< TI-JI 3 RURAL, NEW- VCRKER 
427 
1910. 
Boston Brown Bread. 
In the Winter or Spring, of 1908 there 
were two or three Boston brown bread 
recipes. The paper was lost. I would be 
very glad if you could tell me how they 
were made. jibs. c. h. d. 
The following recipe was given in 
our issue for March 14, 1908. It is a 
steamed brown bread that offers a use 
for bits of stale bread. Fill a cup with 
bits of stale bread—as much as you can 
press into it. Pour upon the bread all 
the warm water it will soak up, adding 
gradually as it is absorbed until it will 
hold no more. Pour then into your 
mixing bowl and add a level teaspoon¬ 
ful of salt. Dissolve half a teaspoonful 
of baking soda in a cup of sour milk, 
stirring to a brisk foam, and stir into 
the soaked bread. Dissolve another half¬ 
teaspoonful of soda in half a cupful of 
molasses and stir to a foam. Lastly, 
beat into the mixture in the bowl a 
cupful of flour, and double the quantity 
of cornmeal. The one cupful of flour 
and two of the meal should have been 
previously well stirred together. Have 
ready greased a mold with a closely 
fitting top—also greased. Pour the bread 
into this, set in a steamer and cook 
steadily four hours. Dry in oven for 
a very short time after steaming. 
A brown bread of the Boston variety 
is made as follows: Two cupfuls In¬ 
dian meal, one cupful whole wheat flour, 
one cupful sour milk, one-third cupful 
molasses, one tcaspoonful soda, one-half 
teaspoonful salt. Mix and steam three 
hours, then brown in hot oven with the 
lid removed from the can. There are 
tin molds made smaller at the bottom 
than the top, so the loaf slips out nicely 
—the lid fitting on the outside of the 
tin to prevent the water getting in the 
bread, but any small tin pail with tight 
lid will answer the purpose. It is better 
to place an iron lid or ring in the bottom 
of the kettle to prevent the mold from 
coming too close to the fire. Slice around 
the loaf, not perpendicularly. 
Another Side of Farm Conditions. 
On page 277 of The R. N.-Y. Jean 
Vaughn Stevens makes some statements 
that seem to call for comment. I, too, 
read the article by Elizabeth Jordan. 
Miss Jordan states as a fact that “a 
majority of the women inmates of our 
State insane asylums are farmers’ 
wives.” Had she taken the care to look 
up statistics on the subject she would 
have found that she-was mistaken; as it 
is she is discredited as a writer by those 
who are correctly informed. The writer 
in The R. N.-Y. makes the positive, un¬ 
qualified statement that “farming is cer¬ 
tainly remunerative.” This in its way is 
as “amusing” as Miss Jordan. It is es¬ 
timated that the average income from 
the farms in the United States is less 
than a thousand dollars. As many farm¬ 
ers make much more than a thousand 
dollars, it must follow that some must 
make much less than this low average. 
In other words, the pinch of poverty 
must be felt in many farm homes in 
this country. It is true that some people 
will be poor in spite of good advantages; 
it is equally true that some grow rich 
by robbing the soil. By studying statis¬ 
tics on the decline of fertility of the soil 
Jean Vaughn Stevens can find where the 
greater number of this latter class are 
located at the present time. 
In conclusion I want to put in a plea 
for the woman who pieces quilts, makes 
rag carpets, knits, etc. As far as my 
observation goes most of them enjoy 
doing it; furthermore, they seem happier 
and more contented than their sisters 
who despise such humble handiwork. 
Last, and best of all, while their fingers 
are busy at these simple tasks some, at 
least, of these women think. I have just 
been reading an editorial concerning 
Andrew Carnegie from which I quote: 
Mr. Carnegie endows libraries and 
they prove Dead Sea' fruit. What we 
want is not more libraries but more peo¬ 
ple who think for themselves.” 
Chimney Corner Talk. 
By the time a man has grown old 
enough to sit by the fire toasting his 
shins and thinking life has had time to 
beat several things into his head. I’ve 
never yet seen young people very eager 
for advice—not if they meant to take it 
—but I have seen them set to thinking 
for themselves, and that is all any talker 
asks. 
Now take the matter of household ex¬ 
penditures that our women have been 
discussing, would any man or woman 
give up strong tea or tobacco or keeping 
three dogs just because it sounded sensi¬ 
ble? If people hate vegetables and love 
“flour victuals” they are going to keep 
on needing a big supply of groceries 
every week, and not caring much wheth¬ 
er or not there’s fresh peas and beans 
and asparagus in the garden. “We’ll 
have what we want to eat, anyhow!” 
say most of the wage-earners in Ameri¬ 
ca, and our old ladies’ homes and old 
men’s homes are crowded, and old peo¬ 
ple are living with their children while 
sons-in-law or daughters-in-law wonder 
how long the burden of them will have 
to be borne. 
When T was a boy we heard the say¬ 
ing: “If a man wants to get rich he 
must ask his wife’s permission.” That 
is no longer true, because having an un¬ 
encumbered home and a few thousands 
out at interest is no longer called “get¬ 
ting rich.” But if having, after middle 
age, the cosy home and the freedom 
from anxiety and too much work were 
what a man aimed at he would still need 
to trust half the battle to his wife. It 
remains very much in her hands how 
what he brings in shall be used. There’s 
another old saying that “A woman can 
throw out with a teaspoon faster than a 
man can bring in with a shovel.” I re¬ 
call the case of a young man who had 
the chance to run the farm off which 
his father had made a living, brought up 
eight children and laid by a few hun¬ 
dreds. Well, Bob was a fellow who coufd 
do a tremendous day’s work but was not 
great at managing, perhaps. “They’ll 
never make it go,” lamented his sister, 
“never. Bob’s wife doesn’t know how 
to make a cake that doesn't need eight 
or 10 eggs and it’s roast and sirloin and 
lamb chops every time Bob goes near a 
market and she and the children must 
all have ready-to-wear suits new once 
or twice a year. There’s hustling farm¬ 
ers that can stand such things, but Bob’s 
style of happy go lucky won’t.” 
And sure enough it did not. Bob’s 
mother had to sell the farm and set him 
on his feet again in a year or two, and 
he has been working at day’s wages 
ever since. 
No mere man can tell how they do it, 
those thrifty managers. But give one of 
them the pickings of a good garden and 
the use of a few old coops and sheds for 
her poultry and she’ll set you a good 
table all Summer, and somehow your 
meat bills won’t be very heavy nor the 
grocer be wondering how many years it 
will be before he must sell you out to 
get his honest dues. I’ve known more 
than one modest little home sold to set¬ 
tle up old store accounts, and I’ve seen 
one after another, meadow and pasture 
and old homestead all go into the hands 
of the doctor who attended the whims 
of a hypochondriac old lady. I believe 
that most wives mean to do well, but I’ve 
noticed there’s a deal of difference in the 
outcome between those that plan to help 
along and those who intend to have all 
they can get. Not that all a woman’s 
good management can bring thrift and 
comfort out of some men’s style of farm¬ 
ing but still there’d be less good farm¬ 
ing than there is if there wasn’t bright¬ 
eyed wives around to take an in¬ 
terest and praise the things that do well, 
and keep comfortingly mum over mis¬ 
takes and neglects and bad luck. 
Isn’t it always she who trims the boat’s 
load? So much on this side and a little 
more or less on that, and she rides easy 
and ships no water even in rough weath¬ 
er. How much of the income for food 
and what proportion in dress, amuse¬ 
ments and hospitalities, these are things 
the wife’s influence weighs heavily in. 
I have noticed that some families grow 
up thinking what they can have good 
to eat. And in other households the 
cooking may be as good and the table 
always well supplied with wholesome 
food, but the talk is about something 
interesting, and no one thinks of saying 
anything about what he is eating. If he 
doesn’t like onions he eats potatoes and 
says nothing. 
Before our women lay the subject of 
food economies on the shelf I wish they 
would tell us how much above a dollar 
and a half a week per individual they 
should expect grocery bills’ to average in 
a farmhouse where eggs, vegetables, 
milk, pork, poultry and fruit were home 
products. JONATHAN CARMEL. 
Indoor Gardening, by Eben E. Rex- 
ford.—A useful manual for the amateur 
gardener, dealing with house and win¬ 
dow plants. The general directions as to 
potting, watering, etc., will be found 
useful, and there are many useful hints 
as to the desirability of various plants, 
and their special needs. The book is at¬ 
tractively bound and well printed, and 
contains 33 illustrations. Published by 
J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia; 
318 pages; price $1.50 net, postage 12 
cents additional. 
Commerce has set the mark of selfishness, 
The signet of Its all-enslaving power. 
Upon a shining ore, and called It gold; 
Before whose Image bow the vulgar great, 
The vainly rich, the miserable proud. 
The mob of peasants, nobles, priests and 
kings, 
And with blind feelings reverence the 
power 
That grinds them to the dust of misery. 
But In the temple of their hireling hearts 
Gold is a living god.and rules in scorn 
All earthly things but virtue. 
—Percy Bysshe Shelley. 
J r. b 
wwc.u 5PAT.orr. ^ / 
TddystoNi'. i 
/•MJ 
Hi?!! 
80 
AH ; 
: 
< of i 
;.oj j 
T!',* 
: oi 
m »«V| 
.'•Gil 
v ooj. 
FOUNDED 1842 
Serviceable Dresses 
Why not get cotton 
dress goods that you 
can be sure will wear 
well? 
Simpson- Eddystone 
Silver Grey Prints 
are calicoes of good 
old-fashioned quality 
that have stood the test 
for over sixty-five 
years. Their beautiful 
new designs are print¬ 
ed with absolutely fast 
color on well-woven 
cloth of enduring ser¬ 
vice. 
If your dealer hasn't Simpson- 
Eddystone Prints write us Iris 
name. Wc’ 11 help him supply you. 
The Eddysione Mfd.Co.,Phila.,Pa. 
Established by Win. Simpson, Sr. 
Buy Groceries at Wholesale 
Wo pay the freight. Valuable premiums given. 
A postal will bring full particulars. Address today 
E. Li. .IOHN8TON & CO., 14 Water St., N. V. City. 
JOHNSTON’S BEST 
WATER SYSTEM 
affords you every con¬ 
venience of City water. 
Eire protection, adds 
value to property, cuts 
outwater tax and labor. 
Freight prepaid. Write 
for complete literature. 
JOHNSTON MFG. CO., 
C2. Sharp,Kansas City,Mo. 
WELL 
DRILLING 
MACHINES 
Aver 70 sizes and styles, for drilling either deep or 
shallow wells In any kind of i-oilorrocK. Mounted on 
wheels oron sills. With engines or horse powers. Mrong, 
simple and durable. Any mechanic can operate theta 
easily. 8 end for catalog. 
WILLIAMS BROS.. Ithaca. N. Y. 
Haste and Waste 
Stop and think for a moment the 
next time you are about to buy soda 
crackers. 
Instead of hastily buying soda 
crackers that go to waste because 
broken, soiled or soggy, buy 
Uneeda 
Biscuit 
in separate five-cent packages. Soda 
crackers in large packages soon be¬ 
come broken, stale and unpalatable. 
On the other band, Uneeda Biscuit 
in bandy, moisture proof packages 
are always fresh, clean, crisp and 
whole —not one wasted. 
(Never Sold in Bulk) 
NATIONAL BISCUIT COMPANY 
J. F. C. 
