FOR FARMERS’ DAUGHTERS. 
Caries ^Department. 
FOR FARMERS’ DAUGHTERS. 
The Roys’ Department of your excellent periodi¬ 
cal pleases me so much, that 1 should like to induce 
you to give a column to the girls upon the same 
plan ; and if you are disposed to act upon this sug¬ 
gestion, I will occasionally furnish a few hints on sub¬ 
jects which may be useful to that interesting portion 
of our community—the farmer’s younger daughters. 
It is true, much that engages the attention of boys, 
can be pursued with great advantage by the girls— 
and what brother can, or would refuse to let his 
sisters help him to take care of the chickens, or 
gather the nuts, aye, and to share the profits as well 
as the pleasure ? Yet, as many of their pursuits are 
altogether unsuitable for girls, so there are many 
which the female members of a family must lake 
exclusively to themselves ; and of these, a portion is 
necessarily left for the young ones, as being less 
laborious, though perhaps not of less importance than 
the weighty cares which occupy the time of their 
mother and elder sisters. 
One of the earliest lessons to be impressed upon 
the minds of American daughters is, that nothing 
they are ever called upon to do in their father’s 
house, can degrade them in the estimation of good or 
thinking people; and if their education has led any 
to form a different opinion, it has been conducted 
upon false principles. An American woman should 
blush at being suspected of feeling ashamed to be 
useful, or of doing her duty in that state of life unto 
which it has pleased God to call her. 
Children love to run after their mother, and by 
observation, and being allowed as a favor to help, 
they early learn most of the laborious duties which, 
as they grow older, they are to share with them. If 
you will allow me to point out others which may 
exercise their thinking powers, or improve their 
mechanical skill, and perhaps lead them to love read¬ 
ing, and give habits of patient labor, which last is of 
primary importance to all who wish to lead useful 
lives—I will try what I can do for the improvement 
and amusement of country girls. 
Taking Care of Eggs .—Spring has now come, and 
if the boys have taken good care of the hens during 
the cold weather, there will soon be plenty of eggs 
to look after. No doubt the boys will be glad enough 
to collect them, to select those which are to be put 
under the hens, and see that the hen-house is white¬ 
washed inside, and the nests in the nicest order— 
there is some fun in all that—but the girls must take 
care of those which are to be sold, or kept for family 
use. They will do very well in baskets for a week 
or two; but they can be preserved perfectly good for 
many months if properly attended to when fresh. 
Preserving Eggs .—Some years ago I visited a 
friend who lived upon a large farm near the northern 
boundary of Pennsylvania, and as it was late in the 
autumn, expressed surprise at the liberal supply of 
eggs served up at every meal in cakes, puddings, &c. 
The lady told me it was all due to the little girls ! 
As soon as the hens began to lay in the spring, they 
gathered the eggs, and covered each one with a thick 
coating of lard or other soft grease, and then laid 
them, with the small end downwards, in regular piles 
on the cellar floor; or packed them in earthen jars, 
which were then filled with melted fat ( not hot), this 
kept out the air; and these always afforded plenty for 
use during the whole year, besides those taken fresh 
from the nests, and sent to market. This grease or 
lard can be purified afterwards so as to answer for 
soap, by washing in hot water, and straining through 
a doth, then put away to cool. PacKed in this 
way, I have known eggs sent to China, and have 
been assured by those who took them, that tney were 
as good when they reached Canton, as wnen tney left 
New York. Quite too fresh for the sumects of the 
“ Brother of the Moon,” the mighty ruler of the 
Celestial Empire, who never think an egg fit to 
eat until it has smell enough to disgust a school¬ 
boy. Another way of keeping eggs is, to pack in 
jars and pour lime water over them, which keeps the 
air out, and does not injure them ; for everybody 
knows that eggshells are composed of lime. I know 
a lady who allowed her children to bund a wall of 
eggs against the cellar wall, by placing tnem in a bed 
of slacked lime, kept in its place by a board in front 
and one at each end, which were taken away when 
the wall was finished ; in this way they kept perfect¬ 
ly well for several months. Rut behold : when they 
wanted to use the eggs, they found the lime had 
hardened, and was so incorporated with the shells, 
that they were obliged to break the lime with a 
hatchet, which demolished the wall and eggs at the 
same time ! 
Culture of Flowers. —The cultivation of flowers is 
universally acknowledged to give a degree of refine¬ 
ment to the mind and manners, that many of our 
farmers’ wives and daughters feel, and regret the want 
of—therefore the children should be allowed a place 
for these loveliest gifts of God to man. None can 
feel like the farmer, the force of Sir Isaac Newton’s 
beautiful aphorism, “ The fruits are God’s bounty, 
the flowers but his smiles”—and I should like to 
teach the girls some of the important properties and 
uses of plants, as well as their botanical names; for 
the more they study the works of their bountiful Cre¬ 
ator, the better they will love Him, and the happier 
they will be. This will be the work of some future 
day ; at present they must prepare for gardening by 
collecting seeds; then make an alphabetical list of 
the names, numbered regularly from the beginning— 
get labels of any soft w T ood, neatly cut and painted 
white, on which write the numbers while the paint 
is wet; and when the seeds are sown, mark the 
place with a label corresponding in numner to the 
name on the list. They must not suffer their bro¬ 
thers to dig the borders until all the plants have 
appeared above ground, or they will be cut off by the 
spade—in the Middle States the end of April is soon 
enough. They may dig and manure little spots 
around the posts of sheds and fences, and plant vines 
which will soon repay the labor by their beauty and 
fragrance, as well as the shelter they will afford to 
little birds; and shed an air of elegance around the 
roughest farm house. The coral honeysuckle ( Loni- 
eera caprifolium ) is common—and there are plenty 
of wild vines in the woods, the Virgin’s bower 
( Clematis Virginica) and sweet honeysuckle (Loni- 
cera grata), for instance, which can be transplanted 
safely at almost any season; but early spring is perhaps 
the best—and nothing can be more beautiful than to 
see them growing together, and mingling the sheet of 
snowy blossoms of one with the bright red of the 
