r.)io. 
TMLC RURAL NEW-YORKER 
600 
Some Experience With Summer 
Boarders. 
I was much interested in reading- an 
article entitled “Value of Summer 
Boarders as a Form of Live Stock,” on 
page C06. While the writer has given 
some very good ideas, and induce¬ 
ments, in favor of city boarders, I 
think there is a little to be said on the 
other side of the question. Perhaps 
the writer has not had the real ex¬ 
perience with city boarders, and so the 
$.150 which the live boarders will pay 
for ten weeks, minus the cost of gro¬ 
ceries, looks very tempting no doubt, 
but ten weeks o-f actual experience will 
bring perplexities little dreamed of by 
the farmers’ wives. Just for a moment 
let us have a bit of the real experience. 
We have a good new roomy house, 
neatly furnished, plenty of all kinds of 
fruit, six to eight cows, plenty of chick¬ 
ens and eggs, and I said to my hus¬ 
band, “This is just an ideal place for 
city boarders; we have plenty of every¬ 
thing that could please city people, even 
to the roses and flowers. What do you 
say if I advertise for some?” You see 
we don’t have much time for society, 
being very busy people, and as the writ¬ 
er said, I felt, that atmosphere of culture 
and the indefinable “savoir faire” which 
makes the city man or woman was 
what we needed very much in our coun¬ 
try life; besides I was thinking of that 
$5 per week for board (not $7). My 
husband said: 
Well, I did. The first act was to 
ers; it may be all right. We surely have 
plenty to eat, and room enough, land 
knows, so go ahead if you wish to try 
it.” 
Well I did. 1 he first act was to 
search the country over for a girl to 
help me. -At last by much coaxing and 
extra inducements, one promised to 
come , just for accommodation as she 
told me, for she didn’t care to work out. 
She came the next day, and I explained 
what I wanted her to do; told her about 
the boarders. She put her hat right on 
and said she was going back home, “if 
it’s city boarders you’re going to have, 
you can wait on them yourself, for I’ll 
be blessed if I will,” and home she 
went. I felt rather frightened over the 
prospect of doing the work all alone, 
but my mind was made up and it would 
take more than that to discourage me. 
I’ll not take time to explain how 1 got 
them, but in due time they were to ar¬ 
rive. I hurried around, putting the 
house in the best possible order, not 
forgetting the large vase of roses for 
their rooms, and the dining table. I 
cooked and baked everything that I 
could that would keep for a day or two, 
then we hurried to the train with a 
great deal of anticipated pleasure we 
were to receive from our boarders. 
They came, two ladies, one young, the 
other middle-ao-ed, with two children, 
a boy ten, a girl six years of age. They 
were all very pleasant and cdrtainly 
looked citified enough. 
The ladies were a little shy of cloth¬ 
ing on neck and arms, and the children 
would have been more comfortable with 
longer stockings, for before we reach¬ 
ed home a goodly number of our coun¬ 
try mosquitoes had made quite a meal 
off our city boarders. At first I felt I 
should apologize for the rudeness of 
the mosquitoes but on second thought 
I didn’t,, for I felt no mosquito could 
resist so great a temptation. 
As soon as we arrived home I took 
them to their rooms, that they could 
remove the dust of their journey and 
rest, while I hurried to prepare supper. 
The hired man had got all the cows 
milked, so I had to help with the sep- 
erator, as the calves had to be fed. It 
was getting quite late and I was un¬ 
easy about my little chickens that need¬ 
ed my care, I had to let them go, while 
I got the supper on the table, which was 
very good indeed, and I think the board¬ 
ers enjoyed it. The little girl was get¬ 
ting tired and sleepy, and those mosqui¬ 
to bites were verv painful, so I got 
several different remedies to t.y to re¬ 
lieve her. She finally went screaming 
to bed, and I had to hurry and care for 
my chickens, and then the stack of sup¬ 
per dishes and milk pails. It was bed¬ 
time when I got things cleared away, 
but I had to prepare for breakfast, and 
I didn’t get to bed- very early. 
Next morning I was up at five, as I 
wanted to get as much of the work out 
of the way as possible before breakfast, 
which I had ready at 6.30. I hurried 
down through the wet grass to gather 
stra\ .rries, to have them fresh for 
breakfast with good rich cream, I cook¬ 
ed eggs and made toast and good cofTee, 
then rang the breakfast bell, but no one 
appeared but the men. After keeping 
them waiting half an hour, I served their 
breakfast, as they had to go to the 
field. 1 washed the dishes, hardly know¬ 
ing what to do. When at eight o’clock the 
ladies came down to the dining room, 
I got their breakfast and cleared away 
the dishes, when the children came. 
Their mother said, “Don’t make-too 
much extra work; just cook a few more 
eggs and make some fresh toast; with 
such delicious berries and cream it will 
do very well.” I managed to get through 
with breakfast No. 3. Now every mo¬ 
ment was precious, as there were their 
rooms to put in order, besides the us¬ 
ual family rooms. Then I wanted to 
dress a couple of broilers that had al¬ 
ready been killed. I couldn’t possibly 
get •time for a frozen dessert for dinner, 
so I made cream pie. During this, the 
children were having a royal time in 
the chicken park, and I trembled for my 
flock, but had no time to go to the 
rescue. By and by the little girl came 
screaming into the house, the old tur¬ 
key had chased' her. The boy for re¬ 
venge had pulled every last tail feather 
out, and the poor old gobbler looked as 
if he wasn’t enjoying city boarders. 
Well the afternoon went very much 
like the forenoon, I had to pick the 
strawberries; of course the children 
wanted to help, and it required some 
skill and no- small amount of patience 
to keep them from tramping on more 
berries than they picked. I just had 
time to can a few quarts when it was 
supper time. There were the chickens, 
little pigs, and pet lambs to look after 
and feed, and I had to keep my eyes 
on that boy, for he was getting acquaint¬ 
ed alarmingly fast with the farm- ani¬ 
mals, and I never knew what would come 
next. When at last supper work was 
over, separator tended, and the many 
odd jobs done, saying nothing about 
the extra steps taken in behalf of the 
boarders, tired out, I went to bed. I 
could not manage other than have two 
breakfast hours at least, so I made ar¬ 
rangements according and got on bet¬ 
ter. I kept hoping and planning to get 
my work arranged so I could have a 
little time to enjoy the refinement and 
culture of my city boarders, but try 
as I might, the work piled up so I had 
to rush to keep even, and about all the 
enjoyment I got out of the business 
was to see those ladies sitting in the 
rockers on the veranda, or in the shade 
of the trees in their dainty cool gowns 
reading my late magazines and books 
that I was anxiously striving to get 
time fo-r myself, or working on some bit 
of fancy work, while I was sweating 
over a hot stove cooking some dainty 
dish for them, and watching the child¬ 
ren lest they come to harm, for that 
boy was trying all sorts of experiments, 
as everything was new, and novel to him, 
and he wanted all the fun he could get, 
with not much thought of consequence. 
He got the colt in the barn and by 
feeding him oats managed to get the 
cow bell on him. That poor colt near¬ 
ly raced himself to death trying to get 
away from the bell. I tried every 
scheme I could think of to catch him 
and get the bell off. It was a very 
warm day, and the colt was wet as a 
rat. I finally had to call the men from 
the field, and they spent a good hour 
before they got that colt where they 
could take the bell off. It was the same 
old story of the “boy and the frog”; 
fun for the boy, but not much for the 
colt, or me either, for my bread burned, 
and the butter not out of the churn and 
nearly dinner time. 
Well, things went on about this way 
with variations of course for two weeks. 
The boarders were telling me what a de¬ 
lightful, restful, time they were having; 
how they enjoyed the fruit, and fresh 
vegetables, the rich cream and fresh 
eggs. I’m sure I was glad some one 
was having a good time, for 1 knew I 
wasn’t. I had got just about to the 
limit of endurance, and just about to 
collapse, when , a messenger boy brought 
a telegram stating the lady’s husband 
was ill, and for her to return home. 
Please don’t think I was glad her hus¬ 
band was sick, but I don’t care if you 
do know how I rejoiced to see my city 
boarders take their departure. I picked 
up my magazine and sat down in the 
rocker on the veranda and played I was 
a boarder for one full hour, and I didn’t 
care a pin if dinner was late or not. 
Now, I don’t want to say one word 
against the city people. I think them 
nice indeed. And the conditions our 
writer said ought to be obtained on 
every farm I quite agree with, so far 
as can be done with what time and 
means one has. But as far as there 
being more bipeds and fewer quadrupeds 
fed from the farm it is a mistake as far 
as I'm concerned. I’ll hold to my four- 
footed investments if there isn’t as much 
money in them. And that $5 per week 
board money holds no inducement what¬ 
ever. I have learned that money isn’t 
everything, and that culture and true 
refinement may be more pleasantly ob¬ 
tained through an abundance of good lit¬ 
erature which I now- have time to enjoy. 
I’m not nearly so enthusiastic over that 
atmosphere of culture and indefinable 
“savoir faire” which make the city man 
or woman. mrs. l. e . m’intosh. 
Canning Asparagus. 
Can you give me a recipe for canning as¬ 
paragus? j. h. M. 
Straight-sided quart glass jars, such 
as the “Royal,” should be used for as¬ 
paragus, so- as to avoid breaking the 
stalks. Wash carefully, cut the right 
length to stand the whole stalk upright 
in the jar and-pack in snugly, heads up; 
then pour in cold water slowly, until the 
jar is full to overflowing, and lay on 
the tops. Place straw or boards in the 
bottom of the wash-boiler, stand'the jars 
on this, and pour in enough cold water 
to come half way up the jars; put the 
boiler over the fire, and wlien the water 
comes to a boil, boil steadily for three 
hours. Take up the jars, see that they 
are full to overflowing (if not fill up 
with boiling water) put on rubbers and 
screw or otherwise fasten the covers 
tight. Keep in a cool, dark place. An¬ 
other recipe recommends boiling the as¬ 
paragus for 15 minutes, then putting in 
the jar, and boiling in- the wash-boiler 
for V/ 2 hour, but we think some of the 
stalks are very likely to be broken by 
this method. 
36 inches wide 
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Enjoy- 
DELAWARE IS THE STATE 
OF HAPPY HOMES S.ZIU 
aide 
. ing, gen¬ 
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enjoyed. For information address 
STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. Dover, Delaware. 
for large 
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