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DRESS FOR FARMERS’ WIVES. 
Mrs. R. B. Bruce has recently read a 
paper before the Washington Orange of 
Patrons of Husbandry from which wo make 
the following extracts I have prepared a 
few suggestions conveying my own peculiar 
ideas, hoping that you will hear with me 
when 1 have a woman's work to do, and my 
time is pretty ranch occupied about ray own 
household affairs. In the first place, let us 
dress within our means, and for comfort and 
convenience, instead of fashion. First in 
order, let us dress the head. Clod in his 
infinite wisdom covered the head with hair, 
and the good hook says that long hair is an 
ornament to a woman, and since God’s works 
are perfect and no work of art can compare 
with his, let us then arrange our natural hair 
in a tasty manner, and not let fashion load 
our heads with hemp or borrowed hair. 
Then t he covering for the head ; of what 
real account is the present style, except for 
ornament. Our husbands and brothers wear 
a hat that protects their heads and faces 
from the hot rays of the sun in summer, and 
in winter a fur cap or hat which is both warm 
and comfortable to shield thorn from the 
cold blasts, while we place upon our heads a 
cupola, erroneously called a bonnet or hat, 
hold in position by guy ropes and stays, and 
if we wish for comfort we must carry a par¬ 
asol to protect our heads from the scorching 
rays of the sun in summer, and in winter, 
over this cupola, wrap some extra fixings to 
keep out the cold, which is neither handy or 
convenient, especially when the team is wait¬ 
ing for us.. Oh for the good, old-fashioned 
days when a bonnet was made to cover the 
head, light and cool for summer, and warm 
and comfortable for winter. I could hardly 
adopt the Quaker styles, yet I think they are 
far preferable to the fashions of the present 
day. Perhaps a medium between the two 
would suit my taste. 
And our dress, of whatever tiabric it may 
be composed, let it be made in a becoming 
style, easy fitting and convenient, and not 
counterfeit deformity by carrying a pack 
upon our backs to the inconvenience of our¬ 
selves, and to the utter disgust of all sensible 
men and women. Deformities will come to 
us fast enough at beat; let us, then, not 
tempt our Maker by ridiculously .attiring 
ourselves, lost He iu his vengeance may deal 
with us or our offsprings. If we had been 
born thus deformed, Oh, what a pity it 
would have been I then why do it for fash 
ion’s sake i And then again, how much more 
convenient it would be, if, when a dress is 
made, it would stay made and look well until 
it is worn out, aud how much it would lessen 
our labors. And then how much good could 
be done with the time and means now spent 
in useless display. My tastes are plain and 
simple. I consider such an over-loaded, 
puffed out concern as you sec at the present 
time for a dress, not only ridiculous but 
vulgar. 
The question arises, What are you to do 
with the gil ls '! they want to dress in style, 
or as others do. I will answer, as the twig is 
bent so the tree inclines. 
And our under dress, let it be. sufficiently 
warm, as many of the aches and pains that 
we have can be traced to insuiiicienb cloth¬ 
ing. Let our shoes be such, as will keep our 
feet dry and warm, as our health depends 
much upon this point. I would recommend 
a thick woolen stocking for winter, and cot¬ 
ton only for summer wear. And, finally, let 
our whole apparel be for comfort and con¬ 
venience. Let there bo a variety in our 
wardrobe, for variety is the spice of life. 
These views I would recommend for the 
following reasons First, It would lessen 
the burden of many who now find it hard to 
maintain their place in society. It would 
lessen the force of temptations which often 
lead men to barter honesty and honor for 
display. If there was less strife in dress, it 
would enable people in moderate circum¬ 
stances to go, more into society. It would 
enable all classes to attend church. It would 
save valuable time. It would relieve our 
means from a serious pressure, and thus 
enable us to do more for good enterprises. 
-4-44- 
WHOLESOME SOUPS. 
and soda or all eggs); mix together rather 
stiff. Divide into about three parts ; roll 
quite thin ; flour plentifully so as to prevent 
it hanging togother ; fold from each side ; 
cut in two in the middle, lay one piece on the 
other and cut the cornel's off—first one sido 
and then the other. This keeps them from 
being long and stringy. But about a quart 
of water into a vessel, salt and pepper and a 
piece of butter as large as an egg. Let it, 
come to a boil and put in your “ noodles ” 
(we call them); let them boll a few minutes 
and send to the table. They spoil by stand¬ 
ing. That is my way. It isono of the dishes 
that never hurts mo though everything else 
may. Chicken broth may answer; but for 
a dyspeptic or an invalid the abovo is the 
most digestible. This is enough for a family 
of five or six. 
Another way is to take half a pint of flour, 
put in a dry pan, break an egg into it, mb all 
around with the hand until all the flour is 
wet and it is in even lumps ; cook same as 
the other ; or it is nice to put in almost any 
kind of soup ; stirred into milk it is also 
good. L - J * 
-- 44 *-- 
tried all sorts of medicines, but found none 
that ever gave any perceptible relief. The 
best preventive that l know of is cleanliness, 
with good, wholesome food, Now I have 
given you, in my estimation, both the pre¬ 
ventive and cure of chicken cholera ; and I 
think if the last recipe is well followed the 
remedy will very rarely have to be resorted 
to ; but in case there are auy symptoms as 
above described, never t ry to save the very 
best at the risk of your flock. x. x. 
■ 4 - 4 - 
DOMESTIC BREVITIES. 
Buckwheat Pan Gakes. —The season for 
those delicious breakfast cakes has arrived. 
] have eaten so mauy kinds of these cakes 
made by my respective friends, that I fancy 
there, must be about ten thousand different 
ways of making- them. Now 1 don't want 
Mr' Editor to publish ten thousand recipes 
for buckwheat cakes ; but I should like those 
who think they can make as good cakes as 
anyone iu the wide, wide world, to tell how 
they do it for the benefit of at least one 
—Young Housekeeper. 
mxt 
MAGGOTS AS POULTRY FOOD. 
This novel plan of breeding maggots to 
feed to poultry has been in successful opera¬ 
tion in Bohemia for two or tl i ree seasons. It 
is said that young turkeys prefer this food to 
any other. Directions :—Dig nine pits four 
by eight, feet wide and three feet deep, small¬ 
er if desired, line bottom aud sides with 
brick, so the maggots cannot crawl out. or 
the pit cave in. For nine successive days fill 
one of these pits in the following manner: 
First, cover the bottom three inches thick 
with cut straw ; second, one course of horse, 
pigeon or chicken manure two inches thick ; 
third, one inch of a mash made from yenst, 
potatoes and Indian meal ; fourth and last, 
one course of loose, damp soil one or one and 
a half inches thick. Cover the whole with a 
light roof to keep the sun and rain ofl', but 
open to admit the common muck fly, ono 
of which is capable of producing, accord¬ 
ing to natural history, five hundred millions 
of eggs in one summer. The fly will deposit 
its eggs in the pit, which, after the expira¬ 
tion of nine days, will be filled with maggots. 
The contents of one pit will keep three thou¬ 
sand chickens for one day, giving three meals 
per day. To winter pheasants or chickens 
on the same food make more pits,, let the 
maggots transform into the larva, and fill the 
same into barrels. 
- 4 - 4-4 -- 
POULTRY NOTES. 
THE “ WILD TEA ” FOR CANCER. 
1 was somewhat amused at the remarks 
of the Press concerning Charles Yardley s 
wild tea cancer remedy. I know the plant, 
but I do not know its botnrmic-al name. It 
grows very plentifully iu Addison, Steuben 
Co., N. Y. It is a shrub two to four feet 
high; the leaf resembles tea leaves, and taste 
some like tea, but more rank and bitter. 
Some people use it for tea. The flowers are 
whil e and small, arranged in conical umbels 
about the size of an old-fashioned cent. 
Some call it “Mountain tea 1 ” If it had been 
conveniently accessible to me, I would have 
written you concerning it, and sent, a speci¬ 
men. As to its being a cancer remedy I 
know nothing; it may be good and it may 
not. Charles Yaroi.ey may be the great¬ 
est impostor, and ho may not; but J. know 
the plant, and if fortune ever gives me the 
opportunity I’ll send you specimens. 
Beuben Andrews. 
- 44 4 — - 
HYGIENIC NOTES. 
SAVE THE LARGEST GOBBLER. 
Wm. Craft, in Poultry World, says :— 
“ Now that the season has arrived for select¬ 
ing the male turkeys to preserve for breed¬ 
ing purposes, the necessity of pinking out 
the largest and most perfect as regards form 
and vigor may well be urged upon everybody 
who keeps this very profitable farm stock. 
Let it be constantly borne in mind that s.ze 
is a great desideratum in a gobbler kept for 
breeding. The largest males may be used 
with safety, even if paired with fair tome 
dium-sized hens, provided the following pre 
cautions arc used. 
“The peril from a 35-pound gobbler is a 
reality, whether the hen be large or small. 
This arises not so much from the great weight 
of the gobbler as from a vicious use of his 
well-grown spurs and claws. If left free, the 
feathers are soon torn from the backs of the 
kens and the skin not infrequently follows, 
and the hen dies from the injuries. To pre¬ 
vent this, the gobbler maybe kept in eonfine- 
m nt for a few weeks before you wish his 
services. It is a well-ascertained fact, that 
a single connection of the male with the hen 
turkey, at the proper time, insures the fertil¬ 
ity of all the eggs she may lay in the first 
litter after it. A day or two of the gobbler 
with the hens answers ail the purpose of 
weeks, and greatly diminishes the danger of 
in jury. As an additional safeguard, cut the 
spurs and toe-nails, and bum off all the sharp 
points with a hot iron, of course taking care 
not to injure the fowl. If this be done, breed¬ 
ing with large turkeys is quite as safe as with 
smaller birds. We arc aware that the Arnor- 
K-an passion for size has sometimes operated 
to the detriment of potdtry. But in turkeys, 
size can be secured without danger.” 
Ducks as Egg-Producers. —In answer to a 
correspondent the Cottage G ardener says: 
The number of eggs laid by a duck depends 
very much on the breed to which she be¬ 
longs. In all poultry the non-sitters lay 
more than those that are concerned in the 
rising generation. Tims the Aylesbury will 
lay a greater number of eggs than any other 
duck. The black duck, called the Labrador, 
the East, Indian or Buenos Ayrcau is a good 
layer. The Rouen is an average layer, and 
the wild duck lays few compared to these. 
An old duck is, as a rule, ft better layer than 
a young one, but it iB impossible to give the 
average of any of them. Aylesbury ducks 
begin to lay hi November and December; 
Rouens three months later. Both the time 
when they begin laying, and the number ol 
eggs t hey lay, are influenced by their keep 
and by judicious management. 
77 iC Early Ducklings that realize such high 
prices in the. London market, are said to be 
principally the Aylesbury variety, distin¬ 
guished by their great size, white plumage 
and flesh-colored bill. Their high quality ife 
B atd t.o be produced by feeding the old birds 
largely with sound oats placed in a vessel of 
water. If not allowed much room to swim, 
old ducks will lay freely in winter ; then the 
eggs should be hatched under hens, and the 
ducklings liberally fed with slaked oatmeal 
and fine middlings, aud afterwards with oats 
in water. Under this treatment they may 
be made ready for the table in less than two 
months.—Country Gentleman. 
Danger from Wet Clothes.—Few persons 
understand fully the reason why wet clothes 
exert such a drilling influence. It is simply 
this :—Water, when it evaporates, carries off 
an immense amount of heat, In what is called 
the latent form. One pound of water in 
vapor contains as much heat as nine or ten 
pounds of liquid water, and all this heat 
must, of course, be taken from the body. If 
our clothes are moistened with three pounds 
of water, t hat, is, if by wetting they are three 
pounds heavier, those t hree pounds will, in 
drying, carry c,fl' as much hoataswould raise 
three gallons of ice-cold water to tho boiling 
point. No wonder that damp clothes chill us. 
— Handicraft. 
Medical Value of Asparagus.—A Medical 
correspondent of an English journal says 
that the advantages of asparagus are nob 
sufficiently appreciated by those who suffer 
with rheumatism and gout. Slight coses of 
rheumatism are cured in a few days by feed- 
I Lug on this delicious esculent ; and more 
chronic oases are much relieved, especially if 
the patient, avoids all acids, whether in food 
or beverage. Tho Jerusalem artichoke has 
also a similar effect in relieving rheuma¬ 
tism. The heads may bo eaten in the usual 
way, but, tea made from the leaves of the 
stoik, and drank three or four times a day, 
is a certain remedy, though not equally 
agreeable. 
Hay Fever.— I send you something that 
will do good to thousands. A gentleman who 
has had this hitherto incurable torment, for 
twenty years publishes tho following certain 
cur e.Get a saturated solution of sulphate 
of quinine iu water, iu the proportion of one 
part of quinine to 740 of water, to bo well 
shaken and applied to the nostrils, while 
lying down, with a small camel’s hair brush, 
until it is felt, in the throat; the relief is im¬ 
mediate. My wife has had it every season 
for thirty-five years. This simple remedy 
cured her at once. Our phial contains, water 
;> nz ,; quinine 3 grains. Pass it along.— C. 
C. Muller, 4,011 Spruce St reel, Ph iladelphia. 
CHICKEN CHOLERA. 
I will give recipes for two soups that are, 
I think very wholesome, palatable, cheap 
and quickly made. To a good many, in part, 
they may be old, to some entirely new. 
Sift a pint, or a little more, of flour into 
the bread pan ; break in one egg ; odd a 
little salt and about a gill of sweet milk 
(which I find is much better than sour milk 
Your lady correspondent from Indiana, I 
think, puls the case rather strong when she 
says that there is no such thing as “chicken 
cholera"— that death is caused by lice, which 
infest the chickens in different parts. 1 have 
hail a little experience in the “ chicken chol¬ 
era” line, and am 1 free to confess that I 
think there is such a disease, and that lice 
are not the cause of death where chickens 
exhibit the following symptoms, to wit: 
“Ageneral drooping appearance, and look¬ 
ing like they were under the effects of an 
opiate; droppings thin, watery, greenish; 
crop having a full appearance ; no disposition 
to eat food ; but that it is a disease some¬ 
times malignant, sometimes mild. The best 
cure 1 have ever found was to make a good 
deep hole in the ground and knock the dis¬ 
eased ones on tho head, without regard to 
the quality of the fowl, and plant them so 
i deep that they will not be moved. I have 
Imported Dark Brahmas.—Mr. Isaac Van 
Winkle has just received four Dark Brahma 
birds from England whose weights arc re¬ 
spectively (hens) 1QX, 10 and 0 lbs.; cock, 14 
lbs., English weight- as good birds as there 
are in England. Mr. Van Winkle also has 
notice that, he is to receive some Derby Fowls 
direct from Lord Derby's ©state. Of these 
we shall have occasion to sprak wbttft they 
arrive. 
Folds that Cannot Pick up Corn.—It C. C. 
Rost will take the trouble to examine the 
fowls that cannot pick up com, I think he or 
she will find the reason to be that they are 
blind. Mine were so, and I thought they had 
been eating salt, and so fed them milk, which 
they ate ravenously, and iu two or three 
days got well. They were probably nearly 
starved before the symptoms wo' e discover¬ 
ed C. H. Frank. 
Light Brahmas and Partridge Cochins , 
Jo u.v S. Ives says he is convinced excel all 
others in the production of eggs and as market 
fowls. He feeds principally upon pumpkins, 
small potatoes, cabbage, and all unsalable 
vegetables grown upon his farm,-boiled and 
thickened with s quarts of com meal to a 20- 
gallon boiler full. 
Dried Meat for Medicinal Purposes— The 
American Journal of Pharmacy says It is 
prepared by Daneucy of Bordeaux by cut¬ 
ting fresh meat finely, spreading upon mus¬ 
lin, drying rapidly in a current of air and 
rubbing into a brown powder, which is 
almost inodorous, and has a slightly saline 
taste. It is readily taken by patients, spread 
upon bread, or a teaspoonful of it mixed 
with a cupful of broth or soup, or by chil¬ 
dren, If baked into biscuits. 
Light in the Boom for the Sick. —The late 
physician to the Emperor of Russia made a 
careful study of the effect of light as a cu¬ 
rative agent ill the hospital of St. Peters¬ 
burg. lie discovered that the number of 
patients who worts cured in rooms properly 
light ed was four times as large as it was 
when they were confined in dark rooms. 
To Bender Castor Oil Tasteless—It is re¬ 
commended to first put the dose of oil in a 
glass, and place upon Its snrtaee a quarter 
of a teaspoonful of chloroform, and swallow 
the whole. The chloroform will not harm. 
Frosted Feet may be cured as follows : 
White oak bark, taken fresh and boiled in 
water to a strong liquor. Bathe the feet in 
th- hr'tor. It is pronounced the best of all 
remedies. 
Pomade lo Prevent Baldness.— Lard, four 
ozs.; Spermaceti, one dram ; Lemon juice, 
six drams; Tincture Cantharides, one-half 
dram. Perfume to taste. 
