1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
23 
illustration of the fact that important discoveries 
are rarely left to one person, and from the discovery 
of America, through steam navigation, telegraphs, 
to the use of ether in surgery, there have been 
several claiming to be first. On the whole, I thank 
S. H. for carrying out my experiment, as it allows 
me to publish results a year sooner. To condense 
the whole matter, he grows better cresses in pans 
and pots, than can be raised in brooks ; though he 
has an abundance of cress growing in a brook 
upon his place, he prefers the pot-grown. Almost 
any pot or seed-pan will answer, hut he prefers 
one he had made especially for ferns, which is 15 
inches across, and 8 inches high. These he half fills 
with broken bricks and old mortar, or lumps of 
chalk, puts on a layer of moss, and over that is 
placed good, rich soil, no matter how coarse, and 
well pressed down and rounded up ; on the surface 
THE MMJSEE0HJ). 
(For other Household Items, see “Basket ” pages). 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Tlie Coming Giandmoiliers. 
That means you and I, who are now in the prime 
of life, bearing the burden and heat of the day. 
The years roll on more and more swiftly—or 
seem to accelerate their passage—and the grey hairs 
come, one by one at first, and afterwards by scores. 
The dread of growing old seems to me as unrea¬ 
sonable as the common fear of death. One does 
not like the prospect of becoming a burden to ones’ 
friends, but can not we prevent such a calamity by 
WATER-CRESSES GROWN IN POT-CURTURE. 
of this, bits of rooted cress or cuttings are dibbled i 
in, about 3 inches apart. The pot sits in a “ stand,” 
or saucer as we call it, holding 2 inches of water. 
The newly planted pots are kept in the shade for 
a few days, and then exposed to full light and air ; 
in summer the plants give a cutting in less than 
three weeks after planting, and give three cuttings 
in succession, when the pot is replaced by another 
started later. This engraving is of Mr. Hibbard’s 
15-incli pot, which he says gives him half-a-peck of 
the finest possible cresses at a cutting. This may 
seem like very small work to those who can grow 
cresses by the acre, but the thousands to whom, as 
to myself, cress in spring is almost a necessity, and 
who have no brook in which to grow it, and are too 
far from market to buy it, will be very thankful to 
Mr v Hibbard for pointing out the way in which, by 
a little trouble, we may enjoy that which has here¬ 
tofore been denied us. In England the pots in 
winter are protected by frames, but with us, unless 
in an unusual season, we could not expect much 
growth unless in a heated greenhouse. Those who 
do not know where to get cresses to start with, can 
begin with seeds, which are kept by the seedsmen ; 
these may be sown in a seed-pan or box, in soil kept 
quite wet, and pricked out in place of the cuttings 
in the pots where they are to grow. Mr. Hibbard 
tried various experiments, such as immersing the 
pots at various depths, and up to the brim and 
over, but he claims that the crop is better with 2 
or 3 inches, than any other depth of water, and 
that the product is vastly better than that grown in 
running streams. Mr. Hibbard first began pot- 
culture to keep a new and superior variety, the 
“Erfurt Sweet Cress,” distinct from that in his 
brook. Some of our seedsmen keep the seeds 
of this. I see no reason why an equal success 
should not be had in this country, at all events 
I shall try, and so no doubt will many others. 
proper foresight and self discipline in these earlier 
years ? Persons who honestly suppose that child¬ 
hood is the “happiest stage of life,” have little 
idea of the real value of life as a school, where 
most excellent lessons are to be had by all teach¬ 
able souls. Such ones like to get experience, and it 
seems likely that coming years will not fail of 
yielding that, as past years have already done. 
When fresh lessons are set us in this great school 
of life, we often fail to see them in that light, and 
call them troubles and afflictions. I have great 
contempt for my own weakness in that respect. I 
should think I had had lessons enough already, to 
begin to cooperate more cheerfully with the Great 
Teacher in the work of my own education ; but I 
still shrink from my tasks, and forget how the great 
fact of Immortality throws all these light afflic¬ 
tions, which are but for a day, iuto insignificance. 
How to get the best of these ever-present experi¬ 
ences, so that we may grow stronger and sweeter in 
spirit, as years go by—more cooperation with the 
Infinite Goodness, which underlies and works 
through all things for the ultimate good of the 
whole—that is the present and unceasing problem. 
Just now, with most of us mothers, the way is 
marked out. Each day is full of duties crowding 
thick and fast upon each other. For many of us 
the way seems very straight and narrow. But by- 
and-by our babies will be busy out in the world. 
One by one they will fly away from the home nest, 
and perhaps there will then be some leisure—a 
little afternoon of life, when what work we do may 
be done from choice rather than from necessity. 
Then what ?—Snuff-boxes and knitting work ?— 
The former have pretty much gone out of use 
already, and when we have become grandmothers, 
will scarcely be known, great comforts as they were 
to the grandmothers a few generations ago. The 
knitting work of the dear grandmothers must not 
be scornfully mentioned, so greatly does it add to 
the comfort of thousands of families ; and if ma¬ 
chinery has not taken this work out of reasonable 
reach, by the time that my own grandchildren 
arrive on this planet, I, for one, shall cheerfully 
do my grandmotherly share of the family knitting. 
Just so of all the little helpful tasks that good 
grandmothers are wont to perform. There seems 
to me something almost angelic in the sweet pa¬ 
tience and sympathetic assistance one sometimes 
finds in aged women. They seem to have ripened 
properly iuto human beings, and it delights me 
when such old women tell me, as some of them do, 
that their last days are their best days. It ought 
to be so. They may be mere children still, in 
scientific and literary attainments, and though this 
does not add to the charm of character, neither 
does it detract therefrom. It grows on me more 
and more forcibly, that St. Paul was right in his 
beautiful epistle in which we are taught: better 
than all knowledge, or doing of great deeds, are 
faith, hope, and charity—“ And the greatest of 
these is charity.”—A good loving heart greatly out¬ 
weighs what we call knowledge. If to the loving 
womanly heart be added mental power and culture, 
then we have “A perfect woman nobly planned.” 
I fear this seems like preaching, and I must 
“ draw to a close.” This then, briefly, is the thought 
I wished to communicate: our seed time for our com¬ 
ing grandmotherliood—if we already have children 
—for our old age in any case—is not yet past. By 
regular and temperate habits, we may preserve or 
improve our health, so that we may be able to take 
care of ourselves, and perhaps help others in some 
way, when we are old. 
A Variety of Meat for Farmers’ Tables. 
Farmers who live near a good market have no 
difficulty, outside the state of the family purse, in 
securing some variety in the meat of their tables. 
But many farmers can not avail themselves of the 
regular butcher’s wares. In most cases they either 
depend too much upon salt pork, or use too little 
meat. To go without meat entirely, one needs a 
generous variety of grains, vegetables, and fruits. 
Those who live mainly upon bolted flour, potatoes, 
and tea and coffee, suffer a kind of slow starvation, 
which tells at last seriously upon the health. Very 
likely they over-eat, and so derange the liver, and 
set the whole physical system out of order. They 
over-eat in the instinctive endeavor to secure from 
inadequate materials, the elements demanded by 
their bodies to maintain strength, and repair the 
daily waste. If even our farm animals require a 
variety of food, or a combination of different foods, 
in order to get the best of each and all kinds—as 
Prof. Atwater teaches the readers of the American 
Agriculturist— it is quite reasonable to suppose that 
human beings need a variety also. All experience 
teaches that men thrive best on a varied diet. 
Women especially suffer from the narrow range of 
food materials often supplied for winter consump¬ 
tion, since their in-door life affords less aid to di¬ 
gestion, and creates a feebler and daintier appetite 
than out-door workers enjoy. There is a good deal 
of excuse for their ill-health, in the meager supply 
of good and palatable nourishment found in theii 
every day fare. 
I am not at all sure that meat is a necessity, even 
for laborers. But if families who have lost faith in 
pork, merely leave that out from their bill of fare, 
and go on living in other respects in the old-fasln 
ioned ways on bolted flour bread and pastry, and a 
few varieties of vegetables, with a small supply of 
fruit, the change may possibly be for the worse 
rather than for the better. I have lived long at a 
time where it was very difficult to get fresh meat, 
or meat of any kind, and no one seemed to feel its 
lack if we had plenty of good graham, oat-meal, 
and corn-meal, with beans and peas for soup. But 
if we are confined mostly to fine flour and potatoes, 
a craving for meat is sure to follow. 
Salted meat is always inferior to fresh meat, ex¬ 
cept as affording variety, but it possesses considera¬ 
ble value as food if properly freshened and soft¬ 
ened by long and slow cooking. Dried beef, 
though still less nutritive than corned beef, is a 
fine thing to have in the house, as an appetizer 
