MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
gontesti^ d^tmtrmg. 
ECONOMY OF STRENGTH. 
BY RUTH LEK. 
“Well,” that is what I call downright 
laziness, sittiug down to pare potatoes I” 
said good, resolute Aunt Eliza, as she 
caught sight of a trim litttle body seated by 
the kitchen table preparing potatoes for 
dinner. 
“ Oh I no, Aunty, not a bit of it; it is 
only economy of strength ! I don’t believe 
in wearing one’s self out unnecessarily. If 
my feet ache from doing the morning’s 
work, why not rest them, when my hands 
can move as swiftly sitting as standing ? I 
am only ‘killing two birds with one stone.’ 
When I go to housekeeping, you will Jind 
all sorts of contrivances in my kitchen for 
making hard work easy,” and Amy laughed 
merrily at the expression on Aunt Eliza’s 
face. 
She took a philosophical view of woman’s 
work, and I could not help contrasting her 
rosy cheeks and plump figure with the pale 
face and stooping form of the caller, who 
had the reputation of being the smartest 
woman in the neighborhood. She was fast 
wasting her energies by doing everything 
the hardest way, just because she fancied 
that industry and neatness are taskmasters 
who tolerate no bodily indulgence. 
The young girl’s theory and practice were 
so sensible that I was inclined to urge their 
adoption, whenever the varied labors de¬ 
volving either on mistress or maid seem to 
demand careful expenditure of physical 
strength. 
I have no more sympathy for genuine 
laziness than Aunt Eliza had. I believe in 
doing work well, and, if possible, in season, 
but not at the expense of the vital forces, 
which ought to last us an average lifetime 
of moderate labor. 
Household details are so numerous and 
complicated that the mother of a family is 
often obliged to attend to many of them at 
once, and she ought to learn how to mingle 
the lesser tasks with the greater, so that one 
set of muscles is resting while another is 
called into action. In this way some inter¬ 
vals of comparative rest can be secured, and 
the work move along more to the purpose 
than if there wore no partial breaks in the 
endless chain from morning till night. 
For instance, if pies or apple sauce are to 
be made, when the breakfast dishes are 
washed sit down to prepare the apples, and 
it will not infringe our code of domestic by¬ 
laws if you should happen to mix the pie 
crust also while sitting, for rolling it out and 
finishing the pies will he more easily done 
after this brief rest. 
When coffee is to be browned, it is well 
to give that process close attention, though 
sometimes mending stockings or reading the 
Rural will not interfere very much with 
the roasting if one eye is kept on t he oven. 
In many homes the washing machine has 
shorn Monday of half of Us discomforts, but 
genius has not yet rescued us from the 
thraldom of ironing day ; so here Necessity 
becomes “the mother of invention.” We 
find a board like those used for ironing 
dresses and skirts, furnished with four legs 
just long enough to come over the lap, is 
very convenient. On this one cun iron all 
small articles, and, if necessary, even shirts 
and large garments, though not quite so 
rapidly as at the table, and the change of 
posture, for a short time, is a relief when 
there is a large ironing to do. 
Cutting garments on a table is tiresome 
work, and the ironing bench can be used for 
this purpose, but a lap-hoard i3 better. It 
should be about three feet in length by two 
feet in width, with a half circle cut out on 
one side to fit the form. After a tew hours 
of hard work in the k«Ahen, the weary 
housewife will a a to the advantage of 
being aUe to prepare garments for the sew- 
iii;, machine without extra fatigue. 
I’erhaps a healthy, energetic woman 
might despise these simple expedients for 
lifting heavy burdens ; but in time even she 
may have ample need for some strength held 
in reserve ; while there are, doubtless, thou¬ 
sands of feeble women who gratefully accept 
any suggestions that will, in the least, lessen 
their labors. If they do the best they can, 
there will be many wide gaps in the course 
of the year which they cannot fill ; and 
without wishing to bo misunderstood, or ap¬ 
pear as an advocate for sloth and “inglo¬ 
rious ease,” I believe that the. ambitious 
wife and mother who does the most of her 
own work is more apt to do too much than 
too little. She can well afford to economize 
strength and preserve health, thereby se¬ 
curing more time for her own mental cul¬ 
ture and retaining the ability to wisely su¬ 
perintend the moral and physical education 
of her children. 
-»»» ■ ■ - - ■ 
ABOUT CAKE RECIPES. 
Dear Mr. Editor .-—Cake is not essential 
to my happiness ; nor are cookies, nor pud¬ 
dings ; but I know some people are fond of 
them. But it seems to me that they are not 
the end and aim of our domestic existence. 
Yet, judging by the almost numberless re¬ 
cipes which are given for the preparation of 
cake, it is the study of American housewivos 
to excel in its combination and construction. 
I like good cooking. I want meats of all 
sorts, and wholesome, fresh vegetables and 
soups, and good bread, &c. Judging by my 
own experience and observation, there is a 
most lamentable ignorance among the mass 
of American housewives concerning the 
proper and economical preservation of daily 
food for their tables. I confess my own ig¬ 
norance. When I travel and visit, hotels and 
restaurants, I am humiliated to learn that 
men cooks serve up the delicious dishes with 
which I tickle my palate. I should like to 
sit at the feet of these Gamaliels in cookery 
and be taught by them. Rut cannot the 
Rural women teach each other ? Can’t we 
abandon the cake recipe business awhile 
and tell each other how we cook meats and 
prepare vegetables in a way to render t hem 
appetizing by giving variety to our dishes, 
and yet in an economical way as well 1 I 
was not taught how to do this, and the little 
I have learned has been almost “altogether 
by myself ;” and I ask some skillful house¬ 
wife to give a chapter on cooking meats— 
based on procticul experience. 
Esther Allen. 
- +++ - 
SELECTED RECIPES. 
Boast Pig. —Take a well-dressed, small, 
fat pig; cut off the first joint of the feet; 
those, with the inwards, boil tender and 
chop fine. Prepare a dressing of bread 
soaked soft in hot water, {seasoned high with 
salt and popper, and sweet herbs, sage or 
t hyme ; soften the butter : fill the body and 
sew with a strong thread. Rub over with 
butter before putting In the oven ; this will 
prevent blistering. Bake a handsome brown, 
and have it well crisped. Tho gravy pre¬ 
pared from the drippings. 
Pudding without. Eggs.— Rice, large pearl 
sago and tapioca are best when tho pudding 
is made without eggs; sprinkle a little of 
any one of the above at the bottom of a 
pudding dish, add a little sugar, and till up 
with milk ; stir well before placing in the 
oven ; to the sugo mid a small piece of cin¬ 
namon broken up. The rice must bake quite 
four hours; the sago anrl tapioca about 
three. Skim milk will do if you cannot 
spare the new milk. 
Eggs on Toast.— Toast brown on both sides 
some slices of stale bread, dip in hot water 
to soften, then place them on a dish in the 
stove until the eggs are cooked ; poach the 
eggs by breaking them one at a time into a 
pan of boiling water, dipping them out as 
soon as the white is set, not allowing them 
to boil hard ; verve up hot with an egg on 
each slice of Loust, and season with pepper 
and salt. 
.Methyl Violet, on Wool. —For 10 pounds of 
wool, boil I ounce of methyl violet in a soap 
bath prepared by boiling pound of wash¬ 
ing soap, and dye the articles at 158'. To 
produce a bluer shade, tlrst dye in a bath of 
methyl violet alone at 140° to 158% and then 
boil for a quarter of an hour in a soap bath 
of pound of soap. Tho wool, however, in 
tills caste must be dyed a few shades darker, 
since the soap bath renders the Color lighter. 
The color obtained in this way is tolerably 
pure, very blue, and lively. A desired shade 
may also be produced by boiling the wool 
for J.$ an hour in a bath of 3 pounds of Glau¬ 
ber’s salt, pound of sulphuric acid, and 1 
ounce of methyl violet. 
To Stuff a Ham.— Parboil and place the 
ham on a tray ; make incisions over it with 
a sharp knife some two or three inches 
deep, and stuff these with a dressing made 
of crackers cooked to a brown crisp and 
crumbled fine ; add salt, pepper, egg, butter, 
parsley and onion chopped fine, then bake it 
brown in a moderate neat, and serve when 
cold. 
Eggs a la Bonne Femme. —Slice an onion, 
fry it in butter to u light brown, add a tea- 
spoonful of vinegar ; butter a dish, spread 
the onion and vinegar over it, break the eggs 
into it, and then put the dish into the oven ; 
when the eggs are done, strew fried bread 
crumbs over t hem, aud serve very hot. 
Potato Cakes .—Take mashed potatoes, 
Hour and a Jiltlo salt; to make them sweet 
add a little powdered loaf sugar ; mix with 
just enough milk to make the paste stiff 
enough to roll ; make it the size and thick¬ 
ness of a luufiln, and bake quickly. 
White Glue, or Cement .—Take pint of 
buttermilk and % of vinegar, boil together, 
strain the curd, then add 1 ounces of air- 
slaeed lime, then 4 or 5 eggs, all mixed to¬ 
gether. 
NATIVE HARDY FLOWERING SHRUBS. 
Without desire to censure the taste of a 
majority of the people for their fancy to 
possess foreign tropical plants with varie¬ 
gated foliage, like the Coleus, tri-color leaved 
Fuchsias, Achryantlius, Amaranthus and 
golden tri-color Geraniums, etc., I am at loss 
to know why it is that our hardy Azaleas, 
commonly, in the New England States, 
called the snow apple or swamp pink, us 
well as our Kalmiaa, generally known on the 
North River and throughout New England 
ns the ivy or laurel, are bo little known or 
appreciated. This far-seeking for beauty, 
let me say, is void of taste, find the man 
who plants a Puulonia, Kolrueteriu or Ailan- 
thus, shows little common sense and true 
taste and appreciation of the great Creator’s 
work, when the TJriodendron tulipifern, 
Magnolia accuminata, or box eider, truly 
called ash-leaved maple—i. e., Acer negundo 
fraxtnifolia can be had and occupy the space 
at less price; and as they grow are permanent 
in beauty as well as clean in foliage, aud void 
of all risk of injury from extremes of cli¬ 
mate. 
But my heading recalls me and directs me 
to my point, as to why it is that our native 
hardy Azaleas and our Kalinins are so gen¬ 
erally neglected? As a landscape gardener 
l have tried repeatedly to use them in my 
plantings, hut generally failed—first, because 
good plants could not bo found in the uur- 
series. and second, because the owners Of 
the ground or their working gardener ob¬ 
jected to the labor of preparation of soil for 
their success. 
Two weeks of travel upon the Hudson 
River and along the Connecticut shore line 
induces me to write, hoping that what I 
write may bring up the germ of a future 
taste and love of these plants of hardihood 
and beauty. I know the common impres¬ 
sion is that these plants will not bear the 
sun, and that they are difficult to transplant. 
Neither Is correct, for 1 have moved hun¬ 
dreds and hud them grow successfully; and 
recently, in my journey of study and obser¬ 
vation, I have seen these plants wild in the 
boldest, open exposures, as well an in the 
deepest shades. The brighter colors of flow¬ 
ers of the same varieties are to be found in 
the openings. Tho whole of thorough cul¬ 
ture with these plants is, as with all of the 
low-growing evergreens, viz., a steady, cool 
moisture at the roots. This is easily attained 
by preparing the ground—i. e., dig two feet 
deep, remove the clay or sand, and replace 
with the surface top soil of an old pasture, 
composed mainly of loamy clay and decayed 
vegetable matter. Raise this bed or border 
(so that if a bed of fancy pattern form, and 
eight feet in diameter at center, and toning 
each way say to points of twelve, sixteen, 
eighteen and twouty feet), then the center 
be eighteen inches above the turf edge. If 
it be upon a border, and the border be four 
feet wile, then let the near line of the bor¬ 
der be twenty-four inches higher than the 
front line. Now fill this in with the soil we 
have named; then place boulder stones of 
fancy, irregular forms, so that they shall 
present nature’s own formation of rock and 
not that of the artist mechanic; drop these 
rocks into the soil two, three, to five inches, 
then set out the plants, and as each one i» 
planted arrange for the half of its roots to 
bo under tlio rock. 
The time to move these plants is Septem¬ 
ber; and they should in all cases be cut close 
to the ground for, be it known, they make 
their bloom upon the growth of the present 
year, and to keep them in fine, blooming, 
shrubby condition they should be clipped 
back every spring. F, R, Elliott. 
- - -»■»♦ --- 
DISEASED PEACH TREES. 
What is the matter with my peach trees? 
Half or more of the leaves shrivel up and 
become crisp, hard und black, the greater 
portion of the fruit dropping off. Can see 
no signs of any insects on them. Could you 
suggest a probable cause or cure from this 
meager description of the ailment? 
The trees may have been injured by the 
cold last winter, or they may be suffer¬ 
ing from yellows, or borers In the stems, 
and we can suggest only a careful exami¬ 
nation for the cause. Were we among 
the trees we should certainly look for a 
cause, beginning at the root and working up¬ 
ward to the leaves themselves. The patient 
is too far away to make a good and thorough 
diagnosis of the disease, or prescribe reme¬ 
dies, beyond the free use of the knife in eut- 
ting out borers, and a liberal application of 
ashes about the roots to insure a vigorous 
and healthy growth, provided the trees are 
not too far gone to think of applying re¬ 
storatives. 
♦ » » 
ARBORICULTURAL NOTES. 
Against Hard. Pruning on Heavy Soil .—I 
will givo an instance which I think goes far 
to prove that fruit trees in the heavy soil 
here do not like hard pruning. An orchard, 
principally apples, was planted fifteen or 
more years ago, the trees were kept closely 
pruned, and produced at the time I first saw 
them a great quantity of twiggy shoots, 
which were annually cut bank, to bo fol¬ 
lowed by a greater number of the same sort, 
and little nr no fruit. The stems were hide¬ 
bound, aud covered with lichen, and did not 
increase in size. Three years ago the shoots 
were merely thinned in summer, leaving the 
principal ones their full length, or nearly so, 
and since then they have been left to them¬ 
selves. The result Is that the trees are re¬ 
covering rapidly, the stems are swelling, 
the bark cracking, and the lichen falling off, 
and Instead of twiggy shoots, we have 
shoots two feet in length full of fruit spurs. 
Last year many of the trees produced fruit 
of good quality, and I uni in hopes of seeing 
an annual improvement.— Wm. Taylor. 
Mulch the Trees .—If our readers have any 
newly planted trees about whose life they 
have doubt they should attend to mulching 
them at once. Many a tree and shrub, 
newly planted, may be saved. 
illiKfienie Jitformatimt. 
NEW REMEDY FOR DYSENTERY. 
Tn a recent issue of tho Archives de Medi¬ 
cine Navale is published an official note, 
addressed by Dr, Robert, who is the medical 
chief of the navel division of China and 
Japan, to the Inspector-General of the 
Health Service in the French navy, calling 
attention to a drug used by Chinese physi¬ 
cians in the treatment of dysentery. It 
consists of tho root bark of the ailanthus, 
very common in Chirm, also cultivated iu 
France and in this country. 
The bark of the root is the only part em¬ 
ployed. An infusion of the bark, however, 
exhales a slightly nauseous odor, and pos¬ 
sesses an excessive bitterness, resembling 
that, of sulphate of quinia. The Chinese 
physicians employ the root in tho fresh state 
only ; but Dr. Robert, having been com¬ 
pelled to use some that had become dry, 
found no sensible difference in its action in 
the two states. 
For administration, ounces weight of 
the root is cut into very small pieces and 
triturated with 2 ounces of hot water for a 
few minutes in a mortar, in order to soften 
the bark, and then strained. A Lcaspoonful 
of this strong infusiou is administered as a 
dose morning and evening, alone or in a cup 
of tea. Taken in this form, it provokes 
vomiting. The medicine is administered in 
this manner during three days, the patient 
being kept upon full diet. After that time 
the ailaailms is omitted aud the diet is 
altered to broths until health is restored. If 
after eight days’ treatment the patient is 
not cured, the Chinese physicians recom¬ 
mence the use of the ailanthus ; but Dr. 
Robert states that he has not met with a 
single case hi which tins resumption has 
been necessary, although he had under his 
notice some where the disease had lasted 
several months, as well as others of more 
recent origin. 
The principal symptoms which follow tho 
administration of tho ailanthus are said to 
be nausea, and sometimes vomiting, fol¬ 
lowed by a temporary lowering of the pulse. 
The disappearance of blood from the evacu¬ 
ations commences on the first day and is 
completed on tie second ; the colic ceases a 
little later. The effect, of the drug upon the 
color of the evacuii.ujii is variable. Dr. 
Robert sums up by expressing his opinion 
that the administration of the ailanthus 
gave superior results to those of ipecacuanha, 
astringents, alone or combined with opiates, 
or calomel. 
-- 
HYGIENIC NOTES. 
Goitre .—I write to ask a remedy for a 
goitre that is having a tendency to destroy 
the eyesight. I must thank “Doc” for his 
piece on “ Catarrh Remedies.” My catarrh 
of more than 20 years’ standing is “a thing 
of the past,” and I scarcely knew, until I 
read his article, what had cured me.—M. T. 
Davis. 
