1866 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
189 
TIHIE E[®1[J§E1EI(0)1LB 
Household Hints. 
[^Constant contributions to this department of the 
American Agriculturist are solicited from our readers.] 
A WRITTEN LIST of all the articles iu the house 
will take but little, time, and will often be very 
useful. A housekeeper writes to the Agriculturist 
that she frequently lost articles, supposed to be 
stolen by servants, but when it became known that 
she had begun to keep a list of everything—of 
handkerchiefs, collars, pillow-cases, indeed of 
everythiug, even to chairs, dishes of all kinds, 
brooms, pails, dish-towels, sad-irons, etc., etc., and 
that she now and then compared the articles with 
the list, there was a wholesome fear of that record; 
mysterious disappearances ceased, and breakages 
were much less frequent. A separate page was de¬ 
voted to noting down all breakages and by whom, 
with the date against each article. Another family, 
having such a list, saved it when the house was 
burned, and was thus able to get a much larger 
sum from an insurance company than could other¬ 
wise have been done. These little items count up 
largely in a valuation. The date of purchase and 
cost of every article was always recorded. 
To Have Sunshine in the House. —Put the 
children to bed earhj., with light suppers, that they 
may sleep well. They get up bright-eyed, clear¬ 
headed, sweet tempered, with sun-light on their 
countenances. Try it—and take a little of the pre¬ 
scription yourself. 'The effects are magic.al. So 
writes one who has tried it. She says that with 
well rested brains and limbs she does more in 
twelve hours than she used to accomplish in eigh¬ 
teen, and finds far less friction in the household 
movements now than then. She finds her own 
feelings and spirits are contagious. Try two extra 
hours of sleep for a week, and note the results. 
Never hire : (1) a girl who talks .about the de¬ 
fects of her last employer. She has a bad tongue, 
will be a complainer in your family, and ever make 
trouble, .and will talk about you to others.—(2.) 
Never hire one who in-ofesses to know everything. 
She will know few things, if anything, well.—(3.) 
Never hire one who begins by inquiring what she 
has to do .and not to do. Everything you ever 
listen to of this kind will make trouble afterwards. 
—(4) Never hire one who talks much about how 
her former mistresses did this and that. Say firm- 
1}', but calmly, “ Every housekeeper has her o'wn 
w.ay of doing things, and that way is best for her ; 
I .have my way, and expect that to be followed.” 
A BILL OF FARE is supposed to be appropriate 
only to hotels, restaurants, and the like. A lady- 
writes to the AyricMtoidsi; “I used to be worried 
about what to get for meals to keep up a variety^ 
and often racked my brain, when weary, trying to 
think what to get for the next meal. Often, after a 
meal was nearly ready, I thought of something 
else I wished I had planned for. Two years ago I 
wrote down on a card a list of the things conve¬ 
nient to get at all times; another list of ‘ occasion¬ 
al ’ dishes, and another list of things that may 
sometimes come in for a change, or as a rarity. 
Against some I have marked, H. F. B. (Husband’s 
Favorite Breakfast); others, H. F. D., and H. F. S. 
(His Favorite for Dinner and Supper). Some are 
marked E., for economical, etc. A glance over this 
has been a great help to me often, and I would on 
no account be without it. It contains a list of the 
sweetmeats on hand, of the sever.al kinds of cake, 
etc. Of course, I have my recipe book, in which 
are written down all eake and other recipes, for 
constant reference whenever memory fails me. I 
began this plan of systemizing from some hints 
given in the Agriculturist, and it has done a 
great deal to lighten my cares. ” 
Pairing the nails too closely is the prolific 
cause of most of the trouble with them. If the 
corners are cut down too much, the flesh grows 
over them, producing soreness, Always cut the 
nails only a little rounding, leaving the corners 
projecting above the flesh, which they are designed 
naturally to protect. If the nail inflames at the cor¬ 
ners, don’t pair it off, but raise it with a bit of cot' 
ton, protect it from pressure, and let it grow out 
over the flesh, when the inflamation will cease. 
Ornamental Strawberry Pin-Cushion. —A 
lady at Lockport, N. Y., sends us a very pretty 
strawberry, which, at a little distance, looks like 
the real fruit, but of a size (4 to 5 inehes in diame¬ 
ter) that overshadows even the great “ Agricultu¬ 
rist” berry. It is so ornament.al, and so readily 
made, that it is worthy of imitation. The cone is 
covered with scarlet merino; the seeds very natu¬ 
rally represrented by stitching through it with yel¬ 
low sewing silk. The calyx is made of green 
velvet. A circular piece of pasteboard, inside 
of the base, keeps it in shape, and makes it 
stand firmly. The filling may be of any conveni¬ 
ent material. Small specimens, filled with emery, 
are useful as needle cushions, the emery sharpen¬ 
ing, or at least keeping the needles bright. 
For Chapped Hands. —Mrs. A. B. Edwards re¬ 
commends rubbing a little honey on them 'while 
wet from washing, and then drying it in. 
Never Read or Sew with any light from the 
window or a lamii falling directly upon the eyes. 
Millions have lost their good eyesight from non- 
observance of this simple rule. It is founded on 
scientific principles which we '(V'ill not take room to 
explain at length. The light direet upon the eyes 
contr.acts their pupils, so that not enough rays are 
admitted from the printed pages or fabrics sewed, 
to make them plain to the sight. Always sit so 
that the light from the window or lamp shall fall 
over the shoulder, usually over the left one as it will 
not then be obstructed by the right hand in sewing. 
Another advantage, and a great one, is, that when 
faeing the light, one naturally inclines forward to 
save the eyes. This cramps the chest and lungs, 
and is injurious to the health ; but with the light 
from the side, or over the shoulder, one inclines to 
sit in a much more upright and healthful position. 
Every one who follows this suggestion, will find 
it conduce to comfort, health, and good vision. 
Fig. 1. 
A Safe and Sure Mouse Trap. 
The aeeompanying illustrations were sent us by 
“ D. J. T.,” of Essex Co., Mass., with a statement 
of such good success in its use, that every house¬ 
keeper ought to know how easy he or she can 
make a good mouse trap. A piece of sole leather 
is bent, as shown in Fig. 2, and the ends tied to¬ 
gether, far enough back to allow them to be sprung 
apart, and a bit of cheese or other bait inserted. 
This is placed under the edge of a bowl, as shown, 
the bowl resting on the curve of leather, so that a 
little movement of the leather will cause it to slip 
in and let the bowl down. It should be set upon 
a plate or pane of glass. When the mouse is 
caught the bowl may be inverted, right side up, 
and filled with water, or immersed in a bucket of 
water, and so the mouse be drowned. 
- * I ll ■n ^ t■ ll I 
Household Hints for the “Men-folks.” 
A lady writes: “ Pray do print the enclosed slip, 
which I cut from the American Agriculturist, years 
ago, and which I suppose both you and a good part 
of your old readers have long siuee forgotten. 
When it came out, husband said you meant it all 
for him, but, as you did not call his name, he could 
not take it as a personal affront. We have kept 
the slip neatly, as you see, and every word has been 
heeded. It abolished all dull shears, knives, etc. I 
beg you to print it for the half million o'r more of 
new readers, and suggest to every housekeeper to 
show it to her husband the first time she finds him 
in a particularly pleasant mood.”_[We defer to 
the judgment and wishes of our fair correspondent, 
and give the items. The husband who reads it 
will of course not understand this as aimed at him 
—we are spealdng of “ another man.”— Eds.] 
On a recent evening we happened into his house, 
(the other ijian’s house), and saw his wife tiying to 
cut out a garment; or, possibly, it was a patch for 
a coat for her boy or her husband ; but it was hard 
work, and a ragged edge was left. She made sun¬ 
dry efforts, and, by clipping several times, it seem¬ 
ed to come into about the desired shape. The fact 
was, the rivet was loose, and as for a cutting edge, 
that was worn off months ago. We noticed that she 
looked at her thumb and fingers to see if they were 
blistered. Three minutes with a hammer, to head 
the rivet, and a grindstone, whetstone, or even a 
file, to give a cutting edge, -(Vould have made all 
right, saved the wife several hours of time in the 
course of each week or mouth, and enabled her to 
do her work much more easily, and to patch more 
neatl}-. But her husband was a “hard working 
m.an,” and hadn’t the three minutes’ time. Having 
some business with him, we found him at the store, 
sitting in his accustomed place on the counter. 
The wife went to fix up the wood fire, and at¬ 
tempted to lift up a brand with the tongs, but the 
legs would turn and slip b}' each other. After sev¬ 
eral vain trials she pushed up the fire, and swept up 
the coals that had scattered from the falling brand. 
One minute’s time, with a hammer, would have 
tightened the joint and made the legs meet square. 
A daughter was trying to cut hash or mince meat, 
but the thug, thug, indicated that the dull knife 
was only mashing and not cutting the meat. The 
tired girl showed plainly that she had been at it for 
an hour or more. Three minutes with the grind¬ 
stone, or whetstone, or a file, once a month, would 
give that knife a shaiqj edge, and save many a pound 
of elbow grease, many wearisome hours, give that 
daughter a little extra time to read the American 
Agriculturist, (only the other man “ don’t take it”), 
and the finely cut tough meat would be far more 
digestible than when swallowed hurriedly in large 
pieces. (A Hale’s meat cutter, costing $4, would 
cut the hash for a large family in four minutes, 
or in less time, and do the work excellently.) 
One Monday we took dinner at the house of this 
“ other man.” The bread was not in smooth cut 
slices, but appeared as if haggled off from the loaf 
with the back of a scythe. The dried beef, instead 
of being in nice thin shavings, nice to look at, and 
nice to eat, was in thick, scraggy pieces, as if chop¬ 
ped off with a very dull hatchet. The table knives 
appeared to have been sharpened on the iron 
shovel handle, or on the stove edge, so long, and 
were so rounded off that, except from the shape, it 
would have been diffleult to tell on which side the 
edge had been. Five or ten minutes with the 
grindstonewould have given a good edge on one 
side of every knife in the house! How much 
work it would have saved iu the kitchen, in i)re- 
paring meals, cutting up meats paring potatoes. 
