374 
<P>e RURAL 
NEW-YORKER 
Tempting Ways with Sweet Potatoes on a platter and sprinkle generously with 
Candied Sweet Potatoes.—Pare a« 
many as desired of nice smooth potatoe* 
of even size; place a layer in a granite 
baking pan, sprinkle with a tablespoon of 
salt, one cup of sugar and a half cup of 
butter; now add one cup of boiling water 
and cover closely. Set on top of range until 
tender, adding more water if necessary. 
When tender remove cover and place in¬ 
side oven until baked a delicate brown. 
Serve on a platter with the syrup poured 
over them. 
Sweet Potato Croquettes.—Boil sweet 
S otatoes until tender, mash fine while still 
ot and add. to a quart of potatoes, one- 
half cup of sugar, teaspoon of salt, mix, 
and when partly cold beat in one egg. mold 
into small cakes, dip in cracker crumbs 
and fry a nice brown in hot lard. 
Baked Sweet Potatoes.—Wash enough 
sugar. These are nice for breakfast, 
served with butter. 
LILY REED YORK. 
Lace Edge for Table Scarf 
Explanation of stitches: Ch„ chain; 
st., stitch ; d. c., double crochet; s. c., sin¬ 
gle crochet; sh., shell; gr., group. 
Ch. 35. 
First Row—(1 d. c., 2 ch., 1 d. c.) in 
5th st. from hook; ch. 4, skip 4 (1 d. c.. 2 
ch., 1 d. e.) in next st. of ch., ch. 2, skip 2, 
6 d. c. in next 6 ch. * ch. 2 (Id. c., 2 ch.. 
1 d. c.) in next st., repeat from * until 
there are 5 groups of (1 d. c., 2 ch., 1 d. 
c.). which will be called groups in the re¬ 
maining directions: ch. 3. turn. 
Secoud Row—(2 d. c., ch. 2, 3 d. c.) 
The fruit design centerpiece which we have illustrated in No. S88n is one that is very 
easy to embroider, as it requires only the outline stitch to secure a very pretty effect. The 
strawberries are for red. with yellow seeds and green hulls. The apples are also for red. The 
pears are for yellow, the plums arc for purple, the apples green, the peaches pink, the pears 
yellow and the cherries red. The design is on tan art linen, size 36 inches, and with mer¬ 
cerized floss to complete embroidery, costs $1.50. 
WOMAN AND HOME 
From Day to Day 
It Never Fails 
Take your mind off yourself—let it dwell 
on a brother; 
There’s help in the thought that you give 
to another; 
Hunt around, here and there, ere the day¬ 
light is waning. 
And you’ll find lots to hush all your words 
of complaining. 
Do you suffer? Well, what of your silent¬ 
lipped neighbor? 
The load that he bears means real heart¬ 
breaking labor; 
Help him out--speed a word that makes 
his toil lighter, 
And you’ll find, through some magic, your 
own way is brighter. 
Take your mind off yourself—it’s a plan 
that pays ever; 
It beats high finance as devised by the 
clever; 
Though its profits in dollars are never 
recorded, 
Take your mind off yourself and you’re 
surely rewarded. 
—ARTHUR CHAPMAN. 
* 
The report of the women’s institutes 
for the Province of Ontario, Canada, for 
191S, contained a discussion of housing 
problems. One of the subjects brought up 
was the hired man’s cottage. The follow¬ 
ing questions were sent to farmers who 
had cottages for their help : 
1. The effect on the securing of satis¬ 
factory labor by having a comfortable 
house for farm help. 
2. The number of rooms which such a 
house should contain. 
3. The practicability of installing in 
such a house modern conveniences which 
usually are enjoyed by city laborers. 
4. The advisability of having the house 
on the farm rather than in a neighboring 
village or at the cross roads. 
5. The size of farm which could afford 
to maintain a house for hired help. 
6. The attitude of the farmer’s wife on 
the question. 
Most of those who answered agreed that 
a comfortable cottage helped to hold hired 
men. Five or six rooms was the average 
size suggested, and speakers agreed that 
not only the tenant home, but the farm¬ 
house itself, should uot be too large for 
convenient housekeeping. One farmer’s 
wife gave her views of the tenant house 
as follows, and we think many other 
women will agree with her : 
1 have lived on a stock farm for nearly 
25 years. We started with one hired boy, 
then a man. and then a boy and a man, 
and then with three men the year around, 
and with nine or 10 or 11 in the Fall, 
and we really felt our life was hardly 
worth living and our home was not our 
own. So we started with one cottage 
and secured a very good man. one we had 
had in the house for five years, and after¬ 
wards for four years in the cottage. Then 
we built another cottage. It takes money 
to build these, but if people do without 
fur coats and automobiles, you can have 
them. Since we have had the cottages we 
have had very little trouble in getting 
good hired men. 
* 
One of the newspaper paragraphers 
makes the following pithy comment re¬ 
garding the spread of the prohibition 
movement: 
The old-fashioned wife used to Put 
Something Into Ilis Coffee so he Would 
Quit. But the present-day Spouse Has 
Put Something Into His Politics. 
* 
Every cold and snowy Winter brings 
up the difficulties of laundry work in the 
average household. There are too many 
houses where the washing must be done 
in the kitchen, and where there are no 
conveniences for drying in bad weather. 
In a farmhouse, where the kitchen is the 
center of so many activities, a separate 
room for laundry work is a thing to strive 
for. With a stove, one may dry things in 
such a room without inconvenience or 
heavy lifting, and keep all the work close 
together. There is an old English song 
with the refrain, “There’s no luck about 
the house upon a washing day,” and this 
expresses the family feelings when a clut- 
tered-up kitchen is full of wet clothes and 
the smell of soapsuds. However, the 
laundry question is quite as hard in cities 
as on the farm. The commercial laun¬ 
dries are high-priced, and usually do in¬ 
different work. Women who go out by 
the day, in our district, charge $3 a day, 
carfare extra, and many of them demand 
the carfare even when they walk to their 
work. 
potatoes of uniform size to fill a baking 
pan and place in pan, add one-half cup of 
hot water and place in oven until well 
done, which will be about one hour. These 
are nice served with butter or with gravy 
from fresh meat. 
Browned Sweet Potatoes.—Pare and 
split in half six good-sized potatoes and 
cook on top of fresh meat, or beef, until 
tender; now place in baking pan and 
brown in the oven. Serve with gravy 
from the meat. 
Sweet Potato Custards.—Boil and mash 
one pint of sweet potatoes and rub 
through the colander. To this amount add 
two well-beaten eggs, one-half cup of su¬ 
gar, a half teaspoon ot salt and nutmeg to 
flavor. Mix well and add slowly one pint 
of rich milk; bake in one crust. This 
amount will make two custards. 
Sweet Potato Pie.—Boil the potatoes 
until tender, drop in cold water and when 
cool pare and slice. Line a pudding pan 
with a rich crust and fill with the sliced 
potatoes ; also a teaspoon of salt; add one 
cup of sugar and half a cup of butter and 
any flavoring desired; cover with a top 
crust, make a slit in the center and pour 
in a cup of hot water and bake a nice 
brown in the oven. 
Fried Sweet Potatoes.—Pare and slice 
the potatoes and sprinkle with a very lit¬ 
tle salt; have ready a skillet with a cup 
full of lard; when lard is piping hot place 
a layer of the potatoes in and cover; let 
fry slowly until tender when pierced with 
a fork; turn and brown both sides. Place 
into the 2 ch. of last gr. in preceding row. 
This, with the 3 ch., forms a shell; repeat 
until you have 5 sh. in the 5 gr. There 
should be no ch. between shells. Ch. 2, 8 
d. c. in G d. e. of preceding row; ch. 2, 2 
sh. in 2 gr. with notch betweeu sh. ch. 5; 
turn. 
Third Row—2 sh. in 2 sh, ch. 2, 10 d. 
c., ch. 2, 5 gr. in 5 sh., ch. 3; turn. 
Fourth Row—5 sh. in 5 gr, ch. 2, 12 <1. 
e. , ch. 2, 2 sh in sh., ch. 5; turn. 
Fifth Row—2 sh., 2 ch., 14 cl. c., ^2 ch., 
5 gr., ch. 3; turn. 
Sixth Row—5 sh., 2 ch., 16 d. c., 2 ch., 
2 sh., ch. 5; turn. 
Seventh Row—2 sh., 2 eh., 18 d. c., ch. 
2, 5 gr., ch. 3; turn. 
Eighth Row—5 sh., ch. 2, 20 d. c., ch. 
2, 2 sh., ch. 3; turn. 
Ninth Row—2 sh., ch. 2, 22 d. c., ch. 
2, 5 gr., ch. 3; turn. 
Tenth Row—5 sh., ch. 2, 2-1 d. c., ch. 
2, 2 ch., ch. 5; turn. 
Eleventh Row—2 sh., ch. 2, G d. c. iu 
1st 6 of 24 d. c. in preceding row ; ch. 2, 
5 gr. in remainder of 24 d. c., ch. 3; turn. 
Twelfth Row—5 sh. in 5' gr., ch. 2, 8 
d. c., ch. 2. 2 sh., ch. 5; turn. 
Continue iu the same way until there 
are 24 d. c., which completes the second 
scallop. Start the third scallop in the 
same manner, beginning with row 11. 
This is very pretty for pillow cases if 
done with No. 50 or GO crochet cotton. _ 
FRANCES n. CHASE. 
February 21, 1920 
A Home Industry—Hulled Corn 
“What can I do to earn some money?" 
a woman asked her uncle. “Without leav 
ing home, I mean.” 
“If you were masculine gender I’d sa; 
bull corn and sell it,” he said. “As it is 
you could hull it, easy enough, and I’d 
show you how I did it. But women arc 
not iu the habit of peddling from door to 
door. I put in a very profitable year with 
that as my sole business, once when work 
was slack and I newly married. I lived 
five miles from market, too. and hadn’t the 
automobile quick delivery of your time.” 
Still. Mrs. Getchell, with the delivery 
problem at least shortened, wondered why 
she couldn't make a success of such i 
venture, and got her relative’s recipe, 
which he declared he had paid a profes¬ 
sional $5 to pass him in detail. 
“Your main points are care and water,” 
he affirmed. “The lye must be faithfully 
washed out, after the corn is hulled by it. 
and one must he very, very careful not to 
cook it beyond the stage when the hulls 
are perfectly loosened, or the lye will be 
cooked into it. Then, after the lye is hon¬ 
estly washed out, so that the water runs 
colorless and tasteless, more care must be¬ 
taken not to cook the kernels soft and 
out of shape. Potash is the cheapest lye. 
but perhaps you’d better begin with bak¬ 
ing soda, for small quantities, then ex¬ 
periment with potash as you understand 
how to regulate the strength. There is 
just such a climax when the hulls have 
been so loosened in the boiling lye tha* 
they will rub right off iu clear water, and 
sift through a wire sieve. It is impera¬ 
tive that the hulls come off clean, leaving 
the kernel whole.” 
He made her a sieve by putting a wire 
bottom in a foot-square wood box, th 
mesh so small that corn would not dro; 
through, hut coarse enough to give egres 
to the hulls. A pound of soda to the bush¬ 
el of corn were the proportions .used 
though Unele Tim assured Mrs. Getche! 
he had made lye much stronger. Sh 
took her initial lesson with four quart 
of corn, picked over to exclude all refuse 
and her teacher in pei-son bought th 
corn at a feed store, selecting the grain : 
year old in preference to that season’; 
softer kernel, but sweet and free fron 
musty odor or taste. The lye was brough' 
to boil in a great aluminum kettle, then the 
corn dropped in with the liquid thrice cov 
oring it, to give it chance to swell. Th r 
cover was put on, and the whole fierce!’ 
boiled 20 minutes, when a ladleful wa 
tested in the sieve. The hulls did no' 
come off readily, so the boiling was con 
tinued. When the brown husks wer 
seen to flow in profusion on top of th- 
water the kettle was removed from th' 
fire, and lye drained off. 
“I had running water,” TTnele Tim told 
Mrs. Getchell, “but your faucets are in 
some respects better for you than my 
stream.” He poured the corn iu the 
sieve, set the whole iu a mammoth pan 
and turned on the cold water. With a 
wooden spoon his pupil stirred the ker¬ 
nels, and the hulls, by force of the dis¬ 
turbance and the flowing water, ran off 
through the meshes. Again and again the 
pan was emptied, and when the corn was 
entirely hull free it was left to soak out 
the lye in clear water. Every half hour 
the water was changed. “One important 
point is to hull without cooking.” reiter¬ 
ated the tutor. “The cooking should 
mostly be done after the lye is thoroughly 
washed out. But while it is soaking yor 
are busy with other tasks, so it reallj 
takes no time at ah once you are sure o 
the e° ,- marks. If. in the boiling, the wa 
ter -fiil comes off yellow, drain and ph 
on fresh, always boiling it before addin' 
the corn. 
The cooking water was salted to taste, 
and the corn swiftly boiled till it burs: 
open and tasted done when tried with 
milk. Mrs. Getchell worked up a gratify 
ing trade, letting customers know wha' 
hour it could be obtained hot, though 
hulled corn is a dish that will keep on ice. 
to be reheated for serving. The skilled, 
coru holier finds this light work demand¬ 
ing little spare time. lillian trott. 
Stiffening Window Shades 
Would not your correspondent “Jessie,” 
who on page 1831 gives such valuable ad 
vice for the renewal of window shades, b< 
willing, for the benefit of a greenhorn, to 
explain iu just what proportion she mixe 
the glue water which she uses in the op 
eration? w. A. B. 
Concerning my ^urtaiu renovation 1 
wont largely by experiment. I became th 
possessor of six old-fashioned white hoi 
land curtains of a very heavy quality o 
material, nearly as heavy as awning cloth 
One day while coloring I dyed one greet 
with such good results that, as I needed 
new curtains, I bought some package dye 
and dyed all six, following instruction 
on dye package. When I came to irot 
them they had a decided tendency t< 
“lump,” so. knowing that starch wouli 
make any dark fabric look grayish, I ex 
perimented with glue water, dipping s' 
corner of a curtain in the water and dry 
ing, doing so, or repeating the trial unti 
I had the desired stiffness, about as nov. 
shades, of course adding more glue to tin 
water at each experiment, unti! as nearlj 
as I can tell, I used about one-half pound 
of glue to a 12-qt. pail of water. Then 1 
put it iu a small tub and worked all six 
curtains in the water together until they 
were thoroughly wet and the water hac 
nearly all been absorbed by them. As tin 
glue water -would stick to the irons 1 
waxed them to prevent it. Jessie. 
Vandyke Lace for Table Scarf 
