AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
23 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Cheap home-made Household Conveniences. 
BY ANNA HOPE. 
“I could live without a closet,” said a lady to 
me, “ but I don’t know how I could live without 
a closet door.” As she spoke she opened this 
valued door, and displayed its various conve¬ 
niences. Upon it hung her dressing gown, her 
working apron, and other articles, suspended from 
small brass nails or hooks. On the Iowgt part of 
the door was a shoe bag from which shoes, and 
gaiters and India rubbers were peeping out, ready 
for her selection at any moment. 
A shoe-bag is a great convenience. After be¬ 
coming accustomed to use it, a lady would scarce¬ 
ly be willing to be without one. Shoe-bags are 
made in various forms. Sometimes a square 
piece of calico is taken, and two rows of pockets 
felled on. These pockets are wide and deep 
enough to admit easily a pair of gaiters or slip¬ 
pers, yet not so deep as to conceal the whole shoe. 
A larger pocket may be made for “ leggins,” or 
stockings, or any comforts for the feet. These 
bags may be tacked to the closet door. 
Other shoe-bags are made of two circular pieces 
of calico—the larger about a yard in diameter, 
and the smaller a little more than two-thirds of a 
yard. These circles are so folded as to make 
eight divisions, and are sewed together where 
they are creased. Through the hem of the larger 
circle a string is drawn, thus forming a bag for 
stockings. 
Pockets may be made in a straight piece of cal¬ 
ico, and this gathered around a small circle, like 
the bottom of a basket, and the top drawn. 
These bags may be made of calico, or delaine, 
or merino, or of any material one chooses. The 
pockets can be made of different colors. Brown 
linen, trimmed with colored braid, is pretty. 
A traveling toilet-bag of oiled silk is another con¬ 
venience. It should be made with different sized 
pockets for the brush, comb, fine comb, nail brush, 
tooth-brush, wash-cloth, or sponge, and soap. 
Much of the furniture of a chamber may be 
made with very little expense, where economy is 
a consideration. Soap-boxes lined with paper, 
and covered with chintz, make not only good seats, 
but are useful as substitutes for drawers. As 
receptacles of pamphlets and newspapers, they 
are not to be despised. Shoe-boxes, thus lined, and 
covered, form quite respectable “divans.” A 
long box for a lounge, with a top that can be 
raised, is a nice place for dresses not in common 
use. Dresses hung in closets become “ stringy,” 
and if folded in a small compass they are wrinkled. 
Almost every one has seen the hour-glass work¬ 
tables. They are frequently made too high, but 
when they are not, they are very pretty arti 
cles of furniture, and the pockets around the top 
are always convenient. Toilet tables are some¬ 
times made by putting a substantial top over a 
barrel and covering it with furniture calico. Such 
a barrel is pretty sure to be full of what, other 
wise, no one knows exactly what to do with. Very 
comfortable hassocks, for the feet, may be made 
by cutting out two circles of cotton, twelve or 
fourteen inches in diameter, and stitching between 
them a strip six or seven inches wide. Stuff this 
evenly and firmly with the contents of the rag¬ 
bag, if you have nothing better, and then cover 
it with carpeting or drugget. 
A cutting-board is desirable in every family. 
This is made to lie on the lap. The outer edge is 
somewhat rounded, and the inner is cut out so as 
partly to inclose the body, thus keeping it in 
place with less difficulty than otherwise. It is 
very wearisome to stand by a table to cut, as 
every one knows. Even a common square piece 
of board is much better than nothing for this 
purpose. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
About Small Matters. 
WORK-BASKETS-MATCH SAFES-KITCHEN BOOK¬ 
SHELVES. 
There are sundry little conveniences about 
which it may seem trifling to speak ; yet, accord¬ 
ing to the writer’s observation, a useful hint or 
two may be given to many families. Take a 
lady’s work-basket, for example Every woman, 
and girl perhaps, has one, but how few have a 
well-contrived one. Usually, the common work- 
basket is a more or less capacious receptacle for 
sewing utensils and materials; but with these 
are thrown together promiscuously odds and ends 
of almost every description, such as unfinished 
knitting, patches for the good man's clothing, 
stockings to be darned, balls of worsted, skeins 
of silk, tangled bunches of thread, bits of wax, 
buttons, scissors, thimbles, paper of needles, etc., 
etc.—and to find any one article all must be ran¬ 
sacked. Did any one ever estimate how much 
time is lost in a year in tumbling over the work- 
basket 1 The golden motto of order—“Have a 
place for everything, and everything in its place” 
—is here very singularly shown to be a most 
defective rule, the work-basket being literally a 
place for everything, with everything in it. 
This confusion may be easily remedied by hav¬ 
ing the work-basket divided into compartments 
of different sizes, each to be appropriated to a 
particular use : say one for the thread, another 
for thimble and scissors, a third for patches, etc. 
If basket makers do not furnish such, the divis¬ 
ions can easily be made with thin slips of wood, 
or pasteboard neatly covered with silk or fancy 
paper. A strip of silk fastened around the sides 
of the baskets, and divided into separate pockets, 
will be found a very convenient appendage. As 
each lady’s taste will suggest different forms for 
her basket and its fixtures, I merely give general 
suggestions, leaving them to be carried out 
according to each one’s fancy. 
MATCH SAFES. 
AVere I an insurance agent, I would make it 
an imperative rule that every house insured by 
me should be provided with metal or earthen 
boxes, in which matches should be kept. They 
are often seen lying loosely upon the shelf or in 
the closet, where a careless servant, an unthink¬ 
ing child, or even a mischievous mouse, may 
produce disastrous results with them. A little 
incident has made me very careful in this mat¬ 
ter. One day, when about closing my room, I 
hastily threw a key into a drawer where were 
several loose papers and miscellaneous articles, 
and closed it; but just as it was closed there 
was a glimmer of light within the drawer which 
attracted attention from its novelty. Opening it 
I found that the key had struck the end of a fric¬ 
tion match, fired it, and, if undiscovered, the 
building, worth many thousand dollars, would 
probably have been consumed, and no one could 
have guessed how it took fire. It is unquestion¬ 
ably true that many fires have originated from 
mice nibbling the ends of matches, and we know 
that many children have been poisoned by biting 
matches carelessly left within their reach. Buy 
or make a metallic or earthen match safe , and keep 
it in a safe place. 
A BOOK-SHELF FOR THE KITCHEN. 
I do not mean the mantel-piece, for that is the 
catch-all of the room, but a shelf expressly for 
books. I believe that one-third more reading 
would be done were this, simple appendage 
attached to every kitchen. I name the kitchen, 
for this is the room most used in many if not 
most farm-houses. I say a book sheif rather 
than a book case, because we want the books to 
stand where they will be seen, extending their 
kind invitation to occupy the hour of nooning 
or the evening, so often spent in a most unso¬ 
cial snooze. A few may be selected at a time 
from the library, which I hope yet to see in 
every farm-house, to occupy places upon the 
kitchen shell, and they will surely receive much 
more attention from simply being handy to take 
U P- Housekeeper, 
(To he continued.) 
~ '<Q 4 ■—i| im f (j|__ 
For the American Agriculturist. 
To Turtleize a Calf’s Head. 
Old Way. —Have ready a calf’s head, pluck, 
and feet. Put the head and pluck in a large pot 
to par-boil. Boil the feet by themselves. Make 
stuffing for the heart (if you choose to roast it) of 
bread, butter, cloves, pepper, salt, some sweet 
herbs, and an egg. Sometimes the heart is sliced 
with the head. When the head is par-boiled, 
take it out, cut it in neat slices, with a little of 
the “lights,” and lay it in a stew pan with some 
cloves and mace, anu an onion or two. Cover it 
with the liquor it was boiled in, and let it stew 
for an hour or more; then roll a good lump of 
butter in some flour, stir in a cup of wine if you 
choose ; boil two eggs hard, and chop fine to mix 
with the brains which, with the tongue, must be 
very well boiled ; let them be laid in one dish, the 
tongue in the middle. Pour melted butter ovei 
the brains. Lay the roasted heart in a dish, with 
some liver fried brown and laid round it. The 
feet must be in a dish with some butter and vine¬ 
gar poured over them. The balls must be made 
thus : Take a pound of pork and a pound of 
veal, made very fine ; chop in two small onions, 
some alspice, salt, pepper, sweet herbs, parsley, 
crumbs ol bread and an egg, and a good lump of 
butter. Roll them into balls, fry them brown, 
lay some round every dish and send to the 
table. 
New Way. —Choose a calf’s head with the skin 
on if you can get it. Take £ lb. of resin pounded 
fine, and rub it in the hair, then dip in boiling wa¬ 
ter till the hair starts, and clean nicely; clean the 
liver, part of the lights, heart and tongue. Boil 
the heart and tongue 1£ hours, the head 1£ hours, 
and the livers and lights an hour. Take out the 
head ; cut in slices, and put it in the pot with 
cloves, pepper, salt and mace, and a piece of butter. 
Fill up with the liquor. Let it boil up well, then 
thicken with pounded crackers or flour and water; 
put in a glass of wine, if you choose. Make balls 
of 1 lb. veal, i lb. pork (an onion if you like); 
chop in very fine, some cloves, pepper, and salt, 
crumbs of bread or crackers, an egg, and a good 
lump-of butter with some sweet herbs—parsley if 
you like. Roll into balls and fry very brown. 
Take the brains, and beat fine with a knife, beat 
in an egg and add a little salt. Mix with flour to 
a batter like paneakes and fry. 
[The above we find in our drawermarked “In¬ 
sert when room,” but can not recall the name ol 
the writer, which is not on the manuscript.— Ed.] 
-- --- - - 
Hecipes. 
A large batch of good ones is being prepared 
to be given “all in a heap ” next month : send 
on more early—if you have good ones. 
