1014. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
636 
=he TALKING IT OVER ™ 
Bits of Experience from Housekeepers about the Home and Its Helps 
Keeping Butter. —On page 50S M. 
W., Palisades, N. Y., asks how to keep 
or store butter for six months. I 
will give my method. For the past 
23 years I have owned a general 
store, where the country people bring 
their butter in rolls, as many grades as 
there are customers in number. I take 
the good and the fairly good and wrap 
each roll in clean muslin that will wrap 
about twice around the roll, then pack 
them on their ends in an earthen crock, 
as many as I can force in. Then fill 
the crock with strong brine made from 
dairy salt, so it will carry a potato the 
size of a duck egg, and then weight it 
down. If the butter is wrapped it will 
not bleach in the brine. One pound 
prints wrapped in waxed paper will keep 
well in crocks. I have held from June or 
later, until the following April, just as 
good as when it was packed, two tiers 
of eight rolls to the tier in 20-gallon jars. 
j. E. s. 
For Chapped Hands. —To prevent 
chapped hands, cracked fingers, etc., use 
the following mixture after washing and 
drying the hands: Glycerine one ounce; 
bay rum two ounces; rose water two 
ounces; quince seed one dram; water 
one-half pint. Boil quince seeds in the 
water, strain and let cool before adding 
the other ingredients. Quince seeds may 
be bought at drug stores. The quince 
seeds seem to overcome the drying effect 
of the glycerine, so irritating to delicate 
skins. This mixture has the added ad¬ 
vantage of leaving the hands clean; one 
can work without leaving a smear. 
J. F. C. 
Soot For Cucumber Beetles.—O n 
page 444 I see unslaked lime and sulphur 
mixed is advised as a repellent for striped 
cucumber beetle. Plain common soot 
from the kitchen stove is just as good, 
and like June, may be had by the poor¬ 
est. J. F. c. 
Burning Out Chimney. —Your cor¬ 
respondent, N. C. It., on page 206, speaks 
of the new way (to her) of cleaning 
chimneys. That is a very old and very 
common way. But I think the method 
should be given with a word of caution. 
Burning out a chimney ought never to be 
attempted except on a rainy day. There 
is great danger from sparks outside, 
otherwise. And there should be plenty 
of help in case the heated chimney fires 
the woodwork around it. Sometimes one 
cannot bear the hand on the bricks, they 
become so heated. MBS. J. E. c. 
A Hint On Baking Potatoes. —The 
next time you wash the potatoes for bak¬ 
ing. try putting them in hot water and 
rub hard with a cloth, instead of the 
vegetable brush, and see how white they 
will be, and how easily they will clean. 
Then rinse in another dish of hot water 
and rub dry with another dry cloth. 
Prepared in this way, they will bake 
much more quickly. c. A. B. 
Freshening Lemons. —If lemons that 
are somewhat dry, are placed in a can 
of fresh buttermilk, they will become 
very much fresher and much better to 
use; they can also be kept for several 
weeks in the buttermilk. This is much 
better than placing them in water to 
keep them fresh. c. A. B. 
Keeping Butter. —M. W., Palisades, 
N. Y., asks how to keep butter for eight 
months. I have for nearly 20 years 
bought butter by the tub. I pack it solid 
in large stone crocks, leaving a space 
of about an inch on the top. This space 
I fill with brine as strong as possible. 
The crocks are best kept in a cool cel¬ 
lar. If the butter is perfectly fresh when 
put away it will keep a year. In taking 
out for use care must be exercised to keep 
the butter covered with the brine, for ex¬ 
posure to the air will quickly spoil it. 
E. S. MILLER. 
Bits Of Wisdom. —When beating 
eggs or cream have them cold as possible, 
and they will froth up better. Just 
enough hot water in the chocolate to melt, 
and then mix with brown sugar so as to 
spread even, makes a nice and quick 
frosting. For a change fry ham in the 
oven with a little sweet milk. Fry saus¬ 
age in the oven for a nice brown without 
drying out. Can sausage, after frying and 
seal in hot grease and have a feast in the 
Summer. When making sausage try sprink¬ 
ling the seasoning in the cut meat and 
then grind, saving mixing. Place the 
cake tin when taking from the oven in a 
wet cloth, and find how much nicer the 
cake leaves the tin. When making oat¬ 
meal cookies soak the oatmeal in the 
milk at least 15 minutes before mixing. 
Vinegar will remove water mark from 
glass. If the good man when spraying 
with lime and sulphur will first rub his 
hands in vinegar, then wash the usual 
way he will find the hands nice and clean. 
M. E. M. H. 
Two Suggestions. —In using pieces of 
carpet for rugs, instead of hemming the 
ends, ravel each end for two or three 
inches and tie the warp. It will never 
come undone and looks neater than a 
hem or binding. A wire potato masher 
is excellent to mix pancakes or any thin 
batter. The lumps come out so quickly, 
and there is no splashing. I always use 
it to give a final stirring to apple sauce. 
MRS. KATE UASHORE. 
Hot Drinks. —Some one asked for a 
hot drink to use at night. Probably the 
inquirer is familiar with the commercial 
beverages, but wants something different 
After a long illness, the nurse made gin¬ 
ger tea for me by pouring a cup of boil¬ 
ing water on one-quarter teaspoon of 
ground ginger, let it settle, then poured 
off or strained the liquid, adding sugar 
and milk to taste. She gave me this at 
night, when I was chilly and couldn’t 
sleep. A Boston specialist has her pa¬ 
tients make cayenne pepper tea in a 
similar way, about as much pepper as one 
could take up on the point of the small 
blade of a penknife. This is stimulating 
and surely not insipid. Personallj 1 
have no use for it, because mother made 
us take Cayenne pepper and molasses 
when sister and I quarrelled in our lit¬ 
tle days. It worked, edna s. knapp. 
Seasoning A Chopping Bowl.—A 
good plan when in need of a chopping 
bowl is to buy cottonwood bowls. When 
first purchased, before they are used at 
all, put into a wash boiler, cover with 
cold water, let heat to boiling point and 
boil for an hour or more, then take the 
boiler from the fire and let the bowl 
cool with the water. This process sea¬ 
sons the wood. If used before boiling, 
the inside becomes wet first and swells 
more than the outside, and the split fol¬ 
lows as a consequence. a. m. m. 
The Kitchen Light.—A simple con¬ 
venience which helps much in cooking 
breakfast on dark mornings, is a small 
shelf on the wall, above the kitchen table, 
just high enough to hold a lamp where 
the light will fall directly upon the top 
of the range. When the lamp was on the 
table, one could not see whether the grid¬ 
dle cakes were browning too much or 
not. Besides the lamp, there is room 
for the salt and pepper, so constantly 
needed, and a few other things. A 
drawer slides beneath the shelf, and at 
one end hang the kitchen scissors, which 
are often in demand. In the top of one 
corner of the shelf is a .tack, from which 
the jelly bag can be suspended and drip 
into the dish on the table. E. f. m. 
A Western Housekeeper Talks. 
In this Western country where the 
houses are usually small and not conven¬ 
iently arranged, many little makeshifts 
are resorted to. I am fortunate in liv¬ 
ing in a five-room house, which is called 
large in this great plains country of Colo¬ 
rado, and also have a little pantry and 
clothes closet besides, I find the gallon 
cans that canned pie fruit come in of 
great use in many ways, also the gallon 
syrup cans, one of which I use for a 
churn. As we have but one cow at pres¬ 
ent our 20-gallon barrel churn is too 
large and heavy for a small amount of 
cream, so my husband made a little 
dasher of an old chair round, cutting off 
the outside so it was clean and white and 
fitting pieces across one end, cutting a 
hole in the can cover for dasher. As 
this has to be larger somewhat than the 
wash, cream will splatter, so I took a 
small can lid, cutting hole just large 
enough for dash to work easily. Two 
quarts of cream can be churned in it, 
making usually two pounds of butter, and 
by churning often it does away with 
much hard work and also make a fine 
quality of butter. One of these cans I 
keep on the work table in the kitchen, 
where it is handy for many things; an¬ 
other is used for a double boiler. 
In one of my dish cupboard drawers I 
have a little whetstone which is very 
handy; there is also a ball of cord. When 
cord is wanted we know just where it is, 
and save time and steps. A can opener 
and corkscrew combined is in this draw¬ 
er together with other articles o £ every¬ 
day use. 
An old white oil cloth came into my 
possession and I have made good use of 
it in covering the kitchen table where 
dishes are washed and cooking done. On 
the wall above the table another piece 
keeps the paper clean, and still another 
part is back of the cook stove to protect 
the wall there. On the table I keep a 
small can in which I put paring knives, 
cooking fork and a few clothes pins. The 
pins I use every day for hanging dish 
towels and clothes on the line, and it is 
handier than going every time to the 
large bag where they are kept. 
One little grinding mill we greatly 
prize; not only because so handy, but 
saves dollars in course of the year. Its 
cost was only $1.35 from a mail order 
house. We grind chicken feed, coarse or 
fine, there being a screw to regulate it. 
We have our own corn meal, soup, and 
breakfast food when we wish, taking 
clean wheat after washing and drying, 
grinding medium fine, and cooking slowly 
for some time. A coffee mill is fastened 
to the wall by screws, holds one pound of 
coffee berries; a screw top makes it air 
tight. A little cup holding four table¬ 
spoonfuls is on top ready to hold under 
the spout when grinding. We never buy 
the ground coffee. 
MRS. FREDERICK C. JOHNSON. 
Plain Talk About Paint. 
In answer to E. W. S., page 455, in 
regard to paint, “Dutch” green, is what 
is known to the trade as bronze green. 
It is made up as he states of blind green, 
as a base, adding lampblack and burnt 
sienna in minute quantities until desired 
shade is had. E. W. S. must have met 
a misfit lot of painters who never heard 
of three of the commonest standard col¬ 
ors painters use. Let E. W. S. procure 
blind, chrome, permanent, or empire 
green; all of these are the same green 
with different labels on the cans. Take 
one-half gallon cold pressed linseed oil, one- 
lialf gallon turpentine, five pounds green 
(any of above) one pound burnt sienna, 
one-quarter pound lamp black, one-half 
pint Japan dryer. Mix together, tie a 
piece of cheesecloth on a pail, strain 
above through it, and you have a green 
paint that is as nearly wear-proof as 
paint can be made. Don't be afraid to 
use plenty of paint and plenty of elbow 
grease to spread it, and above anything 
else get a paint brush—a real one. 
In regard to “glue paint,” any other 
color will do as well. But why use “glue 
paint” at all? Why not use white lead, 
and cold pressed linseed oil? You’ll save 
money and get a satisfying job. 
On that porch take a putty knife and 
No. 2 \-2 sandpaper, scrape and scratch 
and clean off every particle of paint, dirt, 
scales or anything else you can get off. 
Then mix to every gallon of paint you 
think you need 12)4 pounds old Dutch 
process white lead, one-half gallon cold 
pressed linseed oil. one quart turpentine, 
one-quarter pound litharge (procured at 
drug store if not at paint shop). Before 
adding litharge break up separately a very 
little lampblack and add thereto until 
dark enough. Put on with a good brush. 
You may have to thin down some to 
use on first coat; if so do so with oil 
only. Allow plenty time between coats 
to harden, and you can safely eat any 
of this paint that chips off. Applied 
as above I can absolutely guarantee it 
to wear. a. f. r. 
Burden Bearer and Partner 
Some remarkable things are being said about women these days 
—mostly by other women. Miss Mabel Powers, in a recent speech, 
described what she calls “The Hatrack Woman”: 
When primal man had won a victory, he had to have some place to deposit the 
beads and necklaces and other spoils of war. He had no home—not even a cave, as 
yet—and it was too much trouble to carry them around. So he hung them on his 
partner; woman was degraded from a mate to a hatrack, and from this beginning we 
have the plaything women of to-day. Girls quit playing with dolls at the age of 12, 
but some men And amusement in dolls all their lives. 
It is probably true that some women are still content to act as 
“hatracks,” or advertisements of their husband’s or their father’s 
ability to gain property, but THE RURAL NEW-YORKER does 
not reach many of them. The women who belong to THE RURAL 
family are not “hatracks” but burden bearers. They are not always 
profit sharers, but they are sharers of labor, care and responsibility 
—the true guardians of the home and of the generations to follow us. 
Woman and Home is for Them 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER has been made strong and use¬ 
ful through the co-operation of its readers. They have made the 
paper their own. It has strength because it faithfully reflects their 
desires and their opinions. Now we want our women readers to 
take a good-sized share of the paper and use it to express their 
special desires and needs. The men have never yet failed to respond 
when help was needed. The women will be even keener to do their 
share now that opportunity is offered. 
Experienced Information Wanted 
Here are some of the things our women folks want to know 
about: 
CARE OF THE CANARY BIRD. 
KEEPING SUMMER BOARDERS. 
THE VILLAGE DRESSMAKER. We would like to hear from 
some skillful dressmaker who can give us hints and suggestions 
about clothes. 
THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE. Short, humorous sketches 
from everyday life. Make them short and tell them naturally. 
We can pay for such suitable sketches. Tell them as you would 
write a friendly letter. The chief object of WOMAN AND HOME 
is to help country women. This includes amusement and entertain¬ 
ment, but does not stop there, or with food and clothing. There are 
hard problems to be worked out in many farm homes. Sometimes 
they are too hard to be worked out alone. Sympathy and kindly 
confidence may help make them lighter. We want to help if we can. 
Tell us how we can be of service to you, and you will find all the 
power of THE RURAL NEW-YORKER at your command. 
