AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
379 
used in cities, but they are still common in the 
country. If furnished to guests, do not neglect al¬ 
so to furnish something with which to snuff them. 
It is rather discouraging to see the long, black 
mass accumulating, with no means of disposing of 
it except by a dexterous pinch of the fingers, and 
this requires an expert. I should not dare ven¬ 
ture on such an experiment. 
It is bad economy to sew or read with a poor 
light. Eyes once lost are lost forever, and a few 
dollars’ worth of gas or fluid, oil, or tallow, should 
not for an instant be weighed in the balance 
against them. It is better to go to bed when the 
chickens do, than to injure the eyes. It is better 
even to wear rags, for they can be clean, than to 
lose our eyes by mending. 
A burning-fluid lamp requires less trimming 
than most others ; but it gives a much better light 
if the wick is frequently cut, and without any 
greater expenditure of fluid. 
-■©-« —w-o- 
Schools for Housekeepers. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
The idea ofestablishing a school expressly for 
instruction in the arts of housekeeping, will, per¬ 
haps, appear whimsical to many, but it may be 
doubted if there is an institution which is really 
needed more. Upon the proper administration of 
the household department depends much of the 
happiness of life ; for there are centered the ob¬ 
jects and interests that most nearly affect us. 
However stormy the world may be without, a 
well conducted home offers a constant refuge, 
where, day by day, care may be forgotten, rest ob¬ 
tained, and slrength renewed for the conflicts of 
life. There, too, are the incitements arising from 
the desire to surround and fill that home with the 
comforts of life. Where the household arrange¬ 
ments are such as to bring discomfort instead of 
pleasure, the very citadel of enjoyment is attack¬ 
ed, and no other resource can compensate its loss. 
Now, very much of the satisfaction which 
home may, and should afford, depends upon the 
proper performance of the mere details of house¬ 
work. Neatness, proper arrangement ot furni¬ 
ture, absence of confusion, skill and care in the 
cooking department, requisite attention to sleep¬ 
ing apartments—these and other similar matters, 
though consisting of operations and processes 
easily performed, are yet so imperfectly under¬ 
stood and practiced, that well nigh half the com¬ 
fort that a home should give, is lost. And it is 
sadly true that much of alienation from home du¬ 
ties on the part of men, arises from the fact, that 
other resorts furnish greater comforts and hence 
superior attractions. Nor can this be greatly won¬ 
dered at, when there are so few educated to the 
art of housekeeping. Among those in moderate 
circumstances, one or two of the older daughters 
may be kept at home to assist in the family work ; 
but the majority of the girls are sent to school to 
receive an education, and grow up ladies. When 
the latter are established in life, they can not 
properly conduct a household, much less teach 
their children the art. Among those who depend 
wholly upon servants, there is often, if not usu¬ 
ally, an almost entire want of knowledge on the 
subject. But even supposing each family to pos¬ 
sess sufficient skill in housekeeping to secure a 
fair share of home comfort, there is in almost 
every family a different system of housekeeping 
arrangements. While each possesses many val¬ 
uable arts and recipes unknown to others, each 
also has its own defects. Housekeeping knowl¬ 
edge has not een systematized into a science. 
There are thousands of good ideas upon the sub¬ 
ject, but one would need to visit a thousand dif¬ 
ferent families to become possessed of them. If 
schools devoted to instruction on this subject 
could be established, they might become centers 
of information upon all matters of household skill. 
The demand for knowledge on the subject, crea¬ 
ted by such schools, would soon be met by the 
industry of book makers, who would leave scarce¬ 
ly a household unvisited in their search for valu¬ 
able recipes and household arts, and thus the 
scattered items of value could soon be molded 
into solid ingots of knowledge. 
The advantages which such schools would 
present to young women desirous to improve in 
accomplishments especially in their sphere, are 
too apparent to require illustration. Now, a young 
woman not fortunate enough to be born in a family 
where good housekeeping is understood, can im¬ 
prove herself as a housekeeper, only by vexatious 
and costly experimenting upon the fragmentary, 
and often nonsensical methods and recipes she 
may pick up from irresponsible sources, such as 
are published anonymously in ordinary newspa¬ 
pers, or compiled from equally unreliable data by 
book makers. 
But it is not only for the comfort of home that 
I contend. Unskillful housewives and careless 
servants are the obstacles that prevent thousands 
from securing a competence. The old saying of 
“throwing out with a teaspoon faster than can be 
put in with a scoop-shovel ” is verified all over 
the land; and yet those in fault are rather to be 
pitied than blamed, for they do as well as they 
know how. There can be little doubt that enough 
could be saved by properly instructed housekeep¬ 
ers to doubly pay for the cost of their tuition. 
The experiment of such a school is already being 
tried in England, under the patronage of persons 
of wealth and high standing, and we hope to see 
the successful introduction of such establishments 
into this country, where at least equally with any 
other land we need Good Housekeepers. 
Benedict. 
Remark. —We should have no objection to see 
a trial of such schools as “ Benedict ” proposes, 
but we can not attach much importance to them. 
Schools of this character might be supported by 
the wealthy, but how few of this class would send 
a daughter to a school specially devoted to in¬ 
struct girls in household labors. The nearest— 
and the best—approach to a school of this kind 
was (and for aught we know is) the Female Sem¬ 
inary at Mt. Holyoke, Mass., where the young- 
ladies give most of their time to the usual 
scholastic studies, but each one, without excep¬ 
tion, devotes a portion of her time, in regular 
order, to the practical duties of the culinary and 
other departments of the Institution. 
Thing’s not Heat. 
[From our very heart, we pity the poor man 
who wishes us to print the following summary of 
“ things not neat.” He says he is an unfortunate 
boarder—having no home of his own, and that he 
has himself witnessed, at one time or another, the 
instances of untidiness he recounts. Where can 
the man have passed his days 1 He don’t date 
his letter. We advise him to at Qnce seek a neat 
home of his own. Hear him.— Ed.] 
It is not neat to mix bread with a snuff-box on 
the table, or snuff in the nose ; to feed the dog in 
the frying-pan ; to use the same sheet for the bed 
and the table-cloth ; to clean the nails with the 
table-knife, or pick the teeth with a fork ; to use 
the kneading-trough for a cradle ; to wash dishes 
in the hand basin ; to put half chewed quids of 
tobacco back again for future use ; to cook beans 
without looking them over to pick out the mice, 
(this is cruel also); to use the sleeve for a pock¬ 
et handkerchief; to use the wash rag for a dish 
cloth, or the same towel for dishes and hands ; to 
keep cake under the bed ; to keep the swill buck¬ 
et in the pantry, or the swill barrel in the kitch¬ 
en ; to throw dish water out by the back door or 
slops from the chamber window ; to cut plug to¬ 
bacco with your jack-knife, then pare apples with 
it, and finish by wiping it upon the hair or the 
pantaloons. D. 
For the Americ'an Agriculturist. 
Eye VS. Mouth.— To Nellie. 
It is the same old war, Nellie, that has been 
raging ever since the world began, and strange 
as it would seem, the eye has ever been forced to 
retire from the field. The mouth, the organ of 
mere sensual appetite, must ever be gratified, 
although at the expense of the eyes, those 
“windows of the soul,” that take in at pleasure 
the beauties of earth, and the glories of the 
heavens. We hope however that better days 
are at hand, when the pure delight which comes 
from tree, and leaf, and flower, may not always 
be met and counteracted by the desire of the 
palate; when men shall not forever look upon a 
grand old tree as an intruder, because it takes 
from them, it may be every year, one whole peck 
of grain, nor reckon how much more profitably a 
flower bed might be turned into a bean patch. 
I could almost forgive your father the planting 
that strawberry bed in place of your flower gar¬ 
den, but certainly I think he could have found 
some other place that would have suited as well. 
I wish you lived in this vicinity, Nellie, for the 
girls about here are great florists, and the man 
who should put in the desecrating spade would 
meet with some opposition. Lover of the Farm. 
— -■ ■ . --q i j —- 
Recipes. 
Au «!il Sasliioucd. Posdtliajg;. 
A correspondent from the Far West asks us 
for a recipe for a boiled pudding, such as he loved 
when he was a boy, and which, from his descrip, 
tion, we judge to be similar to what is often wel¬ 
comed upon the writer’s table, made as follows : 
Stir Indian meal into warm sweet milk, making 
it rather stiff; add a little salt, and two or three 
large table-spoonfuls of molasses to each quart of 
the mixture, and sliced apples, berries, raisins or 
currants, as many as will make it sufficiently 
fruity. A little suet chopped fine may also be 
added—if it is used, put it in the milk while 
warming. Enclose the pudding in a thick cloth, 
or tin pudding can, and boil two hours. Serve up 
with butter and molasses or sauce. 
To 5?rej>&i-e liomc-madc Sami?. 
[This and the following were contributed to 
the Agriculturist by Edith.]—Gather ripe ears of 
corn from the field, and with a carpenter’s plane 
lightly pressed against the kernels, take off shav¬ 
ings of the grain until the cob is reached; the re¬ 
mainder can be scraped off with the back of a 
knife. Put it into four times its bulk of hot water, 
stir it until the mass boils, and add salt to the 
taste. Cook with a slow fire three or four hours. 
Eaten with milk it is a rich and wholesome 
dish. 
To cools Summer Squiisia. 
Place the squashes whole in boiling water and 
cook until soft. Spread a cloth over a colander, 
and carefully lay them into it. Cut a small piece 
from each end, split them open, and remove the 
seeds with a spoon. Mash them fine, press quite 
dry, and season with butter, pepper and salt. 
