186 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
word or deed of desperate naughtiness that could 
not be allowed to go unpunished — quick! divert 
it somehow, but with such skill that it will not 
suspect your motive. Appear not to observe the 
rising storm of temper, but say you wonder what 
the hens are all cackling so for, and suggest a search 
for eggs, or make some exclamation to draw atten- 
tion to the team passing in the street. In this kind 
of family government a flower garden is a great 
help. Very little children may have their own beds. 
Our Birdie, when three years old, had a deal of 
daily comfort in his garden. It was small, and he 
scratched in all sorts of seeds with his little hands, 
sometimes two or three kinds in the same hill. 
Corn, squashes and piuks, cucumbers, beans and 
petunias, came up side by side, and much crowded; 
but we forebore criticism aud joined in his admira- 
tion. Some of his flowers blossomed, and he had 
a few pods of beans, and two or three little wagon- 
loads of ears of corn — enough for quite a pretty 
job of husking. During the winter his little bags of 
seed-corn and his squash seeds which he saved last 
fall, were carefully treasured, and often exhibited. 
This spring he will have a larger garden and he is 
now old enough to plant and tend it more reasona- 
bly. I would not wonder if he should raise some- 
thing to sell this year. The little tilings must have 
something to do. How tired we sometimes get of 
that oft-repeated question, " What shall I do ?" If 
we cannot direct their industry, of course they will 
get " into mischief." 
Gardening, after the plowing and spading are 
done, is easier than ordinary housework. There 
are so many things demanding a thought and a care 
at the same moment in housework — the oven, two 
or three kettles, the condition of the fire or fires, 
the baby, the cat, and perhaps company. Compared 
with this, gardening is very simple business. The 
sunshine may be hot, but the cook-stove is not less 
so. The odor of flowers and of freshly stirred 
earth is preferable to the smell of boiling cabbage 
any day, and no one but a starving man can like to 
hear the sputtering of meat better than the song of 
birds. "Women who get pretty tired with in-door 
labor, would often find real rest in cultivating flow- 
ers. Gardening would be a great benefit to most 
young ladies, especially if carried on in connection 
with the study of botany. Pretty girls, who shun 
the sunshine, have no idea what a suicidal policy 
they are pursuing. Their beauty will fade and 
wither, and leave them prematurely old, unless they 
take exercise in the fresh air and sunshine, and give 
the hours of njght to sleep. It is a good idea to 
wear gloves in gardening. Those of buckskin or 
old kid are better than cotton or woolen gloves. 
Some people will laugh and say "A cat in gloves 
will catch no mice," but we know that soft hands 
are more comfortable than hard and rough ones, 
and they arc better fitted for sewing, piano-playing, 
care of children, and nursingthe sick. With gloves, 
the hands need suffer no injury in gardening. 
I think we need some kind of advanced classes 
in botany, and kindred studies in all our towns, for 
persons who caunot conveniently attend school. 
Most people do not realize what a useful study 
botany is. They fancy that it is merety an orna- 
mental branch. There is health for the body, dis- 
cipline for the mind, and culture for the heart in 
botany rightly pursued. It calls us out into the 
fields and woods, and there we may find, besides 
the sweet wild flowers, a cure for headache, cold 
feet, and "the blues." So much judgment is neces- 
sary in analyzing specimens that botany is one of 
the best of studies for cultivating the most practi- 
cal mental faculties. And it is such a delight ! It 
warms and softens the heart, and I, at least, will 
reckon it among my " means of grace" — I say it 
reverently. 
Do you know that little children can be as deep- 
ly interested in examining and learning about a 
plant or a flower, as in listening to any of the fool- 
ish stories people generally amuse them with ? It 
is just as easy for them to learn the names of the 
different parts — stamens, pistils, petals, etc. — as to 
learn "Hinty minty cuty corn," if you are inter- 
ested yourself in what you teach, and do not try to 
Instruct them too much. At first only call their 
attention, and let them come to the observation of 
a flower as to a pleasure, and not to a lesson. I 
don't waut to be misunderstood : " Mother Goose" 
is well enough in her place. Nonsense will not 
hurt any one, unless it crowds out sense. But this 
does hurt children, and most of us have suffered 
from it, — to have their natural questioning, about 
things all around them, checked or unsatisfied. The 
faculties of observation seem to develop first, or 
try to develop, but they have such a poor chance ! 
"Don't ask so many questions" — the child is 
told, aud when it does ask, " I don't know," — is 
the usual reply. The fact that it fails at the time 
to get the kuowledge it seeks is not half so bad as 
the danger that it will gradually learn to feel no 
interest in natural objects about it, and go through 
life having eyes yet seeing not. 
I once belonged to a Floral Society, which seems 
to me now, even more than it did then, a very use- 
ful association. The working members were all 
women, and at times they numbered nearly three 
hundred. In the spring time there were often as 
many as one hundred present at the weekly after- 
noon meetings. At other times the number pre- 
sent was quite small. The members were from 
all ranks of society, and from all religious denom- 
inations in the town— old and young together. 
Among them were some who had had much expe- 
rience in the cultivation of flowers. This was the 
object of the society — mutual assistance in floricul- 
ture and improvement in botany, and the ornamen- 
tation of the town as far as possible with flowers 
and shrubbery. Seeds and plants were brought in 
and given away by those who had them to spare, 
and other seeds were procured from seedsmen and 
distributed at the meetings. There was always 
some talk about the proper manner of cultivating 
different plants. This society usually had charge 
of the decoration of halls for festivals and fairs. 
One winter, a plaiu, elderly woman, who had late- 
ly come among us, offered to give us a course of 
lectures on botany. These were just what we need- 
ed. She used the black-board freely to illustrate her 
lectures, and we were at liberty to ask questions at 
any time. She asked no reward, and we only gave 
her a vote of thanks and a life-membership ; but it 
seemed to me that, for some of us, in whom she 
had awakened a hearty interest in botany (and I 
gratefully counted myself one of these) she had 
done incalculable service. It did mc good to know 
that this woman began her own scientific studies, 
which extended over a wide range, after she was 
married and a mother. She used to leave her house- 
keeping and her little ones long enough on certain 
clays of the week to go and hear the lectures given 
to the children of the public schools. 
"Home is woman's sphere," we are told, until 
we get rather tired of hearing it. It is a hard say- 
ing for women who have no homes, but in a gener- 
al sense, it is very true. What bothers me most is 
the bigness of the sphere and the incapacity of most 
of us women to fill it. We ought to help each other 
more, and it was of this I was thinking when I 
began writing about the Floral Society. A friend 
wrote me lately : " Our meetings have been very 
interesting during the winter. The talks have been 
more about house-keeping." So they might be, 
and more about the care and education of children, 
the prevention of disease by attention to the laws 
of health, and other useful topics of general inter- 
est. It seems better to have a Floral Society than a 
House-keeper's Club, or Mother's Meeting, because 
it is more likely to call in the young girls, and there 
is no general subject to rally around more agreea- 
ble than flowers. The social nature of such a soci- 
ety is one of its best features. Home may be 
woman's " sphere," but it should not be her grave, 
socially and intellectually. I think the pleasures 
of home are more keenly enjoyed and its duties 
more cheerfully performed by those who are not 
tied down to them constantly. Mostwomen "love 
to go" (as we country folks say), and tea parties and 
fashionable calls are far less profitable than socie- 
ties for mutual improvement. No Farmers' Club 
should exclude women, but they usually meet in the 
evening, when many women could not so conven- 
iently leave home, and they cannot devote sufficient 
time to the interests that are peculiarly woman's. 
I cannot see that the progress of the race depends 
moreupon any human agency than upon the women 
who train the children and keep bright the altar- 
fires of Home — not only mothers, but all good 
daughters aud sisters, and the dear " old maids." 
The message I have for all these " home mission- 
aries " to-day is — in the great work we have in- 
trusted to us, let us bring to our aid, in every pos- 
sible way, the sweet and holy influence of flowers. 
A Comforting Use of Flowers. 
Miss F. Hudson writes : " A friend lost a little 
child. When my mother heard of it, her sympa- 
thetic feeling urged immediate action. The uni- 
versal desire to assist or relieve the mourning family, 
which is always felt when such tidings reach one, 
was always hers. So she went to our beautiful 
cemetery and gave directions for a pile of evergreen 
boughs to be placed in the yard where the little one 
was to be laid. While this order was being exe- 
cuted, she procured several baskets of exquisite 
flowers and returned to the yard where the grave 
was already excavated. Under her direction it was 
then completely lined with Spruce and Hemlock 
boughs, the heap of earth taken from the grave 
was also covered with them. Then, with the as- 
sistance of a friend, mother arranged flowers amid 
all the green, literally lining the grave with flowers. 
They were secured in their places either singly, or 
in tiny bunches by hair-pins. The effect of the ar- 
rangement was most beautiful, but its comparative 
effect still more so, when one saw and felt the dif- 
ference between a bed of sweetest flowers, and the 
bare open grave. The earth used in the burial ser- 
vice being but a symbol, certainly the single lump 
softly dropped by our pastor fulfilled its purpose 
better than the ordinary unerring spadeful." 
Hints on Cooking, Etc, 
German Mustard. — Wm. Logier, Iowa, 
sends the following as his method of preparing 
mustard: "To half a pound of ground mustard 
add two ounces of sugar, and moisten with boiling 
vinegar; stir for half an hour with a wooden spoon, 
and set it aside, well covered, for an hour. Finally, 
add as much vinegar as may be necessary to thin 
it. Keep it well covered in a stone or glass jar." 
The mustard as sold in New York has some aroma- 
tic addition. — Who has another recipe ? 
Ass Excellent BSice Ptmluingf. — By 
Mrs. W. Two qts. of milk, one cup each of rice 
and sugar, ateaspoonful of salt. Wash the rice and 
add it to the milk cold, and bake. The secret of 
having it nice consists in its being taken out of the 
oven before the milk is all dried away. It should 
be creamy in consistency, aud when cool it is better 
than a pudding made with eggs, as there is no 
watery whey. Essence of lemon or raisins are 
an improvement. 
Crenm JPic — By Mrs. R. J. E., Minneapolis, 
Minn. % CU P °f flour and 1 pint of milk boiled 
together, add the yolks of 2 eggs ; }•£ cup of sugar 
(white or coffee) and lemon to flavor the milk, and 
flour while boiling. Let all boil a few minutes. 
Make the crust and bake it, then put in the above 
mixture. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff 
froth, add enough white sugar to sweeten, and put 
this over the pie and bake to alight brown. This 
is enough for two pies. 
Tea Stains on Table S^inem. — Mrs. 
W. says: Japan teas stain tablecloths more in- 
delibly than other black teas, and for a long time 
it seemed impossible to take the stains out, but I 
find a weak solution of Chloride of lime will re- 
move them. The solution must not be strong, and 
must be carefully strained ; the cloth must not re- 
main in the lime-water but a short time, and then 
must be thoroughly rinsed. The preparation sold 
as Javelle water would answer the same purpose. 
