266 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
without overtaxing themselves. Hard-working 
people feel the hardness of their lot more than 
ever when brought into contact with the elegant 
leisure paraded by their unthinking visitors. Y/o- 
men who live at the old homesteads of their hus¬ 
band’s families, sometimes suffer a good deal from 
such visitations, thorfgli they may suffer cheerfully, 
because they love and enjoy their visitors so much. 
This mitigates the severity of the care and labor, 
it is true, but the care and labor are there all the 
same, and the housekeepers and mothers will be 
especially liable to suffer in consequence. 
Sometimes visitors realize this, and make them¬ 
selves useful in many ways, saving steps for the 
busier members, and warding off trouble by atten¬ 
tion and patience. It is always help for the parents 
when visitors win the children’s love and confi¬ 
dence and manage to keep them interested and 
happy with innocent pleasure. 
There are mothers, to be sure, who would rather 
be set free to take care of their own children, if 
that were possible, but they may be thankful if 
there is any one to watch over the little ones wisely 
while they are unavoidably tied by household tasks. 
Does that sound heartless? Yet on this subject 
of mothers’ rights my heart is especially tender. 
Even more so, however, in regard to children’s 
rights. But when I set out with this topic I was 
going to say to visitors in general what no hostess 
will ever be likely to say to any guest in particular. 
If you really want to help the “ lady who does 
her own work” while you make her a friendly visit 
of a few weeks, probably the best thing you can do 
is to wash the dishes regularly. If she has a little 
girl or boy to do this work for her, there are other 
regular unavoidable tasks, like sweeping, dusting, 
taking care of bedrooms, which you can do with¬ 
out asking questions. Whatever you do, try to 
take something off from her hands and mind, so 
that she may be relieved of all concern about it. 
“ Too many cooks spoil the broth,” and for this 
reason the one who is accustomed to do the cooking, 
and who knows just what is iu the house and where 
it is, may as well keep to that department generally. 
Dish-washing is as easy as any work, but it is some¬ 
thing that must be done, and often it drags along 
most unpleasantly', when one has frequent inter¬ 
ruptions from small children and from callers. 
When you visit at a house where there is plenty 
of hired help, you should still be careful not to 
make unnecessary trouble and labor. 
Another Word to Men. —Mr. Rochester says 
I would do well to advise farmers to quit work 
early, wash up, and put on their clean linen coats 
before supper, and get time to read a little while 
on the porch or piazza, before dark. 
I say, “ The clean linen coat by all means, if they 
want the pleasure of taking baby iu their arms.” 
He says, “ It does a man a deal of good to 
feel dressed up and decent once a day, if only for 
half an hour. Every hired man ought to enjoy this 
relief. I notice that good hired men don’t grumble 
so much about being set to work too early in the 
morning, as about being worked too long at night. 
They want a chance to lounge about and chat with 
other folks a little while before bed-time. In the 
hottest of haying weather it is better to work late, 
and take a good long rest in the middle of the day, 
of course. But I believe in early suppers and even¬ 
ing rest and recreation as a general rule.” 
“And in clean clothes, too,” say I. And then, if 
we can all have a ride, or some entertaining family' 
reading, or a social game of some kind, it will do 
much to save us from feeling like drudges and 
slaves, and will help us to be kindly affectioned one 
toward another. 
Drying Corn. — During those months when 
green corn is out of season, dried corn may be made 
into a very palatable dish. I was told last year that 
the easiest way to dry the sweet corn (and we never 
dry any other) was, to cut it from the cob, spread 
it in the sun, and dry it without any scalding. This 
was said to be just as well as to go to the trouble of 
scalding the corn, either in a kettle of water, before 
cutting, or in the oven afterwards. I could not 
quite believe it, and did not try it. I did not think 
the dried corn would be as sweet as when cured 
more rapidly. When I had an opportunity to make 
a comparison, my previous opinion was confirmed. 
The corn, simply sun-dried, lacked much of the 
sweetness and delicacy of flavor that I had always 
found in dried sweet-corn. So this year I shall 
scald the corn on the cob, putting it into boiling 
water, and cooking it a few minutes, then cut the 
corn from the cob as closely as I can, without shav¬ 
ing off the cob, scrape off the sweet yellow chits 
gentiy with the cut corn, spread all upon plates, 
and set the plates into a warm oven. When the 
corn is dry enough, so that two plates may be 
emptied together without spreading the corn too 
thickly for even drying, I shall probably set .the 
corn in the sunshine, on a shed or out of reach of 
chickens and kittens. To keep off flies and bees I 
will spread over it a piece of mosquito-netting. 
When well dried, I shall tie it up in a cloth-bag, 
and hang it in a dry store-room. Before winter I 
will examine the corn at the top, to see if insects 
have laid eggs in it, and if I see any sign of their 
eggs or larvae, I must spread it on plates again for 
a quick scalding in the heat of the oven. But I 
have never had corn get wormy. Next winter we 
will have sweet-corn on the table as often as twice 
a week, regularly, “ wind and weather permitting.” 
It shall be washed in cold water, and the hulls that 
rise on top of the water shall be turned off. Then 
it shall be put in a stew-pan, with cold water enough 
to soak it and boil it tender. The stew-pan shall 
be set upon the back of the stove, allowing the 
corn to heat slowly as it soaks. Then half an hour’s 
boiling will be sufficient. Sometimes it shall be 
seasoned with rich milk (cream, when cream is 
plenty, but milk is good enough) and a little salt. 
This may be poured over toast or over dry bread, 
previously soaked in hot milk. Sometimes we 
shall season it with butter, salt, and a little black 
pepper, and crumb crackers in, oyster fashion ; and 
sometimes we shall put in neither bread nor crack¬ 
ers, but fresh white gems—as we sometimes do, 
pot-pie fashion. And the dried corn will be good 
and wholesome, almost any way you can fix it. 
Some housekeepers boil the corn as though for the 
table, before cutting it from the cob, and then do 
little more than soak out the dried corn when the 
time comes for cooking it. It can not be as sweet, 
I think, for so much boiling. For when you boil 
sweet-corn, the water in which you cook it becomes 
quite sweet, so that you might boil down the water 
in which you had cooked two dozen ears of corn 
into a spoonful or more of sweet-corn molasses. 
The longer you boil your corn, the sweeter the 
water in which it was hoiled becomes. This sweet¬ 
ness ought to go into the dried corn, and not be 
thrown away. 
Perhaps some one thinks that is a good reason 
for not boiling the corn at all, and I should think 
so myself,-only I do not like to waste the milk of 
the corn, as one must in cutting it from the cob 
without scalding it enough to harden the juice a ft 
little. That is my reason for the water scalding. 
Then I put it iu the oven and dry it rapidly at first, 
because I have learned that the flavor is best pre¬ 
served if the outside is dried so quickly that the 
inside has no time to change before it is shut in by 
the dry outside or crust. One must be careful not 
to scorch it. 
Drying Berries and other Fruit.— The last 
rule mentioned holds good in reference to drying 
berries or any kiud of fruit. If you spread the 
sweetest of blackberries out to dry gradually 
in the sunshine, you will lose a large proportion of 
their goodness. The seeds will be left to you, and 
the color and the sourness, and a part of the flavor, 
but you can not get the best of pies out of the 
seedy things. -Sister L. wouldn’t do that on any 
account. She takes them as soon as they are brought 
home and spreads them rather thickly on earthen 
platters or plates, and puts them into the warm but 
not too hot oven for a few hours, then under the 
stove, unless the sun shines hot. Canning is carried 
on extensively iu the same family, but when pies 
are expected twice a day, without fail (how can a 
housekeeper stand thac ?), dried fruit is also in de¬ 
mand. She dries apples, pears, peaches, etc., in the 
same way, and I have seen none better than hers. 
Young housekeepers know so little, sometimes 
(at least, I did once !), that it is safe to suggest that 
of course all dried fruit or vegetables should be 
soaked in cold or tepid water, or be put to cook in 
cold water, coming slowly to a boil. Dried apples 
are just as good, so far as I can see, to be washed 
and put upon the stove at once in cold water, with¬ 
out soaking, heating gradually and stewing gently 
until they are done, as when soaked over night. 
Nothing acid should be cooked in an iron dish or 
in tin that has worn down to the iron. Porcelain 
kettles, earthen stew-pans, or tin dishes, unworn, 
should be used. 
“ The Doctor’s Prizes.”— Uncle Tim, of Hearth 
and I-Iome , and “ The Doctor,” of the Agriculturist, 
make me almost wish to be a child again, there 
must be such pleasure in working for their prizes. 
I would like to see some of the letters from children 
which those ivorthy gentlemen get, especially the 
lists of animals and flowers seen in May. That is 
the first prize-business that has come within the 
range of our eldest child’s abilities, and now we 
hear about his “ lists” every day, and see the little 
fellow working his jaws in his efforts to print the 
names of the flowers and animals he sees, just as 
we spell them for him. He persists in making out 
both lists, which is good sport for him and won’t 
hurt any one. For he knows how to print, and spells 
by the sounds of letters, though he has never been 
taught to read. I hope the “ Doctor ” will offer 
more prizes for work that will help on the healthy 
development of our children’s faculties. Not that 
I care particularly for the prizes, though I dare say 
they are worth getting, but work that exercises a 
child’s faculties happily is always good in the way 
of education. The puzzles, rebuses, anagrams, etc., 
which many narrow-minded people despise, are 
excellent in this way. 
Netting in the Windows. —One thing that 
made the sitting-room at the B.’s seem so cool and 
pleasant in the summer-time, was the netting in 
the windows, in place of the glazed sashes. They had 
blinds upon the outside, which they would close 
to shut out the storm or hot sunshine when they 
chose. One window opened upon a piazza. The 
other two looked out upon the fruit and vegetable 
garden. They had frames to fit the windows with 
thin, firm white netting, stretched and tacked upon 
them. These were easily put in and taken out of 
the windows. They gave the room a good supply 
of fresh air, and kept out the mosquitos, moths, 
flies, and other insects generally. When the weather 
was cool, the room was heated by a register. It 
is Too bad to take down the stove iu the sitting- 
room as soon as warm weather comes, there are so 
many cool nights and mornings, and rainy days, 
when rooms are uncomfortable without fires, and it 
seems as unpleasant to have to close the windows 
in order to keep warm. After we have grown ac¬ 
customed to open windows, it is hard to breathe 
with the room all closed. How to get the most 
fresh air together with a comfortable degree of 
warmth, that is the problem. We must have fresh 
air, anyhow. 
Any woman can tack a square yard of netting 
across the lower half of a window, upon the outside, 
if that is the only way she can get a chance to 
breath pure air without letting in mosquitoes. 
Fritters in Haste.—Sometimes an emer¬ 
gency arises when an extra dish is required, and the 
eggs cau not be found, or the hens are sitting and 
no eggs are to be had. To one quart of fleur add 
one measure of Horsford’s Baking Powder or its 
equivalent in cream-tartar and soda, rut in two 
spoonfuls sugar, soften a piece of butter the size 
of an egg, and salt as to judgment, then milk 
enough to make a thin batter. Bake quickly on a 
griddle. The sugar makes them brown as well as 
eggs. If one has buttermilk, Horsford’s Prepara¬ 
tion and the butter are not necessary. 
Indian Cake.—Two cups flour, two cups 
Indian meal, one measure Horsford’s baking pow¬ 
der, half a cup of white sugar, and four table¬ 
spoons of melted butter, salt, aud milk to make a 
rather thin batter. Bake in a quick oven. 
