AMERICAN,? AGRICULTURIST. 
Q65 
Under this head we intend very soon to devote 
considerable space as well as attention to giving 
sound, practical instruction—not merely stale “ re¬ 
cipes” passed along from journal to journal, year 
after year. The truth is, there are many import¬ 
ant scientific principles directly applicable to the 
every day work of the kitchen and other domestic 
labors, and we have long desired to set before our 
readers, in plain, simple, easily understood lan¬ 
guage some of these principles. But it requires 
more time and thought to do this than to merely 
discuss general principles in the language of sci¬ 
ence, and we have been so constantly over-pressed 
with our editorial and publishing duties, that we 
have found no time to treat the subject as we have 
desired. But we fully intend to take hold of the 
matter in earnest during our next volume, and we 
promise our lady readers that their special depart¬ 
ment will be much more instructive if not more in¬ 
teresting than hitherto. For example, we say that 
in boiling fresh meats they should be put, not into 
cold but directly in hot water, except when de¬ 
signed solely for broths, in which case they should 
stand for along time in cold or tepid water. Now 
there are plain chemical reasons for these direc¬ 
tions, and there are similar reasons for a hundred 
other household operations, which may, we think, 
be made perfectly plain and comprehensible to 
those unlearned in the mysteries of science, and to 
the explanation and application of these principles 
we propose to devote a portion of these pages. 
For a month or two, however, we are compelled 
to defer entering so fully and systematically upon 
these topics as we shall do afterwards, and so we 
now only note down a few practical directions gath¬ 
ered from our own observations, and from the 
letters of correspondents. 
SELECTING FURNITURE, AR¬ 
RANGING ROOMS, &c, 
To the Lady Readers of the American Agriculturist. 
The cultivation of taste in household arrange¬ 
ments is a matter of no little consequence. Its 
moral influence is not small. It preserves the 
young from many temptations to low enjoyments, 
and renders home an attractive spot. Good taste 
may show itself quite as readily in a log cottage 
as in a fifth-avenue palace, and be equally attrac¬ 
tive. I remember no dwellings with more pleas¬ 
ure than some of the vine-covered log houses of 
the West, and a very simple little cottage in Ncw- 
Jersey, almost hidden in the loving embrace of 
roses, honeysuckles and grape vines. It does not 
require wealth to create home beauty. Refine¬ 
ment and delicacy of taste can invest the rudest 
home with charms that money alone could never 
furnish. 
“ Our yard is the prettiest yard in the block,” I 
heard some city boys exclaim, a few weeks 
since. “ We have been on the roof of the house 
and have looked at every one.” 
What was it that made that yard more attrac¬ 
tive than the others! They were all fenced and 
painted alike, and differed only in what had been 
done in them a few hours in early Spring, and in 
a few minutes attention, now and then, through 
the Summer. In the “ prettiest yard,” the brown, 
close-board fence was covered with scarlet-run¬ 
ners, morning-glories, maderia-vines, and a wide- 
spreading grape-vine, and the borders were bright 
with verbenas, and a few “ dear common flowers.” 
The taste of these boys had been cultivated, and 
they had learned to appreciate what many others 
might not have noticed, and their home-happiness, 
and home-love had been increased by the sim¬ 
plest and most natural means. The influence of 
those few flowers and of the green, living drapery 
on the fence will never be lost. It will modify the 
whole life, and give a delicacy and a love of the 
beautiful that will grace their manhood as the 
vine graces the oak. 
I have often been impressed with the wonder¬ 
ful sameness with which houses are furnished, as 
if, instead of consulting our individual wants and 
taste, we consulted the opinions and taste of oth¬ 
ers. A sofa of hair-cloth, and six mahogany 
chairs in black, seems to be considered almost es¬ 
sential where more showy and expensive furni¬ 
ture is not used, and then there must be a table 
with a marble top and a side-table or two, and a 
rocking chair, and'these are too often ai ranged 
with mathematical precision against the walls, so 
as to destroy all idea of comfort and ease. Hair¬ 
cloth furniture, well made, is serviceable, but it 
is very sombre. A room furnished with it, unless 
relieved by blight colors in carpets and curtains, 
has a funeral look that is anything but cheerful. I 
much prefer cane, or rush seated chairs of prettier 
style. They are lighter to move, and more com¬ 
fortable for use, than most stuffed chairs. Small 
figured carpets should always be selected for 
small rooms, for those of large figures diminish, 
apparently, the size of the room. Arm-chairs are 
preferable to rocking chairs for the parlor, for 
rockers are almost always in the way, and often 
do much injury to other furniture and to the house 
itself. 
Furniture should be so arranged as to indicate 
that it is designed for use, and not merely kept 
for show. It should have a social, friendly air, as 
if on good terms with its neighbors and not afraid 
to meet on terms of equality. Do not arrange 
books on a table as if they were paraded for mili¬ 
tary display, and ready to be marched around with 
measured step at just the same distance from the 
edge. Books, it is to be supposed, are to be read, 
and they should lie about carelessly as if they had 
just been put down by a reader. I have a nice 
girl who attends to my parlors, but she is so very 
nice and orderly in her arrangements that the first 
thing I do on entering the rooms is to draw away 
some of the chairs from the walls, to give a crick¬ 
et a push with my foot, and to scatter various 
piles of books, and remove the fan and paper knife 
from the central figure of the table cover. Ex¬ 
cessive order is an unusual defect in girls, and 
one much more easily remedied than the opposite. 
I have no disposition to complain, for it is but a 
moment’s work to change the frigid air to one of 
warmth and comfort. Pictures should be hung 
low enough to be easily examined—about oppos¬ 
ite the eye—Let the picture cord correspond with 
the leading color of the room, or contrast well with 
it. Do not mingle colors in furnishing a room ; 
have the walls and carpet, and curtains and fur¬ 
niture harmonize. Let there be a leading color 
and everything in agreement with it. If the car¬ 
pet is crimson, green wood-color, the curtains 
may be of either color, but put up blue drapery 
and the handsomest parlor would be ruined. We 
can learn much of the effect of colors by a study 
of nature. 
Do not select one article very much handsomer 
than the others. A velvet, carpet calls for corre¬ 
sponding expense in sofas chairs and tables, 
while a pretty ingrain of good colors looks well 
enough for any country or city house of moderate 
pretensions. It is well to furnish a house so 
much within one’s means as not to be constantly 
afraid that this and that will wear out, and can 
never be replaced. It is far better to be able to | 
use and enjoy what we have and permit our chi!-: 
dren to use and enjoy it, than to shut up a part o 
the house for weddings, parties and funerals. 
Anna Hope. 
CHAPTERS ON COOKING, &c. 
Continued from page 210. 
COOKING MEATS. 
On this topic we shall continue to have much 
to say, so long as one half or more of all the meat 
used in the country is deprived of a great portion 
of its nutriment by cooking it wrongly. Without 
stopping now to give the reason, we say that all 
frying of meats is had—decidedly bad. So of po¬ 
tatoes and other articles fried in fat. These sub¬ 
stances are indigestible, and worse than innu- 
tritious. Broiling, roasting and baking, if not cal' 
ried too far, are perhaps the best modes of cook¬ 
ing fresh meats of all kinds, and most kinds of 
fish. The difference in the taste, digestibility 
and nutritive value of a piece of beef-steak quick¬ 
ly broiled over a lively bed of coals, and the 
same piece fried in fat, can hardly be appreciated 
by those who have only practiced the frying mode, 
and this includes three-fourths of all the families 
in the country. If some one of our female con¬ 
tributors will givtT us a chapter of full details on 
broiling meats we shall be glad to publish it, oth¬ 
erwise we will try our hand at it, for there is 
much to be said on this topic. Reader, do you 
spoil fresh fish by frying it in lard, or preserve its 
flavor and sweetness by cooking it on the grid 
iron! 
Boiling Coined Beef .—This is a staple food in 
a majority of families during several months 
every year, and in most cases the cooking may 
be greatly improved. The tvyo chief errors are, 
first in not cooking it long enough, and second, in 
losing a large proportion of its real nutriment. We 
always prefer it prepared as follows: Soak in 
warm, not hot water just long enough to takeout 
all excess of salt. Then cover it so that the steam 
will condense upon the under side ofthe coverand 
fall back. This will prevent boiling away and 
also the loss of much of the nutriment which in 
an open vessel goes off with the steam. Boil the 
meat several hours or until it is so thoroughly 
done that it will not hold together to be lifted with 
a fork. If there be any bones take them out, since 
if cooked enough the meat will cleave from them 
readily. Pack the meat by itself in a deep dish, 
mixing well together the lean and fat portions. 
Next skim the fat and boil the liquor down so that 
when poured over the meat it will just fill the 
spaces between the pieces. Then lay over the 
whole a flat cover which will fit into the dish, put 
on a dozen or twenty pounds weight and let it 
stand until cold. Several flat-irons or a large 
stone will answer for the weight, or if convenient 
it may be set under a cheese press. Prepared in 
this way, the poorest piece of tough corned beef 
will be made tender and juicy. Boiling down and 
using the liquid, saves the most nutritious portion 
which is usually thrown away. The gelatine of 
the condensed gravy, when cold forms a solid mass 
with the meat, which may then be cut into slices 
for serving upon the table. If the fat and lean por¬ 
tions be mixed, when cut up cold the pieces will 
present a beautiful marbled appearance. Corned 
beef prepared in this way will not only be eaten 
with a superior relish, but it will not, on account 
of its toughness, be swallowed half masticated to 
produce irritation in the stomach, and yield only a 
portion of its substance as nutriment. Over the 
common process, there is only the extra trouble 
ofthe additional boiling and pressing, which are 
amply repaid by the saving ot nutriment, while a 
cheaper quality of beef will be rendered wholesome 
