150 
[April, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
THE eOUSKHieiLPo 
tfgp* For other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
A Framed Calendar. 
The almanac, formerly regarded as one of the 
necessities of every household has in great measure 
given place to the calender. The ordinary almanac 
contains much more than one has any use for, and 
the trouble of turning to the month and day is 
avoided by using a tablet calendar, or one which 
gives the whole year on a single page. Calendars 
are numerous, the various insurance companies, 
patent medicine men, and even merchants sending 
them out in great abundance, for the purpose of 
keeping their names and their business before the 
eyes of the public. But we do not care to be told 
that some wizard’s “ gargling oil ” is the only limb 
preserver in the world, or that life depends upon 
the use of somebody’s pills, especially if we have 
a regard for our family physician. A year of 
advertising upon our walls of any thing, no matter 
how good, is more than we care to give in exchange 
for a calendar. A calendar can be provided which 
has none of these objectionable qualities, but may 
be a real ornameut to the room, as well as a con¬ 
venience to the household. The accompanying 
engraving suggests such an one that may be con¬ 
structed by any one who has a taste for home 
decoration. It consists of a plain card-calendar, 
which may be prepared from any one of many of 
those which are so freely distributed, by cutting off 
the objectionable surrounding border, and les.ving 
a simple truthful card of the months and days. 
This card is then to be set in a neat frame, which 
may be constructed in a variety of ways, and of a 
number of different materials ; in fact it allows of 
the exercise of a wide range of taste. 
The one shown consists largely of the scales of 
pine cones with clusters of acorns, scattered here 
and there. For such a frame a foundation of heavy 
card-board is required which is cut in outline to 
correspond to that desired in the finished frame, to 
which the scales are sewed with stout silk thread. 
As a protection from flies and dust it will be well 
to cover the calendar with a sheet of glass, which 
can be secured to the foundation pasteboard by bits 
of wire or small strips of tin at tne four corners, 
which are hid from view, as is the entire outline of 
the glass, by the overlapping pme scales. When 
constructed a handsome finish may be produced 
by giving the frame a coat or two of varnish. 
- i«) m - 
Bits of Soap.— It was once noticed that a cook, 
who was neat and economical, kept a tin can on her 
kitchen dresser from which tomatoes had been 
emptied. Farther inquiry revealed the fact that it 
was the receptacle for little odds and ends of soap 
that had become too small to use in washing. Oc¬ 
casionally, water was added, and the contents put 
upon the stove until they melted. Thus a tin of 
soft soap to be used in dish washing was manufac¬ 
tured from scraps that are generally thrown away. 
Look Well to the Pork Barrel 
The large amount of tainted, “ rusty ” pork that 
is consumed every year is sufficient evidence that 
it is not, in many cases, packed in a proper man¬ 
ner. That pork may be kept sweet and good, care 
and good judgment must be exercised. In the first 
place the barrel into 
which pork is placed 
must be perfectly clean. 
It should be subjected 
to a scalding as thor¬ 
ough as the neat dairy¬ 
maid gives her pails and 
pans. The old brine 
will be good to use 
again if it is boiled and 
all impurities removed 
by skimming. The salt 
used for packing ought 
always to be the best 
coarse kind. The pork 
should never be cut up 
or laid in the barrel un¬ 
til perfectly cool, but 
not frozen. The pieces 
should be so cut that 
the barrel can be close¬ 
ly filled in regular lay¬ 
ers. Put on plenty of 
salt between the layers, 
and after a few days 
pour on the brine until 
the meat is entirely 
covered, when a close- 
fitting board is put on 
and kept down in the 
brine by a large stone. 
This board and weight 
should always be re¬ 
placed after having taken out pork, and kept on at 
all other times. The pork, to insure good keeping, 
must always be submerged in the brine. Keep the 
pork barrel in a cool place, and let the brine be al¬ 
ways saturated, i. e., so it can take up no more salt. 
Hints on Household Matters. 
BT A DELAWARE HOUSE-KEEPER. 
Mending a Carpet. — My dining-room carpet 
was only a rag carpet to begin with: latterly it 
had become a ragged one. I was contemplating 
it ruefully one day, knowing that the state of my 
purse would not allow me to replace it just yet 
with a new one. I could think of no way to mend 
it, but by big patches tacked in place. In the 
midst of my dilemma an experienced old lady 
entered, who suggested paste instead of tacks. “1 
have repeatedly put muslin patches over the car¬ 
pet with paste,” said she, “ and it is surprising how 
well it holds.” I took the hint. Patches are not, 
in their nature, beautiful, yet a patched garment is 
decidedly better-looking than a ragged one, and 
the same is true of a patched carpet, and my 
patches were so easily applied and proved so ad¬ 
hesive, that I rarely sweep the room without a 
mental benediction upon the one who suggested it. 
Cutting Hot Bread.— One day company ar¬ 
rived unexpectedly. Supper was just over and no 
bread had been left. I had just taken from the 
oven some delicious-looking light bread, but it was 
too hot to cut. We live in a country place where 
there is no baker. In my bewilderment, I happened 
to remember that in Mrs. Whitney’s Cook Book 
“ Just How,” she suggests heating a knife, in order 
to split open a hot short-cake. Why, thought I, 
may not smoking-hot light bread, be sliced with a 
hot knife ! It is the cold surface of the steel ap¬ 
plied to the warm dough that produces a disagree¬ 
able clamminess. I heated my carving knife and 
tried it. The bread sliced beautifully, and as I 
piled it up to bring to the table, I put it on a plate 
upon which I had laid a fresh napkin, for the con¬ 
tact of the hot bread with the cold plate would 
have produced the same sodden clamminess on the 
surface of the lower slice. Of course, I would not 
recommend the slicing of hot loaves except upon 
emergencies. As a frequent diet it might prove 
injurious, but not more so than other warm breads. 
Putting Away Tubs.— A very little thing, yet 
worth knowing. One week my regular washer 
woman could not come, but sent a substitute. 
When she returned, on the following week, I found 
her tugging away at a nest of tubs, finding it al¬ 
most impossible to pull the inner one, from the 
enclasping outer one. “ I never have this trouble,” 
said she, “when 1 put the tubs away myself.”— 
“ How do you avoid it?” I questioned.—“ Why do 
you not see she has put all the handles in a straight 
line.. Now I always set them away, so that no 
two handles shall come together. Then, if they 
do swell I can have thorough use of the handles, 
and with them the tubs are soon separated.” 
Turnips on the Griddle.— I had seen for some 
time a statement going the rounds of newspapers,, 
that a turnip used in rubbing the griddle, while 
cooking griddle-cakes, would give the desired 
smoothness and do away with the unpleasant 
smoke. I doubted it, but a trial soon convinced 
me that the statement was correct. I found, how¬ 
ever, that at times, it was necessary, when begin¬ 
ning, to put a very little grease on the turnip, but 
this made no appreciable smoke. 
Right and Left.— My little boy was left-handed. 
I had found, by experience, that school-life would 
be particularly irksome to him, if that defect were 
not remedied before he began school. It was use¬ 
less for me to try to persuade him to draw pictures 
on his little slate with the right hand. That hand 
was really weaker than the other; he could not 
guide it. So I made little pictures on the slate, 
nothing intricate, then rubbed them off with my 
finger till only the dim outline could be seen. 
These I required him to trace. The weak hand 
that could not originate a line, could, little by little, 
approximate the rubbed outlines. Afterwards, by 
the same plan, I taught, him to write the letters of 
the alphabet, and by the time he was old enough to 
go to school, he had learned to use his right hand. 
A Baby Tender.— My baby was creeping all 
over the floor, and I had no nurse for her. There 
were times when she drove me nearly distracted. 
When I was busiest, it seemed to me she crept into 
the most dangerous places. Just imagine a woman, 
busy preparing dinner. Except herself, baby is 
the only occupant of the room. She opens the 
oven to baste the roasting beef. Just as her entire 
energies are directed to the operation, baby takes 
advantage of her stooping position and creeps up 
on her back. She cannot dislodge the child, and it 
is with extreme difficulty that she replaces the hot 
pan without an accident. I frequently found my¬ 
self in such positions. At last I thought of a 
remedy, I procured a dry-goods box, or such a box 
as shoes are generally packed in ; its dimensions 
were as follows : depth half a yard, width fifteen 
inches, and length one yard. This I put in one 
comer of the kitchen. Whenever I was particularly 
busy, I caught up the darling and boxed her. She 
might dislike her close quarters, might struggle to 
be free, but at least she was safe. But in a little 
while she did not dislike her prison. She learned 
to pull up by the sides and look over; she took her 
first steps supported by its sides, which were at a 
convenient distance apart ; bye and bye, she would 
walk from end to end in her efforts to be near me 
as I moved about the room. But it is a clumsy 
affair. I shall have a much better one for the sit¬ 
ting room : it is to be made ®f the same dimensions 
but simply a skeleton frame, except that the floor 
is to be solid. Upon this frame, which is to be 
very smooth around the top, I shall tack wire- 
gauze ; the entire stneture is to be on casters, that 
I may easily roll it about, a long flexible strip is 
to be tacked from side to side like a basket handle. 
From this, I shall suspend the toys I find amuse 
a neat and convenient calendar. 
