1869.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
14rl. 
TOE HMMSEiemiO). 
(J3y For other Household Items, see " Basket" pages.) 
A Rustic Jardinet. 
Tlic French word Jardinet (pronounced jar-de- 
nay) means a small garden, and is usually applied 
to small enclosures or beds margined with orna¬ 
mental pottery work. The name is also given to 
large terra-cotta vases intended for growing plants. 
RUSTIC JARDINET. 
Some very beautiful ones of this description are 
now imported, some of them made in imitation of 
1 lie trunk of a tree. One of our friends, not wish¬ 
ing to pay the high price asked for the imported 
article, has invented a home-made one, which is 
more “rustic” in appearance, and answers every 
purpose of the more costly affair. The lower part 
of a keg furnishes the receptacle, and split staves, 
nailed to this, support it at the desired bight. The 
whole is then covered with bark neatly tacked on. 
Lichens—those ashen-colored and brownish plants 
found on the trunks of trees and often incorrectly 
called mosses—are used here and there with good 
effect. Such plants as are suitable for hanging bask¬ 
ets are appropriate for a jardinet of this kind. 
- - ■ »-- 
Household Management. 
BY MRS. H. M. R., COLUMBIA CO., PA. 
True economy does not consist in wearing shab¬ 
by clothes, “slip-shod” siloes, going with half 
clothing enough to keep warm, nor working your¬ 
self and family more than they are able to work, for 
the sake of getting along without hiring help. No 
woman ought to be obliged to work on her feet 1 
more than seven or eight hours a day; and by 
proper calculation and order in the household, it is 
not necessary that she should do so. Where there 
is a large family and a dairy to be looked after, 
there should be at least two women to do the work 
with as much help from the children as they are 
able to give. Let the work be divided in such a 
manner that it can be done to the best advantage. 
Say, let one woman do all the dairy work and help 
about the washing and ironing. If the dairy is 
large, this is as much as one can conveniently do, 
except what sewing, knitting, or reading, she may 
find time for. Her work will be about the same 
everyday. A word to the girls: The first thing 
in the morning, see that your hair is neatly combed 
and put up, and your toilet made in such a way 
that you would not be ashamed to see any one. 
Of course you will dress according to your busi¬ 
ness, but always clean, whole, and tidy. Next get 
your churning going, strain the milk, work and 
pack your previous day’s butter, etc. By this time 
the butter in the churn will probably need atten¬ 
tion. As soon as it is washed and salted, empty 
the churns, wash and scald thoroughly, and cool 
with a pail of cold water. Then skim all the milk 
that will be ready that day, and thoroughly mix in 
the churn; cover closety, and it will be ready to 
churn next morning. Then wash all the pans in 
two waters, scald thoroughly, and turn down to dry. 
They should be wiped with a cloth before drying. 
See that everything in the dairy room is left in per¬ 
fect order, and your work in this department is 
done except the straining of the night’s milk, which, 
with rinsing the pails, will take only a few minutes. 
This will give you nearly or quite all the afternoon 
of each day to sew, read, or do anything else that 
is required to be done. It may be necessary on 
Mondays to let the milk skimming go until a little 
later, that you can attend to the washing while the 
other woman is seeing to the dinner, etc. Of 
course in all large dairies the churning is done by 
machinery. Now we will see how the woman in 
t he kitchen gets along. We will commence with 
Monday and follow her through the week, as her 
work is necessarily varied. If you are well, never 
let trifles interfere with your daily duties. Let 
Monday be washing day; Tuesday baking ; Wed¬ 
nesday iron, with the dairy girl’s help; Thursday, 
see that everything is mended and in a proper con¬ 
dition to put on; Friday, general baking day; 
Saturday, general cleaning up. This ordinarily 
ought not to take longer than until two o’clock in ] 
the afternoon, but of course there will be extras i 
some days, which will keep you pretty busy all 
day. The chamber work and keeping the house, 
except the kitchen, in order, maybe done by either, 
as circumstances require, or by both, but if by 
both, let each one have her particular rooms, and 
look after them entirely. By following this method, 
or some other equally good, you will have time 
nearly every afternoon to devote to whatever you 
may think proper. But never allow yourselves to 
go slovenly, for of all things a slovenly woman is 
the most disgusting. There is no excuse for going 
with the hair looking like a fright, and hanging 
half way down the back a good part of the day, as 
too many farmers’ wives do. It takes no more 
time to put it in order the first thing in the morn¬ 
ing than the last thing at night, and I am sure if it 
pays to comb it for a few hours at night, it will 
pay to do it for all day. 
-- *-—a & m -(.«.-- 
An Ornamental Pincushion. 
A very pretty Pincushion can be made in the 
following manner: Cut a square piece of satin, 
merino, or silk, and have a grape vine with fruit, 
arranged in the form of a wreath, stamped in 
the center. The leaves, stems, and tendrils, should 
be embroidered with white silk in the ordinary 
over-stitch, and upon each dot that represents a 
grape, fasten a wax bead of the size in a. Cut 
for the under side a square like the one em- 
V1NE FOR PINCUSHION. 
broidered, and cover both over a cushion made of 
some common, thick material, stuffed with bran 
or sawdust; finish by fastening a quilling of white 
satin ribbon around the edge. The shape is improv¬ 
ed by cutting each side of the material a little hol¬ 
low. The color may be left to choice. A cushion of 
this kind makes a very pretty bridal present. The en¬ 
graving shows a portion of the grape-vine wreath 
of about half the size needed for a large cushion. 
Towel Rack and Clothes Airer. 
There are several patented articles which are very 
convenient for drying towels, airing clothes after 
ironing, etc., but as a patent is a sort of challenge, 
and as we like with a few common tools to feel in¬ 
dependent in such matters, we sometimes try our 
hand and see if we cannot make as good an article 
as we can buy. A three-inch piece was sawed 
off the end of a ten-inch oak slab, near the but, 
where the slab was fully four inches thick. It was 
barked, then smoothed and shaped. A board 2% 
feet long, and ten inches wide, was fastened to it 
by one end with two three-quarter-inch oak pins ; 
and then holes were bored so as to receive eight 
dogwood sticks, three feet long, and an inch thick 
at the buts. These were driven in snug, and the 
TOWEL RACK. 
affair, looking like half a wagon wheel without the 
felloe, was hung up just high enough to clear the 
heads of persons walking under it. We find it a 
great convenience—not in the way at all; occupy¬ 
ing no part of the floor; never falling down ; out 
of reach of dogs, cats, and children. The engrav¬ 
ing shows the uses and shape of the article. 
The Table—Order and Ornament. 
Some articles with the above heading have al¬ 
ready been given. They were begun with a view 
of introducing the matter of simple ornamentation 
of the table, a division of the subject which has not 
yet been reached. It seems that what little has 
been said upon order has touched a point upon 
which our readers are interested. And why should 
they not be ? If there is anything upon which a 
good housekeeper prides herself, it is her table, and 
if there is anything about that that is worth know¬ 
ing which she does not know, she is ready to learn. 
We do not aim at introducing any “ wrinkles” to 
induce “ plain people ” to imitate what are called 
fashionable folks. Our idea is to give such hints 
as will enable every one, no matter what her con¬ 
dition as to wealth may be, to make the best of 
what she has. If the housekeeper who lives iu 
a log house in a Western clearing has put her pork 
and beans on a neatly arranged table, and had them 
served with order and propriety, she has done her 
best, and need not be ashamed should the Presi¬ 
dent himself happen along at dinner time. What¬ 
ever there may be for dinner or other meal, and 
whoever may be the accidental guest, don’t apolo¬ 
gize. It places all parties in an unpleasant posi¬ 
tion, and does no good. Give the guest the best 
there is ; serve pork and beans or other plain food 
with as much attention as if it were the choicest 
dish ; and if the guest cannot appreciate the hospi¬ 
tality, he is not worthy of further thought. Sev¬ 
eral letters have been received asking questions 
concerning the table, to some of which we briefly 
reply. “Which is the head of the table?” One 
lady claims that her end is the head, and her hus¬ 
band differs from her. It is a delicate matter to 
decide between husband and wife; we will only 
state that we were brought up in the notion that 
the husband was the head of the family, and with 
