106 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
in two clays, and remarked when I was making; it, 
“I deserved a pension,” but I conclude now, if I 
can get $15 after three years’ wear, I -will be satis¬ 
fied. I am not a tailoress, but I am over sixteen 
years old. I am just a poor man’s wife. May this 
cloak keep some other parents’ little darling warm 
this winter. P. S.—I attach these little white 
pieces to assist you in counting. 
Mrs. M. C. Parker. 
The specimen of darning, on girl’s sack, comes 
out distinctly under the searching eye of the came¬ 
ra, and is so shown in our engraving, but it is hard 
to find in tire garment itself. This little note was 
pinned to the sack : 
West Philadelphia, Dec. 31st, 1870. 
Dear Mr. Judd : I have seen your offer to little 
girls for them to send you samples of their skill in 
mending and darning clothes. I am now twelve 
years old and not a tailoress, and I thought I 
would send you this little sack, which I have been 
wearing for two years. I have darned it in several 
places entirely by myself. Hoping it may be of 
service to some poor little girl, Louise G. Dreer. 
The other illustrations need no explanation. 
They are as accurate as photographer and engraver 
could make them, and, though homely in them¬ 
selves, will certainly interest all who from a dis¬ 
tance took an active part in the show. 
Many of the letters accompanying articles for 
competition contained excellent suggestions, show¬ 
ing that the true housewifely spirit is by no means 
extinct in this age of revolutionary ideas. Now 
and then a husband has something to say, and 
always he says it with a will. 
“I am delighted,” writes W. P. S., “to see that 
such encouragement is given to this branch of 
economy. I am'pastor of a LTnited Presbyterian 
congregation in this place, and, like many of our 
country pastors, live on a 6mall salary. We are 
poor, and try to economize. My wife, though not 
a tailoress, but formerly a school-teacher, makes 
and mends most of the clothes for the family.” 
Julia M. S., a Western woman who evidently has 
kept her heart young through the “ three times 
sixteen” years of her life, lets fall a few sugges¬ 
tions, that are scattered here in the hope that they 
may take root and ripen in ready places : 
“ Of old coats and pantaloons, I have none to ex¬ 
periment on, as we have a worthy indigent friend 
who wears all of my husband’s half-worn clothes, 
from his hat to his bools.” Who has not a “ worthy 
indigent friend” somewhere who could be thus 
delicately and generously aided without cost or 
labor ? “ As to woman’s clothing,” adds the lady, 
“my own experience is this, that it is better econ¬ 
omy, both for myself and those to whom I give, 
for me to patch and darn for ourselves, especially 
if the garment is of flue material, and buy new, 
stout and substantial material for those who need ; 
for that class of people have seldom the ‘ know¬ 
how ,’or the disposition, to make available anything 
that is half-worn and needs altering or mending.” 
Here comes a sweet, motherly bit of bragging : 
“ I had one ‘ premium on patching’ a short time 
ago; it was when I began to patch again after a 
long sickness, when other hands had done my sew¬ 
ing : I heard my two boys talking, as they looked 
at the knees of Wally’s pants: ‘There,’said one, 
'that looks as though mother was better; just see 
those patches.’ ‘Yes,’said the other, ‘mother’s 
patches look nice enough to wear to meeting any 
time.’ I think, after that compliment, I can do 
without a premium, don’t you ?” Yes, indeed we do. 
A clergyman’s widow incidentally brings forward 
a wrong that is often thoughtlessly done by even 
kind-hearted persons who feel that ‘ a small account 
is of no account,’ and therefore neglect it day after 
day, forgetting that little wages often are the hard¬ 
est to earn, and the most sorely-needed wheu they 
are earned: 
“ I have been instructing the children of quite a 
wealthy lady, who now owes me about ten dollars, 
which for weeks I have had the promise of receiv¬ 
ing. But I understand she is gay and fashionable, 
and . . . When a person becomes a slave to 
fashion the heart seems to evaporate.” Later in 
the letter, however, comes these more cheerful 
words : “ My son bids fair to make a good fanner, 
under his home instruction. As I have for some 
years past devoted myself to that branch of busi¬ 
ness, you can readily perceive that we need your 
papers.” You shall have them, good mother. 
Think of the patient industry of the home-life 
indicated in these simple sentences : 
SECOND PRIZE—CLASS B. 
0. Judd & Co.— Gentlemen : This coat was two 
or three years ago so badly moth-eaten that it was 
considered beyond the possibility of repair. I have 
set in more than forty patches, and darned more 
than one hundred holes in it. A microscope would 
probably not reveal beauties in the work, but by it 
only can any considerable proportion of the num¬ 
ber of tliq stitches taken in it be revealed. I have 
made all the repairs, am over sixteen, and am not a 
tailoress. Clara M. Blodget. 
“Years ago,” writes Mrs. Laura A. B., “patch¬ 
ing and darning constituted so large a share of the 
work of the wives and daughters of the well-to-do 
farmers and mechanics of the country, that it was 
no unusual thing for them to go into a store and in¬ 
quire for darning-needles, and good stubbed patch¬ 
ing-needles (bethinking themselves, no doubt, that 
as their husbands’ garments were of such heavy 
material, no slender or deiieate needle would do 
the work). But now-a-days, instead of darning and 
patching-needles, we find instead worsted and 
crotchet-needles 
“ By all means,” says another correspondent, 
“ let us add a new department to our public semi¬ 
naries for girls—such a one as is suggested in an 
article on ‘ Helpless Girls,’ in the Hearth and Home 
of Dec. 31st. If near enough resident, I would 
most cheerfully lend my hand to assist the lady in 
her charitable operation, and help her instruct her 
young ladies some hours each day to put on patches 
neatly, darn stockings handsomely, etc. I should 
be most happy to meet with the new department. 
It will be a very trying undertaking; it will be 
much like putting up a new building on no founda¬ 
tion, but foundations may be prepared for those to 
come. I should, sirs, be happy to receive the ad¬ 
dress through your paper.” 
With these brief extracts we conclude this little 
extra gossip about the Patching and Darning Show. 
Cows’ Milk for Infants. 
An English physician, Dr. Selby Norton, has re¬ 
cently been investigating the subject of rearing 
children by hand ; his results are given in the Lon¬ 
don “Milk Journal,” from which we condense the 
following notes: Dr. N. states that 90 per cent of 
the diseases of children fed by hand, are due to 
improper feeding. Mothers’ milk is the very best 
food for the infant; next to this, stands cows’ milk, 
properly diluted. So near a perfect substitute is 
the cow’s milk for the mother’s milk in chemical 
composition and adaptability to the infantile stom¬ 
ach, that he deems it a matter of indifference which 
is used. He utterly discards all the starchy forms 
of food for infants, that have from time to time 
been proposed. The milk should be mixed with 
an equal bulk of water for the first three months 
of the child’s life; after this the quantity of water 
may be gradually lessened, until at six months the 
proportions are one-third water and two-thirds 
milk. From this point to the end of the year, the 
richness of the mixture is gradually increased to 
one-quarter water and three-quarters milk, but be¬ 
yond this the quantity of water is never to be di¬ 
minished. Among the common mistakes of those 
who feed cows’ milk to infants, and which are to 
be avoided, Dr. Norton enumerates boiling the 
milk, which coagulates the albumen of the milk 
and renders it indigestible. The same result fol¬ 
lows from adding the diluting water when too hot. 
Sugar should never be added to the milk. It is a 
very common custom to sweeten the child’s food, 
but Dr. N. thinks that it interferes with its diges¬ 
tibility. Milk naturally contains a considerable 
proportion of sugar, but this is sugar of a peculiar 
kind, and cannot be replaced by ordinary cane sugar. 
Finally, the milk when fed, should he about as 
warm as new milk, and fresh and good, while the 
greatest care must be taken to keep the feeding- 
bottle clean and free from the slightest curd. 
A Towel for Each. 
It is not uncommon, in country houses, for all 
the members of the family to use the same towel 
for wiping their hands and faces. I am often sur¬ 
prised to see how this practice prevails even among 
people of considerable cultivation. Frequently 
the towel is made of three yards of good crash, 
sewed together at the ends, and hung over a roller. 
This seems very generous and nice when it is clean, 
but not so after it has hung there two or three 
days, used at morning, noon and night by half a 
dozen persons. We may he able to endure a good 
deal of our own dirt, when we are obliged to, but 
it is not a morbid delicacy that shrinks from using 
a towel soiled by other persons. 
Each human body gives forth its own peculiar 
personal excretions from every pore of the skin— 
waste matter, more or less filthy. So it is not 
merely the impurity derived from external sources 
that we wash and wipe away when we perform our 
ablutions. It is also this one’s dyspepsia, that 
one’s biliousness, the other one’s tobacco—ugh ! 
Give me a clean towel, please ! 
And please give every child its own towel, and 
its own comb, as soon as it is old enough to use 
them. And now I want to add—please, O, fellow 
citizens ! give every human being a chance to bathe 
the whole body, privately, whenever one wishes to 
do so, in a comfortable bath-room, with plenty of 
hot and cold water, and a good bath-tub, and all 
the clean towels desired ! It. 
Moreton Farm Cake. 
BY AUNT HATTIE. 
Take two pounds of butter, set it in the cake- 
bowl near the fire, until it is softened throughout, 
but not melted. Now add to the butter two pounds 
of nice, white, soft sugar, and mix them thoroughly 
together, or until creamed. Take out one half of 
this cream and reserve it in a separate bowl until 
wanted. To the cream in the bowl add one quart 
of pretty warm, sweet milk. Now stir in gradually 
four pounds of flour, and then mix in very thor¬ 
oughly a teacupful of lively home-made yeast. Let 
it stand in a warm place until very light. In four 
hours it should be raised enough, when the re¬ 
mainder of the butter and sugar may be added, 
and a little more flour, if needed. Have two 
pounds of raisins nicely stoned (seedless raisins 
are not so rich as the others), and add them to 
the cake, a little pulverized mace, and, if at hand, 
some candied lemon peel. Let it rise again. When 
well raised, mix it well, using the hands, and pro¬ 
portion it off into well-buttered pans. Allow the 
pans to stand in a moderately warm place until the 
cakes are beginning to rise, then put them to bake 
in a steady oven, and bake them fully an hour, or 
longer, if only one or two pans are used. It will 
be better to try the cake in the usual way before 
removing from the oven. Thrust a nice clean straw 
or fine skewer gently into the thickest part of the 
center of the loaf; if it is perfectly clear when drawn 
out, the cake is sufficiently baked. I generally leave 
it in a few minutes longer, to make sure. Fruit 
cakes require a much longer time to bake than 
delicate and sponge cakes. There are no eggs 
used in this cake; none are needed. It is an ex¬ 
cellent cake for economical housekeepers to make 
iu winter, when eggs are scarce. Some persons 
never eat cake because eggs disagree with them. 
They will find this cake wholesome and delicious. 
If the top and sides of the cakes are frosted, they 
will keep moist and sweet for a long time. 
Brown paper is nice for keeping cake. Wrap 
the cake iu the paper before putting it in the crock 
or tin cake-box. The paper helps to keep out the 
moisture of the changing atmosphere, and of 
course the cake will keep longer the more com¬ 
pletely it is excluded from the air. 
