332 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
figs. After making a rich syrup and cooking them 
till they were done, which takes fifteen or twenty 
minutes, I spread them on plates to dry. Thus 
prepared they are almost equal to dried figs. My 
cans are of glass, with India rubber stoppers, and 
require no cement of any kind to make them air- 
tight. After using cans of various kinds, mother 
at last settled upon these as the best, and I use no 
other. As tomato preserve is so very sweet, I de- 
cided to fill but a small jar, and can nearly all I put 
up. My recipe is half a pound of sugar to a pint 
of water. This makes the tomato sufficiently 
sweet, and its flavor is not so much disguised by 
the syrup as when more sugar is used. I have made 
a large jar of green tomato pickle, which Edward 
likes so much, and which is not a very common 
dish, and after the early frosts, I shall make anoth- 
er of the green tomatoes left upon the vines. No 
pickle is more easily made, and noue better than 
this. To a peck of tomatoes, sliced about a quar- 
ter of an inch thick, add sufficient viuegar to cover 
them, and of whole spices, one ounce each of pep- 
per, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and white mustard 
seed, and two medium sized onions chopped fine. 
Bring them all to the boiling point for a minute, 
aud then pour into a jar and set in a cool place. In 
two weeks they will be ready for use. The finest 
lookiug of my ripe tomatoes I preserve and dry ; 
the others make excellent catsup. 
Sept. ISth. — For a week we have been reveling in 
ripe grapes, and I have used all my skill iu endeav- 
oring to preserve them in jellies, with sugar aud by 
other modes, so as to prolong our enjoyment of 
them into the winter months. Edward has picked 
some of the finest clusters, aud I prepared several 
dozen strings of uniform length, with which we 
tied them to long poles and hung them in the wood- 
house loft, taking special care to remove all that 
were imperfect, and not to bruise any or breakthcm 
from the cluster. Here we will let them remain 
until freezing weather, when they can be transferred 
to the cellar without disturbing them on the poles. 
I feel quite confident that we shall have some de- 
licious clusters to lay upon our table at New Tear's, 
and perhaps as late as February. We experiment- 
ed also upou the French mode of preserving grapes, 
with what success remains to be seen next winter. 
It seems as though it must succeed, and it is very 
simple. Edward made a thick whitewash of the 
consistency of cream, straining it, and takiug pains 
to crush all the little pieces of lime. We then dip- 
ped a number of the very fiuest clusters into this 
whitewash, taking them out very slowly. The dip- 
ping was repeated two or three times, until a firm 
white crust, looking like a rough egg shell, was 
formed all over each grape, and the stem to which 
they are attached. We hung these clusters with 
the others in the wood-house loft. 
Sept. 20th.— Three or four days since Edward's 
sister, Jane, came to visit us. She looked pale and 
worn, and I found upon conversation with her that 
she had been sitting in the house all day, instead 
of breathing this delightful September air under 
the open sky, and burning the lamp late at night, 
reading some new French novels, which a friend had 
sent her. Edward and I talked the matter over and 
determined to initiate her, unconsciously to herself, 
into the delight and the wholesomeness of ample 
out-door exercise and early hours of sleep at night. 
So every day since she came, we have planned 
some excursion or some pastime, which has given 
us all full draughts of this boundless ocean of air 
the Creator has poured above and around us. The 
roses are beginning to bloom on her cheek, and she 
has ceased to iuquire constantly for "some inter- 
esting book." If our American women would but 
spend an hour or two every day in the open air, 
how much should we as a nation gain in health and 
happiness. The exercise of housework is not suffi- 
cient ; it is monotonous and liable to become mere 
drudgery. The wife aud mother, if she would ever 
keep fresh in feeling and firm in health, if she 
would be always cheerful and a bright and radiant 
center of home delight, must daily leave her cares 
and the little routiue of her domestic activities and 
place her spirit iu harmony with the perpetual 
calm and the annual round of nature. 
Sept. 2'th. — Yesterday and to-day we have made 
a lounge for our sitting room, and we shall find it 
a great addition to our comfort this fall and winter. 
Edward got out the frame and legs, fastened them 
securely together and nailed some slats on the un- 
der side of the long side pieces. Into these, at reg- 
ular intervals, we put some second hand springs he 
found at an upholsterer's, and tacked over them an 
old quilt, tying each spring with twine to the quilt 
to keep it in place. Then I made a mattress case 
of tow cloth and filled it with the shucks we saved 
when we were drying corn, and some others, which 
were all carefully picked over, and covered the 
whole with brown calico, aud a very presentable 
article of furniture -it makes. I priced a lounge 
the other day at the store, and the cheapest article 
I could find, and that a very poor one, was thirteen 
dollars, so I determined to make one myself. We 
reckoned up the cost, and find it amounts to just 
six dollars and fifty cents. The frame timber is 
worth fifty cents, the springs cost thirty, the ten 
yards of tow cloth came to three dollars and a half, 
and the calico cover two dollars and twenty cents. 
Jane made the cover while I made the mattress, 
aud we finished the whole thing up very quickly. 
Sept. S0t7i. — I thought it would do Jane good to 
see a little of Sue White's housekeeping, and her 
excellent management of her boys, so she consent- 
ed to stop on her way home to visit my excellent 
friend, if I would go with her. I was curious to 
learn too, how Sue, who at school had been noted 
for her love of Plato and the classics, had become 
so thoroughly practical a woman in all domestic 
matters. Our conversation naturally fell on the 
routiue of household duties, and I expressed to Sue 
my surprise at the perfect familiarity she seemed 
to have with all the little details of nice cookery, 
and every department of family industry. " It is 
very true," said she, "that at school I reveled in the 
ideal world. I dreamed with Plato, I delighted in 
Shakespeare and the poets, but after marriage my 
husband placed Bacon's Novum Organum in my 
hands for me to read, and it effected an entire rev- 
olution in my daily life. I-saw the beauty of utili- 
ty, and determined to become as Baconian in my 
practice as a housewife as I had been Platonic in 
my previous modes of thinking. From that time 
I have made it a principle aud a study to have every 
article on my table prepared in the very best man- 
ner possible, and to perform every task in the most 
thoroughly practical and sensible manner." 
October ith. — For two days I have been engaged 
in a task that would have been very heavy had not 
Edward assisted me. We assorted the wool that 
we reserved from the spring clipping, taking a few 
pounds of the best for stockiug yarn, washed aud 
dried the remainder, and made it into a mattress, 
which has cost us only the price of the ticking. 
Mrs. George told me of an excellent and cheap 
way of making a spring bed, by purchasing three 
or four dozen of spiral coils of wire at an uphol- 
sterer's establishment, and setting them into the 
slats of the bedstead. She has a set of them that 
have been in use many years, and are now as good 
as ever. The upper end of the wire is fastened to 
the last turn of the coil, and the wires covered with 
an old quilt upou which the mattress is laid. 
Leaves frogi My Journal.— No. VII, 
rciZE ESSAY BY MRS. B. HC'LELLAN, OP OHIO. 
September. — There is much sickness in town from 
typhoid fever. That is always tedious, distressing, 
and alarming. When sickness comes, how vain 
appear our wordly cares and anxieties. We resolve 
never to be so engrossed by them again. And yet 
we could hardly bear always to carry about the 
heavy heart we have now. Nursing the sick seems 
especially to belong to woman, but man's stronger 
arms and nerves are quite as indispensable. "Oh," 
said a daughter, after recovering from a long and 
dangerous illuess, " I felt so at rest when father was 
in my room." What little things will annoy and 
distress the sick ! The mind is weak with the body, 
and must be as tenderly cared for and indulged. 
Some displacement of furniture, a spider hanging 
from its web in some corner, music on the street, 
noise of the children, bread burned instead of nice- 
ty toasted, tea not boiling hot, w ater not just from 
the well, jar upon the sensitive nerves and create 
suffering and complaint, which, to one never or 
rarely sick, appear childish in the extreme. I re- 
member when Nellie was but four, she was sick 
witli a disease affecting the head. The room to 
which she was confined had a window containing 
in the lower sash but two frames in depth, while 
the upper one had three. She often said aloud, 
" three and two, three and two !" We supposed her 
mind wandering, but at last discovered it was the 
incongruity of the window, from which she could 
not divert her attention. At another time a friend 
whose shoulder had been dislocated, and who was 
obliged to lie in one position, suffered greatly from 
a stray hair that was under the shoulder. I laugh- 
ingly told her it was only her fancy, until seeing the 
tears in her eyes, I found and removed it. In health 
we may call such things foolish — in sickness we had 
better not. Fresh air and water work wonders in 
the sick room. Cover the patient, head and all, with 
the bed clothes, adding more if the weather is cold, 
a»d open wide the wiudows for two or three min- 
utes, when the day is fine. Every time the patient 
drinks, let the water be fresh. The nerves of taste 
and smell become as sensitive as any others. 
Fresh linen is a luxury, and everything about the 
person and bed should be kept strictly clean. 
It becomes, of course, no light task to take care 
of the sick, and calls for a large stock of patience 
and endurance. Lost sleep must he made up at 
odd times, as far as possible, a bath often taken, 
and fresh air without stint. A good meal, too, is 
an excellent disinfectant. A cheerful face, a cheer- 
ful tone of voice, never a whisper, rather quick and 
decided movements, instead of timid aud lingering, 
all tend to inspire the patient with hope, aud pro- 
duce happy results. These are small things in 
themselves, but being usually left by the physician 
to the good sense of the nurse, should not be over- 
looked by her, or even considered less important 
than medicine towards effecting a cure. 
Our dear father has gone to his rest. Though 
robust for one of his age, he had not strength to 
rally again from so long and wasting a fever. My 
husband was the younger of his children, and his 
home has been with us for a few years past We 
shall miss his gentle quiet ways, his hat by the door, 
his cane in the corner. His chair at the fireside 
will be vacant now. No more stories for the chil- 
dren, of the times when he was a little boy, about 
which they never wearied of hearing. He didu't 
seem old as he was, for his heart was warm and 
young. His age was seventy-five. To the child, 
how far in the future ! To him it was "but a span." 
Has life to him opened again, where death never 
comes? We trust "All is well." 
To-day I was made glad with the sight of Lizzie's 
dear face peering in through my blind, while she 
sailed me to take a view of Georgy, who, without 
ceremony, had seated himself under an apple tree, 
and after filling his lap with apples, had commenced 
theworkof eating them all up. How he has grown! 
I venture to say that grandmother thinks there 
never was such a child before, though she may have 
a dozen of her own. Ah, yes, I see it now ! Those 
little socks so gaily shaded and ribbed, are her work, 
I know. The apron with long sleeves, fitting close- 
ly about the neck, and substantial shoes, have come 
from her good motherly advice. But can it be that 
baby Georgy has gone, and this stout boy has taken 
his place ? Mr. Beeeher says : " Nothing on earth 
grows so fast as children." I should know, if he 
had said no more, that his own were leaviug the 
home circle ; that he too was growing old ! But 
Lizzie has improved in looks. The rest from care 
awhile has been just what she needed. Home, too, 
will seem dearer now than ever, and with new 
energy she will enter upon its duties. Of one thing 
I am pretty sure. Her mother never before fouud 
an ear more ready to listen to instruction, in a.l 
her girlhood days she learned not so much about 
housekeeping as in these few weeks under her 
mother's tuition. How often she had heard the 
§ame things before ! Now they have a real value. 
