66 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
bushel of wheat, while it costs but half as much ; yet 
upon the tables of many persons of small incomes, 
corn never makes its appearance. Properly cooked 
it makes excellent bread, and in the hands of the 
skillful housewife, it is wrought into a great vari¬ 
ety of appetizing articles. It is attractive as hasty 
pudding, hominy, samp, and hulled corn. In the 
whole tribe of Johnny cakes and Indian puddings, 
it is glorious, as every one knows who has tested 
the many recipes that we have published in our 
back volumes. Then, in farmers’ families, there is 
often a great dearth of vegetables. The potato and 
turnip are universal, but the cauliflower, the more 
delicate kinds of cabbage, the beet, carrot, parsnip, 
horseradish, and celery, that might be on the table 
all through the winter, are quite frequently want¬ 
ing. In summer the kitchen garden is quite too 
much neglected, and the citizen fares much better 
than the farmer, who might have all the vegetables 
at small cost at his own door. A good garden will 
half support a family, and the man who owns a 
small piece of land near his home can get whole¬ 
some food cheaper from this source than from any 
other. In the economy which must needs be prac¬ 
ticed henceforth, determine to make the most of 
this source of supply. More fruits and vegetables 
of your own raising, and less meat, will be a sound 
maxim in the household economy. And while 
upon this topic we must not overlook the dish of 
baked beans, which was the main stay in New 
England families in the early days, and which still 
makes its regular appearance with Sunday morning 
in many Yankee homes. It is said that this escu¬ 
lent furnishes more nourishment for the price than 
anything else in the market. This is probably so. 
We know it to be savory and cheap in all the forms 
in which it comes to our table. It is an indispen¬ 
sable item in compounding succotash, a dish that 
is welcome once a week the year round, and is 
nearly as good in winter as in summer. It makes 
excellent soup. As porridge, it is said to be best 
nine days old. It usually disappears on the first 
day, and we cannot speak for a greater age. The 
Lima bean, gathered fully ripe, or when the pod is 
green, and dried, is an excellent vegetable served 
with all meats, and ought to be as common as the 
potato. 
To Our Household Correspondents. 
The pressure is, in part, removed from this de¬ 
partment, though we have still on hand several 
good recipes waiting their appropriate season, 
and other material. We desire that these columns 
should be made the medium of communication 
among our readers on matters of common interest 
in the household. If the reader has any article of 
ornament or use that is particularly prized, tell us 
what it is and how to make it, that it may benefit 
entire the Agriculturist family, which is now 
spread over the whole country and even in foreign 
lands. A multitude of houses that we visit need 
just the convenience that is such a comfort to you, 
and would have it if it were made known. We 
want hints and suggestions, brief essays upon all 
that pertains to household economy. 
How to Entertain Guests. 
Emerson says : “I pray you, O excellent wife, 
not to cumber yourself and me to get a rich dinner 
for this man, or this woman, who has alighted at 
our gate, nor a bed-chamber made ready at too great 
a cost. These things, if they are curious in, they 
can get for a dollar at any village. But let this 
stranger see, if he will, in your looks, in your ac¬ 
cent and behavior, your heart and earnestness, 
your thought and will, what he cannot buy at any 
price, at any village or city, and which he may 
well travel fifty miles, and dine sparely, and sleep 
hard, in order to behold. Certainly let the board 
be spread and the bed be dressed for the traveller ; 
but let not the emphasis of hospitality be in these 
things. Honor to the house where they are simple 
to the verge of hardship, so that the intellect is 
awake and sees the laws of the universe,, the soul 
worships truth and love, honor and courtesy flow 
into all deeds.” 
The most obtuse must see in this quotation the 
whole philosophy of hospitality. One of the 
greatest delights of having a home of our own is 
to have in it a place for friends and strangers. We 
do not build a house simply to meet the wants of 
our own families. We have one or more guest 
chambers and the extension table, to which we may 
welcome our friends. The larger a man’s means, 
the more liberal provision he makes for hospitality. 
They are greatly to be pitied who can barely sup¬ 
ply their own physical wants, who dwell always in 
narrow quarters, who have no pillow or plate for 
friend or stranger. The farm-house generally has 
room enough for all, and some that we wot of have 
an indefinite power of expansion, that rivals India 
rubber. The rail car of our cities is not more ac¬ 
commodating. There is always room for one more, 
and where the welcome is so hearty, the one more 
sends his regrets for absence, and comes next time. 
There are others with houses roomy enough, but 
unblest with friends the year round. No one 
breathes the fragrance of their roses, or wipes the 
bloom from the clusters that are supposed to grace 
their tables. They live to themselves very elegant¬ 
ly and comfortably, it may be, but very narrowly 
and selfishly. The door-step is always clean, and 
the lawn in front always shorn. It is kept for the 
eyes and not for the feet. No children play there. 
The dogs are not at home there. We hope the 
folks are, and enjoy it. 
There are others who would like to make their 
friends welcome, but spoil their pleasure by over 
exertion. The guests are made to feel uneasy by 
the visible effort put forth to entertain them. The 
whole secret of putting our friends at their ease is 
to be at ease ourselves. And in order to be thus, 
we must not misinterpret their visit. They have 
not come to see our furniture, our equipage, our 
dress, but ourselves. Courtesy, then, rather de¬ 
mands our society and conversation than our silver 
ware and cookery. There is no objection, of course, 
to the best tea urn and the cups and saucers to 
match, but they should set upon the table as if they 
were every-day ware. By all means kill the turkey, 
if that is your humor, but do not tell the guest 
that the bird has been waiting his coming a month. 
Let the rare dish be served up with as much ease 
as if it were always upon your table. Keep your 
art, whatever it may be, out of sight. Do not let 
your guest suspect that you are making an effort 
to entertain him, lest he go away pained with the 
feeling that he has been a burden to you, and never 
come again. Study his aptitudes and tastes, and 
make him instruct you in those tilings of which 
you know little and would like to know more. He 
must be a rare man if he have not some experi¬ 
ences in life to which you are a stranger. He 
comes from another sphere of toil, and has differ¬ 
ent surroundings from your own. Make him your 
superior and benefactor, by drawing out of him his 
knowledge and experience for your own benefit. 
So shall you part at the gate, both enriched in your 
mental and social natures. 
Nor should we turn aside wholly from the rou¬ 
tine of our daily life to make our guests welcome. 
Every one worthy to sit at your table knows that 
life has its necessary duties. Do not burden him 
with the thought that your business is suffering 
derangement and loss by his coming. Your inter¬ 
course will be all the sweeter and more profitable 
for coming in the intervals of your regular cares. 
Give him to-day only that which you have to spare 
to-day, that there may be no strain on the morrow 
to recover your lost possession, and no wish in 
your heart that he had not come when he did, or 
had not come at all. 
Frost Bitten Feet. 
These are in order at this season of the year, in all 
careless families, and in some that are quite care¬ 
ful. This is one of the cases in which an ounce of 
prevention is better than a pound of cure. But if 
the ounce has not been taken, and the frost has, 
much depends upon timely remedies. The feet 
should be put immediately into cold water and 
thawed out very gradually. The sudden thawing 
does more injury than the frost. Apply sweet oil 
or the glycerine ointment mentioned in last 
month’s Basket, to the injured parts, and keep 
quiet until the system has time to repair damages. 
To Prevent Stoves from Rusting. 
A correspondent asks how to prevent stoves 
from rusting. One who speaks from long ex¬ 
perience recommends common stove blacking, and 
no kind of oil but elbow grease. Much depends 
upon the condition in which stoves are put away, 
and upon the place of deposit. If in a filthy, rusty 
condition, they will rust still more. If put in a 
cellar or damp place they will be likely to rust with 
any amount of polish. If thoroughly polished—■ 
the elbow grease not spared—and set in the garret 
or upper chamber, they will ordinarily go through 
without damage. But as mortals are engaged in 
the manufacture of stove polish, and as servant s that 
ply the brush are also mortal, we advise the house¬ 
keeper to look occasionally at stoves not in use. 
Recipes for Cooking’. 
The following are contributed by Mrs. D. W. 
Sutton, Westchester County, New York. 
Crssmpcts. —Make a batter of one quart of 
milk and flour, add a little salt, and one half cup of 
yeast; when very light, add nearly one cup of but¬ 
ter; bake on a.greased griddle in rings. 
Mulliisas.— 1 To a batter of one quart of milk, 
add 4 eggs, a little salt, and half cup of melted but¬ 
ter; may be baked in small tins in the oven instead 
of in rings on a griddle. They may be made»of rye. 
Cream —One pint of cream, one 
pint of flour, a little salt, and three eggs, well 
beaten, and one half teaspoonful soda ; stir the 
whites in last. Nice baked in new cups, kept clean 
with dry cloth, and not wet or greased. 
—One pint bowl of light sponge, with 
two potatoes mashed fine, added while warm ; one 
half cup of melted butter, one cup of sugar, sponged 
with two cups of milk. When light, knead up and 
make into biscuits, or roll and cut with a tumbler; 
place close together, when very light again, bake; 
when a little browned, wash with sweetened milk. 
BHuslc witli Eggs.- One pint bowl of light 
sponge, one half cup of melted butter, one cup of 
sugar, and two to four eggs, sponge. When light, 
knead and form into biscuit; then when very light, 
bake. If washed with sweetened milk or water 
when nearly done, it will give them a nice color. 
The same recipe will also make nice doughnuts. 
5*oj» Overs. —Batter two cups of milk with 
two cups of flour, add the yolks of two eggs, a lit¬ 
tle salt, lastly the whites; bake in small tins. 
Corn Griddle Calces. —Three cups of 
meal, one cup of flour, one cup of sour cream, one 
cup of sugar, three eggs, well beaten, a little saler- 
atus and salt, thinned with milk. 
Potato Calces.— -To a scant half peck of 
potatoes grated, add two eggs, salt, thicken with a 
little flour, and fry in a spider, or bake. Boiled grated 
potatoes may be used, but are not quite so nice. 
Soda iSiscnit.— Rub up fine into five tum¬ 
blers of sifted flour a lump of butter or lard the 
size of a large egg; if lard, add more salt. Before 
the flour is sifted, stir in one teaspoonful of soda, 
and two of cream tartar, thoroughly mixed; add 
enough sweet milk or water to make it knead nice¬ 
ly, then either make into cakes with the hand, or 
roll out and cut up to suit the fancy, and bake in 
a rather quick oven.- Another .—Eight tumblers 
of flour sifted with two teaspoonfuls of soda, and 
four of cream tartar, and butter the size of two 
eggs, and wet with sweet milk enough to knead 
nicely. Sour milk and less shortening may be used, 
instead of cream tartar which disagrees with some. 
