4 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1301 
Women and Farm Work 
There has been much discussion in 
The R. N.-Y. and elsewhere about the 
women working on the farm, doing out¬ 
side work, etc. In all the articles I have 
(ver read they leave out one truth we all 
know and most of us have experienced. 
I am speaking of farmers of ordinary 
means, not exactly the ones who can yet 
be called well-to-do. At the price of 
labor and the scarcity of the same, the 
crops would often suffer if the woman 
didn’t take a hand and help out. Last 
Spring I helped three weeks to run the 
evaporator, while my husband gathered 
the sap. We made 87 gallons of maple 
syrup, which sold at $3 per gallon. If 
we had depended on help we could not 
have had it. I plant and care for the 
garden, therefore saving many day’s 
time. In fact, during the 14 years I have 
have lived on a farm I have done all 
sorts of work that the strength of a 
woman can do. So when I speak of 
women working out of doors I know what 
it means to the full extent. Yet I think 
among the ordinary class a woman should 
do such work if she has robust health and 
does not neglect the children's welfare 
by so doing. The money that is saved 
amounts to a good deal, and will help 
educate the children later. 
In the last farmers’ institute held in 
our town, conducted by Mrs. Della Jones, 
the subject was brought up. Mrs. Jones 
claimed if the man had a sulky plow and 
other labor-saving machinery, and the 
woman still had to carry water and put 
up with many other inconveniences, it 
was great injustice. It isn’t as much 
as it looks when one considers that most 
labor-saving machinery saves time and 
hired help and earns the living. The 
conveniences in the house do not earn 
the living. If a cow died, or the sow 
eats her pigs, or half the potatoes rot, 
the loss comes on the woman ; she is the 
one who is deprived of what those losses 
would bring in cash, if they turned out 
well, instead of badly, and it does seem 
like injustice, yet it seems to be the 
woman’s portion all over the world since 
time began in all things, and no laws or 
constitutional amendments can change it. 
It is sometimes a relief to express our 
views on the seeming injustice, neverthe¬ 
less. If anyone has a solution for it, I 
should be overjoyed to read it in The 
R. N.-Y. I am sure there are many 
other women who have experienced and 
endured the same. The only solution I 
know of is to keep right on. working 
and planning, and hoping, and never for¬ 
get the watchword of the man who set 
the standard of the 100 per cent Ameri¬ 
can in manhood and womanhood. 
"In the long fight for righteousness the 
watchword for us all is spend and be 
spent. It is a little matter whether any 
one man fails or succeeds, hut the cause 
should not fail, for it is the cause of man¬ 
kind. We here in America hold in our 
hands the hope of the world, the fate of 
the coming years, and shame and disgrace 
shall be ours if in our eyes the light of 
high resolve is dimmed — if we trail in 
the dust the golden hopes of men. If 
on this new continent we merely build an¬ 
other country of great but unjustly di¬ 
vided material prosperity, we shall have 
done nothing. And we shall do as little if 
we merely set the greed of envy against 
the greed of arrogance, and thereby de¬ 
stroy the material well-being of us all.” 
A FARM WOMAN. 
Refooting Stocking 
You ask for a pattern for refooting 
stockings, and I send a pattern I have 
used with success. To avoid a sole seam 
lay the pattern on the leg portion of a 
man’s sock, with the “toe end” on the 
rib top. stretching the rib a little to make 
it as wide as the rest. It is necessary to 
Top (cut on Cold) 
Op ening for foot 
A ° c / / r 
bote (To avoid seam cut on fold) 
Stocking Foot Cut from Sock 
use part of the rib so as to have strong 
material in the heel as well. 
If a wide stocking leg or other material 
is used, a sole seam will be necessary, 
but avoid a seam along the top by laying 
that part of the pattern on a fold. Loose¬ 
ly overcast toe, heel and sole, if necessary, 
and the foot is ready to attach to stock¬ 
ing leg. 
•The pattern given makes this method 
quite easily understood. It is cut from 
the leg of a sock, the top and bottom 
folds being just as the sock is woven. 
The curving portions of the toe are 
brought together and seamed, making a 
round toe. The heavy ribbed portion of 
the leg is put at the toe; it is necessary 
to use this ordinarily, as the leg of the 
sock would not be long enough otherwise. 
MRS. H. D. s. 
My plan is quite similar to the diagram 
shown. Cut off the ragged parts of 
stocking leg. beginning at back of heel. 
Cut to a Y-shape over and down the in¬ 
step. Then sew the bottom to it. Of 
course, the size will have to be varied 
according to size of foot to be fitted. If 
to be smaller, fold pattern in across the 
center between heel and toe; if larger, 
enlarge or lengthen between heel and toe 
across center of pattern. MRS. c. w. o. 
Tatting Stem for Hair Switches 
To make a good switch from combings 
it. is first necessary to arrange the hair in 
little bunches with the roots all one way. 
The root may be seen as a little white 
end or felt as a slight enlargement at the 
end of the hair. 
In sorting discard all short hair. Place 
root ends of 50 to 100 hairs together for 
one bunch. Roll this on fingers and tuck 
ends in ; will keep in this way in envelope 
till all is sorted. This is the tedious part 
of the job, but can be done at intervals, 
a handful at a time. When enough is 
ready, it can be woven same as any hair. 
Two narrow strips of board nailed 
firmly to make a right-angled corner make 
a frame across which may be stretched 
coarse, strong thread. Use double thread 
for warp. Have three of these double 
threads all fastened to one nail on one 
side of frame and separating slightly to 
three nails on other side of frame, as 
shown in picture. Then with tatting 
shuttle and same coarse thread weave 
back and forth through warp, forming 
solid strip an inch or some from the one 
nail to make a secure fastening befpre 
beginning to put in hair. Then weave 
in one of the little bunches of hair, and 
then weave back and forth with the 
thread. After each time the shuttle 
passes through, push back the woven 
thread and hair firmly toward the point 
of beginning to make the woven strip as 
firm and close as possible. Repeat till 
hair is all used, and -make a little woven 
thread after to fasten it by. This wmven 
strip of hair is then rolled and sewed 
firmly, and strong loop made for finished 
switch. Gray thread will show less for 
most hair than black. A. u. L. 
Salting Fish 
Will you give me a recipe for putting 
fish down in salt for Winter use? Which 
do you think better to use, rock salt or 
table salt? l. a. 
Fish may be preserved for Winter 
use either in brine or first salted and 
then smoked. The best table or dairy salt 
should be used, but never rock salt. What 
used to be called Turk’s Island salt was 
preferred for curing meat and fish by old- 
time housekeepers. Rock salt is not suf¬ 
ficiently pure. Fresh-water fish are often 
not as firm and solid as ocean fish, and 
great care must be exercised in preserv¬ 
ing them. They must be perfectly fresh, 
and must be kept in a cool, airy place. 
For curing and packing in brine, the 
fish must be washed in cold water, head 
and entrails removed, after which’ they 
should be well rubbed, both inside and 
out, with fine salt, then packed in earthen 
jars, or in clean barrels that have never 
contained vinegar, oil or kerosene. After 
the fish have remained in the salt over 
night, pour over them a brine made in 
the following proportions: For each 100 
lbs. of fish use 15 lbs. salt, four ounces 
saltpeter, and four gallons of water. The 
fish should be kept under the brine by a 
lid weighted down. Keep in a cool, well- 
ventilated cellar. 
If it is desired to salt for smoking, the 
fish should be cleaned as above, and then 
packed in salt, so that each fish is en¬ 
tirely surrounded with salt, and allowed 
to remain there for 15 to 20 days. They 
are then removed from the salt and given 
a heavy smoking with hickory wood. 
After the smoking the fish should be hung 
for three days so that no two fish touch 
one another before storing in a dry, well- 
venutilated place. 
Poultry Fat for Cooking 
Gan the fat from fowls (hens) be used 
in any way in cooking? h. 
Poultry fat can be used in many ways 
in cooking; it is very rich, and takes the 
place of butter. Hebrew cooks, who may 
not use lard, commonly substitute poul¬ 
try fat in a great deal of their cookery. 
It is excellent for frying, for rubbing 
with flour to make thickening, and in 
pastry or biscuits. We usually mix lard 
with it in pastry, but it may be used 
alone. Being soft, it needs extra care 
in mixing, so as to rub in thoroughly, and 
pie crust made with it is flakier if set in 
the icebox for a day before being used. 
Good, sweet poultry fat. thoroughly ren¬ 
dered, so that it contains no water, should 
never be wasted, for it saves more ex¬ 
pensive and salable fats. Fat from 
geese or ducks is not desirable; it is soft 
and oily, and rank in flavor. 
To Clean a White Hat 
Who has not at some time wished to 
clean and bleach a white straw hat? An 
excellent way is apply with a brush a 
thick paste made of sulphur and water. 
Allow the hat to dry in an entirely dark 
closet, or a chest, and to remain there 
for a few days. Then brush off the paste. 
G. A. T. 
reaciM 
anitai 
W HENEVER you prepare peaches for can¬ 
ning or preserving, try this simple way of 
removing the skins. It’s quicker and easier 
than paring and less wasteful. Saves the best part of 
the fruit—that next the skin. 
Dissolve half a can of Babbitt’S Concentrated Lye 
and half an ounce of alum in nine gallons of cold water 
and boil in an iron kettle. Suspend fruit, in a wire 
basket or cheesecloth, in this hot solution for one 
minute. This will remove the skin. Then wash fruit 
twice in cold water to clean thoroughly. For small 
quantities of fruit use four tablespoons of Babbitt’s 
Concentrated Lye and a pinch of alum, to one gallon 
of water. 
No fuss, no muss, no special utensils 
The U. S. Government Board of Food and 
Drug Inspection has ruled that this method does 
not injure quality or flavor of the fruit. Used 
by the best California canners. Equally effi¬ 
cient for preparing pears and plums. 
Insist on Babbitt’S Concentrated Lye to 
get best results. 
B. T. BABBITT 
15 West 34th Street 
Write for booklet giving many 
uses for BABB1 TT^S L, YE 
New York 
contents: 
**TV IKIWT «■** 
Sodium Chlond* 
* 2X Sodium Sulpha* M 
weight 13.23 or 
1 Iw Lyc Solution In 
