158 
ladies’ department* 
Cabks’ department. 
ECONOMY OF LABOR-SAVING UTENSILS IN 
A KITCHEN OR ON A FARM. 
In the February No. of your Journal you ask for 
facts, a request which I sincerely hope your con¬ 
tributors will respond to, as the most beautiful and 
apparently reasonable theories are of little worth 
without facts to prove their truth. In this age of 
novelty, the world appears to run mad after experi¬ 
ment, casting aside everything that is old, as be¬ 
neath the notice of the modern student of the ologies 
merely because it is old; and, those who advocate 
the practice of old ways, are absurd, because they 
can give no other reason for their being good than 
that they have found them so by experience. Al¬ 
though this answer cannot satisfy an intelligent and 
cultivated mind, it is, as far as it goes, a good one, 
and should stimulate to investigation, not the exter¬ 
mination of old practices. This will apply to the 
employments of women as well as men, and should 
stimulate the farmers’ wives to watch their neigh¬ 
bors, namely, comparing “ Thrift with Unthrift,” 
and learning the reasons why one is growing richer 
while the other has either remained stationary, or 
is gradually growing poorer. The gains of a farm 
are necessarily slow, and the farmer accumulates 
as much by saving as making ; it therefore becomes 
an important consideration how each operation is 
to be performed with the least possible expenditure, 
not only of money, but time, which is equally 
valuable, notwithstanding few people educated in 
the country appear to think so. 
A little reflection will show, that to save time is 
a great gain, while a liberal, though economical 
expenditure of money is equally so. Labor-saving 
machines in a farm-kitchen are, therefore, of the 
utmost importance, as they not only save time, but 
strength ; for instance, if a farmer expends a few 
dollars in the purchase of a churn so constructed 
that it will bring butter in five, ten, or twenty 
minutes, and afterwards work the butter fit for 
printing, and this only by turning the handle (and 
there are such churns now in use), he will soon per¬ 
ceive that he has gained more than at first sight he 
could think possible. If he adds to this, pans for hot 
water, in which the milk-pans can be placed to 
prevent the new milk from cooling too rapidly, he 
will find on churning day, that he has gained one- 
fifth more butter than by the ordinary method. If 
such liberal conveniences are allowed the farmer’s 
wife and daughters, as the modern sausage-chop¬ 
per, that noiseless friend to the farmer’s wife, that 
will silently do in two hours what it would take a 
man a whole day to accomplish by his single arm, or 
if a wood-shed in which the kitchen shall open, 
where a space can be portioned off for barrels and 
boxes that are to be receptacles for all sorts of 
things that the women should have in use close to 
the scene of their labors, and to receive-trash that 
otherwise would be thrown out, littering the yard, 
and giving an air of unthrift that is always disgust¬ 
ing, and if saved in barrels and carefully collected on 
a compost heap, will serve as manure for the gar¬ 
den or farm, of the best quality, the farmer himself 
will find in a short time, that in saving his strength, 
time, and health, he has gained at the end of the 
year, at least, the price of the labor-saving ma¬ 
chines, and the following year, there will be a clear 
profit of money as well as time, that can be spent 
more profitably in lighter and equally useful occu¬ 
pations. If in the above mentioned wood-house, a 
row of barrels be placed close to the kitchen door, 
one for ready-made soap, one for soap-fat into 
which is previously placed twenty-five pounds of 
potash, and two barrels of water, one for pig-slop, 
another for bones and all the worthless scraps and 
sweepings of the house, and another for chicken- 
feed, the following results -will take place:—The 
soap being close at hand, can be used when it is 
wanted, and there will be no excuse for things not 
being kept perfectly clean. If the barrel of potash 
and water be kept close at hand, ten times as much 
soap-fat will be gathered and saved s than if the bar¬ 
rel w r ere not there ; for it will take no more time to 
throw it there than into tlier pig’s barrel, or to the 
dog. The potash will prevent the fat from becom¬ 
ing mouldy, or filled with skippers, w’hich it is apt 
to do w 7 hen collected in the usual w r ay. The soap 
will make itself, if stirred once or twice a week, as 
shown by several good receipts in the back num¬ 
bers of this journal. Potash, instead of ley, is 
most economical, as it is more certain in its results; 
and the ashes are more valuable on the manure- 
heap or pasture land than the soap is worth. The 
pig-slop w T ill be under the mistress’s eye, and in¬ 
gredients neither too good nor too bad will be put 
in. The bones and scraps, now so highly prized 
as manure, may all be saved; and last, not least, 
dirt is not made, and the time ana strength that would 
otheiwise be taken in cleaning and scouring is 
saved for better purposes ; and the chickens maybe 
regularly fed vuthout waste of time. 
On a farm, as in a bee-hive, all should be 
workers, and the drones sent off. The women as 
w r ell as the men, must, and should work: but all 
w 7 ill find that the best economy is to save, whether 
it be in time or money, or strength, though all 
should be diligently, carefully, and liberally used, if 
the farmer washes to thrive. If from a careful man¬ 
agement of time, you save one hour a day, either 
from unnecessary sleep, pleasure, or ignorance, 
you will gain in five years, seventy-five days and 
two hours for profitable improvement of mind or 
means. Old Lady. 
Dairy-Utensils. —All dairy-utensils should be 
scalded, rinsed, and dried every time they are used. 
Glazed pottery is not considered desirable for milk 
or cream, as the acid contained in them acts upon 
the glazing (which is generally an oxide of lead), 
and converts it into an active poison. Vessels 
made of w r ood are preferred by many to any 
others, for this purpose; although they are liable 
to become tainted with the acidity of the milk, in 
which case they can only be thoroughly cleansed 
by boiling; and when this fails, a little salasratus 
added to the boiling water will effectually neutra¬ 
lize-the acid. The vessels must afterwards be im¬ 
mersed for two or three days in water, which 
should occasionally be changed. Milk vessels may 
be made of maple, white ash, hickory, or white 
pine. 
