18? 3. j 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
385 
TME IHKOHU^EHOlLIDo 
t37~ {Kor other Household Items, see “ Basket ” pages.) 
Green-Corn—A Corn-Cutter. 
Properly eaten, there is no more enjoyable or 
nutritious table vegetable than green-corn. It is 
our peculiar American vegetable, whether in the 
form of the sweet-corn of the best gardens, or the 
simple “roasting ears” taken from the field by 
those who know not the superiority of sweet-corn. 
The majority of persons eat the corn directly from 
the cob, an operation that can not be regarded as 
elegant, but custom sanctions it, and many think 
that the goodness of the corn can only be reached 
in this way. Children and those who have imper¬ 
fect teeth arc apt, in 
eating the com di¬ 
rectly from the cob, 
to tear off whole 
kernels, which es- 
c a p e mastication, 
and pass into the 
stomach in an un¬ 
broken condition. 
Now, while a broken 
or masticated kernel 
of green-corn is nu¬ 
tritious, one that is 
completely inclosed 
in its natural hull 
or envelope is com¬ 
passes out of the sys- 
Fig. 1.— CORN-CUTTER. 
pletely indigestible, and 
tem in just the same condition as it entered. 
It is in fact just as much a foreign body as a 
gravel-stone, and is likely to produce the bowel 
derangements that may be caused by any foreign 
indigestible substance. Knowing this, careful 
parents and those not blessed with teeth that can 
crush and grind every grain, slit the kernels by 
drawing a sharp knife along each row of the cob. 
When the corn is thus prepared, the digestible and 
nutritious contents of the kernels slip out, leaving 
the parchment-like hulls attached to the cob. In 
this way only can corn on the ear be safely intrusted 
to children. Some ’cute Yankee, having these 
things in mind, has invented what he calls a “ Yan¬ 
kee Corn-cutter.” We do not know who lie is, and 
do not care how much good he may get from this 
“first-rate notice,” for he has done a capital thing 
by inventing the simple implement with the above 
name. We procured ours of our neighbor Baldwin 
in Murray street, and w r e do not know of any in¬ 
vestment of twenty-five cents that we ever made 
that has paid better. The apparatus, instrument, 
implement, contrivance, or whatever we may call 
it, is a half-cylinder of tin, with a handle by which 
to hold it. Across the half-cylinder there is a strip 
of tin with projecting teeth, and above this is sol¬ 
dered a wire, as seen in figure 1. The manner of 
using is shown in figure 2. The cutter is carried 
down the cob, being held in such a manner that the 
teeth will cut the kernels and the wire will press 
out their contents. Half a minute’s practice will 
enable one to completely shell out the contents of 
au ear, leaving nothing but the empty hulls upon 
the cob. For preparing corn for the table there is 
nothing equal to it, and then for corn-fritters ! Oh ! 
Perhaps our readers do not know the virtue of 
Corn-Fritters, and the season is not too late 
for those yet in ignorance to experience a new sen¬ 
sation. We boil more corn than is needed for din¬ 
ner, scrape what is left with the corn-cutter, put it 
in the refrigerator until morning. Then for two 
coffee-cups full of the corn, a pint more or less, 
take three eggs well beaten, a small cupful of flour, 
salt, and enough milk or cream to make the batter 
drop> readily from the spoon. Drop in spoonfuls 
into hot fat, and fry as other fritters. When these 
are on hand, we care for little else for breakfast. 
Some call these “ corn-oysters,” but they are not 
oysters, or anything else other than their own ex¬ 
cellent selves. 
Home Topics. 
BIT FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Visitors. —House and home keepers who expect 
visitors “at any time,” and dare not get out of 
“company cake” for fear of getting caught in 
such a predicament, can not possibly realize the 
novelty of the sensation with which I welcomed 
my unexpected visitors a few weeks ago. 
We heard them afar off, and knew perfectly well 
that the wagon coming would stop at our house, 
for it was on our own private road through the 
woods. An emigrant wagon! Who under the 
sun! We all went out to see—a fine team, a beau¬ 
tiful colt, a big watch-dog, and—who ? 
“Three cheers for Faith Rochester!” and the 
lady of the coming party swung her hat, and we 
all laughed, and were so astonished and rejoiced 
at our meeting that we none of us remembered to 
shake hands or do any formal greeting that night, 
but went right to talking ns though only days had 
! separated us instead of years. 
1 When I spoke of going into the house, I was told 
| that the wagon in which they came was their house 
in which they intended to sleep as long as they re¬ 
mained with us. After weeks of open-air life, they 
couldn’t think of sleeping in shut-up rooms. As 
I was able to offer a “spare bed,” with a netting 
canopy, in an unfinished chamber, where breezes 
from all quarters of the heavens had free access, 
my guests consented to lodge in our house, but 
they had served themselves with their last meal for 
the day at their last camping-place, so we had little 
to do but to talk together until bed-time. 
Their style of traveling for health and pleasure 
delighted me. I thought “H. II.” was having a 
pretty good time in her palace-car journey to the 
Pacific coast, but now I should sooner take the 
emigrant wagon of my friends, if pleasant and 
healthful traveling were my object in the journey 
—as it is theirs. Ruslcin himself could find no 
reasonable objection to this method, I am sure. 
The wagon-box is large and deep, the seat is on 
springs, with an ’easy back, and the cloth roof is 
painted a light buff, and so is quite water-proof. 
A straw bed with bedding, a little table that folds 
up when not in use, two camp-stools, and a sheet- 
iron cook-stove that I can lift with one hand, and 
a small Kcdzie’s water-filter are the furniture of 
the establishment. The stove has two pot-holes, 
a good tin baker, a tin wash-boiler, and two or 
three kettles, stew-pans, etc. They had bags of 
meal and flour of various kinds stored away in the 
wagon, and dried fruit, Lima-beans, etc. Fresh 
fruit and vegetables they purchased as they needed 
and had opportunity. 
Living on a new place, in a house not yet half- 
finished, with three babies aud a half-sick husband, 
and with no hired girl, I had not meant to be “at 
home” to any visitors this summer. I told my 
guests this on the night of their arrival, while 
assuring them that I was truly very glad indeed to 
see them. (And so I was. No one but myself can 
understand how very “ providential ” their coming- 
seemed !) They said they knew it very well, and 
so they had not given us a chance to forbid their 
visit, but had arranged it all their own way, and 
were going to camp beside us awhile. They 
really meant to go to housekeeping for themselves 
after a day or two in their emigrant fashion. When 
their emigrant wagon “hove in sight” (about half¬ 
past six P.M.), paterfamilias was shelling a large 
pail of green peas for breakfast (of course I know 
that it is better to pick and shell peas just before 
cooking; I also know that if you need help you 
must take it when you can get it), while I, who, 
according to all the ancient notions of woman’s 
sphere and duty, should have been shelling those 
peas, so that the “master of the house” might be 
reading his newspaper if no “manly occupation” 
employed liis noble powers—I was only holding 
the baby with one hand as she dandled up and 
down trying to get the use of her fat legs and feet, 
while with tlio other hand I turned the pages of a 
Botany trying to satisfy ray boy and myself as to 
the name of a plant which we have since proved to 
be Horse-Mint or Wild Bergamot. 
As soon as our visitors came into the house they 
went to shelling peas, and next morning they took 
hold, naturally enough, of whatever work seemed 
necessary to be done, and before many days it ac¬ 
tually seemed to be the opinion of all the mature 
members of the concern that the occupation of 
child’s nurse was all I ought to attempt to fill! 
Only twice since that second day have I been 
allowed to w-ash the dishes. 
Perhaps you remember what I said on that sub¬ 
ject in the July Agriculturist. I remembered it, I 
assure you, and “kind o’” wished I had not given 
advice to visitors! My guests take the Agriculturist, 
but had not seen the July number. Our copy was 
mislaid, and I couldn’t feel sorry that it kept out 
of sight several days. My lady guest was wiping 
the dishes one morning, when her husband came 
in and read aloud the advice given by F. R. to 
visitors about washing dishes! I blushed, but the 
dish-wiper said “amen” to the remarks read in 
our hearing. 
The gentleman of the party, being an expert 
fisherman and a “good shot,” supplies the family 
with fish and with wild game. Presently I will 
tell how the fish arc cooked. The gentlemen, in¬ 
cluding our little boy, go berrying sometimes, and 
keep us pretty well supplied with “ small fruits.” 
These are our great occasions for talking—and 
what is the use of writing about visitors if you say 
nothing about the visiting? I can not report if, 
of course, but I can say that visiting of this kind— 
real soul-communion—is the greatest refreshment 
human life affords. Which of us felt the most 
need of it, and which of us two women gets the 
greatest enlargement from such communion, I can 
not say, and it is of no consequence so long as 
both are helped. I wish everybody knew how -well 
it pays to brush away the surface jokes and com¬ 
monplaces that conceal our real selves from each 
other, and compare our honest beliefs aud true 
feelings with an earnest desire to get at the truth 
and the right. We can not do it everywhere—at 
least not yet. It hurts so crueily when our pre¬ 
cious pearls fall before swine and they turn and 
rend us! So the masks seem necessary to us in 
our weak estate—but don’t you get dreadfu-lly tired 
of them sometimes ? 
Dietetic Habits. —The gentleman of our visit¬ 
ing party is an invalid, and a carefully-prepared diet 
of the most wholesome materials, at regular hours, 
is one of the means of restoration to health most re¬ 
lied upon by his wifely nurse or nursely wife. They 
prefer only two meals a day, the last one not later 
than two o’clock. They supposed this would not 
chime in with our habits, and for that reason, among 
others, they proposed to camp beside us as neigh¬ 
bors. But we were eager to try their way of living. 
It was no difficult change for me, for I learned long 
ago that my head is clearer and the taste in my 
mouth more agreeable on waking after going to 
bed supperless, and more than half of the time 
(when I am not nursing a baby) I find the little 
ones their suppers without tasting a morsel myself. 
Paterfamilias has not had faith in this method. It 
has seemed to him a dreadful thing to have an 
