wuies 
toral iSiei£i*iet o,n3 ^Pictorial 
ome 
tamjmniaii. 
tatt$^i^png + 
HOUSEKEEPING—SOME OF ITS TRIALS 
AND PLEASURES. 
The September number of the Agriculturist con¬ 
tains what a correspondent claims to be the last 
annual report of the Board of Health of Massachu¬ 
setts, and the result of their inquiries among farmers, 
in regard to their diet, is that good bread is very- 
scarce. I wonder if poor bread is ever found on any 
other tables but farmers’ wives’. My children say to 
me, “ Mother, we don’t find such good bread as yours 
anywhere,” and I am a farmer’s wife. My children 
are away from home a good share of the time, and 
eat at very many different tables in the course of a 
year, so I think they are capable of judging. Still, I 
must confess that I feel more dissatisfaction with my 
bread than any other part of my cooking, because I 
cannot make my wheat bread quite so nice as that I 
can buy of a baker. I cannot get quite that spongy 
lightness; nor have I seen any woman that could. 
When seated at the table of my city friends I do not 
find any better bread than I can make, unless they 
buy of the baker. But I mean to keep trying, and, 
when I arrive at perfection, shall invite that poor, 
disappointed correspondent ofth q Agriculturist to spend 
a week with me in the country. How lie does slander 
us farmers’ wives! I, for one, am indignant. It 
seems to me that he went into the country to get 
something nice to eat, which not happening to find in 
that particular place, he went back to the city disgusted. 
Let him spend a few days with us on the top of our 
glorious hills, and he will find the prospect so grand 
and the air so invigorating that he will almost forget 
to eat at all. Again, he says the overwork of farmers’ 
wives is, therefore, in a great part responsible for the 
inferiority of farmers’ diet; and if that is true, we are 
not so much to blame. I think many housekeepers 
fail for want of system and order in their households. 
I have been surprised to see how loosely everything 
goes on in some families; the breakfast dishes stand 
unwashed till noon; the beds unmade, and chamber- 
work not done till afternoon. Every child should be 
taught, as soon as it is dressed in the morning, be¬ 
fore leaving its room, to open the windows, spread 
back the clothes from the bed, so that while eating 
its breakfast the room and bed is being nicely aired. 
I have always insisted on this in my family. It is 
absolutely necessary that the air and beds in a sleep¬ 
ing-room be kept pure and sweet. Immediately after 
breakfast, I insist that the slops should,be emptied, 
beds made, rooms swept and dusted. It will not take 
any more time in the morning than afternoon. 
Secondly, the report says there is too little variety 
in food on farmers’ tables. Now a farmer can have a 
great variety of fruits and vegetables on his table 
almost the whole year; but in fresh meats he cannot, in 
hot weather, always have what ho likes to have if he 
is situated like us, and many others, six miles from 
market. Now, what shall I do if, on a hot July morn¬ 
ing, I get a line from some of my city friends saying, 
I am coming to see you to-day; meet me at the depot 
at nine this morning. Depot three miles north of us; 
market six miles south, in exactly opposite direction; 
one horse to use, which father must harness into the 
two-seated carriage, for there will be a host of them; 
and the girls must drive to the cars, while mother and 
the remaining help at home must make the extra 
preparation for the dinner. The horse has gone 
north, remember ; no horse to go to market; no time 
to kill and dress chicken; plenty of salt meats, such 
as ham, dried beef, dry salt, fish and fish in brine. 
The correspondent of the Agriculturist, when he went 
into the country, wanted a juicy roast or a tender 
steak, and blamed the family he boarded with because 
he did not get it; but don’t you see it is impossible in 
this case, as it might have been in his. Now, I would 
like to set my friends down to the best in the market, 
but it cannot be done to-day, so we will have some 
broiled ham, nicely fried eggs, boiled potatoes, with 
one of the many steamed puddings that all housekeepers 
have plenty of receipts for making; for dessert, a dish 
of strawberries with cream and sugar. That you see 
is as well as I can do by them to-day. I can give 
them a hearty welcome. What if I am in my calico 
morning dress; it is whole and clean! I will wear 
it like a qu< en—better than a silk for my business. 
I have brought up my family to think that there 
are things more desirable in this life than rich food. 
My eldest daughter said to me, “Mother, if father has 
any money to spend for me, let him give me a good 
education,” and he gave her her choice. After gradu¬ 
ating at the academy, she has entered the best female 
seminary in New England. When she is home, if I 
am sick a day or a week, she can take my place in 
the family, and I can rest, knowing that everything 
will be in exact order. She can cook and wash dishes 
if necessary, which all daughters should be able to do. 
Said a friend to me, not long ago, “Mrs. B., you are 
teaching your two daughters to work; it is not 
fashionable.” Most young ladies that play on the 
piano think they cannot put their hands in dish-water, 
because it will make them black, and they will not 
look well on the keys. I wonder if their mothers ever 
told them that dish-water will not make their hands 
black if they are careful to rinse all the soapy water 
off when they get through. My daughters wash 
dishes, but their hands are soft and white; look as 
well on the piano keys as the young ladies who visit 
them. I like to see girls take care of their hands. 
Mothers should teach their daughters to cultivate the 
beautiful in everything. God might have placed us in 
a world without any beauty; instead he has placed us 
in a world full of-beautiful things. We should strive 
to make ourselves and our homes beautiful; and we 
cannot do it without good housekeeping. Mothers, 
educate your daughters to be good cooks and good 
housekeepers, or you neglect an important duty. 
Stafford, Ct. B. A. E. 
Sponge Cake.— Six eggs, four cups flour, three 
cups sugar, one cup water, salt, one teaspoonful soda, 
two teaspoonfuls cream of tartar; flavor with lemon. 
Beat the eggs and sugar together until very light, 
then add the soda dissolved in the water, and the 
cream of tartar mixed thoroughly with the flour. 
Frosting. —When eggs are expensive and hard to 
find, as often during winter season, the following 
recipe for excellent frosting will be found valuable: 
Dissolve in one-third of a cup of boiling water one 
teaspoonful of gelatine; make the mixture stiff with 
sugar, flavor and apply to the cake; the cake being 
cold, but little beating is necessary. 
An excellent food for birds, much better than what 
is generally sold under the name of German Paste, 
may be made as follows: Take four fresh eggs and 
boil very hard, a quarter of a pound of white peas 
meal, and about a tablespoonful of good salad oil; if 
the least rancid, it will not do. The eggs must bo 
grated down very fine, and mixed with the meal and 
olive oil. The whole is then passed through a thin 
colander, to form it into grains, like small shot, then 
placed in a frying-pan over a gentle fire, and gradually 
stirred with a broad knife, till it be partially wasted 
and dried, the test of which will be its fine yellowish 
brown color. 
New York Buns. —Five cups flour, two cups sugar, 
one cup butter, one egg, four tablespoons of milk, 
small teaspoon of soda, any spice that is agreeable; 
nutmeg is as good as any; roll like cookies and bake 
quick. Will keep several months and grow better if 
kept in a close jar. 
To Clean a Looking-Glass. —First wash the glass 
all over with lukewarm soapsuds and a sponge; when 
dry, rub it bright with a buckskin or chamois, and a 
little prepared chalk finely powdered. 
To Remove Rust from Knives.— Cover the knives 
with sweet oil well rubbed on, and after two days 
take a lump of fresh lime and rub till the rust disap¬ 
pears. 
How to Make Meat Tender.— Cut the steaks the 
day before into slices about two inches thick; rub 
them over with a small quantity of carbonate of soda; 
wmsh off next morning clean; cut into suitable thick¬ 
ness and cook as you choose. The same process will 
answer for fowl, legs of mutton, &c. 
The question is often asked by careful mothers, 
“What will remove grass stains from children’s 
clothing?” An exchange says that simply wetting 
and rubbing the stained cloth in cold water will 
remove all traces of the grass. Fruit stains will dis¬ 
appear on the application of boiling hot w'ater. No 
salt should be used in either case. 
Keeping the Hands Smooth. —A writer in the 
American Grocer says that glycerine is not used in the 
right way. She asserts that to preserve the smooth¬ 
ness and softness of the hands, keep a small bottle of 
glycerine near the place where you habitually wash 
them, and whenever you have finished washing, and 
before wiping them, put one or two drops of the 
glycerine on the wet palm and rub the hands thor¬ 
oughly with it as if it w T ere soap; then dry lightly 
with the towel. Household work and bad weather 
will not prevent your skin from being smooth and soft 
if this plan of using glycerine is followed. 
Salt Water for the Eyes. —Many persons are 
suffering pain from weakness of the eyes. This, 
sometimes, proceeds from local inflammation, and 
sometimes from other causes. Several persons who 
have been thus afflicted inform us that they have 
derived almost immediate, and, in some cases, perma¬ 
nent relief from the application of salt water as a bath; 
and where the pain has been aggravated, form a com¬ 
press saturated with salt water laid on the eyes, and 
renewed at frequent intervals. Opening the eyes and 
submerging them in clean salt wrnter has been found 
beneficial to those whose eyesight begins to fail. 
How to Clean Silver. —According to Dr. Eisner, 
water in which potatoes have been boiled exercises a 
remarkable cleaning influence, especially on spoons 
that have become blackened by eggs. Even delicately 
chased and engraved articles can, it is said, be made 
bright by this method. 
Borax Used in Washing —Quarter of a pound 
of refined borax to five gallons water; powder the 
borax; dissolve it in boiling water in the above pro¬ 
portion, and use. It is an excellent bleacher, and 
may be used for the most delicate laces even; it also 
saves soap. A little pipe-clay dissolved in hot water 
cleans very dirty linen with half the soap required 
without it. 
Soapstone hearths are first washed in pure water 
and then rubbed with powdered marble or soapstone, 
put on with a piece of the same stone. 
