104 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mabch, 
evening Temperance Meetings. He said he should 
be very sorry to have them dropped, because he 
wanted “ somewhere to go.” I knew what he 
meant, for I felt the same want myself, though per¬ 
haps not just as he did. I wanted to get out among 
my neighbors, but I had not time for social visiting. 
These Temperance Meetings were the nearest ap¬ 
proach to social gatherings, open to all, which the 
little town afforded. No village or hamlet should 
live in such social poverty. A good lyceum, some¬ 
what social in its character, is an excellent safety- 
valve as well as educator, among the people of a 
neighborhood. For lack of this, men and boys loaf 
about stores and saloons, and women and girls 
gossip in neighboring houses, or resort to 
“ tea fights,”-ra name I have heard given to 
tea-parties. These are not necessarily sin¬ 
ful or foolish, but they seldom satisfy the 
demands of real sociability. They are quite 
out of my line of experience aud observa¬ 
tion for some years past, but I hear of tea- 
parties, not a thousand miles from here, 
where fourteen kinds of cake are served, 
and a lady who provides only seven kinds of 
nice expensive cake considers herself quite 
moderate and economical. Sociables and 
clubs in neighborhoods and church societies, 
have become quite common, aud often prove 
very sensible and profitable in their enter¬ 
tainments. These, with lectures and con¬ 
certs, fill the week for some of my readers, 
so full of social and intellectual pleasure, 
that they most feel the lack of quiet even¬ 
ings at home. The problem is—how to 
mingle socially with our neighbors without en¬ 
croaching upon peaceful family life? 
WSiut 6® Eat with Our SBread. 
A good deal was said, last summer, about “ bread 
and water ” as food for the laboring man. I could 
not help thinking how few people eat bread that is 
really good aud nourishing, and how difficult it is 
at present to supply ourselves with pure water. 
The bread that most people eat, can not alone fur¬ 
nish such nutriment as the body (and mind) require 
to promote their growth and vigor. Even when 
our bread contains all the elements of the grain 
needed for our nourishment, it can not alone satisfy 
the demands of a healthy appetite. We must have 
something with it, to afford variety, and to give 
that contented condition to the stomach so neces¬ 
sary for perfect nutrition. Setting aside meat and 
butter—for most people will supply themselves 
with these as they are able—let us think of some 
simple inexpensive dishes which may make our good 
bread go down more easily, and set more comforta¬ 
bly than it would alone. 1 have had this to consider 
a good deal in working for myself and the children, 
in their father’s absence, where no warm drinks 
were used, and where meat was seldom at hand. 
I will stop right here to say that “in the abstract ” 
I do not believe in “ fifteen-cent dinners for the 
laboring man,” and his family, nor in pinched sup¬ 
plies that taste of the coppers they cost for any 
body. I wish that you and I, and all of us, could 
go, when we are hungry, to a table bountifully 
supplied with a great variety of nutritious and de¬ 
licious kinds of food, perfectly prepared and beau- 
fully arranged. And you should take a bunch of 
grapes and I a cracker, or I a cup of milk, and you 
a sandwich, or you a bit of beef steak and I a plate 
of soup, just as we felt inclined. But for most of 
us this is simply impossible. Mary, who wrote to 
me for advice about cheap living, is trying to 
economize in every reasonable way in order that 
she and her John may ere long have a home of their 
own. Some of the rest of us live under the shadow 
of unpaid taxes, or interest on mortgages most dif¬ 
ficult to raise. For all of us, economy is a good 
thing, but those of us who are poor, are often 
driven to pinch ourselves. So we will not now say 
a word about canned fruit, or a supply of the most 
tempting articles of food to be found in the market. 
Just here wc will only consider what inexpensive 
dishes we can eat with our bread to make a good 
meal, besides meat or butter, or milk or tea, or 
coffee. Among vegetables, first comes the potato. 
But if simply boiled or baked, it becomes itself 
only a part of the back-ground (so to speak) of the 
meal, and it also needs something—meat, butter, or 
milk—to go “with it.” When warmed over, and 
seasoned with butter or cream, and salt, it will do 
for a kind of sauce ; also, when mashed, and well 
seasoned, or when made into potato pudding. In¬ 
deed, the potato seems almost indispensable as a 
part of a warm dinner, for all of the other vegetables 
relish rather better when a little simple potato goes 
with them. Sometimes this every-day vegetable 
must be omitted. Mashed turnips or squash, 
cabbage chopped and cooked with milk, onions 
boiled an hour (or thereabouts) with a milk or cream 
gravy made with them after the water is poured off, 
or onions sliced and cooked for half an hour or 
more in a covered frying pan, with a tablespoonful 
of butter and a little salt, salsify cooked with cream 
gravy, and parsnips cooked the same, or in other 
ways—all of these, and other vegetables, go to 
make up a wholesome variety, using only one or 
two at the same family meal. But every one of 
them must be thoroughly cooked, and then not one 
will sit hard on the stomach, or tend to an undue 
production of gas. Sweet corn, both fresh and 
dried, helps well to fill the hill of fare. We must 
not forget beans, which abound so in nourishment. 
But they must be very thoroughly cooked. For 
soup they should be boiled about five hours. 
Seasoned then with cream, or butter, and with salt, 
they ought to be relished by everybody. However 
I may have seasoned this soup, my children always 
wish to add milk upon their plates. Baked beans 
must either be boiled until very 6oft before baking, 
or must be baked a long time—from three to six 
hours, if not previously very tender—with a good 
deal of liquid in the jar, or pan. Those who use 
pork at all, usually put a piece of fat salt pork in 
the dish of beans prepared for baking. But some 
of us very much prefer a seasoning of cream or 
butter. Split-pea soup, or common unsplit dried 
peas, boiled five or six hours without meat, is very 
nutritious, and much liked by many. I season it 
with salt, and cream or milk if I have it—the more 
the better—otherwise with butter. 
I have said nothing about fruit sauce, hut there is 
a demand for variety in the Topics as well as in our 
meals, so I will change the subject at present. 
A Good Dish for an Invalid, 
warranted not to injure the well. Crumb crackers 
into a bowl—more or less, according to the size of 
the crackers. Pour boiling water, sufficient to soak 
them, over the crumbs. Break a fresh egg, and add 
quickly, stirring the whole rapidly. The boiling 
water cooks the egg. Season according to discre¬ 
tion, with salt, pepper, cream, or butter. 
-.-- m m — - 
Some Out-Door Conveniences. 
Mr. L. D. Snook, Tates Co., N. Y., who has in 
former volumes given a number of ingenious and 
useful in-door contrivances, for facilitating the 
work of the housekeeper, now sends two, which, 
though properly belonging to the household, are 
for out-door purposes. One of these is 
A Revolving Clothes-IAne. 
In towns and villages, where space must be econ- 
Fig. 1.— REVOLVING CLOTHES DRTER. 
omized, and where the demands of the garden will 
not allow of a wide space for the clothes yard, 
some contrivance for drying clothes within a small 
area becomes necessary. Various devices, in the 
way of clothes’ driers, have been invented and pa¬ 
tented, but they are not essentially superior to the 
quite old one here given. This is designed for the 
regular family washing, and is to 
be set up in a convenient place in 
the yard. Any one of fair ingenu¬ 
ity can contrive a similar affair, 
to be used in a spare room in win¬ 
ter, in times when clothes will not 
dry out of doors. This revolving 
clothes drier, shown in perspective 
at figure 1, maybe easily made by 
any one handy with tools in half a 
day, from the following directions : 
A wooden hub, B, fig. 1, 8 to 10 
inches in diameter, is mortised pig, 2 .—post 
with 6 holes, for the reception of FO r dryer. 
the arms, A, A, A; these are from 
5 to 7 feet in length, 7 feet being sufficient to hold 
the washing for a large family. It will be found 
less work to simply bore 6 2-inch holes in the hub 
B, and round the end of arms A. Give the ends 
of these a good coat of paint, and drive them firm¬ 
ly into the hub. Small holes are bored, from 8 to 
10 inches apart, the whole length of the arms, ex¬ 
cepting for 15 inches of each arm nearest the hub. 
The clothes line is to be strung through the holes ; 
and a white wire clothes line is preferable, as it will 
outlast a dozen hemp or cotton ones. The stand¬ 
ard, (fig. 2), is simply a common post set firmly in 
the ground ; in the top of this is driven, as a pin¬ 
tle, a round iron bar, 11 inch in diameter, and left 
projecting 6 inches ; this of course fits into a hole 
in the hub. Holes in the hub should be so bored 
that the outer end of each arm will be from 8 to 12 
inches higher than the hub. When hanging out 
clothes, so soon as one section is filled, revolve the 
line a few feet, and when that is filled, continue the 
operation ; by this plan there is no traveling from 
50 to 100 feet along the line in the snow, wet grass, 
etc., as by the old method.Dust and mud are 
two of the terrors of the neat housekeeper We 
have sometimes thought, if a part of the labor de- 
votod to dusting and sweeping, to get these unwel¬ 
come guests out, were devoted to prevent them 
from coming in, the result would be more satis¬ 
factory. There is a great difference in men, in re¬ 
spect to “ tracking ” earth in its various forms into- 
the house; some will always think of, and see to 
the condition of their feet—or the boots or shoes 
which cover them—while others, no matter how 
many scrapers, mats, and other preventives are pro¬ 
vided, will forget to use them. Scrapers and mats 
are provided at each door, but especially in the 
spring, when the soil is often wet and adhesive, 
and many persons pass in and out, these are insuf¬ 
ficient, and the scrapings accumulate in such quan¬ 
tities, as to make it necessary to remove them fre¬ 
quently. Mr. Snook sends a sketch of 
A IPortafoJe Scraper and Mat, 
an engraving of which is given in fig.3; this is a mod¬ 
erately heavy board, about 10 inches wide, and 30 to 
38 inches long. Near one end is attached a stout 
scraper, which any blacksmith can hammer out. At 
the other end of the board, and well out of the way 
of the scraper, is a coarse mat; this may be of 
“ Coir,” or cocoa-nut fiber, such as are sold in the 
stores, or the domestic husk-mat, but whatever 
Fig. 3.— PORTABLE SCRAPER AND MAT. 
kind is used, it should be one that will stand hard 
usage, and well fastened to the hoard. A very 
good mat for this use may be made by boring inch- 
holes at regular intervals in a board, drawing 
through them tufts of doubled corn-husks, so that 
