entire 
freedom of movement. The easy coat sleeves and 
the long sleeves of a warm under garment, were 
rolled above the elbows (not always necessary with 
a machine) and a large, gored bib apron was tied 
on. There was a dimity ruffle sewed in the neck 
of the dress. A woman without corsets is bad 
enough, but I have something more dreadful to 
tell about this washerwoman's dress. 
It did not trail — did not even touch the floor — 
was not so much as of fashionable length for a 
short dress ! Mary, the dress I have the hardihood 
to describe as suitable for kitchen work, on wash- 
ing days at least, reached only four inches be- 
low the knees! The lower limbs were clothed with 
warm, lined pantaloons, of the same material as 
the dress, made very much like your husband's 
"peg-tops." The shoes were thick balmorals. 
I sat on the wood-box, tossing baby for a frolic, 
and studied this costume, trying to think, without 
prejudices, how it could be improved or better ans- 
wer the purposes of health, convenience, economy 
and comfort. I had seen the same washerwoman 
at the same tub, in an ankle dress, with and with- 
out hoops, and in a gymnasium dress. The ankle 
dress got drabbled and torn around the bottom, 
and neither it nor the gymnasium dress protected 
the ankles properly. This costume has every advan- 
tage. Tou cannot even say it is less beautiful, for 
one essential element of beauty is fitness. But you 
can not induce any ordinary Bridget to put it on. 
No indeed ! The " lady in the kitchen " cannot 
afford to slight the Paris fashions. The last hired 
washerwoman I had, a pretty colored woman, came 
with a waterfall on her head, a waist so tight that 
it was bursting out all around (the unfortunate wo- 
man could not afford corsets, and did the best she 
could for her " figure," under the circumstances 
by dressing very tightly), and skirt trailing several 
inches behind. Of course the skirts were wet (her 
throat was bound up with flannel) and torn from 
the waist here and there. But I suppose she had 
an idea that she was fulfilling one of woman's chief 
duties — to look pretty ! 
Is it not about time to banish washing — the slop- 
py, steaming work of washing-day from our homes, 
and make a public affair of it ? A friend writes me, 
" When Sunday night comes, I always begin to 
dread the morrow's washing, for our washings are 
always large, and, do the best I can, I invariably 
get very tired. A public laundry would be a great 
blessing." — I think she means a co-operative laun- 
dry, for she would hardly be willing to pay for her 
large washings the prices at most public laundries, 
that are not co-operative — at the rate of SI, or -31.25 
per dozen. The papers have lately been taking 
notice of some statistics published by the Oneida 
Community, with reference to their washings. A 
New Haven paper says, " They find that the week's 
washing for two hundred and thirty-seven persons 
costs twenty -nine cents a head. As the average 
number of pieces washed for each member is 
eighteen, including heavy articles, this is astonish- 
ingly cheap. Why should not the horrors of wash- 
ing-day in families be abolished by a system of 
intelligent co-operation? Comfort, health, and 
cleanliness would all be promoted by it, and a large 
amount of money aud labor saved." 
The washing apparatus at that Community is on 
the largest and best scale of any in this country. 
The hard work is done by steam. The revolving 
wringer alone cost ?250, and the whole expense of 
the brick building for the laundry, and of the ma- 
chinery for washing, wringing, drying and ironing 
was §6,092. In cities there could be found a suffi- 
cient number of families to combine and establish a 
laundry as good as this. In villages there might be 
sueh co-operation as wonld materially lessen the 
labors and expenses of family washing, without so 
great an outlay of money. The expense of the 
building and apparatus might be divided into shares 
and each member of the association could own one 
or more. The apparatus for doing a family wash- 
ing comfortably at home is seldom less than $25, 
including machines for washing and wringing. If 
fifty families should each put in this sum, it would 
raise a capital of 51,250. What could be done with 
this sum in the way of establishing a village laun- 
dry ? The washing might be done at a fixed rate — 
say seventy-five cents a dozen. After paying the 
current expenses for soap, fuel, labor, etc., there 
would remain a surplus of funds (if the concern 
was properly managed), to be divided at stated 
periods among the members. In this way the 
members of the co-operative laundry association, 
though paying a nominal price of seventy-five cents 
a dozen for washing and ironing, would really get 
the work done for considerably less. 
My object was not so much to propose a definite 
plan, as to set women to thinking of some reason- 
able way of escape from unnecessary drudgery — to 
give a little push to a ball already set in motion. 
How to have a Variety in Food. 
BY MBS. "H. C. B." 
There are two ways of having variety: one, that 
of heaping upon one's table a great many kinds of 
food at one meal, so many that it is impossible to 
do more than to taste of each one ; the other to 
have but a few kinds at one time, but so varied from 
meal to meal that the same thing does not appear 
upon the table very often. The latter seems to me 
to be the better way on the score of economy, which 
the larger portion of farmers' wives probably find 
it necessary to study to a greater or less extent. 
Besides this, a great jumble of food is injurious to 
the digestion. I will explain what I mean by the 
best kind of variety. 
Bread, either wheat or rye, should be a constant 
article of diet, and should be made fresh three 
times a week. Occasionally raised biscuit, or soda 
biscuits, can be substituted, or some form of corn 
bread, or Graham bread, gems, or some kind of 
muffins. The plain white bread will probably hold 
its place as the standard kind for a long time to 
come, and its substitutes should be so judiciously 
introduced as to make all kiuds seem ever fresh and 
new. Meat ought, also, to be varied, both in its 
kind and in the manner of cooking it. Beef is 
acknowledged to be superior to other meats, but it 
should be cooked in different ways. Roast beef 
and well-broiled steaks will always stand first in 
general estimation ; but boiled beef, beef stew, and 
beef soup, help to variety, keep up the appetite for 
the other kinds, and are more economical thau the 
constant use of sueh pieces as are needed for good 
roasts and broils. Many families are in the habit 
of having a nice piece of roast beef for their Sun- 
day's dinner, and bringing it on cold every day 
thereafter, until it is vanquished by the force of 
sheer persistence. Such a piece of beef can be used 
in many ways. Was it quite rare, to suit the tastes 
of some members of the family ? Then for Mon- 
day's dinner cut off some slices of the rare part, lay 
them on the gridiron over some very hot coals, let 
them brown upon both sides, and bring them direct- 
ly to the table with a little butter upon each slice. 
The more thoroughly cooked part can be made 
into several kinds of hash ; coarse hash, with or 
without potatoes; fine hash, with or without po- 
tatoes, warmed in the mass or made into small thin 
cakes, and browned in a little hot lard; fine hash, 
with potatoes, spread upon a piece of pastry rolled 
thin, then rolled up tight aud baked ; or fine hash, 
without potatoes, put upon toast. A savory stew 
can also be made of bits of cold beef by the addi- 
tion of two or three onions, as many tomatoes, or 
some canned tomato, and a sufficient amount of 
seasoning. A pie can be made of cold beef, either 
with common pastry for crust, or layers of mashed 
potatoes, or boiled rice, alternated with the meat. 
A good many farmers' families are out of the 
reach of a market or a butcher's wagon, and are 
obliged to subsist, as to meat, the year round upon 
ham, salt pork, and chickens. The ham is always 
fried, the pork is always boiled or fried, swimming 
in grease, and the chickens are cooked in some one 
way. The ham might be boiled or broiled, or cut 
in small bits and made into dumplings, the crust 
for them being like soda biscuit, and steamed or 
baked. Cold pieces of ham are nice cut in small 
monthfuls, and warmed with eggs ; they are also 
very palatable fried in batter, like veal cutlets. 
The methods of cooking chickens and pork are 
numerous, and most housekeepers know them, but 
fall into the habit of cooking them in some stereo- ■ 
typed way, so that they never seem to have a vari- 
ty. It is the same with vegetables. The first care 
is, in the summer and fall, to make provision 
for winter; this should be plentiful and varied, 
both in vegetables and fruits. Dried or canned 
green corn, and canned tomatoes, and the many 
kinds of sour and sweet pickles, are great addi- 
tions to the winter dinner table; but my opin- 
ion is that they are better appreciated if the same 
kind does not appear upon the table oftener than 
once a week. Potatoes seem an essential part of 
every dinner, and one can make such a rotation of 
turnips, parsnips, onions, cabbages, beans, com, 
beets, etc., according to the nature of the dinner, 
as never to get tired of any one vegetable. 
In the matter of canned fruit, preserves, cakes, 
pies, and puddings, the same rule for variety should 
be observed. A housekeeper should not fall into 
the common error of making year after year the 
same kind of preserves, the same kind of cake, and 
the same kind of pies. 
It is a good plan to keep a written recipe book, 
and to add to its contents occasionally such recipes 
as are known to be good, and then to use them all 
in their own time, not settling down upon a very 
few. By canning fruit with but little sngar, the 
winter routine of pies can be very much relieved. 
Cherry, raspberry, currant, peach, and blackberry 
pies, can take their turns with the mince, pumpkin, 
and apple, usually supposed to be exclusively win- 
ter pies, and there is little difference between them 
and those made of the fresh summer fruits. Ap- 
ples, which very few farmers are without, are capa- 
ble of being made into most delicious sauces, jel- 
lies, preserves, pies, and puddings ; aud yet they 
are often as bad as wasted by being made into mis- 
erable, lumpy apple sauce, with the flavor all wash- 
ed out of them by the admixture of too much wa- 
ter, and into hard, tough, indigestible pies. 
Citron and. Raisins. — A Maryland 
Housekeeper asks us to tell her how she can pre- 
pare green citron to be used in cakes, and how to 
make raisins from her grapes. The citron used in 
cake, etc., is the preserved rind of a fruit like a 
large lemon. The citron melon cannot be used as 
a substitute, as it has no aromatic quality. None 
of our American grapes will make raisins. 
English Seed Biscuits. — 1 B> of flour, 
% lb of sugar, % B> of butter, }{ oz - °f caraway 
seeds, 3 eggs. Roll out, cut round, and bake in a 
moderate oven. 
Cinnamon Calces.— By Mrs. L. A G. 1 
cup of sugar ; % of a cup of molasses ; 1 cup of 
butter; 1)4 tablespoonfuls of ground cinnamon; 
2 level teaspoonfnls of soda, dissolved in 6 large 
tablespooufuls of warm water ; stir well, and add 
flour enough to allow to roll quite thin : cut out 
with a biscuit cutter and bake in a quick oven. 
