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FAEM HOMES
IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
BY
E. H. LELAND
NEW YORK:
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY,
1890.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by tha
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. BUILDING.
The Site The Plan The Four Essentials Sunlight Halls Bath-
rooms Ventilation Drainage and Preventable Filth 9
CHAPTER II. FINISHING.
Calcimine An Excellent Whitewash Borders Wood-work Man-
tels Hall Windows 32
CHAPTER III. FURNISHING.
The Spare Bedroom The Boys' Room The Old People's Room-
Mother's Room The Girls' Room The Kitchen The Dining-
room The Parlor 41
CHAPTER IV. THE DAIRY -ROOM AND BUTTER-MAKING 75
CHAPTER V. CHEESE 80
CHAPTER VI. THE FLOWER GARDEN.
Hardy Bulbs and Plants Annuals Summer Bulbs Hardy Shrubs-
Climbing Vines 82
CHAPTER VII. WINDOW PLANTS.
Geraniums Fuchsias Heliotropes Foliage Plants Monthly Roses
The Calla Suggestions 98
CHAPTER VIII. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN.
Asparagus Beans Beets Cabbage Cauliflower Celery Cucum-
bersSweet Corn Carrots Egg Plant Lettuce Melons Onions
Parsnips Parsley Peas Peppers Potatoes Pumpkins
Radishes Spinach Squashes Turnips Tomatoes Herbs-
How to make a Hot-bed 105
VI TABLE OF COXTZ
CHAPTER IX. SMALL FRUITS AXD GABLES FRUIT TREES.
Apples Berne* Grapes Pears Plums Peaches. 113
CHAPTER X. Tax BEST FOODS ASD SOMZ BEST METHODS or PRE-
PARING THEM.
1 Preserved Canned Fruits-Choice
Catsups The Value of Milk and Eg^ -
Puddings Pies Cake Home-made Can-
-A few Good Sauces for Fish and
Meats-Beef, Mutton, Fowls, etc. Vegetables 117
CHAPTER XL A Fzw SIMPLE LUXURIES.
Home-made Refrigerator A Water-filter- Ice-
cream wthout a Freezer Cool Houses in Summer Rooms with-
out Flies A Pot-pourri or Scent Jar Grapes and Pears for the
Holiday* Wanned Bedrooms 171
CHAPTER XIL FAKM NEIGHBOBHOODS ITS
CHAPTER XHL To FABMEBS' WIVES. 183
CHAPTER XIV. REARING ASD TRAnrrsfG OF CBILDXES 198
CHAPTER XV. RULES FOB RIGHT LTTDSG 208
(Till)
FARM HOMES,
IN- DOORS AND OUT-DOORS,
CHAPTER I.
BUILDING.
Some one has intimated that he who has eyes for seeing
is a very wealthy man he owns the landscape ! Whoever
is blessed with eyes, then, owes it to God and to his fel-
low-man that he should contribute his mite of beauty
and cheerfulness to the world around him.
In no way can he do this with more telling effect than
in creating a lovely home, in building a comfortable and
attractive house, and making the most and best of its
surroundings. No matter how small his possessions may
be, or how plain and cheap his materials, it is always
possible for every farmer to make the landscape a little
more pleasing, from the fact of his having a hand in it.
If this seems a small achievement, and one without
" profit," let the reader call to mind those farm-houses
seen too often whose ricketty fences, unkempt door-
yards, and scattered tools, are an ugly blot upon nature's
fair page, and I am sure he will feel the great moral as
well as financial meaning that lies in even the humblest
expressions of beauty, thrift, and order a meaning that
(9)
10 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
announces pretty clearly, in farming regions, the differ-
ence between the man and the sluggard between the
genuine and worthy "lord of the soil" and the slack-
souled pauper who makes no honorable return to the
acres that feed him.
It is a great thing to build the house that is to be one's
home. There are few pleasures so unalloyed as that of
selecting the ground, laying the foundation, and watch-
ing day by day the growth of wall and roof that go to
form one's own secure kingdom through the years to
come. And it is a pleasure that cannot be entered upon
too seriously. If there are to be but three rooms, they
will constitute the home, and the opportunity exists to
make them either charmingly cozy and cheerful, or de-
pressingly ugly. Therefore, even a small house-plan
should be well considered. A house-plan is easily torn
down and remodelled ; it costs nothing to add a paper
window here, or to remove a paper partition there ; a
pencil line changes a staircase or enlarges the dining-
room ; a few moments of inexpensive reflection lets the
morning sunlight into a cheerless kitchen, builds a
clothes-press, and remodels the pantry ; or, if something
better is thought of, the whole establishment can be
easily tossed aside, and not even the shadow of the house-
mover's bill presents itself. But, having put a plan into
solid timber and mortar, and then coming to find how
greatly the house might be improved ah, woe the day !
It is no idle thing to meddle with the stair-cases and
partitions, and the gloomily-lighted kitchen.
THE SITE.
The building site is, of course, the first thing to be con-
sidered. One's first resolution regarding it should be to
avoid all anxiety to jump into the road. A house crowding
upon the highway loses all dignity and home-like repose,
and gains nothing but dust. Such choice of location may
BUILDING. 11
possibly be an hereditary trait, coining down from that
long ago time, when houses grew up along the faintly-
marked trails of emigration, and closely clung there, as
if in mortal fear of savages and wild animals lurking in
the back-ground. But in these peaceful days, it is in
better taste to sit back in a leisurely and composed way,
as if not afraid of one's own fields and woodlands, but at
home and happy with them. Let no site be chosen be-
cause of its proximity to the road, or because it is
" handy to water." Select the finest spot on the farm
a place combining, if possible, elevation, eastern and
southern frontage, natural trees, a pleasant outlook, and
make all else conform to it:
If there is a stream of water or a lake in the vicinity,
try to have a glimpse of it for the living-room windows.
A landscape without a bit of water in it is almost as piti-
ful as the face of a blind man, as any one will testify who
has once lived by babbling brooks or near the shores of
lake or ocean.
There are opportunities for improving all building
sites. The farmer priding himself upon his " good,
hard common sense," may sneer at the term "landscape
gardening," but properly pruned trees, a well-ktpt
stretch of turf, and shrubberies planted in the right
place, are just as much to his credit as a good barn or
staunch fences. Landscape gardening need not neces-
sarily mean littering one's grounds with rubbishy rock-
eries and puny evergreens, or cutting them up with de-
vious paths and drives. To bring the best into notice,
and to soften or put out of sight that which is not attrac-
tive, is all that is required. Simple but correct touches
will tell. A light foot-bridge thrown over the brook
where it winds into view between the willows of the mea-
dow, two or three rustic seats grouped under some near
shade tree, a great vase (made of a section of hollow
N filled and surrounded with hardy, climbing vines,
12 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
and placed near the curve of the carriage-way, a spacious
sweep of beautiful turf sloping away to meet the darker
verdure of a leafy hedge, a few firs or pines planted
where winter sunsets may glow through them these
and similarly simple "landscape" touches add wonder-
fully "to the attractions of a farm-house, and mark the
difference between the intelligent and progressive farmer
and the dull plodder who never lifts his eyes above the
ground, and believes in letting well enough alone.
THE PLAN.
After the site is decided upon, and one knows the
point of compass he is to face which I sincerely hope is
squarely south or squarely east, or squarely anywhere,
rather than a disagreeable "bias," which always makes
the sun seem out of gear and the pole-star hopelessly
dislodged let the plans be brought out and studied for a
while.
Here, among house-plans, a worthy field is open to
women. They, who live so constantly within doors,
should have a controlling voice in all interior arrange-
ments. They know, or ought to know, how a certain
number of rooms can be planned, so as to secure con-
venience and cheerfulness to their occupants, and they
will naturally be more thoughtful, as ^architects, of all
details pertaining to comfort, and the easier carrying on
of household routine. The man-mind always means
well, as a general thing, but it is sometimes too grand to
focus itself upon an easy angle in a staircase, a corner-
cupboard, the one best place for the pantry-window, or
the extra door that saves so many steps for tired feet.
Things like these would be taken into consideration, if
women would plan their own homes, or, at any rate,
have a voice in regard to some of the details of home-
building. It ought to enter into every woman's education
to know how to plan a thoroughly cheerful, convenient,
BUILDING. 13
and healthful house ; to know how to make the best of
even a three-roomed cottage, as well as the statelier man-
sion which it may be her good fortune to possess.
Young country-girls, it rests largely with you to up-
lift and adorn and dignify farm-life ! to so refine and
brighten and enrich that which is now so often bleak and
ugly and barren, that your brothers, instead of breaking
away to clerkships and offices, or something worse, will be
loth to leave their noble farm-homes ; and you yourselves
will find something better there than in the back-rooms
of milliners' shops, or the unhealthful slavery of a dress-
maker's sewing-machine.
There is a great deal of talk in the household depart-
ments of newspapers and magazines about making homes
attractive, and the bulk of it is in regard to barrel-chairs,
fancy match-safes, and embroidered lambrequins.
These things are well enough ; but, my country-,
girl, go you much deeper than this line of decora-
tion, and begin at the ground- work of things ! Draw
plans of your future home, and review them with John
or Charles or whatever his dear name may be until you
have one so good, and yet so in keeping with the money
to be invested, that life within it will be a satisfaction
and a blessing. Build a permanent home or the begin-
ning of one at the outset, and give it all possible graces,
instead of settling down in some ugly little square box
of a "temporary" character, with the intention of
building a grand house when the " better times" come.
The Better Times are when youth and health and love
join hands, and set out upon the journey of life together.
Build the home now, and though you commence with
only a kitchen and a bedroom, the seasons will come and
go, bringing their gifts of improvement and beauty, and
thirty years hence your home will be a far sweeter and
lovelier abode than any grand " new house," at such a
time, can possibly be.
14
FARM HOMES, IX-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
THE FOUR ESSENTIALS.
In planning a house, let four essential points be kept
in view Drainage, Sunlight, Ventilation, and a Bath-
room. These features can be compassed even in the
smallest cottage, and yet thousands of farm-houses are
being completed to-day without a thought of them. It is
cheering to reflect, however, that other thousands of
farm-houses are going up wherein these vital considera-
tions have been kept first and foremost. Progress in
building-reform is unnecessarily slow, especially in the
new Western States, and wives and daughters should set
themselves to thinking and studying about these things,
and so hasten on the millenium of right living.
SUNLIGHT.
The sun, if you will only open your house to him, is a
faithful physician, who
will be pretty constant in
attendance, and who will
eend in no bills. Many
years ago glass was some-
thing of a luxury, but
now we can all have good-
sized windows, and plen-
ty of them, at moderate
cost, and there is no ex-
|pt! cuse for making mere
loop-holes, through
V V which the sun can cast
Fig. 1. A " DESIBABLE SUBSTITUTE."
but half an eye, and from
which one can gain only
narrow glimpses of the beautiful outer world.
I am sufficiently acquainted with the conservative
character of many country people to know that expres-
sions of disdain will come from some quarters when I
BUILDING. 1$
mention Bay Windows. Nevertheless bay windows are a
good thing. Their effect is very much like letting
heaven into one's house, at least it ought to be like that,
for it is nothing but absurdity and wickedness to darken
such windows with shutters or heavy curtaina until only
a struggling ray of sunlight can be sejen.
If bay windows are too expensive, a very desirable sub-
stitute can be had by placing two ordinary sized windows
. 3. A KITCHEN WINDOW.
side by side with a wide capacious ledge at the bottom
for seats or for plants.
A room with a window like this cannot fail to be
cheery, and its effect in a simple cottage house is quite
sumptuous. There is likewise in its favor the fact that
it is less exposed than the deep bay window to outer heat
and cold.
In a kitchen or in a child's bedroom, or in an attic
where the walls are low, two half-windows set side by
side and made to slide or to open on hinges, admit a
broad, generous light, and give an apartment a pretty
and pleasing rustic air.
Let the builder endeavor to have all rooms in daily use,
1C
FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AXD OUT-DOOBS.
especially bedrooms and sitting-rooms, well lighted by
the sun. "To sleep on unsunned beds in unsunned
chambers, and to work day after day in Unsunned rooms,
is the unrepented sin of half the nation," vigorously
affirms a prominent writer. But this should not be said
of that portion of the nation living in the country far
from those towering brick walls whose steps take hold on
basement kitchens, and in whose depressing shadows
many lives must necessarily be spent. In the country,
with a whole sky to draw from, let there be light! If
any rooms in the house must look solely to the north for
XORTH. illumination, let them
be the parlor and the
spare chamber. People
who come and go can
be cheerful for a while
in a north-windowed
apartment, but the
constant dwellers in a
house need its sunniest
rooms.
Verandas are most
desirable on the south
and west sides of a
house, for while they
ward off the mid-day
heat of summer, they
still freely admit (he
low down winter sun.
From east windows we can hardly have too much light
even in summer, and bedrooms and nurseries should be
planned to receive the full benefit of them.
Here is an example of a farm-house, large and well
built, so far as material and finish go, that for want of
intelligence and forethought, or both, is almost devoid of
sunlight in its most used rooms.
SOUTH.-FKONT.
3. A HOUSE WITHOUT SUNLIGHT.
BUILDING.
17
NORTH.
w
M
W
K
B
= H
V
w w
The wide veranda very pleasant in itself shuts off
the winter sun by the time it is two hours high, and the
rooms are arranged with such ingenious stupidity that
those in common use have no sunlight whatever for the
remainder of the day. To be sure, in summer it is "de-
lightfully cool " in this house, (so it is in most caves
and dungeons ! )
and always there
is some one of the
numerous family
" ailing" within its
walls which is not
at all delightful.
In plan number
four is a house cost-
ing many hundreds
less, but worth
many thousands
more, because it is
so cheerfully and
healthfully light-
ed. The dining-
room which in
my opinion should
always have a large
east window IS F ? Veranda ; H, Hall ; S, Sitting-room ; />,
Dining-room ; J3, Bedroom ; c, c. Clothes-press
the least pleasant, and Bath-room ; K, Kitchen ; P, Pantry ; M,
especially on rainy Milk-room; w; Wood-house. *
mornings ; but a fire in the open stove or fire-place, and the
mirror above it reflecting the window opposite, make it a
very tolerable room. On the second floor are four large
sunny bedrooms, and above is a long, well-lighted garret
or attic, which makes a fine play-room for the children
in stormy weather.
Plan number five was designed for a young farmer of
small family and small means, and Is found to be delight-
SOUTH.
Fig. 4. A WELL-LIGHTED HOUSE.
18
l-'AUM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
fully bright and cosy. A wide-arched door, seldom
closed, between the sitting and dining-rooms permits
both apartments to be flooded with light from the large
south window, and these, together with the west bed-
WEST.
SOUTH.
B
S
Ix 1 f
V
J Xp r* I
1
~\ D
r
1 K
i "1
/ g
/ te
B <
W
T^CT
EAST.
Fig. 5. A ONE-STORY HOUSE.
X, Portico ; S, Sitting-room ; D, Dining-room ; B, B, Bedrooms ; c, <?,
Clothes-press and Bath-room ; K, K, Summer and Winter Kitchens ;
P, M, Pantry and Milk-room ; W, Wood-house.
room, are all comfortably warmed in winter by one good
wood or coal stove.
Number six is the ground plan of a small house perch-
ed nest-like upon a picturesque knoll with its dark pines
and brilliant maples. Within doors it is quite airy and
regal because of its high walls, wide windows, and the
graceful arch opening opposite the entrance, displaying
the gay little dining-room with its large east window
filled with plants. On the second floor are two capacious
bedrooms and a small room for clothing, bedding, etc.
Among small farm-homes one seldom sees a more
thoroughly satisfactory plan than this combining as it
does comfort, cheapness, and economy. A man and wife
just beginning house-keeping might exist very passably
by dispensing with the upper story and adding a small
wing for kitchen and extra bedroom, devoting the space
occupied by the stair-case to china and linen closets. But
the cost of the upper floor is comparatively small, and it
BUILDING. 19
ensures pleasant and capacious sleeping rooms for the
family of the future.
"What a pleasant home you have ! " is the exclamation
of all who visit this house, and the secret of its peculiar
charm lies in the fact that WEST.
a young farmer's wife first
dreamed it out upon paper
until she had cheerfulness
and utility successfully
combined. Then she gave *
the plan to her husband
wise and appreciative man.
He built it to the letter,
and neither have had cause T w
to regret this little branch-
ing out from the ordinary
model of cheap farm-houses
, T !-, , Sitting-room ; B< Bedroom : c, c,
namely, a parlor, seldom Wardrobe and Bath-room ; k, D,
a bis: kitchen where H*2"? ?S I SLS?*SJ
J/lllllllllilllllf
L^ L'
K&D
p 5M ilk-room and Pantry ; ,
the Steam and heat of wash- Wood-hou^e and Summer Kitchen ;
ing and cooking makes it ' P<
anything but pleasant for eating purposes, and two or
three ugly little sleeping-rooms that have barely space for
anything but beds.
Just here I want to enter my humble protest against
any parlor that pinches and stints other rooms in order
to exist. First secure the convenient kitchen, the pleas-
ant dining-room, the well-sunned and well-ventilated
bedrooms, the bath-room, the ample pantry and milk-
room. Then, if space permits, have a parlor by all
means as pretty a parlor as possible and use it. It
is bad taste and bad morals to make " most anything "
answer for family use day after day, while the best room
and the best of everything is sacredly reserved for outside
people, people who are not greatly benefited after all, for
when we visit do we not observe that it is the cordial hos-
FARM 1IOMES, Itf-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
pitality, the friendly talk, the simple, easily served meal
that we enjoy, and not the stiff atmosphere of a seldom
' used room, the laborious-
~^j ^ pTTl ly P re P ared disn es and
the general feeling that
we are creating an unusu-
al and perhaps trouble-
some stir in the every
day lives of our friends ?
Unless a home-keeper
can afford to keep help
and so find time to enjoy
, South Porch ; R, Recess : D, Din-
ing-room ; B, Bedroom ; c, Bath-room ;
K, Kitchen ; P, Pantry ; W, Wood-shed.
her parlor with her family, it is better to defer such an
apartment. A cozy little nook off the dining-room, sepa-
rated from it by an arched space, or a little recess with-
out the arch, but having a
pleasant window and an easy
chair or two, are good sub-
stitutes. In such a place a
visitor can sit and feel that
pleasurable comfort of being
in a " home " room and giving
no one any trouble or distress.
So, if either the parlor or
some one of these aforemen-
tioned rooms must be given
up, let the parlor go, and
make the rest of the house so
sweet and sunny and beautiful
that it will never be missed.
Clean, well-kept houses
built from plans like numbers
8.
X, Portico : R, Recess ; D, Din-
ing Room ; J9, Bedroom ; c, c, e,
Cupboard, Closet, and Bath-
room ; A", Kitchen ; J/, J\ Milk-
room and Pantry; FT, Wood-shed.
seven, eight and nine can cheerfully wait until added
parlors can be afforded.
Sometimes in pioneer regions or in cases of very small
means, the house-builder is obliged to dispense with both
BUILDING.
parlor and dining-room. But even in such instances a
house can be attractive. I know a western farm-house
where the parlor, dining-room, kitchen, library, hall, re-*'
ception-room and conservatory are all combined in one
apartment, and yet such is the skill and taste of the
woman presiding over it that sitting there in the large,
sunshiny, orderly room, one falls in love with its pic-
turesque simplicity, and feels that henceforth partitions
and folding - doors
and winding stair-
cases are vain and
wearisome superflui-
ties. Square and
rather ugly looks the
house outwardly,
with its weather-
painted boards, but
within all is bright
and cheery, a vein of
taste and intelligence
running through ev-
erything. The main
or "living" room is
about fifteen by twen-
ty-four feet, and there are no chambers. The bedrooms are
small but sunny, and possess no carpets or superfluous
furniture. A small fire-place built of rough stone, but with
good draught lights up the dining-room the cook-stove
retiring with the modesty of true merit toward the end
of the apartment. Where everything pertaining to
kitchen-work is kept is a mystery until the time for tea
approaches, when the bright woman opens a cupboard
here, pulls out a drawer there, whisks off the ornamental
roof of the retiring cook-stove, and presto ! what was a.
few moments ago a quiet sitting-room with its work-
basket, open book, and rocking-chair, is now an animated
X, Portico ; R, Recess ; D,
, Bedroom ; c, c, Clothes Closet and Bath-
room ; A', Kitchen ; W, Wood-shed ; /*, Pan-
try ; M, Milk-room.
FARM-HOMES, Itf-DOOBS AND OUT-DOOBS.
kitchen, with the kettle singing, a bright coffee-pot " in-
fusing " and a spring chicken broiling upon the glowing
coals.
While the bright woman spreads the table she archly
invites you to take a book from the library and find a
seat in the conservatory until called for. So from four
long shelves shielded from dust by a neat screen, you
select some fresh volume or periodical that you hardly
expected to see in such
a * ' woodsy " place, and
betake yourself to the
"conservatory." Ob-
serving its architecture
you see that a south and
east window are placed
quite near each other,
their broad sills joining
and holding an array of
wisely chosen and wisely
cared for plants. Across
this brilliant little cor-
Fl - 10 - nor, partly to shield the
L, 7?, Living-room, &, Cook-stove; F, -. . , -, . ,
Open Fire-place ; O, Greenhouse ; c,c,c, P^nts
Corner Cupboards, Side Cupboards, and partly to enhance their
Drawers ; T, Dining Table ; B, Bedroom * /
and Bookshelves ; P, Pantry ; W, Wood- pretty Verdure, IS hung
shed and Wardrobes ; *, Porch. ft nico]y laundried cur .
tain of coarse book-muslin looped back at either side and
corniced across the top with graceful clusters of ferns
and autumn leaves. You sit down in a comfortable old
chair among the heliotropes and geraniums and tea-roses,
with whose fragrance the spirit of Java and the savory
smell of broiling chicken cheerfully mingle, and you feel
that life has a great many mercies.
Do I diverge from the business of building ? No, I
am only trying to show what a builder and a builder's
wife can do with one room.
J
BUILDING. 23
The numerous cupboards and drawers set into the wall
and nearly covering one side of this pleasant living-room
were devised by this bright woman herself, and formed
some of her husband's rainy-day work in the first year of
their pioneer life.
There is a tiny low-down cupboard for her little girl's
dolls and tea-sets, and a larger one above it for the
twelve-year-old son's collection of shells and minerals,
fish-lines, nails, strings, knives, and all those odds and
ends dear to a boy's heart. And there are drawers for
bed and table linen and best dresses and Sunday coats ;
drawers for shawls, blankets, stockings and flannels ; and
a drawer that pulled out proves to be a molding-board
with a row of little boxes at the back holding spices, salt,
etc. Above these are cupboards for dishes and general
dining and kitchen ware, and the pots and kettles, brooms,
dusters, dish-pans, and smoothing irons find a place in a
tall corner cupboard. Our hostess oiled and varnished
all the wood-work in this room with her own hands, and
its mellow rich tint brightened up with the numerous
brass handles and fastenings of the cupboards and
drawers, is in good keeping with the quaint fire-place and
the homely substantial furniture.
When I suggested that an extra large "bump" of
order must be required to keep so many drawers and
cupboards at rights, the bright woman replied that main-
taining order was the easiest thing in the world, since
there was a place for every article, and that she could
prepare a meal in the night without light, if no light
could be had, almost as easily as in the day time.
This house to which a "wing" will be added in a
year or two for parlor, a bath-room, and a spare bed-
room shows how much can be made of little, how space
can be utilized, and what clevei magicians are order and
taste aided by a very little money !
24 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AXD OUT-DOORS.
HALLS.
If one's house must be small and the rooms few, still
a hall or some sort of pleasant vestibule ought to be
afforded, rather than have the living-room or parlor open
abruptly into the open air. It is good for family habits,
too, that the children have a regular place for hats and
caps, and an opportunity before a hall mirror to see that
they are presentable prior to appearing in the sitting or
dining-room. Such little household regulations teach
children order and self-control.
This moral view of the Hall brings up another con-
sideration. There are many kind-hearted, fair-minded
house-keepers who regard the main entrance of their
houses as being too sacred for daily use, and prefer that
husband and children and intimate friends should "run
around " to a side or a kitchen door. This is a mistake.
Better live in a hut with but one entrance than have a
door-way too grand for those nearest us to walk through !
Indeed, the burden of these chapters will be that we had
best have nothing that is "too good for human nature's
daily food."
But these same fair-minded house-keepers will exclaim,
" Oh, it is all yery well to talk about the footsteps of
those nearest us, but I can't afford to have my hall-carpet
covered with mud every day and torn to tatters in six
months !"
Of course you cannot afford it, nor can your afford to
have your" children acquire the careless manners and
habits that come of the back-door principle. Have a
door-mat at the hall door, and teach little feet to respect
it. Have everything everywhere as fine and tasteful as
means will permit, and lead the children to understand
that the condition of having good and pretty things to
use is care ! just a little thoughtful care.
If the house is to be large enough, have a hall, and fit
BUILDING. 25
it up for daily use. Nothing is so dreary and uninviting
as the ordinary little hall or " entry" that is found in
half the houses of quite well-to-do people. It is usually
dark, narrow, bare, and possessed of stale odors, that sug-
gest damp umbrellas and yesterday's dinner. There
seems among very many to be nothing expected of this
part of the house but gloom and cold oil-cloth, and may be
a row of pegs for stray hats. Instead of such cheerless
entrances we ought to have halls that say at once to the
in-comer, " Welcome!'' that enfold him in an atmos-
phere of quiet, comforting, sheltering hospitality. Such
an atmosphere is possible in even a 6 by 8 room. If, how-
ever, there are chambers in the house plan, it is good
economy to have a hall large enough to include the stair-
case and leave ample space for necessary hall furniture
with, in winter, a stove which will warm up all the upper
rooms of a moderately-sized house, and pay for itself
and the fuel it consumes over and over again in the in-
creased good health and comfort of the family.
A hall should be pleasantly but not glaringly lighted ;
and it is a great saving of carpets and the house-mother's
feelings to have the floor made of alternate strips of dark
and light wood, if the somewhat expensive process can
be afforded.
BATH-EOOMS.
Bath-rooms, or good conveniences for bathing, ought to
be found in every farm-house ; and yet it is an unpleasant
fact that they are often entirely lacking, and that a daily
or semi-weekly "all over" bath is something undreamed
of by many so-called civilized people who pride them-
selves upon their neat habits. This really religious duty
of keeping the whole body clean does not occur to them,
and the neglect of it is one of the numerous ways in
which busy hard-working people abuse themselves.
Every villa, pretty country cottage, and first-class
2
26 FARM HOMES, IN-D00RS AND OUT-DOORS.
farm-house now has its well-appointed bath-room, and so
may the little three-cornered "shantie," or the log cabin
of the pioneer, have its possibilities for bathing. If all
cannot command a special room with its ample tubs,
showers, douches, and convenient supplies of hot and cold
water, all can have at least the seclusion of a closet to
which it is easy to carry a basin of water and a sponge.
A bit of a room might be built adjoining the kitchen
with a sliding or hinged window opening near the cook-
stove, thus securing warmth in winter and bringing the
" hot and cold water" within arm's reach. Then with
the addition of a bath-tub, or even a large laundry tub,
with a piece of rubber hose fixed in the bottom to carry
off water to the drain, pegs for hanging towels and
sponges, and a bracket for holding soaps and that better
than all soaps, a bottle of ammonia it is a bath-room
good enough for a king.
A very good shower-bath can be had by suspending a
watering-pot from a strong hook in the ceiling, the
bather to regulate the showering by means of a string
attached to the spout. It will be found almost as satis-
factory as the portable ones sold in house-furnishing
shops.
VENTILATION.
In the country where the purest air can be had, it is a
pity to be denied the benefit of it.
In kitchens and living rooms the air is generally pas-
sable because of the frequent opening of outer doors and
the brisk draught of cooking and heating stoves. It only
remains to see that the bedrooms are equally well treated,
and that too many pairs of lungs are not required to
breathe in the same apartment. The windows should of
course be made to let down from the top, as oven n small
opening near the ceiling of a room permits the escape of
foul air.
BUILDING. 27
An open stove is an excellent feature in a bedroom,
not only because it helps vastly to maintain a pure state
of atmosphere, but because it makes pleasant light and
warmth for the dressing, undressing and bathing of the
children. Even if kitchens and dining-rooms must be
scrimped a little, endeavor to have the bedrooms, at
least the nursery-bedroom, large enough to admit a stove
of this sort. Like the hall stove, it will pay largely.
There is a "Revolving Ventilator" sold at house-fur-
nishing shops, at one dollar and upwards, which is said to
be very effective in removing dust and impurity from an
apartment. The following method of cheap and sim-
ple ventilation has also been found to be very satisfactory :
"Nail or screw a neat strip of wood from one to two
inches upon the window sill just inside the sash and ex-
tending across the window. Upon the top of the strip
fasten a piece of (( weather-strip " so that there will be
formed an air-tight joint between the weather-strip and
the lower sash of the window, whether the latter is closed
or raised an inch or two the lower cross-piece of the
sash sliding on the rubber of the weather-strip as the
sash rises. With this simple fixture in place, the lower
sash may be raised enough to admit a stream^ of air
between the lower and upper sashes, where they overlap,
without admitting the least air at the bottom of the
window. The air thus entering is thrown upward
toward the ceiling, and has its "chill taken off" before
descending upon the heads of the occupants of the room.
The fixture, with its outlet in or near the ceiling for viti-
ated air, ventilates a small room very satisfactorily.""
If it can be afforded, submit this feature of building
to some intelligent architect, and secure your pure air on
the latest scientific principles, but if the purse is limited,
soe that all bedrooms and sitting-rooms have some of the
foregoing simple arrangements. Have, if possible, the
open fire. A bedroom is never what it ought to be, if in
23 FARM HOMES, IX-DOOES AND OUT-DOORS.
the morning it has to unvitiated lungs a close, stale,
" sleepy " atmosphere.
Let the builder and the ' ' provider " do their part, and
the intelligent mother, having the welfare of her dear
ones at heart, will see that they have good " lung food"
on which to thrive through the long nights.
DRAINAGE AND PREVENTABLE FILTH.
The cleanly care of the body and the ventilation of
rooms avail not so much, however, if about the house
there creep and crawl the invisible but none the less terri-
ble impurities from damp, mouldy cellars, standing pools
jof slop-water, and neglected, barbarous privies.
" How long we might live " exclaims Dr. Nichols, " if
we could only get out of our dirt and that of our neigh-
bors ! " In the better part of large cities people seem to
have succeeded very well in "getting out" thanks to
the rigid enforcement of sanitary laws ! and although a
clogged-sewer pipe has power to transform the most ele-
gant mansion into an intolerable dwelling place, it re-
mains for the country to furnish horrors that would cause
a sanitarian's hair to stand on end.
The cheering thing about this rural disregard for health
laws is that it seems to be an unconscious disregard, a
sin of thoughtlessness. The tasteful and thrifty farmer
has his fences, outbuildings, and walks, in faultless repair,
while in-doors his wife scrubs and polishes, and is a marvel
of order and neatness ; and yet some villainous cesspool
brewing its mischief in the insulted air, or some reposi-
tory of filth emboweled it may be, in luxuriant vines
breathes out its poison day and night, and mocks the
orderly care of the farmer and the tidy pride of his good
wife with its unspeakable pollution.
Could the farmer be permitted to encounter these air-
poisons in tangible shape, could he, for instance, catch a
glimpse of diphtheria peeping into the sleeping-room of
BUILDING. 29
his beloved little ones, or scarlet fever dogging their steps,
or typhoid threatening the wife of his heart, would he
not employ every means to avert them.
There is no excuse for bad "gases" about country
homes. Every owner of an acre of land has the means
at hand for maintaining a clean atmosphere, providing
of course there are no unconquerable marshes or miasmatic
rivers to deal with.
The various kinds of tiles for drains for conveying
away slops and waste waters to points where they may be
speedily evaporated by wind and sun, are durable, effec-
tual, and cheap. Placed below the reach of frost at a
pitch to create a rapid now, they will not become clogged
and will last a life-time.
In summers the laundry suds can be applied to the
garden with good effect, but there should be a kitchen
sink connecting with the drain not only for convenience
in disposing of waste water at all times, but to prevent
the nuisance of frozen slops and ice-clogging, which
generally occurs when the only opening is outside .the
house. This kitchen pipe can be easily "flushed" every
week with boiling suds, and a semi-occasional dose of
chloride of lime or carbolic acid will keep it clean and
odorless.
Kitchen waste in the country very fortunately need not
await the round of the garbage cart, and can be disposed
of at any time before it becomes rancid and pestilential.
Indeed, in well-conducted house-keeping it is not
" waste " at all, but wholesome scraps that are well re-
ceived by the chickens, the pigs, and the soap-fat jar.
The little that cannot be disposed of in these ways should
be burned. There is nothing better than cremation for
stuff that from neglect or accident becomes unfit for any-
thing else.
These two sorts of refuse being so easily disposed of,
the serious thing to consider is the last and the worst, the
30 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
old-fashioned privy ; old-fashioned, because in ever new
first-class, scientifically builded house it has given place to
something better. This nuisance is too philosophically
endured. It is by no means a necessary evil, and there is
no virtue in submitting to its existence. We often see
heroic attempts to overcome its objectionable features.
It is made to stand afar off, but distance in this case lends
no enchantment, and the long walks back and forth in
all sorts of weather, and the noisome condition of the
building itself, are often serious exposures to aged people
and delicate children. Sometimes it is brought nearer,
taken under the house-roof, curtained and carpeted, and
then we have " sewer gas " all the year round, and in the
summer months a nuisance that more or less contaminates
the whole house.
The best way to overcome this evil is to adopt the dry-
earth or ashes system. Because some of the first closets
manufactured on this principle proved rather unsatisfac-
tory, no one should be prejudiced against the system
itself, which is finding wide and wider acceptance
through improved and perfected machinery.
In the use of dry earth or ashes, one is as effectual as
the other, the only difference being that double the
quantity of ash is required. Both, if properly used, have
power to completely disinfect and obliterate everything
that is offensive. To save the small trouble of drying
and storing earth for winter use, it might be well to use
ashes through the cold months, but the ease with which
earth can be had in the country, and the excellent fertil-
izing purpose to which it can be put after it has per-
formed its office of disinfectant, make it the most desirable.
The " earth closets " sold by dealers are needlessly ex-
pensive, I think, ranging in prices from the $5 pail up to
the $-10 cabinet elaborately finished in walnut. Beyond
$10 and $12 they vary in value merely in regard to finish,
and a man with any gift for planning and joining boards
BUILDIHG. 31
might make one for the comparatively small cost of
materials.
There is also a privy fixture intended for either house-
closets or out-door buildings. It conveys dry earth or
ashes into the vault from a reservoir of any size chosen,
and as a disinfectant is just as effectual as the high-
priced closet. The removal of deposit from a vault is,
however, not as easily accomplished as in the closet
arrangement, which merely requires an occasional empty-
ing of a small box. But in adopting the fixture the
building can of course be remodelled with a little labor.
The fixture is sold by closet-dealers and accompanied with
directions enabling any carpenter to fit it into place.
Any common privy can be made quite decent and inodor-
ous by having a little dry earth shoveled into the vault
every day, and the vault occasionally emptied. A box or
barrel of earth can be kept in a corner of the building,
and a very little answers the purpose.
No privy should be used as a receptacle for slops.
Often in villages and in the country they are, by this
thoughtless usage, transformed into cesspools, whose far
reaching poisons poisoning not only the air, but de-
scending into wells and cisterns sooner or later bring-
ing the doctor's carriage to the door, followed perhaps
by that still more sombre vehicle, the plumed hearse.
With good drains, means for promptly disposing of all
slops, garbage, and decaying matter, the dry-earth princi-
ple applied to the rank offenses just alluded to, pure
water, and plenty of sun and air in all the apartments of
the house, the farmer may safely count on having secured
the best of "life policies" not only for himself, but for
every member of his family.
32 FABM HOMES, LS-DOOBS AlfD OUT-DOOBS.
CHAPTER IL
FINISHING.
There is a good deal of light, but effective, work in
the finish of a house which women might interest them-
selves in, and, with a little study and practice, perform
with their own hands the labor tnat is either left undone
or given over to high-priced workmen.
I am confident a happy change would come over our
farm-houses if the wives and daughters, dwelling in them,
would take upon themselves the business of studying
tasteful yet inexpensive ways for improving and embel-
lishing their surroundings.
The work of painting, panelling, calcimining, staining,
varnishing, etc., is not nearly as laborious as ironing
shirts, molding bread, or scrubbing floors ; and besides,
when it is finished it remains finished, and, if well done,
is a "joy forever."
Suppose the new house cleared of carpenters and ma-
sons, the floors and wood- work cleaned, and all the debris
of building collected and carried away ; the work that
now remains to be done should be an attractive task for
woman-hands, and it should be left to these hands, with
confidence in their ability to make the very best of even
the humblest materials.
The ceilings and walls are first to be considered. The
mason may have left them smooth and white with the
pride of his art, " hard-iinish," but even this can be im-
proved. In best rooms it is cold and glaring to the eye,
while in every-' lay apartments, in spite of watchful cure,
it soon becomes unsightly from its ability to show every
plight speck and spot. There are various soft and cheer-
ful tints far more pleasing to look upon, and which will
longer enc
33
longer endure the touches of time. The tints can be
applied in calcimine or in whitewash, made after the fol-
lowing recipes. Calcimine is used only on hard-finish,
while whitewash can be applied to all walls :
CALCIMINE.
Soak one pound of white glue over night, then dis-
solve it in boiling water, and add twenty pounds of Pari.i
white, diluting with water until the mixture is of the
consistency of rich milk. To this any tint can be given
that is desired.
Lilac. Add to the calcimine two parts of Prussian
bine and one of vermilion, stirring thoroughly, and
taking care to avoid too high a color.
Brown. Burnt umber.
Gray. Raw umber, with a trifling amount of lamp-
black.
Rose. Three parts of vermilion and one of red lead,
added in very small quantities until a delicate shade is
produced.
Lavender. Make a light blue and tint it slightly with
vermilion.
Straw. Chrome yellow, with a touch of Spanish
brown.
Buff. Two parts spruce or Indian yellow and one
part burnt sienna.
Blue. A small quantity of Prussian blue will give a
soft azure tint. Dark blue is never desirable.
Delicate tints in the foregoing varieties of color are
always agreeable and tasteful, and so great care must be
taken that they are not too vivid. The tints will always
appear brighter than in the calcimine pot, and the work-
~ or work-woman, must keep this fact in mind when
y the coloring powders.
34 FAKM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
It is a good idea to give the ceiling a calcimine two or
three shades lighter than that of the walls, so it may ap-
pear merely a delicate reflection of their deeper tones.
The ceiling can be calcimined with the lighter tint, and
then more coloring added for the walls.
AN EXCELLENT WHITEWASH.
For other walls than hard-finish, an excellent white-
wash is made by slaking lime with boiling skim-milk
and adding (for half a bushel of lime) three quarts of
salt, half a pound of whiting, and a pound of white
gluo, previously dissolved in water. This is a hard and
durable whitewash, does not easily rub off, and when
tinted with any of the foregoing shades has about as
good an effect as calcimine.
A beginner in the art of whitewashing is apt to be-
stow half the material on the floor, which is a needless
waste. By taking a small quantity on the brush at a
time all splashing is avoided, and after a little practice
barely a drop will fall on the floor.
A bright day should lie selected for the work. The
wash must be of the proper consistency rich milk or
it cannot be applied evenly. The strokes should be
straight and parallel with each other. After the first
coat is dry, and never before, apply the second one across
the first. An expert workman leaves no touch of the
brush visible. When applying the first coat a round
paint-brush should be used for thoroughly covering all
corners and small spaces with the wash.
BORDERS.
If a lady has a little talent and a little leisure for the
work, she may devote an hour or two each day to the
coloring of borders at the top of these tinted walla. A
leafy pattern in grape, ivy, or other trailing vines, with a
35
bright bud or berry peeping out here and there, could be
outlined with the aid of pasteboard patterns, and the
colors neatly laid on with small brushes. A few feet of
this bordering finished each day, would be no great tax
on her time, and when all was completed she would have
a charming artistic relief for the plain, softly-tinted
walls.
Such decoration should not be attempted, however,
unless one has a genuine "knack" for it; but in its
place can be laid on plain bands of color, or the common
paper borderings can be used, taking pains to select those
that will have an agreeable effect. For example, for
gray and stone-colored walls, use warm reds and golden
greens ; for bluish walls, dark blues and blue-greens,
brightened with either lemon-yellow or rose-pink ; for
lavender or lilac walls, borders of golden-yellow and rich
green ; for buff and pale brown and straw-tinted walls,
black and gold, with scarlet.
Very rich and beautiful designs are now seen in wall-
papers, the prevailing idea being imitations of the tapes-
tries of olden times tapestries that probably never fig-
ured very much in farm-houses, however ; and it is
likely these papers would seem out of place on walls that
are at their best when they are genuinely plain and un-
assuming, and adorned in a manner befitting quiet rural
surroundings.
WOOD-WOKK.
"Walls of kitchens and dining-rooms are generally
finished in wood to the hight of two and a half or three
feet from the floor. This is a good style, not only be-
cause it saves the breaking and marring of plaster, but
because it gives a look of comfort and solidity to the
apartments. Halls, and even parlors, might be finished
in the same way, and thus add to the warmth of the
36 FARM HOMES, LN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
house and make wall-papering and other decoration an
easier and less expensive operation.
An excellent way to dispose of the wood-work in kitch-
ens, dining-rooms, halls, and pantries, is to oil and var-
nish the natural wood. Such treatment is more durable
and less expensive than paint, and the varnished surface
is easily cleaned, and enriched and mellowed, rather than
damaged, by time.
If preferred, a walnut-stain can be applied in dining-
rooms and halls, in place of oiling the wood. The sta'n
can be bought at a drug store ready for applying, or it
can be made by stirring the powder of burnt umber into
hot vinegar, regulating the quantities according to the
amount of surface to be stained. Apply it with a paint
brush, evenly in up and down strokes, and when dry
varnish with the best turpentine varnish.
Mahogany color for staining book-shelves, tallies,
drawers, chests, etc., is obtained by using burnt sienna
in place of umber.
If one has time and it is worth while to take time
a very neat hall floor can be made by staining alternate
boards with walnut-color and then varnishing the whole.
Or the floor may be stained in blocks by tacking down
alternate six or eight inch squares of pasteboard and
applying the stain between them.
This inexpensive treatment is also desirable for dining-
room floors especially for borderings around them, since
a happy fashion in carpets nowadays is to lay thorn in
the form of large rugs, leaving a space of two and a half
or three feet on all sides of the room.
One charm of this sf-yh- lios in tho fact that the carpets
are easily taken up and cleaned without much moving or
lifting of heavy furniture, which can ror.i;i!n <>n the
boards next the wall. In a dining or any other much
used room, those "rug" carpets are the only kind that
should be endured ; and in such rooms a wide bordering
FINISHING. . 37
of neatly stained blocks or stripes will prove to be not
only pretty and cheerful, but a great saving of carpet-
buying and carpet-sweeping.
If walnut-stain is thought too dark and sombre for
parlor and bed-room wood-work, there are various delicate
shades in paint that can be purchased of druggists or
manufacturers already mixed, any one of which shades
are preferable to -hard, glaring white. Soft dove, wood,
and pearl-gray tints, are desirable, and a room looks well
when painted in two shades of the same color providing
the work can bo done by an expert hand. Otherwise,
let only one shade be attempted.
MANTELS.
A fire-place goes farther than anything else in giving to
a room character and beauty. Every dining-room and
nursery, at least, should have one. In the cool weather
of spring and fall, when the morning and evening air is
a little sharp, or when a long cold rain-storm is making
everything " damp, moist and uncomfortable," there is
nothing more delightful, both for old and young, than a
brisk fire upon an open hearth. With what beautiful
rosy light and a gentle warmth it fills a room, and how
it laughs and dances and seems to say to every one " be
glad with me !"
And then, aside from its home-like beauty and good
cheer, who can count, the depressing chills and miasma,
and floating seeds of disease, that are seized by its friendly
flames and whirled up the chimney before they have time
to lay a finger upon us ?
Next to the wide windows and the bath-room, dear
house-keepers, be sure to insist upon the fire-place in
your house plans !
An " imitated" fire-place appears like one of the cruel-
lest of shams ; but if a real one cannot be afforded, a
mantel is still a graceful and dignified feature of house-
38 FAR3I HOMES, IK-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
finishing ; and an open stove selected from the several
good and cheap ones now manufactured, will prove a very
satisfactory substitute for the fire-place itself.
The mantel need not be expensive. A plain strong
shelf placed about four and a half feet from the floor,
with three pieces of pine arranged beneath it, something
like the accompanying cut, is about all that is required
of the carpenter in cases where dollars and cents must be
considered. The finishing and decorative touches are all
within the power of some painstaking wife or daughter.
First nail a narrow molding along the edges, joining
the corners neatly, and filling all nail holes with putty ;
then paint the whole with good black paint, and when
dry rub all over with emery paper or pumice-stone to
remove any roughness, and apply another coat of paint.
When dry, varnish. It can now be simply finished with
a lambrequin for the shelf, and some sort of decorated
fire-board, or it can be brightened up with tiles " in the
following manner :
Take panels, or squares, of glass, and if one is not
artist enough to venture on original designs, select pleas-
ing pictures of birds, flowers, grains, children, animals,
FINISHING. 39
or season-landscapes, from the great chromo-field, cut
them out nicely and gum them upon the glass face down-
ward, covering the whole with a coat of paint in soft
shades of blue, lavender, or sea-green. The " right " side
of the glass then bears a very fair resemblance to a china
painting. These tiles are easily and inexpensively made,
and when fastened upon the wood-work, with narrow black
moldings, have almost as good an effect as those costlier
ones " from over the sea."
For a tire-board take paper that will not quarrel with
the prevailing color of the room, and paste it smoothly
into the space between the wood-work and the mantel.
This may be varnished and left plain, or a group of ferns,
a wreath of autumn leaves, or a spray of ' ' decalcomania "
flowers may first be applied and then covered with two
coats of varnish. If neatly and tastefully done this will
agreeably brighten up an otherwise plain mantel.
If one is so fortunate as to possess a long narrow mir-
ror, of the sort that, with a green halo of asparagus boughs
about them, used to adorn our grandmothers' best rooms,
it can be placed lengthways upon this mantel, neither
tipped backward nor forward, but fastened flatly to the
wall, and the effect will be excellent. The frame, doubt-
less more or less tarnished, will require a rubbing with
sand-paper and a coat of black paint and varnish like
the mantel ; or it maybe necessary to reframe it in black
molding of a width to make it as long as the shelf on
which it rests. If one has no such mirror, it will not
cost a great sum to purchase one, without frame, and fit
it into place. It will reflect the sunlit windows by day,
and the lamps by night, and greatly increase the beauty
and cheerfulness of the apartment.
HALL WINDOWS.
If there are glass panels in the hall-door, or windows
above or beside it, there are ways for making them orna-
40 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
mental as well as necessary. They should not only be
pleasing to outside inspection, but have a pretty and
cheery look from within. By taking sheets of white
tissue paper of the size of the panes, cutting out some
flowery or geometrical design in the center, and pasting
smoothly upon the glass, you have something of the effect
of ground glass. Another way is to cut leaves and blos-
soms, birds and butterflies, from gay furniture calico or
cretonne, paste them on the glass the right side toward
the light in wreaths or groups, and cover them with
white net, tarleton, or thin book-muslin cut to exactly fit
the panes.
Autumn leaves, vines, and ferns, could be used in place
of the cretonne figures if not exposed to strong sun-light
which would soon bleach them to anything but an
attractive "living green."
Any window from which the outlook is not desirable,
but from which light is wanted, may be decorated in this
way and so become a pleasing object in itself.
FURNISHING. 41
CHAPTER III.
FUKNISHING.
What woman, unless she is a Laplander, or wealthy
enough to know no wish denied, but has her day-dreams
in which she furnishes this or that room after her own
heart, and makes her house so beautiful to her own
mind at least that waking from her dream-work she
sighs over the limitations of her purse, and looks wearily
about upon the plain, perhaps shabby things that must
" do " until that indefinite period, Better Times, can re-
place them with something more desirable.
Now, for the benefit of these unsatisfied home-mothers,
ingenious thinkers women who have time to think have
hit upon many tasteful, cozy, and yet inexpensive ways
for making rooms to appear very well furnished ; so that
even without the upholsterer's aid, or the stockingful of
money so vainly waited for, their apt sisters have only to
set to work at once and have surroundings more to their
liking.
It is not worth while to sigh any longer for the marble-
topped tables, flaming carpets, and slippery hair-cloth
chairs which neighbor Luckyhand has had so long in his
parlor, for they are "out of fashion," and you should
beware that no desperate local dealer induces you to take
similar goods "at cost," that he may be rid of them.
With the small-patterned and small-priced ingrain car-
pets now in market, and plenty of good and cheap pic-
tures offered 011 every hand, it will be found that a few
yards of pretty chintz, a little furniture-gimp, and maybe
a little paint and varnish, will go farther in furnishing a
room tastefully and comfortably than a whole " set " from
the upholsterer's and cost, of course, a great many dol-
lars less.
42 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOOES.
The Spare Bedroom, the Boys' Eoom, and even the
Parlor which maybe has long been a draw-back to happy
existence because of its scanty and unlovely furniture,
may all be made quite nice and cozy at such a small out-
lay of money that it is not really wise to wait any longer
for the more splendid things that may never come.
Let us begin first with Bedrooms, for no matter how one
may yearn to place every pretty thing where it will make
the most display, an honest house-keeper will scrimp par-
lor and dining-room before adorning them at the expense
of sleeping-rooms just as a genuine lady will have good
and neatly made underclothing rather than outside silks
and velvets, if her purse will not admit of both.
THE SPARE BEDROOM.
If one has good bedding and a pretty bedstead for this
room, the expense of additional furnishing will be quite
light. If these are lacking, then it is a more serious
affair. If furniture can be bought unpainted directly
from the factory or shop where it is made, it can he had
at comparatively low figures. Send to the manufactur-
ers for a catalogue, if you are too far from them for a
personal call, select something in pine or white wood, and
trust to your genius and the paint-pot for a respect-
able bedstead, and some sort of small table for lamp,
books, etc.
First decide what the color or tone of the room shall
be, and paint the furniture accordingly. If it is a north
room, I suggest a delicate peach or a straw color ; if a
south room, a soft blue, sage-green, or pale lilac.
Suppose a light pink decided upon. Let the wood-
work be painted with white paint, in which has been
stirred enough vermilion powder to make a tint not
deeper than that of a blush rose. A room having but
one door and a window or two, presents so little wood
43
surface that perhaps nice paint and an outer coat of var-
nish can be afforded.
For the walls select a light gray paper of a small flow-
ery or geometric pattern, without color, with a border of
pink roses and golden-green leaves, or of any other
pretty design in these colors. A cheap paper of modest
pattern and neatly put on, has quite as good an appear-
ance as the more expensive sorts, and there is less arsenic
in its composition for poisoning the air.
For the windows, plain bleached cotton shades, with a
bordering of pink "chambrey" stitched on in bias
bands, will look neatly. Or lambrequins may be made
of the chambrey, with pinked ruffles about the edge and
across the top. Fashion journals generally send lambre-
quin patterns for twenty or twenty-five cents, and it is
worth while to have a graceful pattern, if any. Beneath
these lambrequins nothing can be prettier in the way of
inexpensive fabrics than book-muslin, made to hang in
ample folds, the bottoms of the curtains just clearing
the floor, and finished with a wide hem. In place of
book-muslin, plain bleached cotton cloth the lighter in
quality the better can be used, with two bands of pink
chambrey stitched across six inches from the bottom.
For the floor there is nothing more cheerful or more
serviceable, or freer from dust, than straw matting. It
is also cheap, compared with other carpetings. Direc-
tions are given for making inexpensive carpets of wall-
paper, but the process seems a tedious and not a very
money-saving one. First, the floor must be covered with
cotton cloth sewed together in breadths and tucked down
very smoothly ; this is to be covered with a coating of
glue or thick flour paste. Upon this is laid the wall-pa-
per, and upon the wall-paper two coats of varnish, when
the "cheap" carpet is completed. In the long run, a
good white matting would prove much less expensive,
besides being more grateful both to vision and touch.
44 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AKB OTJT-DOOBS.
But if the latter is beyond the house-keeper's purse, she
can give the floor a border of paint two shades darker
than that of the gray wall-paper, and cover the center
with a large rug of some home-made sort. Or the whole
floor might be covered with the well-known "rag" car-
peting, if enough of pink and gray -rags could be evolved
for such a fabric. Balls of pink, and balls of gray,
loosely twisted together and woven with black warp,
would make a neat, appropriate, and very durable carpet
at a cost, including weaving, of less than twenty or
twenty-five cents per yard.
A pair of handsome and luxurious rugs can be made
by lining two white lambs' pelts with suitable material
and placing a pleating of pink merino or flannel under
the edges.
Pretty rugs, especially for summer use, are made of
Turkish towelling (a soft, shaggy, cotton goods), lined
with some heavier material and tied with tufts of pink
zephyr or worsted. One yard of the yard-wide towelling
makes two rugs. One should be placed before the toilet
table and the other beside the 'bed. They are easily
washed, and have a dainty and comfortable appearance
in a sleeping room.
A very important item is a good bed. If you cannot
have a spring wire-mattress, a tick filled with soft, clean
corn-husks is one of the best foundations for a bed.
Over this, in summer, place a light mattress of cotton
or wool. In winter very few will be found objecting to
a soft, well-cared-for feather-bed, particularly when the
thermometer indicates large figures below zero. Pillows
about two feet long and eighteen inches wide are of good
size, both for use and looks. If feathers are scarce, I
Lave known quite delightful pillows made of "new-
mown hay," cut while the grass is young, with a hand-
ful or two of sweet clover or vanilla grass to enhance its
agreeable fragrance.
FURBISHING. 45
It is a pleasing fashion nowadays to have some color
about a bed in place of plain white. Counterpanes of
colored silk and satin are, of course, very elegant, but
th^y would be out of place in the simple appointments
of a farm-house bedroom. French dress cambric a
fine, glossy goods, costing about thirty cents a yard, and
sold in all shades makes very pretty counterpanes when
thinly wadded and nicely quilted in diamonds with a
sewing machine. In this room the color chosen should,
of course, be pink, and the stitching should be done
with precision.
For pillow and sheet-shams select heavy bleached cot-
ton cloth, and make up with a wide hem and cambric
ruffles. The pillow-shams should be only the width of
the ruffle larger than the pillows, and the sheet-sham
wide enough to turn down two feet, or about one-third
the length of the bed. The sheets and pillow-cases may
have simply wide hems, as, if they are neatly made and
white as snow, they are quite beautiful enough. They
should be kept in a drawer with bags of rose-leaves, lav-
ender, or the aromatic sweet briar, and not put on the
bed until wanted, when they should be well aired to re-
move even the faintest suspicion of dampness. Fra-
grant snow-white "bed-linen" is within the reach of
almost the poorest housewife in the world, and makes
the plainest bed an inviting couch.
In the winter, that comfortable article, a foot-blanket,
for wrapping up the feet on cold nights, can be made of
two yards of white flannel, bound about the edges with
pink cambric or ribbon. It should be folded and placed
across the foot of the bed.
A common dry-goods box of the right size, when pret-
tily covered, makes a much more satisfactory toilet table
than anything that can be had under five dollars at the
furniture dealers. Select a box of a suitable hight,
about three feet long and twenty-eight inches wide.
46 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AtfD OUT-DOORS.
Let the open side come in front, to be lined with paper
and used as a receptacle for slop-jar, etc. Nail a strip of
board, six inches wide and three feet long, to the top of
the box next the wall. Buy a piece of plain white or
marbled oilcloth, long enough to cover this, and the top of
the box, and put it on neatly, bringing the edges low
enough that no tacks will be displayed. Cover the ends
of the box also with paper. Then line some coarse
book-muslin with pink paper-cambric and drape it upon
the box sufficiently full to hang gracefully. Make a nar-
row plaiting or ruffling of muslin and place it around
the top and down the opening in front, where the ends
of the curtain or "valance" must overlap. The mirror,
which should be at least two feet long a larger one
being, of course, all the better must rest upon the oil-
cloth-covered board that forms the back of the table, and
have its frame covered with a niching of the pink-lined
muslin. At either side of the bottom of the mirror
place small brackets, covered and draped with tiny lam-
brequins of muslin and cambric. They can be made of
cigar-boxes, or any light, thin 'wood, and will afford a
place for small vases and cologne bottles. Then with
pink and white mats for wash-bowl and pitcher, a pretty
pin-cushion, and one or two boxes (for brushes and
combs), covered with cambric and muslin, this important
item of furniture is completed.
And now the husband or tho big boy of the household
must make a lounge frame. No matter how roughly it
is put together, if it is only reliably strong and stands
squarely on its legs. It should be about twenty-eight
inches wide, and not more than sixteen inches high ; if
higher it will lose its comfortable look, and have the ap-
pearance of being on stilts by the time the mattress is
added. Nail slats across the top, and make a mattress
for it of fine hay or oat straw. Then buy some calico, or
percale, or dress cambric in pink and white stripes, and
PUBLISHING. 47
make a coyer and valance for the lounge, also covering a
large square pillow to place at one end. Seven yards of
cambric or percale will be sufficient, but if calico is used two
or three yards more will be needed. If one is dependent
on a small country store for supplies, it may be necessary
to order by mail from the nearest city. No other cheap
goods will look as well.
Any old second-hand "light-stand," or similar article
of furniture, can be transformed into a comely little ta-
ble by giving it two coats of the rose-colored paint and a
final one of varnish. Perhaps a handsome cluster of
roses or lilies can be applied to the center.
It will be thought that the purchase of chairs cannot
be avoided ; but wonders can be done with the paint-pot
and two old kitchen chairs, and perhaps the big boy just
mentioned can make a frame for a large easy chair. He
must be sure to have the seat broad and low, and the
back at just the right angle. A little hay and four
yards of percale and ingenious fingers will accomplish
the rest, and, with a foot-stool, nothing more is needed
in this line.
By all means have a stove in this room, since even the
warmest - hospitality can hardly counteract the chill at-
tendant on going to bed in a fireless room in January !
To save the trouble of storing it in summer, it might be
allowed to remain in the room the year round, decorated
with evergreens and other cool foliage during those
months when a fire is not needed.
And now do not disfigure these pure walls with a lot
of hap-hazard, meaningless pictures and fussy fancy
work ! Bedroom walls, as well as others, should be se-
rene. It is enough to have a pair of good engravings, or
good chromos, and a " motto " that has some appropriate-
ness about it for instance, "At Evening-time There
Shall be Light," " Let Not Your Heart be Troubled,"
48 FARM HOMES, INXDOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
"Happy Dreams and a Glad To-morrow" something
calming and hopeful.
Blue, sea-green, and lilac, combined with white or
gray, are all beautiful colors for bedrooms, and with
taste and ingenuity an inviting apartment can be made
out of inexpensive materials.
The Boys' Eoom is often much neglected in the way
of a little painstaking adornment, particularly in coun-
try homes. I could never see clearly why all the pretty
things should gravitate to the rooms occupied by the
girls, while the boys' room goes almost as bare as the an-
cient cupboard of Mother Hubbard.
If the girls are to have a blue room, or a lilac room, let
the boys also have a room distinguished by color. A
housewife, without great outlay, can "individualize" all
bedrooms in this way. If everything cannot be done at
once, what is done can be in accordance with a special
design.
Let the boys have a room where the sunlight comes in,
and let the walls be attractively tinted, and the floor
nicely painted, with large, comfortable rugs before beds,
toilet-stands, and bureaus ; and, out of regard for the
masculine mind's hatred of things that need constant re-
placing, have these rugs securely tacked down !
Then there should be a good bed or beds, if there are
more than two boys with plump pillows and counter-
panes to match the color of the room. Common glazed
cambric, thinly wadded and neatly quilted, looks very
nicely, and if properly cared for will remain bright and
unsoiled for years.
A model house-keeper of my acquaintance has a large,
airy room for her three boys which is very pleasant to
look upon, and yet its appointments cost very little.
The walls are covered with a bluish-gray paper, with a
FURNTSHIKG. 49
bright border of blue-flag blossoms and rich green leaves.
The wood-work and the floor for a yard's width about the
room was painted, by the oldest boy, a light lead color, at
a cost of a dollar and a half. The center of the floor is
covered with a large, square, braided rug of black and
gray rags, with a square of blue in the middle, and there
are smaller rugs of similar pattern before the bureau and
the toilet-table.
The two windows on opposite sides of the room are
hung with graceful lambrequins of blue and gray calico
that cost six cents a yard, being of extra quality !
A solid, oblong kitchen table, with neat lead-colored
legs and a cover of gray linen, bordered with blue
which I mistrust is kept in place by the big Dictionary
and a large book of birds stands in the center of the
room, and above it is suspended a hanging lamp, particu-
larly bright and shining, although it is set in just a
square of board with a wire running up from each cor-
ner. A fleecy frilling of blue tissue paper conceals the
board, and the plain little lamp becomes a pretty feature
in the room.
There are three "cot" beds at one end of the apart-
ment. Each has a corn-husk mattress (with, in winter,
another of wool), an oat-straw pillow, neat, plain shams,
and a woven blue and white counterpane, like those of
olden times.
The somewhat elongated toilet- table for it must ac-
commodate three boys, who generally must dress at the
same time is made from a packing-box and neatly
draped with the blue and gray print. Above it is a long
mirror, placed lengthwise, and there are brush and comb
boxes for each boy.
In one corner stands a large wardrobe for clothes, and
opening from the room is a small closet, warmed in cold
weather by a pipe from the winter-kitchen stove, and
containing conveniences for washing and bathing.
3
50 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
The walls have two very good chromo landscapes,
framed by the boys. A deer's head and an old Indian
hatchet hang among the guns and fishing-tackle, that
give a vigorous boyish tone to the room. Over the door
is a lovely thing to my eyes: a motto done with water-
paints and by young hands, but it is easy enough to read
the words "REMEMBER MOTHER" among its gay leaves
and blossoms. And in this home "mother "is remem-
bered, and she has always remembered her boys.
It does not follow that every farm-house mother must
have a large room with a blue-counterpaned bed for each
boy, although I would strongly recommend the arrange-
ment, with a variation of color ! " Individual" beds are
not only more conducive to health, but in this case they
do away with a great deal of the characteristic pinching
and squabbling of nocturnal boyhood ! They make a
little more washing, to be sure, but the sheets are small
and easily laundried.
I quote this room to show that it is not much more
trouble to have things comfortable and harmonious than
it is to have them the reverse. The three boys might
have been pitched into this room if I may be permitted
the expression with one bed, a broken looking-glass, a
three-legged chair, and a shelf for a tin candle-stick,
with their only chance for washing and bathing offered
by the kitchen sink or the mill-pond. But I do not be-
lieve they would have liked this room for a reading-place,
or a studio, or been proud to invite their mates there, or
tli at they would have worked so laboriously to create
that blessed motto over the door.
The chief beauty of any room, whether richly or
plainly furnished, is its purity and orderliness ; and the
Boys' Room needs daily attention to make it a place they
will look back to in after years with the keenest and teu-
derest memories. How many grown-up hearts there are
who can say, with Hood :
FURBISHING. 51
I remember I remember
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn.
He never came a wink too soon,
Or brought too long a day,
But now I often wish the night
Had borne my breath a way I"
"We will not believe that HOOD really wished to die
for there was nothing in his good life to make him tired
of earth but he was tenderly in earnest when he recalled
the scenes of his early days, even to the "little window,"
through which the sun smiled him Good Morning, and
the lilac-tree "where the robin built." Youth is such a
rose-tinted time that perhaps a bedroom window looking
out upon a chaotic back-yard, and looking in upon a room
with battered walls, a lumpy bed and a couple of weak-
legged chairs, would be something sweetly remembered
in after years ; but I am inclined to doubt it. A window,
brushed by the boughs of a lilac, or an apple-tree, with
its sweet blossoms and humming bees, and beyond it
glimpses of hill and valley and the radiant sky, is the
window for the Boys' Room, and there should be pleasant
little touches of beauty and comfort within that need
cost hardly anything but motherly thoughtfulness.
If help is scarce in the house, and the mother's hands
are full, it may not be out of place in this subject of
"furnishing" the Boys' Room, to suggest here that the
boys can assist in keeping it in order. They can make
beds and sweep floors with the most admirable neatness
and dispatch, because their arms are so strong and their
feet are not impeded by the long skirts the poor mother
is doomed to wear. If a boy is ashamed to be seen doing
"girl's work," let him be more ashamed still of being an
unmanly shirk, and letting his over-burdened mother
do for him work that he has time and ability for doing
himself. I know a boy, keen and bright enough to be a
52 FARM HOMES, IK-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
future President, and plucky enough to win more wolf-
bounty in his county last winter than any two men hunt-
ers, who can put a room to rights, cook a beefsteak, and
set the table for dinner, as quickly and daintily as any
woman, without any apparent loss of self-respect, or the
least bit of damage to his gritty young manhood.
THE OLD PEOPLE'S ROOM.
If you are so fortunate as to have the "Old People" in
the house, see to it that they have its warmest and sun-
niest corner, and a goodly portion of the best that can
be afforded of comfort, convenience, and beauty that
aged blood may be kept warm and cheerful, that failing
limbs may have restful repose, and that the dim eyes
that have watched over you and yours through so many
toilsome years, may see around them the ever present
evidences of faithful and grateful care.
There is nothing in the world more pathetic than the
meek, timorous, shrinking ways of certain old people
we have all seen them who have given up their old home
into younger hands and subsided into some out-of-the-
way corner of it, to sit by fireside and at table henceforth
as if they were mere pensioners afraid of " making
trouble," afraid of being t( in the way," afraid of accept-
ing the half that is their due, and going down to their
graves with a pitiful, deprecating air, as if constantly
apologizing for staying so long !
There is no scorn too deep and sharp for the sons and
daughters who will accept this attitude on the part of
those to whom they owe so much !
Sometimes, to be sure, people grow old with a bad grace.
They become embittered by misfortune, or affliction, or
are peevish and unreasonable under the goadings of ill-
health. All the more do they appeal to great gentleness
and faithfulness. Let it be borne in mind that we, too, are
hastening on toward the sunset of life, and that it is pos-
FURNISHING. 53
sible we may ripen into very uncomfortable old people, to
demand much more of patience and devotion than we as
children yield.
The Old People's room should he as pleasant and
homelike as possible. Let the old-fashioned furniture
and the old-fashioned ways prevail in it. I think no one
thing could delight the old hearts more than an open
fire-place, with some ancient andirons, and a crane with
its pendant tea-kettle ! These fire-places are rapidly
becoming extinct, but to most old people living in the
present generation they would be radiant with pictures of
youth and early love. A fire like this is not only a de-
light to the aged, but a pleasant care. How the old
mother, who was such a thrifty housewife in her " day,"
enjoys polishing the brass heads of the fire-dogs, brush-
ing the tidy hearth, and brewing the special cup of tea
in the little old pot that looks so entirely "at home"
upon the glowing coals ! And with what solicitude does
grandfather prepare the wood and kindlings for this be-
loved hearth-fire I How he enjoys stretching his aged
hands to the ruddy blaze, while he croons some quaint
old hymn in concord with the singing kettle ! What a
vast amount of poking and reconstructing the sticks
require, and how important it is that when the early, old-
fashioned bedtime comes, there must be just the right sort
of coals for the morning fire ! Think of giving the Old
People a grim looking, air-tight stove that swallows a huge
chunk in the morning, and then, like an anaconda, re-
quires nothing more until its big lunch is digested !
Provide the stove, if the severity of climate demands it,
but have the open fire for love's sake ! Aside from the
good cheer and the companionship which it offers, it
swallows up the dust, assists to ventilate the room, and
adds so much to the physical well-being of the occupants
that it should be instituted for this reason alone if its
poetical side seems of little value.
54 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
It is essential that the Old People should have their own
rooms, where their quiet and retirement can be held
sacred. If there are but two rooms in the house, the
grandfather and grandmother are entitled to one of
them. The confusion of a "blue Monday," or the noisy
overflow of animal spirits in children, may be very invig-
orating to younger nerves, but it is not always agreeable
to the aged, who need a haven of peace and repose suited
to the Indian Summertime of their lives. In this quiet
corner let them gather about them the old and familiar
treasures with which they began the world together but
be careful to add enough of "modern improvements" to
insure their comfort and convenience. The old clock,
the towering chest, the battered china, the dim oil-
portraits, and even the "weeping- willow" lithographs
pathetic with the memory of the early lost will seem
like old and faithful friends to them ; but let the old-
fashioned draught under the door be shut out with a
patent weather-strip, and the dim candles of the past be
replaced by a cheerful lamp. A monthly rose and a
chrysanthemum in one of the sunny windows will be
another pleasant charge for grandmother, and a good
book or a fresh newspaper should often find its way to
the mantel beside grandfather's "spectacles."
It is well worth while to deny one's self many things
rather than this room should be bleak and cheerless to
these fading lives. All too soon will the fire go out on
the hearth, and the old arm-chairs stand empty. It will be
well for us then if no ghosts of reproach, no sad phantoms
of lost opportunity, lean out of the chill and the silence to
remind us of our deep sins of neglect and indifference !
After all, the "good will" goes farther than the groat
d.M <N. The scant furniture, the plain dinner, and the
last year's almanac for reading, will all be very pleasant
and grateful to the Old People, if faithful love and cheer-
ful devotion sweeten the atmosphere ; and in a thousand
FUBtflSHIKG. 55
inexpensive ways can frugal living be tempered and
softened to their needs.
MOTHER'S BOOM.
Every good home must have its " Mother's Eoom "
the pleasant half nursery, half sitting-room, that enfolds
all the family in its affectionate atmosphere, and leads
each member to feel that here at least is a bit of anchor-
age ground from every storm that blows.
In this room, also, let us all insist on sunlight and an
open fire things that go farther in furnishing an apart-
ment than anything that can be found in the shops.
Open stoves of different sizes and designs can be had at
moderate cost. Some are designed to close into an air-
tight stove, whenever it is desired to " keep " the fire,
but these are more expensive than the ordinary open
grates, like the "Franklin."
There should be a lighted closet or small room opening
from this apartment, containing a wardrobe and the con-
veniences for bathing and dressing. This is very essen-
tial even in a primitively arranged farm-home for
sponges, towels, brushes, slippers, and the like, have
rather more of prose than poetry in them, and no room
can be properly used as a sitting-room where such very
personal property manifest's itself. Banish these things
to their legitimate place ; but if the house is small, and
sleeping-space limited, a bed can remain in the room, and
if neatly made up, will add to rather than detract from
its air of cozy comfort.
Since . there must be a few healthy, blossoming plants
in the east or south windows, and since dust is their
natural enemy, it will be best to give the floor a three-foot
border of paint or stain, and cover the center with a
square of carpeting, which can frequently be taken up
and cleaned with little time and labor.
56 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
If the windows have shutters for closing at night, they
require very little drapery. Plain white shades, with a
border matching the color used in furnishing the room,
will look well, and in winter small, cornice-like lambre-
quins of a warm, bright tint might be added. Pale, sun-
shiny buff, with a touch of scarlet here and there in
borders, lambrequins, cushions, and the like will give a
bright and cheerful tone to this room, so that, even in
stormy weather, it will have about it hints of fair skies.
In ceiling and walls this tint is cheaply obtained in calci-
mine. The wood-work, if of clear pine, can be varnished
without paint. If old and time-scarred, it had best be
stained walnut-color, or oiled and varnished. The large
square of carpet should be in a small leafy and mossy pat-
tern, of dark and light brown, with a brown and scarlet
border. Twelve yards, three breadths four yards long,
will make an ample "rug" for a room twelve by fifteen
feet, or even larger.
If there are some household purses that cannot afford
even these twelve yards, let no one be heart-broken ! I
have know T n more than one charming, home-like room
whose only carpet was of woven rags, or a glossy coat of
"ppruce yellow," with a braided rug before its pleasant
hearth.
Rag-carpeting, in the manufacture of which the whole
family might join one or two evenings in each week, can
be made so as to be quite tasteful, as well as substantial,
and should be preferred to the cheap, easily worn and
easily faded hemp and cotton -ingrain carpeting. For in-
stance, if a carpet for this buff and scarlet room is lack-
ing, color all the old white rags and white-ground cali-
coes a deep orange, sew them in balls by themselves, an 1
then twist them with balls made of all colors, except red,
which must be saved for the bordering. The twisting
can be accomplished by winding a ball of each into one
ball. Ten balls of orange, estimated at a pound each,
FURNISHING. 57
and ten balls of "hit or miss" colors of the same weight,
will make at least fifteen yards of carpeting. After the
breadths are sewn together, and the ends hemmed, braid
together all the old red flannel and black wqolen rags
and sew them around the edge for a border. The result
will be quite a neat and stylish floor-covering, of which
no housewife need be ashamed, and costing much less
time and labor than those dazzling rag-carpets in which
"shaded" colors and "feather-stripes" abound.
Mother's Koom must have a lounge a lounge long
enough and wide enough and soft enough for an after-
dinner nap, and pretty enough to, be ornamental, as well
as of use. Like that in the spare room, the frame can
be made at home and covered with any kind of material
that will harmonize with the room. Take care to have
the frame broad and low. Flowered buff and scarlet
furniture calico, such as might be used for the lambre-
quins, or plain dark red, will make a pretty cover. Af-
ter the frame is covered with stout sacking, securely
nailed in place so as not to sag, tack on a valance of the
chintz or calico, and make a mattress of the same, filling
it with split corn-husks or nice straw, and tying it in
large diamonds, using tufts of scarlet yarn for buttons.
Around the edge of the mattress place a ruffle or box-
plaiting that will fall over the top of the valance. Then
make two good, generous cushions of either feathers or
oat-straw, cover them with the material, sew a ruffle or
plaiting about the edges, and the lounge is complete, ex-
cept for a gaily striped afghan, or small, prettily pieced
quilt, which should be folded and laid at the foot, as a
convenience for covering the shoulders during a nap or
when one is resting from fatigue.
A very comfortable easy chair can be fitted up by mak-
ing a soft, thick cushion five feet long and eighteen
inches wide, covering it with the lounge material, tying
it also with tufts of yarn, and fastening it to the back
58 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
and seat of some old-fashioned wooden rocker, previously
renewed with paint and varnish.
A low sewing chair (a kitchen chair with legs sawed off
two inches) should be cushioned in the same way, and
two soap boxes one to contain rolls of sewing or mend-
ing, and the other the baby's playthings can be cush-
ioned so as to be comfortable little seats, and covered
with the same goods.
There should be a substantial table for the center of
the room one on which children can lean over lessons
or picture-books without fear of upsetting the structure.
If one is not so fortunate as to possess some great-grand-
mother's mahogony or cherry-wood table, have a carpen-
ter make one of pine, about three by four feet, with
rounded corners and turned legs, and finish it at home with
walnut-stain and varnish. Two yards of double-width
dark-scarlet flannel, hemmed all around with machine
stitching in silk, will make an elegant spread, or the ta-
ble is very well without any covering, particularly for
children's use or for evening games.
Above this table should be suspended a shaded lamp,
to come down to a good reading or sewing level. It will
impart a wonderfully pleasant and refined air to the
room, give the best light, and be far safer than one that
stands on the table.
There should be a paneled bedstead, either in real or
imitation walnut, and its furnishing should be always
neat and fresh in appearance. Farm-mothers should
fight against the tendency, amid their many cares, to
neglect their own personal belongings, and to think that
they have no time for refined comforts. Smooth, white
shams, plump pillows, pretty counterpanes, and laven-
der-scented sheets, are just as becoming to Mother's
Room as to that of the occasional guest; and no more
time is required to mako up such a bed than one where
everything is limp and disorderly.
FURNISHING. 59
Plain "Turkey-red" calico, or pale-buff cambric, or
"chambrey" gingham, wadded and quilted, will make
a suitable counterpane, and hems and ruffles will be
sufficient finish for the shams, unless some neat-handed
daughter is ready to put the mother's initials in the cen-
ter with scarlet or buff embroidery cotton.
Regarding these shams, a farmer's wife once declared
to me that she would have no " shams" in her house;
that their very name was offensive, and that when her
sheets and pillows were in such condition as to need
hiding, she could throw them into the wash and pro-
vide clean ones.
Now, this is a bit of virtuous indignation altogether
out of place. Where a bed is used every day the pillow-
slips and the sheet that should turn down smoothly
across the top, become, after the first using, not soiled,
but rumpled, and covering them with smooth, crispy,
ruffled " shams'' that can be removed at night and kept
immaculate for many weeks, is merely a praiseworthy at-
tempt to make even the commonest things pleasing to
the eye.
And now, with a small clock for the mantel-shelf,
which should be placed no higher than your shoulder, a
pleasant picture or two hung so as to be level with the
eye when one is standing, a wall-basket for newspapers,
and a rack for the children's and other books, the
Mother's Room is ready for occupancy.
THE GIRLS' ROOM.
Most young girls take so instinctively to refining and
beautifying their surroundings, that it seems almost su-
perfluous to offer them any suggestions. A writer in one
of our home journals speaks of a country girl of sixteen
who, with nothing but her ingenious fingers and twenty
yards of five-cent calico, made of her bedroom "a per-
fect bower of daintiness and purity."
60 FABM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
Neatness and order are qualities to be had under any
circumstances. Without them the choicest furniture
cannot make an attractive room, and with them even the
"loft" in a log cabin can be made cosy and comfortable.
Let us begin with the humblest country home and see
what things can be done with a little money. Suppose
the wood-work unpainted, the plaster rough or broken,
the floor bare, the chairs and bedstead old and ricketty,
and the windows hung with rattling paper shades ? This
seems a dreary enough groundwork for any reasonable
reformer. Let us commence with the walls and ceiling.
If there are any broken places and the "men-folks" are
too busy to attend to such repairs, a few cents' worth of
plaster of Paris mixed with water and applied in haste,
for it hardens instantly, will neatly mend the holes. Or
the cracks in the lath can be filled with paper and then
stout, white cloth smoothly pasted over. Then mix a
whitewash, coloring it delicately with either Prussian
blue, or vermilion, or yellow ochre, according to
whether a blue, pink, or straw-color is desired, and do
the ceiling, being sure to apply the last coat all in one
direction with smooth, even strokes. Then add a little
more of the coloring powder to make a deeper tint for
the walls, and apply it until all stains or fractures no
longer show. Stain the wood-work with burnt umber
and hot vinegar after directions in the chapter on Fin-
ishing. These dry powders or paints are generally sold
in drug stores, and are not expensive. They can be or-
dered by mail if need be.
For the windows, perhaps the skirt of some old-fashioned
lawn or cambric dress can be fashioned into graceful lam-
brequins. Or a cheap calico, with a white ground and a
pink or blue or buff flower or stripe, can be used for the
purpose. Under these lambrequins place either plain
curtains of bleached cotton to be rolled up on sticks, or
long full ones of coarse book-muslin, if it can be afforded.
61
to be looped back at either side, and held in place by bows
of ribbon, or bunches of pressed leaves.
Now arises the momentous question of a floor covering.
Straw-matting is desirable, but it costs half a dollar, and
more, a yard. Rag-carpeting would be neat, if made in
blue or pink, or buff, mingled with gray ; but it requires
a good deal of time, a good deal of material, and there
may be no weaver within fifty miles. The cheapest of
" ingrain " is forty or fifty cents per yard, and fades easi-
ly, and is generally in ugly patterns. If the floor is
smooth and close-jointed, and there is not much money
to spend, I would send to some house-furnishing firm in
the nearest city for a roll of wall-paper in a dark, rich
"tile" pattern, which might cost, including postage,
fifty or sixty cents. This I would paste smoothly around
the floor next the walls as a border, taking pains to make
neat joints in the corners, and when dry apply a coat of
good varnish. Over the remainder of the floor tack
down a carpet made of heavy unbleached cotton cloth,
sewed in neat straight seams that will not draw or pucker,
and bound all about the edges with a braid or cloth of a
color to match that chosen for the room. Until seen on
the floor no one can imagine how pretty and cheerful and
thoroughly neat such a carpet appears. With care it can
be used a whole summer without showing much soil, and
when washed and tacked down again, is just as good as
new. There should be gay little rugs of Turkish towel-
ling or braided rags to place before bedstead and toilet
table.
If the bedstead is some old dingy, creaking thing that
would spoil all these efforts, let it be used for kindling
wood ; or what is better, let the father or the big brother
make from it a stout frame three feet wide by five and a
half in length, with slats nailed across the top, and not
more than sixteen inches in hight. Drape around it a
white valance, and make for it a thick mattress of split
62 FARM* HOMES, IN -DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
corn-husks or nice oat straw. Over this a thick com-
forter of cotton or wool. No matter how coarse and plain
the sheets and pillow slips, if they are only beautifully
white. And the pillows must be round and plump,
though filled with nothing more costly than fine soft hay.
The counterpane may be of white, with rounded corners
at the foot else it will not hang gracefully on such a
bedstead. It and the shams may be trimmed with bias
bands of blue or pink, or left plain white, as one chooses.
Something will be added to the prettiness of this couch
if a few yards of book-muslin, or of the lambrequin ma-
terial, be fastened to an ornamental hook in the wall high
above the head of the bed, and the ends made to fall
gracefully at either side of it.
For a cheap toilet table, and one easily made, secure a
large three-cornered piece of board large enough to
comfortably accommodate a wash bowl, pitcher, boxes, etc.
and fasten it into a corner of the room where the light
is best. Cover it with suitably colored cambric, and tack
around it a slightly full flounce of the same, long enough
to reach the floor. Over this place plain book-muslin,
with box plaitings across the edge and along the bottom.
The frame of the mirror hanging above it should also be
draped with cambric and muslin, together with a little
bracket at either side. Common paper boxes covered
with fancy paper or zephyr-work should be added, for
holding brushes, combs, etc.
A long packing box of the right height, lined with
paper, the coyer hinged, and the whole neatly cushioned
and draped with tastefully chosen calico, will make not
only a pretty lounge, but an excellent place for keeping
one's best dresses.
If one has no bureau, another box, not so long, miirlit
be fixed in the same way, with partitions added, making
" a place for everything."
Saw off two or three inches from the le#s of some old
FURNISHING. 63
kitchen chair, paint it jet black, and varnish; make a
cushion for the seat and a square zephyr-tidy for the back,
both of appropriate color, and a neat little sewing-chair
is the result.
Trusting to the fates and girlish energy, for a table
with a shelf of books above it, and some pretty pictures
and a motto for the walls, we will leave this room, feeling
sure that even with these humble and inexpensive appli-
ances, there is the chance for peaceful and pleasant hours
within that are sometimes unknown in more magnificent
apartments.
In homes where daughters have larger means to draw
from, of course there will be no need of the make-shifts
here mentioned. Delicately-toned paper can be chosen
lor the walls, pretty chintzes or cretonnes for the furni-
ture, and a neat, white matting or lovely ingrain for the
floor. But whatever the fittings of a girl's room may be,
it is the girl herself that gives it character. If she is re-
fined and orderly, and tasteful, her room will certainly be
an attractive little bower, whether she has five dollars or
fifty times five to devote to its adornment.
Two elements should never be forgotten, books and
flowers ! They are the best and the sweetest companions.
THE KITCHEN.
One of the finest house-keepers in the United States
says: "If scrimping must be done, scrimp parlor and
sitting-room, but have the kitchen and bedrooms as com-
fortable as possible." Another writer observes: "The
kitchen is to the house what the stomach is to the body,
and should be the most spacious, best lighted, and best
ventilated apartment in the house." This remark, how-
ever, is aimed mainly at city homes, where the kitchen is
too often a mere little basement cellar, badly lighted and
illy supplied with pure air, from which it is no wonder
64 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
that the servants are continually rising to the upper
regions to give "warning." In the country the average
kitchen is far more decent, but still the erring house-
keeper, anxious to "have things like other people," is
prone to pinch the poor kitchen in order to furnish the
parlor its gim-cracks.
This is all wrong. If one's house were intended for
entertainment and continual festivity, then it would be
well to place its parlor and dining-room first and fore-
most ; but in a farm-house, where the house-mother's
work lies mainly in kitchen and dairy, and where are
needed all the aids and conveniences for making this
work pleasant as well as profitable, it is simply silly to
deny one's self valuable and useful every-day things for
the sake of what-nots, upholstered chairs and Notting-
ham-lace curtains, that must necessarily be shut up and
of no benefit to anybody nine-tenths of the year. It is
as if some farmer, otherwise of sound mind, should
deny himself reapers and seeders and good horses in order
to keep himself well supplied with broadcloth, beaver
hats, French boots, and fine linen !
However, if the country house-keeper would visit one
of the large retail hardware establishments in the nearest
big city, with money in her pocket, I have no fear that
she would have very much cash or inclination left for
mere " best room " adornments, for there is certainly no
more captivating field offered to the eye of the home-
woman than is found in this branch of house-furnishing.
Before she has half surveyed the wonderful display of
improvements in everything, from a magnificent cookmg-
ran.sjc to a rotary nutmeg-grater, from an elegantly builded
refrigerator to an apple-corer, from an oil-stove or a dish-
washing machine to the last idea in clotlu's-lnu-s and car-
pet tacks she will feel that "hardware 1 " is altogether
too meagre a term to apply to such a world of beautiful
and helpful things.
FUR:NTSHI:N-G. 65
I wish such articles could find their way into every
farm-house in the land, in place of the showy and useless
rubbish that is O often toiled and struggled for at the
expense of health and household happiness. A parlor
appropriately furnished is always desirable ; but a kitchen
supplied with some modern conveniences and labor-
saving implements, and so cheerfully arranged that to do
work in it is a delight rather than drudgery, is of infinite
more value, if a choice must fall between the two.
The room should bo of good size, with windows on
opposite sides, as they thus give a peculiarly cheerful
light. It is a charming idea to have the windows set in
after the manner alluded to in the Chapter on Building.
They afford a generous view, and with sills about ton
inches wide for flower-pots, and a cornice across the top
for a little drapery, they are very delightful. The ceil-
ing and walls should be whitened or calcimined in some
cheerful tint, and the wood-work oiled and varnished.
For the floor if it is even, and of a decent quality of
lumber nothing is better than two or three coats of oil,
put on one after the other as fast as absorbed. Such a
floor needs no scrubbing, a weekly mopping with plenty
of warmish water, being sufficient to keep it clean. Com-
fortable little rugs should be placed before the sink. and
the ironing table ; and if this room must do duty as a
dining-room, there should be, in winter, a large square
of carpeting under the dining-table. A neat screen,
made by tacking chintz or furniture calico upon a light
wooden frame, about five feet high and six feet wide, might
be placed between the table and the cook-stove, not only
to temper the heat, but to shut off the not always attrac-
tive view of saucepans, spiders, and kettles used in the
dinner-getting.
The sink should be capacious, lined with zinc, provided
with drain-pipe, and flanked by pumps connecting with
cistern and well. Underneath may be a cupboard for pots
66 FABM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
and kettles, and above it a row of pegs on which to hang
a dishcloth-holder, a stiff brush for cleaning vegetables,
a little mop for washing bottles and narrow-necked pitch-
ers and jars, the lamp scissors, and such small articles
as are in daily use in this department of the kitchen.
Two small shelves should be placed at either end for soap-
dishes. A large conveniently arranged sink goes a great
way in making kitchen-work easy.
A good-sized, substantial table of white- wood or pine
is needed for ironing and baking days. It should have three
drawers a large one for ironing-sheets, shirt-board and
holders, and two smaller ones for baking-tins, spoons and
knives used in cooking, and boxes of spices, salt, etc.
Having once used such a table, no house-keeper will like
to do without it.
Above this table can be fastened a hanging rack for
ironed clothes. These are much more convenient than
the sort which stand on the floor, and when not in use,
can be folded back against the wall, entirely out of the
way.
For washing-days, are needed a long bench two and a
half feet wide, and of the right hight, two or three tubs,
a wringer, and for heavy clothes, a washer. The latter,
which costs $5 or $6, can be fitted into any tub, and ought
to be an indispensable article. It is to washing-day what
a reaping-machine is to an eighty-acre wheat field : and
no farmer should neglect to provide one for his kitchen,
unless he is willing to settle down to his harvesting with
merely the sickle and the "cradle" of his forefathers !
These items come under the head of kitchen furniture,
but are, of course, kept in the cellar, or in a closet open-
ing from the kitchen.
Along with a first-class cooking-stove, for it is not
economy to have a poor one, should be selected the fol-
lowing quite necessary articles : Wash-boiler, tea-kettle,
soup-pot, frying-kettle, spider, two or three granitized
67
saucepans of different sizes, four bread-tins, two gem-
irons, coffee and tea-pots, large and small iron spoons,
wire steak-broiler, wire toaster, steamer, pudding-mold,
patty-pans, potato-masher, skimmer, cream-whipper,
gravy-strainer, egg-beater, half a dozen cake and pie tins,
large and small graters, a dozen muffin-rings, or a muffin-
pan, which is more convenient than the rings, a colander,
a quart measure, and a griddle. No doubt other items
will readily suggest themselves, but these, at any rate,
are essential, if good house-keeping is the object. A
proper and convenient place to keep them is a large deep-
shelved cupboard with close doors, in which the common
crockery and glass can also be kept.
The best arrangement is to have cupboard-room for all
table and cooking ware, and keep food and provision
stores in a cool, well ventilated closet, that can be effect-
ually closed to dust and flies.
For china and glass, and ornamental dishes, a corner
cupboard with glass doors, in the uppe,' part, and two or
three drawers below for table-cloths, napkins, and the
children's bibs and clean aprons, will be found a treasure.
There should be a closet opening from the kitchen for
every- day coats, hats, umbrellas, water-proof cloaks, and
the like. Nothing makes a kitchen look so forlorn and
disorderly as a lot of nondescript garments hanging here
and there about the walls, together with bits of rope,
whips, and other masculine clutter. There's a place for
these things, but it is not on the walls of a pleasant and
tidy kitchen. The closet just mentioned should be capa-
ble of ventilation, else overshoes and water-proofs will
give it a too pronounced atmosphere.
An easy little rocking-chair, and a good arm-chair,
should be stationed by the pleasant windows, where a
tired baby can be " brooded " for a while, or a newspaper
caught up for a moment's reading.
Notwithstanding the scorn that is heaped upon
68 FARM HOMES, IX-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
" chromos " by those who can afford to buy real oil-paint-
ings and choice engravings, there are far prettier and
more pleasing pictures among them than among many
of the "old masters/' and any city acquaintance or re-
liable dealer can send to our country homes soft- toned
landscapes, and rich fruit and flower pieces, at a small
expense, that will pleasantly relieve bare walls, and often
give really beautiful effects. There are very good en-
gravings, too, that are not costly ; and there is no r<
why even a kitchen wall should be without a beautiful
face, a fair landscape, or a group of flowers glowing with
the color of life.
Let the farmer provide a large pleasant kite-hen and
interest himself in its conveniences for work being ;is
enthusiastic in furnishing labor-saving machines for this
department of farming as for his outside fields and li-j
will find that he makes an investment that pays an
hundred fold.
Let the farmer's wife make the kitchen a bright and
sweet-aired realm, and be proud to be its intelligent and
efficient queen. Let her beautify her work as much as
possible, and lift it above the dull, discouraging slough
of drudgery. With conveniences for work, and a cheer-
ful, comfortable place to work in, the women are few who
will not make their homes " the dearest spot on earth "
to all who dwell within them.
THE DINING-ROOM.
Although there are many country kitchens so shining
nnd orderly and clean-aired that it is a pleasure to break
bread in them, there arc many others which, owing to a
large family and a pressure of work, cannot always h,>
nice and orderly at meal times ; so it is well, if it can ho
afforded, to have a small cheerful room opening from the
kitchen, easily warmed in winter, and from which heat
FUEKISHING. 69
and flies can be excluded in summer, where meals can be
eaten in the healthful serenity and comfort which is al-
most as essential as the food itself. What can be more
refreshing to the laborer than to enter from the blister-
ing glare of a harvest day into a cool, softly-lighted room
in which the fragrance of freshly gathered flowers, or the
aroma of leafy boughs, mingles its poetry with the cheer-
ful prose of the beef and vegetables ? And how pleasant
and restful it is for his helpmate to lay aside her kitchen
cares and kitchen-apron together, and oome smiling and
tidy to her little throne behind the tea-service.
Such a room requires very little furniture. The walls
should be of neat and quiet tint, with two or three pleas-
ing pictures and sgme brackets for pots of ferns, or such
vines as will grow prettily in the shade during the hot
summer weather. In winter a few petunias and two or
three foliage plants will fill the sunny windows with
brightness and bloom. There should be a long, sub-
stantial table, with plenty of elbow room for all, and a
side-board or cupboard for table crockery. A small table
will be found a convenience if there is no side-board
for holding such dishes as are'used toward the end of a
meal at dinner time, when the varieties of food have a
tendency to crowd each other. .The window curtains
may be plain shades of color suited to the walls of the
room. Nothing can be better for the floor in summer
time than an oiled surface, like that of the kitchen,
which can be made comfortable to the feet in winter
by a large " crumb-cloth " of drugget or home-made
carpeting.
In more opulent farm-homes where the wife has liberty
to devote more time and means to house decoration and
furnishing, very handsome dining-rooms can be achieved
with a moderate outlay. There should be high walls, a
fire-place, and a fine large window looking to the south or
east. All the rest is in the hands of the mistress. If
70 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
the floor has been laid in light and dark woods, well and
good. It will be a thing of beauty through more than
one life time, and always look genuine and substantial,
as everything about a dining-room should. If, however,
the floor is of pine, it may be stained in blocks or stripes
in a bordering two feet in width, covered with two coats
of best varnish, and the center adorned with three or
more breadths of pretty carpeting.
Supposing green and oak to have been chosen for the
colors of this room the ceiling calcimined with pale
sage-green, and the wood-work either treated with oak-
graining or oiled and varnished without paint : Select
for the walls a flat-figured paper in oak and green tints,
and place around the top a wide bordar or frieze in black
and green and oak, with perhaps a touch of rich maroon.
The carpet should be of small figure in green and oak,
with a border of maroon. The window lambrequins
should be of green rep with green and oak gimp and
fringe, or of black-ground chintz with a gold and green
foliage pattern. A few neatly potted and luxuriant
plants should be kept upon the sills, which can also be
decorated with lambrequins if liked.
Have a carpenter construct a side-board of simple but
substantial form, faced with oak or maple, or else made
of the best of pine. Glue artificial wood-carvings of
fruits in the center of the top, and upon each door and
drawer, and finish the whole with oil and varnish.
The table may also be home-made and large and solid,
with rounded corners and substantial turned lor*, with
casters. If not of real oak, the legs should be nioely
grained to imitate it. If colored table linen is used it
should be buff and white, with green borders, or buff and
green in any neat, small patterns. Those cloths, how-
ever, are generally covered with plain white ones at meal
time.
Above this table there should be a handsome hanging
FURNISHING. - 71
lamp or small chandelier, with perhaps a little basket of
Kennelworth Ivy, or other gracefully growing vine, sus-
pended from it. Such a light glorifies the plainest tea-
table.
As for chairs there are a great many ways for achiev-
ing handsome ones without paying five dollars apiece for
them at furniture shops. If a dozen oak chairs without
seats can be obtained " in the rough " at the factory, they
can be transformed into something pretty and substantial
at small cost. They should first be oiled and varnished.
Then with some stout sacking or canvas, some rich, dark
cretonne, some gimp and furniture tacks, and either hair
or wool for stuffing, upholster the seats being careful to
fasten the canvas securely in place and to cut the cre-
tonne to fit neatly. Even the cheap "splint-bottoms"
which cost much less than oak, can be made into hand-
some chairs by painting the wood-work black, ornament-
ing it with gilt and scarlet lines, and varnishing the
seats to be upholstered in cretonne, striped linen, or
common chintz.
For pictures, let us do away with the poor slaughtered
innocents that have so long been selected for dining-room
walls ! Why is a dead fish with its ghastly open mouth, .
or a shot partridge hanging by one leg to a nail, consid-
ered a pleasing object for contemplation while one is eat-
ing ? " Game Pieces " ought to be banished to the walls
of butchers' shops ! In our dining-rooms let us rather
have friendly portraits, children's faces, radiant flowers,
and living birds and fishes.
THE PARLOR.
I place this room last because it is least in every genu-
ine home the home that is made to be used and enjoyed
by the family. If means are small and best room furni-
ture seems to be among the things never to be obtained,
72 FARM HOMES, IN -DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
let not the whole house be made dismal because of it ;
but rejoice that there is a kitchen, that there are com-
fortable bedrooms, and that there is a bit of Heaven m
the form of a flower garden under the windows !
I know a good woman, the wife of a hard-working and
not very wealthy farmer, who has spent years of her life
toiling and scrimping and pinching herself and her
family to the one end of having a handsome parlor and a
handsome spare bedroom furnished after her own heart.
She has them now the bright Brussels carpet, the lace
curtains, the upholstered chairs, the gilt-framed mirror,
the glittering wall-paper, the richly bound Bible, the
marble-topped table, the "pair" of mammoth heavily
framed pictures, and in the bedroom the magnificent bed
and all its appropriate surroundings. There is not even
an embroidered sofa cushion, or fancy match safe, or
gorgeous tidy, lacking. And over all this grandeur, for
it is quite grand for that small farming hamlet, reigns
profound shadow and silence. Sometimes on Sunday
afternoon a gray-haired and rather unhappy-faced woman
opens one of the shutters just enough to admit the ghost
of a sunbeam and sits down by the window the solitary
monarch of all the fine things about her. Her two boys
have grown up and branched off into existence that has
no "farming" in it. Her poor husband mightily pre-
fers the kitchen or the back porch to the sacred splendors
of the "front room," which he never enters without a
mortal fear of doing some damage. So the parlor is her
very own. It is too nice for the church sociable, and too
large to throw open to "just the neighbors," and so it
waits m shadow and silence like a very orderly sepulchre
in which the good woman will one day he in state, all
unmindful of the neighbors' feet upon her sacred carpet.
And this seems to be all that her Best Room amounts to.
"Nevertheless, it is pleasant," exclaims some reader,
"to have one room m the house that is always in order
PUBLISHING. 73
and ready for visitors." So it is ! And after fitting up
good bedrooms, comfortable and convenient kitchens,
pleasant dining-rooms, and nice pantries and milk-rooms,
parlors are the very next things to be considered in our
farm-homes unless some of the money devoted to them
might better be used for books and magazines and news-
papers, good fruits, shrubberies, and such essential
things as may be lacking.
Even if one has but a small room to devote to this pur-
pose it can be made very pleasing, and has the advantage
of requiring less furniture. A fire-place with a mirror
above it, and a large wide-ledged window opposite, make
the room already half fitted up ! The ceiling calcimined
with the palest blue, and the walls with a tint two shades
deeper, will have the eif ect to make the room appear more
spacious. A border of dark and light-blue, or of bluish-
green and gold, should be used on such walls. The
wood-work should be stained walnut-color and varnished.
The most suitable carpet would be an ingrain in small
figures of blue and gray, with perhaps a bit of yellow or
a bit of rose-color scattered through it. Plain blue or
gray lambrequins should be used for the windows,
trimmed with fringe of the same color. For the curtains
beneath them, sheer Swiss muslin is always pretty and
graceful. Sometimes they are made with a knife plait-
ing or a fluted ruffle down the inner edges and across the
bottom ; but they look well when finished with simple
hems, and are much easier laundried.
The fireplace should be treated after the manner de-
scribed in a previous chapter, and will be found the most
effective feature in the room, especially if furnished with
a good sized mirror, which will reflect back all the light
and beauty of the apartment, and, like the cool color on
the walls and ceiling, enhance its size. Indeed, I would
advise all those tasteful but restricted home-keepers w r ho
are anxious to have really attractive parlors, to aim for
4
74 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AND OUT-DOOKS.
simply these three things a large, wide-silled window, a
fire-place, and a generous-sized mirror to place above it
letting curtains and carpet and chairs come about as they
can ; or using for a while plain shades for the windows,
and a neat matting for the floor. Adding two or three
pictures, a few books, some growing vines, and an easy
chair to such a room, it is already cosy and hospitable in
its aspect.
In this room, as in all. others, one should avoid a clut-
tered, crowded appearance. Do not afflict the walls
with a general outbreak of small pictures, brackets, and
fancy articles, as if a notion-store were being fitted up.
It is better to distribute such things throughout the
house, that each room may have its two or three touches
of graceful fancy.
For a table obtain something in a round or oval shape.
It may be of pine or whitewood, but must be strong and
substantial. Paint the legs black and varnish them.
The top can be covered with a blue or gray cloth, em-
broidered about the edges, if one has time, with silk, or
with zephyr wool. Above the table suspend a pretty
hanging lamp with shade.
Sometimes old chairs can be purchased at an auction,
or dragged out of a garret, and transformed into beauti-
ful things with paint and varnish, decalcomama-gildings,
and stuffed seats of rep or cretonne. These, with a light
willow rocker, or a camp-chair, and a handsome foot-
stool or two, will comfortably complete the furnishing.
THE DAIRY-ROOM AKD BUTTER-MAKIKG. 75
CHAPTER IV.
THE DAIRY-ROOM AND BUTTER-MAKING.
This department of the farm-house, as well as the
kitchen and the flower-garden, should be the pride and
joy of the country-woman's heart.
It is stated that the best butter is now made at the
large Creameries or Butter-Factories. It is because
these establishments have every facility and convenience
for the work, and maintain thorough care and attention
in the work. There is no magic in the making of the
high-priced delicious butter, tasting of June's own roses
and clover fields, that finds its way to favored tables.
The milk of healthy, well-treated cows, is given its best
chance, and is transformed by the best methods into butter.
That is all. And the farm-homes must be few where
these conditions and rules cannot be maintained, if there's
only a resolute will to lead the way.
If butter is made on any considerable scale, a Dairy-
house should be built, with thick walls and deep eaves,
over a pure running brook or cool spring, or arranged so
that living water a foot or more in depth can be carried
through it in troughs resting upon the floor, with ample
space for walking between them. In these i roughs the
milk can be placed, in cans or clocks, in such quantit ei
that the level of the water will be a little higher than
that of the milk. Experienced butter-makers have found
this to be the most satisfactory arrangement possible for
keeping the milk at a cool, even temperature, between the
time of setting and skimming.
Everything about this milk-house should be kept im-
maculately sweet and clean. The building should be
well ventilated, but not breezy, and the windows pro-
76 FARM HOMES, LNXDOORS AXD OUT-DOOKS.
vided with wire screens and movable shutters, by which
dust and flies can be guarded against, and the sunlight
tempered. All animal and vegetable odors should be far
removed, for, as every one knows, milk is very sensitive
to the slightest taint or olfensiveness in the atmosphere.
Nothing less sweet than clover fields or orchards should
be near, and the current of the spring or brook should
be swift enough to prevent any harm from standing water.
At one end of the building should be plenty of space for
a table, a churn, and all the utensils and appliances for
milk and for butter-making. It would be best if this
were separated from the main room by a partition.
In places where the advantage of water is lacking, the
next best arrangement for milk is a clean, dry, well-
ventilated cellar, with screened windows, whitewashed
walls, a brick, stone, or cement floor, and easy steps lead-
ing clown to it. A dumb-waiter might easily be intro-
duced, and prove a great saving of time and muscle in
carrying the milk and the pails, pans, et cetera, up
and down. Of course a milk-cellar should be used for
its legitimate purpose alone, fruits, vegetables, and all
other cellar stores being kept in a strictly separate room.
Next to a suitable dairy-room, the first step in the
direction of good butter-making is to give the cows good
care. No one has any moral right, and ought not to
have any legal right, to possess cows or any other living
creatures, unless he can treat them well. We need no
wider insight into the meanness of a man's real nature,
than to see his cows and horses and dogs wince at his
approach !
A good farmer is good to his cows ; and well-treatod
cows yield far richer and more abundant milk than the
poor, half-fed, worried animals, to whom milking-time is
more or less of a terror.
Cows should have in summer abundant pasturage, pure
water, and plenty of shade, with no nagging from dogs
THE DAIRY-ROOM AHD BUTTER-MAKIKG. 7V
or from thoughtless boys, who are in haste to have the
"chores" over. In winter, it is melancholy to see cows
shrinking and crouching in a bleak, unsheltered yard,
with no escape from a biting wind or a sleety storm, until
they are put into ill-cared for stables at night, with the
snow still clinging to their cold wet hides. It would be
bad enough for a man to wear a wet over-coat all day, but
he would consider himself decidedly ill-treated, if he were
made to sleep in it all night in a draughty shed. Cows
enjoy getting into dry clothes as well as any one ! so let
them have a vigorous brushing when they have been ex-
posed to snow, and give them plenty of clean dry litter
for their nightly comfort. They should have shelter at
all times, summer and winter, whenever they are inclined
to seek it. In winter their food should be all the well-
cured hay they will eat clean, plenty of water, and a little
treat of roots or grain every morning. Do not regard it
as silly to give them caressing pats at milking-time, and
let them have names of their own, and learn to answer
to them.
The little good-natured, affectionate Jersey, if you can
afford to pay the price asked for her, is one of the best
cows for supplying the table with rich and delicious milk.
Even children can milk these mites of cows, and they
easily become great pets. It may be thought by those
unfamiliar with their good qualities that their small size
is against them, and that some big common cow will re-
turn more milk for a much smaller investment of money.
But what the Jersey lacks in quantity compared with our
common cows, in their "new milch" time, she makes up
in quality in a steady yield of milk throughout the year
except for^a short interval before calving, when she is
with difficulty dried off. They arrive at maturity early,
generally giving milk when two years old, and often when
younger. They are as hardy as the common breeds, and
more easily kept as they have the inherited trait of
78 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
being accustomed to, and content with, small quarters,
and will nibble patiently about wherever a little grass
grows, instead of hooking down bars or bounding over
fences in search of possible better feed ; so that they
are not only good cows on general principles, but are
particularly good cows for village-families, or for small
farm-homes where pasturage is limited.
For both quality and quantity of milk, for large size,
for good beef, and for easy keeping, the Durham stands
high in the scale of excellence, and has been widely intro-
duced in this country. Allen's Cattle Book says they
have been known to give from thirty-four to thirty-six
quarts a day on grass pasture only being equal to from
twelve to fifteen pounds of butter per week. Mr. Allen
thinks the Shorthorn crosses with the native stock prove
to be more profitable to ordinary farmers than the pure
breed, and certainly they are far less expensive.
But whatever the breed, rare or common, every com-
mon-sense fanner bears in mind that there is almost as
much in the proper treatment of cows as in their lineage.
At milking-time, in the best dairies, the cows' bags are
washed and wiped dry before the milk is drawn ; and if
the weather is rainy, they are placed in shelter and their
flanks and bags rubbed dry, before milking, that no hint
of what is called a "cowey" taste may be conveyed to
the pails. Milking should be performed m a cheery and
vigorous manner. No one is required to sing at the work
unless he feels like it, but I've no doubt the " singing
milkmaid," who figures in pastoral poetry, gets more
milk in her pail than the glum and silent farm-hand
who plumps himself down with a crossly drawn out "so-
o-o !" and falls to milking as if he hated existence gener-
ally and the dairy business in particular.
It is hardly necessary to suggest that the pails, strainers,
pans, and everything belonging to dairy-work should be
perfectly clean and sweet.
THE DAIRY-BOOM AND BUTTER-MAKING. 79
The milk should be strained into pans as soon as pos-
sible, and kept in a cool, even temperature until the cream
has risen. The cream from one milking churned by it-
self makes the very best butter, and as this necessitates
frequent churning, so much the better the butter is
surer to be sweet and perfect in flavor. Twenty-four
hours is usually considered sufficient for the rising of
the cream ; but in a cool dairy-room, if the number of
cows is not too large, the milk can be allowed to stand
enough longer to be divided into three churnings a week
without detriment to the butter flavor.
The "gram" of butter, the butter-globule or cell, is
something not considered by every dairy-woman. If it is
destroyed, the butter is "salvey," and of inferior value ;
if preserved, the butter is firm and solid. Too rapid
churning is apt to crush the grain. The churning pro-
cess should not be performed inside of forty or fifty
minutes, and the common dash-churn has been accepter 1 ,
as about the best in use. A swing-churn, recently in-
vented, which dashes the cream from one end to the other,
and has no troublesome inside work, has been received
with favor, and as it is worked with a crank, must be
much easier to use than the one first mentioned.
As soon as the butter has " come," it should be taken
from the churn with a wooden ladle, and washed in pure
cold water, using a wooden butter-worker, and never
touching it with the hands. A capital da'ry-woman in
Wisconsin places her freshly churned butter on an inclined
white-oak plank, about two and a half by three feet in
size, and works and salts it with a long flat stick made
square at the end. On this surface the board can be
a larger one if needed the butter can D*e spread out
and rinsed and salted in a little time. An ounce of salt
and a quarter of an ounce of loaf-sugar, well mixed, is
used for every pound of butter. After salting, the but-
ter may be set away for a few hours, and then be worked
80 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
agaii , and either made into rolls, or prints, or packed in
jars, in the latter case being put down very firmly, and
covered with a nice white cloth dipped in brine. When
the jar is filled, brine is poured over it, and a cloth, cut
to exactly fit, is placed smoothly on top.
In winter-churning a natural June-like color can be
given to the sweet, but rather pallid butter, by grating
the outside of two or three well-cleaned orange carrots
into a cup of new milk, which strain through a wet cloth
into the cream previous to churning.
CHAPTER V.
CHEESE.
"The English method of preparing rennets," says
Prof. Hodgeboom, "is to steep them in brine strong
enough to float an egg, putting six rennets, a sliced lemon,
and an ounce of saltpetre to two gallons of brine. This
is made six weeks before it is to be used, and it is con-
sidered that age improves its qualities."
Hydrochloric acid is used in Holland, where such fa-
mous cheese is made, in place of rennet ; and the process
of obtaining the curd is not only simplified, but more of
it is obtained from the same quantity of milk.
A good cheese is made by removing the cream from a
night's milking after it has stood ten or twelve hours,
and adding \]\e skimmed milk to the fresh morning's
milk after warming it to new-milk heat.
" Stilton " and " Cream Cheddar " very rich cheeses
are made by adding the night's cream to the morning
milk, in the proportion of one quart of cream to ten
CHEESE. 81
quarts of milk. A cloth strainer is placed in a tub, so
that the bottom and sides are covered, the warm milk
poured in, rennet added (any good recipe book will give
explicit directions as to the proportions used), and after
the curd is formed it is cut in squares, carefully lifted out
in the strainer, and placed in a cheese-basket to drain.
After draining it is placed in a small hoop not more than
six or seven inches in diameter and eight and nine inches
high, with a " follower" pierced with holes at each end.
It is then placed on a shelf and turned four or five times
a day with no pressure. It is not salted in the curd, like
other cheese, but when it becomes firm enough to handle
it is bandaged and salt rubbed on externally until it is
sufficiently seasoned.
The * ' whole milk " cheese is the kind most commonly
made is this country in large dairies. On farms where
there are but few cows, the skimmed night's milk added
to the morning milking is more frequently used. These
cheeses are made in the same way as "Stilton," except
that the curd is salted and weights are used in pressing
them.
Little "Sage" cheeses are very nice. A milking from
four or five cows will make one. Steep a large handful
of fresh sage leaves in a pint of new milk. Divide the
milk for the cheese in two tubs equally, and into one of
them strain the milk from the sage, which will make it
of a delicate green color. Add rennet to both tubs, and
when the curds are ready for salting, mix the two together,
and put to press in a small hoop with a weight. These
cheeses have a peculiarly rich and pleasant flavor.
82 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AKD OUT-DOORS.
CHAPTER VI.
THE FLOWEK GARDEN.
A bit of Flower Garden carefully and intelligently culti-
vated, "yields" more to its loving possessor, than any
other feature of a country home ; for, aside from its beau-
tiful and fragrant blossoms, it yields the tonic of sunlight
and pure air, the soothing balm of sweet and faithful
companionship, and the inspiration of continually un-
folding beauty.
"To have a flower garden," says an English writer,
" is to have many friends continually near." And it is
indeed wonderful and beautiful, the subtle sympathy
and friendliness that seems to lean out of flowers toward
those who love them and faithfully care for them.
As there is nothing more melancholy before a farm-
house door than an ill-kept yard, in which a few plants
are pitifully struggling for life among besetting and tri-
umphant weeds, so there is nothing more cheerful and
fascinating than smooth turf, a tidy walk, cleanly-grow-
ing shrubs, and luxuriant, happy-faced flowers.
"But I have no time for such work," some weary
home-keeper may say. Then take time ! No other in-
vestment of twenty or thirty minutes out of the daylight
hours will pay as well, unless it be twenty or thirty min-
utes devoted to a restful nap ! Your housework is con-
fining. Much of it is hard and monotonous, and brings
wrinkles to your forehead, and maybe an ache to your
spine ; and there's not much joyousness or sweetness
about an unrelieved routine of baking and dish-washing,
and baby-tending from Sunday morning until Saturday
night. Then all the sooner should you come out in the
open air and form the acquaintance of happy and health-
ful things that would be glad to know you.
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 83
It is not necessary to begin on a grand scale. A little
money for seeds and shrubs, and a little half-hour out of
the day will go an astonishing ways, and amply repay the
expenditure. A large garden, with a great variety of
flowers and shrubs, would require the constant attention
of at least one pair of hands to keep it in suitable condi-
tion, and this, in most farm-homes, cannot be afforded.
It is the little plat well-tilled that the average farm-wife
has time for ; and greater satisfaction and more splendid
results come from a few well-chosen plants thoroughly
cultivated, than from a great mass of things only half
looked after.
In the country, where congenial soils, manures, ample
grounds, and the right sort of exposure are always easily
secured, it is a wonder that every farm-house is not re-
fined and adorned in this way. And yet, around thous-
ands of country homes, flower-cultivation is either ignored
altogether, or confined to a lilac bush more or less strag-
gling, and maybe a tuft of striped grass or "live-forever,"
to keep it company. This state of things is owing, not
so much to an indifference to beautiful things, as to the
feeling that there is no time for them. I am afraid, too,
that in some instances the "good man" is answerable
for the lack of pretty flowers and neat walks about his
house, having a mistaken idea that a flower garden is
nonsense, and that nothing is profitable unless it can be
weighed or measured and toted off to market. This is
the sort of man that makes farm-life abominable, for his
scorn of a few lily-bulbs and roses does not end with
them, but is apt to be poured out on other forms of every-
day beauty and comfort. His wife's face gets the solemn
unhopeful look seen too often on women's faces, his sons
turn away from farming in disgust, and his daughters
will be apt to think twice before they marry farmers.
However, something can be done with even such a de-
pressing curmudgeon at the head of the family. No
84: FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
doubt there may be something of a conflict at the first
outbreak in the direction of adornment, and if he is par-
ticularly savage, several seasons of struggle may be main-
tained before he can be brought to see that flowers and
shrubberies are "profitable," that the love and care of
them lightens his wife's burdens and brightens her health,
that their aromatic presence helps to keep the air puie
and wholesome, and that the mere sight of the roses and
lilies nodding to each other across the broad, neat walk,
adds ten per cent to the value of his home.
Then do not be discouraged, my home-keeper, if along
with your many cares and duties, an offish husband stands
in the way of a little flower-culture. Go quietly and very
good naturedly to work, and the beautiful things will
steal upon him unawares. Or, if you are obliged to call
upon him for assistance, be firm and fearless and still
good natured and in his secret heart he will admire your
growing ambition, though he growls and grumbles with
every plunge of his spade, and pokes over your papers of
long-named seeds with many a sarcasm.
Do not make the common mistake of new beginners,
which is to sow a great variety of seeds without regard to
their tender or hardy qualities, and covering them all
alike whether as large as a Castor Bean, or as tiny as a
Petunia. Many do this, and expect to have a floral
Paradise, when very likely only a few of the seeds will
show themselves. A good guide like Mr. Henderson's,
of New York, or Mr. Vick's, of Eochester, and many
others, will tell what every flower is, and how and when
its seeds should be planted. From them and from my
own experience, I will condense a few facts that will be
helpful to the amateur, and save her from a few expen-
sive mistakes.
A dozen varieties of good annuals, with a few bulbs and
shrubs, are quite enough for a handsome beginning.
A suitable soil is the first thing to be secured. A
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 85
too clayey, or a too sandy soil, will need to be made over
before it will grow flowers successfully. Equal quanti-
ties of sand, loam, manure, and well-rotted tur:* or leaves,
makes a soil in which nearly all plants will thrive.
Therefore, if the soil is heavy, clayey loam, lighten it
with sand and leaf -mould. If too sandy and light, mix
with it a little leaf or turf-mould, and peat or muck from
rich meadows. Sand is quite an indispensable element
making the soil warmer and mellower, and easier drained.
If a soil lacks sand one must take pains to obtain enough
of it to make the ground for seed-sowing soft and friable.
The best location for flower-borders or parterres is
to the southeast the sun from dawn to noon being bet-
ter than afternoon light, which, through the summer, is
scorching, and withering rather then invigorating to
most plant-life. Southwestern light ranks next, while
the north side of the house is the- very last place to be
devoted to this purpose, although there are some vane-
ties of plants, like Pansies, Lily of the Valley, Ferns, and
Myrtle, that will flourish finely in such a location.
The beds or " borders" can be made in endiess variety
of shapes, but those simply made, and consequently
easier kept in order, are a greater satisfaction to the eye,
and certainly more comfortable to the laborer. These
fanciful crescents, hearts, stars, etc., require a great deal
of care m bordering the edges with something that will
keep them well defined, and in maintaining smooth, clean
walks among them. So if one has little time, and still
less assistance, it is best 10 make straight beds, not more
than two feet wide, on either side of the walk leading to
the gate. These, with " mounds" for Verbenas, Petu-
nias, and such plants as like to trail about in consider-
able space, will be sufficient field for almost any one.
Have the beds spaded to the depth of two feet, and the
soil properly prepared. The beds, when completed,
should not be more than three or four inches above the
8G FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
path. The path, or walk, must be wide enough for two
people to walk side by side without brushing against the
flowers. It should be paved with brick, or large, flat
stones, or hardened with gravel, or neatly planked,
plank being least desirable, because it so soon decays and
becomes unwholesome from the dampness and mould be-
neath it. Bricks set edgewise make a good border for
the beds, or large, smooth pebbles, or narrow planking
can be used. Narrow strips of turf, if kept in " living
green," and neatly clipped, make a pretty edge, but it
will require care.
In February or March, according to latitude, seeds
should be ordered, and such as require it should be
started in boxes in the house, so that by the time spring
is fairly begun, and the ground is warm, the young plants
will be all ready for their out-door quarters. Nearly all
annuals, in the Northern States, should be started m the
house. This process makes them several weeks earlier,
when, if they are sown late in the open ground, the Sep-
tember frosts often come to cut them down just as they
have unfolded into beautiful bloom.
HABDY BULBS AND PLANTS.
From a list of Hardy Bulbs select a few desirable ones,
and plant them in the borders six or seven feet apart,
which will leave space for the annuals. These plants,
aside from a yearly enriching of the soil, plenty of water
during their flowering season, and an occasional dividing
of roots, need scarcely any attention, which fact, com-
bined with the great beauty and fragrance of the kinds
here mentioned, makes them actually necessary to every
flower-lover's happiness. Of good Lilies, especially, one
cannot have too many. A few years ago when fresh from
Japan, they were sold only at very high prices, but now
they are offered at such low figures that every garden
should have one, at least, from this glorious family.
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 87
Lilium auratum, or Golden-banded Lily of Japan, lias
a large, white, graceful blossom, with a golden band
through the center of each petal. It sometimes puts
forth twenty blossoms from a single stalk, and is delici-
ously fragrant. Flowers in July and August.
Lilium longiflorum has trumpet-shaped flowers of clear
alabaster white, from five to eight inches in length, open-
ing early in July.
Lilium speciosum unfolds in August a magnificent,
blossom of rich, rose color, spotted with crimson and
purple, and little shining points like crystalized dew.
These lilies rapidly put forth little bulbs below the
surface, and should be divided every year or two and
planted separately, about three inches deep.
Lilium candidum, named by the florists as the " Com-
mon Garden Lily," and bearing a lower price than the
above sorts, is not so common, but it would prove a
lovely novelty in many a garden, especially in the West.
It has large, white flowers, and is very fragrant, blossom-
ing in June and July.
Plant these lily-bulbs late in the fall, in rich, mellow
soil, about six inches below the surface. Do not let any
manure touch the bulbs, as it might rot them, but spread
it upon the top. As severe weather comes on add a
slight covering of leaves. These lilies can also be grown
in pots as window-plants. I have started candidum
lilies in December, and had' glorious flowers for Easter.
A few bulbs of Polyanthus Narcissus, cream-white
and yellow, a fragrant, early spring flower, will be liked.
Plant them under four inches of soil, about the first of
November.
Every garden should have a bed of the Lily of the Val-
ley they are such delicious little flowers ! The open
border is not suitable for them, as they prefer a shaded,
moist corner, and in such a place, and with no other care
than Nature's, they will send up their rich leaves and
88 FARM: HOMES, LN"-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
waxen bells before the summer flowers have even dreamed
of blossoming. The bulbs are very small, and are sold,
cheaply, by the dozen or the hundred.
Among Pceonies, in place of the solitary double red sort
that used to bo the pride of every well-regulated country
garden, are now found a hundred varieties. Doubtless
three or four of the best sorts would satisfy the demands
of a small garden. They are brilliant, showy flowers, and
are often as fragrant as roses.
Festiva ha3 a carmine center shading out into white.
Virginalis, clear white.
Amabilis, rose, with white center.
Pattsii, rich, deep crimson.
Blush, large, rosy pink.
Pceonies require three years to become of good size, but
after that they increase rapidly, and require so much
space that it is well to cut away some of their tubers, or
" toes," every spring, and present them to some one who
is not so fortunate as to possess them.
Hollyhocks are among the dear old standard flowers
that should never be lost sight of. There are rich double
sorts in all colors, and in view of their tall, sentinel air,
they might be planted at either side of the gate, or in
clumps in the grass plat. For three months and more
they are in constant flower. If grown from seed they
will not flower until the sec^|d year.
Larkspur is a desirable flower, because of its lovely
shades of blue and its brave habit of blossoming early and
late.
Two or three sorts of Perennial Phlox should be chosen;
and they will look best if planted in a cluster on the
sward or against the leafy verdure of a hedge. White
Lady and Chloris, the latter a vivid red, might be
planted together.
Lychnis is a brilliant and showy perennial, growing
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 89
two feet in hight, and is in two varieties, scarlet and
deep orange.
Dianthus^or Pinks, should be generously chosen from.
Every one loves " pinks," from grandmother to the baby.
There are many hardy sorts that are almost as delicious
as the rich, but tender, Carnation. Alba, a double white,
and Luciniatus, a fine fringed variety in various colors,
are both bright and fragrant additions to the flower-
border.
Perennial Flax, a lovely blue flower, and Dicentra, the
graceful Bleeding Heart, should not be forgotten.
From the foregoing list of bulbs and plants enough
can be selected, with a few annuals, to plentifully sup-
ply a smull garden. And remember it is the small gar-
den, well cared for, that we have in view.
And now the seeds of a few choice,, rich Annuals are
wanted for the ample space between the Perennials.
Most beginners in flower-garden sow ten times the quan-
tity of seed that is needed. By studying the catalogues
of any good florist, choosing a few best sorts, and sowing
the seeds carefully and properly, according to their needs,
a great deal of disappointment can be avoided. Three
or four neighbors should club together when sending for
seeds, and thus lessen the expense for all. Nearly every
package contains seed enough to supply three gardens
with whatever variety it contains, if only judiciously
planted.
A quantity of suitable boil should be placed in the cel-
lar in the fall, that it may be in readiness for starting
the seeds in boxes as early as the first of March.
Transplanting, with the exception of Pansies and very
hardy annuals, should not be attempted until all danger
of spring frost is over and the ground is warm and mel-
low. Cool, cloudy weather should be chosen for the
work, and the young plants must be watered morning
and evening, unless the rain comes to one's assistance.
90 FARM HOMES, IN- DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
ANNUALS.
Asters. A package of mixed seeds, or what is better,
if dimes are not to be counted, half a dozen separate
sorts of this beautiful summer and autumn flower, should
be among the first selected. They are as brave as they
are beautiful, and will cheer the eye with their bright
blossoms long after "the melancholy days have come,"
if sheltered from the frosty nights under a light blanket
or shawl. The smaller plants can also be taken up in
pots and boxes, and will continue to bloom in dining-
room and parlor windows for several weeks. The dwarf
sorts are especially pretty for potting.
Antirrhinum, or Snap-Dragon, is a rich and interest-
ing flower in nearly all colors. The seeds are so minute
that one package will supply half a dozen gardens, and
they should be covered very slightly with soil.
Balsams are exquisite for flat bouquets, often equal-
ling roses in beauty. These might be started in collar-
boxes, which, at transplanting time, can be set directly in-
to the ground (after removing the bottoms) without dis-
turbing the roots. They should be given plenty of room.
Coreopsis and the Double Buttercup should be given a
corner, for as some one has remarked, no bouquet is
quite complete without a " drop of sunlight " in the form
of a yellow flower.
Candytuft comes in purple, white, and crimson, and
this with Sweet Alyssum and Sweet Peas can be sown in
the garden as soon as the frost is out of the ground. The
two first are pretty for edging. The Peas should be
planted under four inches of soil, and if planted in cir-
cles, one within the other, can bo easily supported by
strings tied to a contra! pole. Painted Lady, Scarlet In-
vincible, and Crown Princess are among the prettiest
sorts of Sweet Peas.
Cypress Vine, or Ipomcea quamoclit, as the florists call it,
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 91
is pretty for small trellises, in two varieties, scarlet and
white. Every one should order a package of the large
flowering Ipomcea in mixed colors. It resembles the
Morning Glory, but is larger, and of rich and splendid
colors. Seeds should be started in tin house. They are
great climbers, and think nothing of going up to chamber
windows and clambering about the eaves. Do not forget
" Ipomoea finest mixed," in making out the list of seeds.
Lavender is a sweet and gentle flower that should al-
ways be given a generous bed in our gardens. A few
sprigs of it in a vase will fill a room with grateful aroma,
and when cut and dried, and placed in thin muslin bags,
it will pleasantly perfume drawers and boxes of bed-linen,
clothing, etc.
Mignonette is a plain little flower, but very popular be-
cause of its wild "woodsy" fragrance and continual
bloom. It is almost indispensable for bouquets, and, like
the Aster, will bloom far into the fall, with a little pro-
tection. To secure early growth the seeds can be started
in boxes and very carefully transplanted, as the roots
dislike disturbance.
Nasturtiums. These gay, free-flowering, old-fashioned
flowers come out in all shades, from cream-color to deep
velvety maroon. They are excellent for vases, hanging-
baskets, rockeries, and make a very bright and luxuriant
window-plant, if given good soil and plenty of sunlight.
The dwarf sorts are best for windows and baskets, and
the large climbing varieties for vases and rockeries.
Pansies. A group of large, rich-hued Pansies is a joy !
They require some care in sowing, and a good deal of
rich-feeding, but they make full returns. Sow, in March,
a packet of fine mixed sorts in rich, pulverized soil, sift-
ing but a slight covering over them, placing panes of
glass over the pots or boxes, and sprinkling the earth
carefully every day with warm water. A lady, whose
Pansies are particularly glorious, says she has the best
92 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
success in obtaining seedlings by sowing the seeds in
boxes, merely pressing them into the dirt with the palm
of her hand, sprinkling slightly, and covering them
lightly with a white cloth dipped in warm water. She
thinks the seeds are often baked to death under glass,
but under this moist white cloth they are all sure to ger-
minate. After the first tiny leaves have appeared, she
removes the cloth and gives them direct sunlight through
the morning hours, but takes care that it is tempered by
fresh air, so as not to be too hot for them. When a few
leaves have appeared, or after three or four weeks, they
can be transplanted to the beds where they are to grow,
if the ground is not too wet and cold. They will grow
best when not exposed to afternoon sunlight. Soap-suds
or liquid manures applied to the roots every two weeks
will increase their luxuriance, and their various and beau-
tiful colors will be a continual pleasure from June to
November.
Petunias. White, white striped with carmine, and the
delicate little white-throated crimson sort, are good kinds
to select. They will have the best effect if transplanted
to beds or mounds by themselves. Their constant bloom
and delicate fragrance should never be missed from a
country home. The small crimson, and the striped and
blotched varieties, can be grown in windows, and will
gladden many a dark winter day, if given a place between
pots of Mignonette and Sweet Alyssum. Seeds should
be treated the same as Pansies.
Salvia, or Flowering Sage, in the scarlet, white, and
blue varieties, is a very rich and beautiful flower, either
for the house or garden.. They are rather tender, and
must not be transplanted until all danger of frost is over.
Small plants can be placed in pots in the fall, cut down
a little, and kept for winter flowering. The roots of
Salvia Vjitcns, a deep rich blue sort, can be kept through
the winter like other tubers.
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 93
Verbenas. From hundreds of varieties of this splen-
did, free-flowering annual, half a dozen well chosen sorts
will result in a fine display. For a small garden I
would choose Snow Storm, Gazelle, Black Bedder, lona,
Cupid, and Conspicua, or else a package of the best
mixed sorts. The seeds must be soaked in warm water
twenty-four hours before planting. A shelf behind
a kitchen stove, or a place on the back of the stove if
not too hot, is a good situation for the box or pots in
which they are planted, as they need bottom-heat in order
to germinate well. Sow in circles, or in regular rows, so
as to distinguish them from the possible weeds which may
spring up. When the Verbenas appear, keep them in a
sunny window, being careful that the soil does not be-
come too dry, and when they show the fourth leaf, trans-
plant into little pots or boxes, where they can flourish
until the spring is sufficiently established to place them in
their garden beds. Slip plant and soil from the box with-
out disturbing the roots, if possible, water plentifully,
and shield from the hot sun for two or three days. Cut-
tings, or " slips " can be taken from the best sorts in
August or September, and potted for winter culture.
SUMMER BULBS.
Tulerose. This waxen-petaled, richly-perfumed flower
should be remembered when ordering summer-flowering
bulbs. It is rarely seen in country gardens a great sin
of omission, as all will say who have enjoyed its lovely
blossoms, of which it puts forth twenty-five or thirty, and
sometimes more, to the single stalk. Bulbs must be
started in pots as early as February or March, and the
grower must not be discouraged if they take their own
leisurely time for sending up their shoots. In August
and September one will be well repaid for patient waiting.
The original bulb blooms only once, but creates a family
94 FABM HOMES, Itf-DOOKS AKD OUT-DOOKS.
of little bulbs, which must be taken up after the tops
have died down in the fall, and kept through the winter
in a dry place where they will not freeze, and planted out
separately in the spring. These will not flower the first
year, but will grow into fine mature bulbs, which must
be taken up in the fall, and potted very early in the spring,
like the one first purchased.
Jacobean Lily, or Amaryllis, is also rarely seen in farm
gardens. It is a magnificent and graceful flower, of rich
violet-crimson color. It can be started in pots, like the
Tuberose, and the bulbs treated like Dahlias, Gladiolus,
and the like.
Tritoma Uvaria, commonly called "Red-hot Poker,"
because of its spikes of flame-colored blossoms, would
also be a brilliant novelty to many. It grows to the hight
of four feet or more, and makes a splendid appearance.
Start in boxes early in March, and, in severe climates,
keep the roots in sand through the winter.
Dahlias. These queenly flowers are familiar to all.
There seems no end to their variety of color. The pom-
pone or dwarf sorts are exceedingly pretty for bouquets.
The roots must be taken up before the ground freezes,
well dried, but not broken apart, and packed away for the
winter in thoroughly dry sand. If it is damp, they will
rot. In the spring, growers generally start whole clusters
together, and divide them after the sprouts appear leav-
ing two or three to each tuber. "While growing they must
be tied to stakes from time to time, as they are inclined
to break down before a brisk wind. Enrich the soil about
them, and be careful to give water when needed. By
covering them when frost threatens, they will bloom late
into the fall.
Gladiolus. Solomon, in all his glory, could hardly
have boasted the brilliant hues that appear in these flowers.
The bulbs can be planted in the garden, about the last of
April, and will have a splendid appearance if planted to-
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 95
getlier in groups. Do not manure the soil the usual
mixture of loam, sand, and leaf-mould, suits them best.
" Unnamed " sorts are sold by florists at a low figure, and
they often prove to be quite as fine as the named and
more expensive varieties. When the tops die down in
the fall, dig and dry the bulbs, wrap them in paper, and
keep them in a cool, dry cellar.
If from the foregoing list of seeds and bulbs, one can
afford to choose but a limited variety, be sure to secure,
at least, these treasures : Candidum and Auratum Lilies,
Tuberoses, Dwarf Dahlias, one package of Aster seeds,
one package of best mixed Pansies, one package of best
mixed Petunias, one package of best mixed Verbenas, one
package of Lavender, one package of Sweet Alyssum, one
package of Sweet Peas, one package of Mignonette.
HARDY SHRUBS.
Aside from their intrinsic worth, shrubs are very de-
sirable, because of the little care and trouble they impose.
They are like generous friends, that give everything, and
ask very little in return ; and still, like these same
friends, they appreciate a bit of devotion now and then.
The sweet, time-honored Syringas and Lilacs, I place
first in the list. Once planted in good soil, all they re-
quire is a little enriching and pruning once a year. They,
and other tall shrubs, should be planted in well-chosen
spots, where they will not obstruct pleasant views ; and
if trimmed in tree-shapes, and the soil about them kept
mellow, some bright annuals like Zinnias, Nasturtiums,
or Petunias, will look prettily growing around them.
Persian Lilacs, and Snowballs present a pleasing contrast,
when allowed to grow in a group together.
No garden should lack its Roses. There are many
hardy sorts, and every one can afford two or three of
them. In return for their royal blossoms, let them have
96 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
the rich soil, and the annual cutting away of old wood
that they need. Bewildering lists of names appear in the
catalogues, but if I were beginning a garden on a limited
scale, I would write to some standard florist, and ask him
to ^send me three good hardy Roses a pure white, a rich
crimson, and a creamy blush with, maybe, the " Gem
of the Prairies," for a climber, sending, of course, the
catalogue price for hardy roses, and I should be very cer-
tain to be suited.
Eoses should have good loam, with a sprinkling of
sand, and a generous admixture of rotted manure. Next
to the rich soil, the pruning knife is necessary. Do not
hesitate to use it, for the Roses like it, and quickly send
out their new shoots and best blooms to tell you so.
Shoots two years old should be cut away, and the one
year growths pruned down a little, every fall. If any
slugs, lice, or other enemies appear in the spring or early
summer, make a strong suds of soft soap and rain water,
and give the bushes a thorough bath, after which rinse
with clear water. Be careful to see that the branches
and the underside of the leaves get the benefit of the
suds. In blossom-time, gather the Roses with a lavish
hand. Glorify the house with them, and send them to
friends and neighbors, especially if there are any sick
ones among them, for their fresh summery breath is par-
ticularly grateful to weary senses.
Oak-Leaved Hydrangea is a showy and interesting
shrub, and is covered in midsummer with very large
clusters of white flowers.
A Scarlet-flowered Japan Quince, and one or two vari-
eties of SpircBa, with their feathery sprays of pink and
white blossoms, should be afforded if possible.
The Canna, or "Indian Shot," and Ricinus, or Castor
Boan, both raised from seed, make a rich and striking
appearance as summer shrubs. The seeds of the Canna
must be soakod in hot water fur a while before planting.
TEE FLOWER GARDEN. 97
These plants can also be grown in large boxes, or vases,
on the piazza, or elsewhere. They need rich soil and
plenty of water.
CLIMBING VINES.
Beautiful are the ways of the Vine, whether it be the
bold and vigorous Virginia Creeper, that finds foothold
on the most forbidding wall, and grows the stronger and
greater for the winds and storms that beat upon it, or
the light and delicate Smilax, weaving its emerald-green
tracery across the window panes, or around the portraits
of beloved friends.
The forests are full of beautiful vines. Convolvulus,
Bitter Sweet, Scarlet, and Yellow Honeysuckle, Virgin's
Bower, Grape, and other graceful wild climbers, -are
within the reach of almost every country home, and
should be sought after and wooed to grow around porches,
and over gateways, and up on the roofs of unlovely sheds.
The Hop is a wholesome, thrifty vine, and if none other
could be had, I would gladly and gratefully train it over
verandas, and across kitchen and pantry windows, and
rejoice in its cool shade and clean fragrance. But who-
ever has the good luck to live near a bit of wild wood-
land, can be generally sure of finding many things that
will add grace and beauty to the plainest little home.
Then there are the annual climbers whole worlds of
verdure and bloom, springing from a few little seeds that
are obtained almost for the asking ! Morning Glories,
Scarlet Runners, Ipomoeas, Fancy Gourds, Cobea Scan-
dens, Wild Cucumbers all rapid and vigorous growers,
that, by the time of dog-days weave grateful screens for
porches and windows that face the glaring afternoon
skies.
Among climbers sold by florists are, Japan Honey-
suckle, hardy, fragrant, and possessed of beautiful glossy
5
98 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
leaves, the different varieties of Clematis, the Chinese
Wistaria of rapid growth and lovely blue flowers, the
Trumpet Creeper, and young plants of Cobea Scandens.
The latter vine, if housed in the fall, makes a pretty
climber for the windows, but it is too tender to survive
even a slight frost, when left out of doors.
CHAPTER VII.
WINDOW PLANTS.
South and east windows are the only ones in which
plants will do their best ; and I would not advise farm-
wives in extreme Northern States to keep many varieties
unless they have a place suitably sunny and warm. A
few good Geraniums and Pelargoniums, with Fuchsias,
Heliotropes, and Feverfews, can be grown with very lit-
tle trouble. Insects seldom trouble them, and they are
profuse bloomers ; and if the "window garden" is con-
fined to a dozen pots, it is not much trouble to remove
them to a cellar or a frost-proof cupboard on severe
nights, and bring them out into the sunlight again in the
morning. Their cheerful verdure and brilliant blossoms
richly reward such painstaking.
GERANIUMS.
The Dwarf Geraniums are pretty for ordinary win-
dows, and the scarlet and the white Tom Thumbs are
lovely when grown in a pot together. Chrishibel is a
rosy pmk, and Little Dear is rose color and white. There
is also a dwarf salmon that is worth having. These are
all single.
WINDOW-PLANTS. 99
Little Jewel is a double Dwarf Geranium, with blos-
soms of rich cardinal red. The Ghost is a fine double
white, also dwarf.
A Madam Pollock will generally flourish in an or-
dinary room, if kept in brilliant light and close to the
window pane. Its foliage is richly variegated.
It is hard to deny one's self a Sweet-scented Geranium,
and Shrubland Pet is a good choice.
The Pelargoniums, or Show . Geraniums, should be
represented if one has plenty of sunlight for them.
There are so many splendid varieties it is difficult to
make a choice, but the Emperor would be mine, if I
could have but one.
" Daisy Eyebright," the brain-bright woman to whom
I have been indebted for many a valuable hint in my care
of plants, says that "It is no more trouble to grow a
Geranium than a Cabbage ! " I hope every reader of
these suggestions, who has never tried house-plant cul-
ture, will obtain a few varieties and see how they will
glorify her room on some howling winter day when all
outside looks dreary and hopeless.
Cuttings of Geraniums, Pelargoniums, Fuchsias, and
Heliotropes can be ordered in July from florists any-
where within two or three hundred miles, for little more
than the cost of packing and postage ; and by early win-
ter, if they have had good treatment, they will be ready
to blossom. If young, well-rooted plants can be pur-
chased, in place of the cuttings, so much the better, of
course. Bear in mind that quite a number of pretty
window-plants, like the Petunia, Mignonette, Verbena,
and Sweet Alyssum, can be raised from seeds.
If cuttings are ordered, attend to them as soon as they
arrive, as they will be more or less wilted. I have re-
ceived them, however, after a journey of more than two
hundred miles, in as fresh condition as if they had
merely been brought from a neighboring greenhouse,
100 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
owing to the care with which they were packed. Make
a place in readiness for them by taking a shallow box, or
large flat pan, filling it half full of mixed loam and leaf-
mould, or any good garden soil, sprinkling a layer of
sand on top and making it well wet. Plant the cuttings
two or three inches apart and place the box, or pan, in a
north window, keeping the sand moist, but not sopping
wet. When there are signs of new leaves starting, they
can be transplanted into pots of suitable earth, using
great care not to injure the just-formed roots, and keep-
ing them out of the direct sunlight for two days.
Through warm weather pot-plants should be watered
morning and night, and always with water as warm as
the air ; it has been proved beneficial when used even
warmer. As cool weather advances they need less water.
It is one of the serious mistakes of the inexperienced to
drown plants to death in winter-time. Many ladies who
are quite successful as window-gardeners, pour hot water
into the saucers, and sometimes directly into the pots,
where the depth of top-soil is sufficient to temper it be-
fore it reaches the roots. Yet such a practice requires
care and a knowledge of what plants will and won't bear.
Water at blood-heat, however, is always safe, but should
be given only when the soil is dry and requires it,
aquatic plants being the exception to this rule. By stir-
ring up the soil with a wooden fork, or any other handy
little implement, one can easily see whether the plant is
in need of water.
FUCHSIAS.
The best winter-blooming sorts are Speciosa and Serra-
tifolia. They should be started early in the spring,
if cuttings are used, and potted into particularly rich
soil. Crown-of- Jewels is pretty all the year round, be-
cause of its brightly-tinted foliage. Sometimes Fuchsias
WINDOW-PLANTS. 101
are attacked, like the rose, by a miserable little beast of
a red spider no larger than the dust of Cayenne pepper.
He flourishes on the under side of the leaf, and if not
exterminated will soon cause the foliage to curl up and
drop off, greatly to the wonder of those who do not
understand the trouble. It is not often that the spider
comes to this plant, but, as an ounce of prevention is
easier than a pound of cure, it is a good plan to wash
Fuchsias every Monday in warm, but not too warm,
laundry suds, and rinse thoroughly in pure water.
HELIOTROPES.
These grow readily from cuttings, but a plant must be
a year or two old before much can be expected of it ; so
it is better to purchase those already rooted or partly
grown. Its blossoms have a sweet, balsamic, honeyed
fragrance, like the breath wafted from the pines on a
sultry summer day. It is a great lover of sunlight. Its
leaves are always clean and free from insects of all sorts,
and with decent care it grows very fast. It can be
pruned and trimmed into tree-shape, or it will conform
gracefully to a trellis. The blossoms range in all the
shades from deep violet to pale lavender. Good-sized
plants can be purchased at from fifteen to twenty-five
cents, and at still cheaper rates where several persons
club together and so send larger orders.
FOLIAGE PLANTS.
These are cultivated for their rich and beautifully
marked leaves, their blossoms being generally insignifi-
cant. Among the Coleus, the Golden Beauty, crim-
son and yellow, and Her Majesty, bronze and green,
are perhaps the finest. Give them a rich, warm soil to
grow in, with plenty of root room, plenty of sunlight,
and all the water they need. They grow easily and rap-
102 FAKM HOMES, IK-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
idly from cuttings. They are quite tender, and must be
protected from chills. By pinching off the top shoots
of young plants a denser growth can be obtained.
Some varieties of Begonia are very rich and elegant in
their leafage. Rex and Mrs. Alger are fine sorts.
The Elegante, a variegated ivy-leafed Geranium, is
highly ornamental, whether trailing about a window or
drooping from a hanging basket. A cutting of it taken
in August will be of good size by December.
MONTHLY ROSES.
There are many varieties to choose from, but one or
two will be enough in a small collection. They require
more attention than almost any other house-plant, and
must have very rich soil and plenty of sunlight. Fre-
quent baths are necessary, for they invite various pests,
the little red spider being particularly fond of them.
Roses will repay good care, however. I have found the
pink Hermosa and the crimson Agrippina good sorts
for window-culture. It is best to buy good-sized roses,
grown on their own roots. They are rather expensive,
but are reliable, and in a year or two will be grown
into fine trees. Roses will grow from cuttings, but the
process is a slow one to those impatient for buds and
blossoms. The Safrano, rich, flesh tint ; Isabella Sprunt,
yellow, and White Daily, are also beautiful, free-flower-
ing sorts. Good-sized Roses, full of buds and blossoms,
can be purchased at from forty to fifty cents each, and
smaller ones for much less.
THE CALLA.
This queenly Daughter of the .Nile is a noble and
showy plant for the window, requiring a congenial
clayey soil and an abundance of water, being aquatic in
its habits. From May to September it is usually set
WINDOW-PLANTS. 103
away in the shade, or the pot is turned over on ifcs side
under some sheltering shrub or tree, to have a "-rest,"
and is not watered at all. This is the treatment it gets
at the hands of the Nile through the dry season. In
September it is repotted, if necessary, as it requires
plenty of root room, freely watered, and placed where it
is to grow. Soon the brood, rich leaves begin to unfold,
and before many weeks the flower stems push upward,
bearing the pure white chalices that are a delight to all.
A Calla must be two or three years old before amounting
to much in size. In winter hot water should be poured
into the saucers.
SUGGESTIONS.
Let the beginner in plant-culture keep these facts in
mind : Window-plants, to be successfully grown in winter,
require, first, as much light by day as can possibly be ob-
tained, and utter darkness and a cooler temperature at
night. No plant sleeps well in the glare of a lamp or
within reach of a raging stove or furnace-heat.
The air about them must be fresh and pure. Sleeping
rooms and apartments in daily use are unfit for plant
growth, as well as human growth, unless well ventilated.
The plants must have soil suited to their needs ; leaf-
mould, loam, sand, and rotted manure equal parts of
each for Roses, Heliotropes, Fuchsias, Geraniums, Car-
nations, Ivy, Violets, and all Foliage plants. A lighter,
sandier soil better suits the Abutilon, Azalea, Bouvardia,
Calceolaria, and Salvia. The Primrose and the Oxalis
like a large admixture of leaf -mould, while the Calla is
at home only in clayey loam.
Lumps of charcoal placed in the bottom of the pots to
the depth of an inch or more, according to the size of
the pots, assist drainage and tend to keep the soil sweet.
Judicious watering is of great importance. Some
104 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
plants are constant "tipplers/' but nearly all plants
suited to window-culture in ordinary living-rooms require
water only when the soil is dry. A Cactus and a Calla
are apt to be deluged alike by the inexperienced, and yet
their needs are widely unlike.
Never crowd plants. Three or four vigorous, shapely
plants growing in a bright, neatly-draperied window, are
a much more refreshing and respectable sight than
twenty pots huddled together, with a choked and spin-
dling mass of things struggling up to get a glimpse of
sunlight.
New pots are better if soaked in water before being
used, and old ones should be scrubbed clean.
Callas, Fuchsias, Heliotropes, Roses, and Foliage plants,
need plenty of root room. Geraniums will blossom more
profusely if pot-pinched a little.
The common unglazed pots are better for plant growth
than the china or the fancifully decorated ones ; but
when a blossoming or foliage plant is wanted for the ta-
ble, or for a parlor bracket, the pot in which it is grow-
ing can be placed inside the ornamental one.
When a plant has filled a pot with its roots, it must be
repotted into one of larger size. Place a little fresh
charcoal and earth in the bottom, set the plant with its
ball of roots into it, and fill in firmly all around with
fresh soil. Prune and trim the plant, if it is in need of
such treatment, water thoroughly, and keep it in partial
shade for two or three days, until the more or less dis-
turbed roots begin to feel at hoina
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 105
CHAPTER VIII.
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN.
Choice varieties of vegetables and fruits are just as
easily raised as poor ones, and are ten times more valua-
ble. In the management of many farm-gardens, how-
ever, seeds are saved as it may happen, here and there,
or bought from the old collections of country stores, and
only a small variety chosen at that. The result is a
"garden" that would be quite put to shame by the plot
of ground behind some "city man's" house, or the cot-
tage of some busy, intelligent mechanic, who appreciates
the resources that lie in a bit of Mother Earth, and
studies how to make the most of them.
It must be confessed, too, that there is a great deal in
emulation and competition. The villager, who is hu-
man, doubtless likes his early peas and fine tomatoes for
their intrinsic worth. And he likes mightily, also, to
catch an occasional passer-by casting admiring eyes at
his superior vegetables and clean walks ; at any rate, I
have never known him to openly resent such glances !
The countryman, who, maybe, is too hurried in the
morning and too tired at night for weeding walks and
training vines, does not always feel this incentive. His
garden "looks about as well as other farmers' gardens,"
and so he is content with a little seeding, a little weed-
ing, and a good deal of rubbish.
Here is another little field for reform in which farmers'
wives and daughters can distinguish themselves. Far be
it that they should become sun-burned and hand-hard-
ened laborers, like those too patient toilers, the peasant
women of the old countries, who do both house- work
and field-work ! But half an hour each day, lengthened
106 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
to an hour occasionally, spent in giving attention to the
growing of the best vegetables and luscious fruits, would be
a far nobler and more beneficial use of time than devoting
it to the ruffing and tucking of sewing-machine work, or
the baking and frying of so many "sorts " for the table,
or the idle gossip about such a one's new dress, or the
last installment of the weak serial story. The majority
of farmers' wives and daughters are not given to this waste-
fulness of time, but many are, and still think they have
"no opportunity for putting their noses out of doors ! "
Come into the garden, Maude ; and bring your mothers
and sisters with you, and see what revolution you can
create ! The young brothers, too, in spite of their pro-
verbial hatred of weeding and hoeing, can have garden-
ing made interesting to them, if they only have a share
in the profits, as well as the work which is simply
fair. Let them have a piece of ground, and make their
own selection of seeds. Let mothers study up with them
on gardening, and let them assist in making labels, saving
seeds, starting the early vegetables in boxes, and prun-
ing and grafting, etc. It will be a wonder if their young
eyes do not brighten, and their young muscles lend them-
selvas with a will to making "our garden" a success.
The following is a short list of some of the best kinds
of Vegetables a few of which, I am certain, are often
lacking in farm-gardens, but which no family will want
to miss from their table, after having enjoyed them for
one season :
i
ASPARAGUS.
This delicious esculent, like all other good things, has
to be earned, for it requires some care and painstaking
to found an asparagus bed. Once made, it will hold its
own for ten years or more, sending up its tender shoots
close upon the very heels of winter, and ailording "a
THE VEGETABLE GAKDEN. 107
taste of spring " long before other green things appear.
A bed three feet wide and twenty feet long will supply
an ordinary family. It must be spaded to three feet in
depth, richly manured, and sprinkled with salt. Aspara-
gus can be raised from the seed ; or the young plants
can be purchased and so hasten the harvest by a year.
Conover's Colossal is one of the best sorts. The plants
should be set two and a half feet? apart each way. The
first spring after planting they should not be cut at all ;
the second spring half the shoots can be used ; afterward,
the whole bed can be drawn upon. Always cut the shoots
a little below the surface of the ground, and when they
are three or four inches high. Every fall the bed must
be manured, and stirred up with a fork, disturbing the
roots as little as possible.
BEANS.
Dwarf German Wax is one of the best and earliest
of String Beans. Its pods are cream color, and are ten-
der and rich. The Giant Wax a later variety will
supply String Beans until late in the season, requiring
more time for cooking than the dwarf variety.
The Cranberry, or Wren's Egg, is the best Pole-
bean extant. It is earlier than the Lima, and has a richer
flavor. It is an excellent sort for winter cooking being
particularly good when mixed with canned corn as suc-
cotash.
BEETS.
Sow the Dark Red Egyptian for early roots, and
the Sea Kale for greens. The latter sends up new
leaves as fast as the old ones are cut.
CABBAGE.
The Early Dwarf York, and Jersey Wakefield, for
summer use, and the Flat Dutch, for winter, are excel-
108 FARM HOMES, IN-DOOBS AND OUT-DOORS.
lent sorts. The smaller and more compact the head,
the better the flavor.
CAULIFLOWER.
This is rather rare in ordinary gardens, and should be
more generally cultivated. With a " boiled dinner" it is
of finer and richer quality than cabbage, and is also
excellent for pickling. Early Erfurt, and a late sort,
Le Normand, are the best.
CELERYc
This is another rare edible among farmers. Besides
being an excellent relish, and an ornament to the dinner-
table, with its curly green leaves and white crisp stalks,
it is very beneficial to the human system being said to
aid digestion and tranquilize the nerves. Celery, like
Asparagus, needs a little extra culture. It is first sown
in a bed, and the plants, when three inches high, are set
out in rows six or eight inches apart. Professional gar-
deners again transplant it, when it is a foot high, into
"blanching trenches," but the Dwarf "White, and the
Boston Market, can be hilled up without moving, and
so blanched without much trouble. As the stalks grow,
the dirt must be heaped up about them, so that only the
top leaves are exposed. A rich soil is needed for its suc-
cessful growth.
CUCUMBERS.
Early White Spine is one of the best varieties, both
for summer use and for pickling.
SWEET CORN.
Farmer's Club, and Moore's Early Concord, stand at
the head in this article of good and nutritious food.
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 109
It should be planted at two or three different times, and
so secured for the table from July to October.
CARROTS.
These vegetables are excellent for flavoring soups, and
are also relished by many, if cooked like parsnips or
squash. A few fed to a cow every day through the win-
ter will much improve the quality and quantity of her
milk. The prettily fringed leaves are nice for the
" greens" in bouquets, when green leaves are scarce.
Bliss's Improved Long Orange is the best sort.
EGG PLANT.
This attractive vegetable, in the Pekin New Black vari-
ety, bears fruit weighing from four to six pounds, and of
most excellent flavor. In Northern States the seeds must
be started in a hot-bed or in window boxes.
LETTUCE.
Giant's White Cos is a rich, tender variety, and can be
used late into the summer. Early Curled Simpson is
best for early use.
MELONS.
Be sure to have a fine lot of Skillman's Fine Netted
Muskmelons, the earliest and most delicious now grown.
The best Watermelon? are the Excelsior and Black
Spanish.
ONIONS.
Yellow Danvers and Early White Naples will give good
satisfaction. The latter is of mild flavor, snow-white,
and tender.
PARSNIPS.
The Student, a rather new variety, is the best.
110 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
PARSLEY.
This is fine for flavoring soups, salads, and omelets,
and for decorating meats and vegetables. Its beautifully
curled leaves can also be used in bouquet-making. A
bunch of it can be taken up in the fall, cut back a little,
and planted in a box in a sunny kitchen window, where
it will be convenient for use.
PEAS.
Laxton's Alpha and the Champion of England are both
richly-flavored and prolific sorts. McLean's Little Gem
is a good early sort, growing but a foot in hight, and re-
quiring no support. It is well to plant the three varie-
ties, and so have a succession of nice peas for the table
the Champion being the latest of all.
PEPPERS.
The Large Bell, Sweet Mountain, and Cherry, are de-
sirable the first two for pickling and the latter for pep-
per-sauce. The seeds should be started in the house or
in a hot-bed in severe climates. The Cherry pepper is
very prettily grown in a large flower-pot or box.
POTATOES.
The Peerless, the Early Rose, the Snowflake, and St.
Patrick are all excellent sorts. Early Rose has years ago
established itself as an early and profuse bearer. The
Peerless is a fine potato for keeping. I have found them
as firm and sound in June as when first ripened. Queen
of the South is the best Sweet Potato for northern
gardens.
PUMPKINS.
The Connecticut Field bears away the palm as being
the richest and finest grained.
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. lii
BADISHES.
Give these early esculents a rich, warm bed, against a
south wall, where, on chilly nights, a window-sash, or
even an old blanket can be laid over them, and in an as-
tonishingly short time they will be large enough for the
table. The Long Scarlet, Long White Naples, and Scar-
let Olive are all good kinds. When sowing the seeds a
thin layer of sand on the top of the bed will increase its
warmth and hasten germination.
SPINACH.
This vegetable affords another early dish for spring
dinner-tables, and should be grown in every garden.
Broad- Leaved Flanders is the earliest and best sort.
SQUASHES.
The Boston Marrow is an excellent sort for fall use,
and the old reliable Hubbard the best for winter. For
summer use the Scolloped Bush occupies small space
and bears profusely.
TURNIPS.
Golden Ball and Buist's Improved Ruta Baga are the
best yellow varieties.
TOMATOES.
The Trophy and White Apple are the finest varieties
that have yet appeared. In Northern States start the
seads under glass, about the middle of March. When
two inches high transplant into little pots or boxes, and
when warm weather is established, set them in rows in
good, mellow soil, four feet apart. Water them thor-
oughly and shield from the hot sun and from hard winds
FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
for three or four days. As they grow top-heavy, make
supports for them. Clip the ends a little when the fruit
begins to appear, and early and magnificent tomatoes
will be the result.
HEKBS.
Anise, Balm, Horehound, Hyssop, Mint, Saffron,
Sage, and Summer Savory, together with Dill and Cara-
way should all be represented in the kitchen garden, and
given good soil and care. They are all easily grown from
seed, but in the North it is safest and surest to start them
in a hot-bed or in window-boxes. If to be sown in the
open ground, do not put them in until the middle of
May. Be sure to have the soil pulverized and cover but
slightly when the seeds are very small. All herbs should
be gathered when in flower, and when dried put into
paper bags and labelled. Sage, Savory, Mint, and Thyme
are especially useful in the kitchen, while Horehound,
Hyssop, and Anise are harmless and oftentimes effectual
medicines for mild ailments.
HOW TO MAKE A HOT-BED.
If it can be so arranged it should be built against a
shed or a board fence, with its face to the southeast or to
the south. Horse-manure is the best to use for this pur-
pose. Make a frame of boards or plank as large as de-
sired, and a foot and a half higher at the back than in
front, so as to furnish a slanting support for the glass to
rest upon. It should be two feet high in front. Place
the manure in the bottom to the depth of a foot and a
half. It should be well fermented and warm. Over it
spread a few inches of good garden-soil, in which is a fair
mixture of sand. Cover the bed with the window-sash
and let the sun blaze in upon it tli rough two or three
bright days, having taken the precaution to bank the bed
SMALL FRUITS AND GARDEN FRUIT TREES. 113
on the outside with soil and manure. Plant the seeds in
rows with labelled sticks between each kind. Sprinkle
over warm water with a rose-sprinkler, and adjust the
sashes. Give the bed fresh air at noon every fair day,
and see that the young plants do not suffer for water.
CHAPTER IX.
SMALL FRUITS AND GARDEN FRUIT TREES.
Without undertaking any great detour through the
extensive field of Horticulture, I will name some fruits
that everybody owning an acre of land, with the blessing
of God's sunlight upon it, ought to have. As with
vegetables, it involves no more time, labor, or space, to
grow good fruits than to grow poor and unimproved
sorts. And aside from the not great expense of securing
good varieties, there is no reason why the farmer's table,
above all tables in the world, should not be supplied, the
year round, with these most delicious and healthful of
foods, viz : Apples, Cranberries, and dried or canned Ber-
ries, for winter and spring ; Currants and Strawberries
for early summer ; Raspberries, Blackberries, and Melons
from July to September ; Grapes, Pears, Plums and
Peaches throughout the autumn. What a magnificent
bill of fare ! And all, with the exception of large apple
trees, can be grown upon an acre of ground.
APPLES.
Among Apples suited to garden inclosures is the Tetof-
sky, which has this hard name because it is a Russian
114 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
apple. It only requires ten feet of space, bears at an
early age, and affords ripe fruit in July and August.
The apples are fair-sized, bright golden-yellow, with a
red stripe, mildly acid, and richly aromatic. It is a
hardy tree.
Among Crab-apples the Montreal Beauty, Hyslop, and
Transcendent, are the best sorts.
Every farmer should have in his orchard the luscious
Red Astrachan and Fall Jenneting, for early use, and for
winter the Westfleld Seek-no-Further, and the Golden
Pippin.
BERRIES.
In these fruits a little investment of money brings
prompt and large returns. Fifty Strawberry plants and
a few "canes" of Raspberries will, in two years, load the
family table with their generous fruitage.
Strawberries. Monarch of the West is one of the best
berries for family use, being large, tender, mildly acid,
and very productive. The Great American is an im-
mense berry, being exhibited at fairs seven, eight, and
nine inches in circumference. It is quite a new variety,
and a few plants of it would make an interesting " gar-
den " for some ambitious farm-boy or girl to look after.
For market culture the old Wilson's Seedling seems to
be unsurpassed.
Raspberries. Mammoth Cluster and Gregg are the
finest of the Black Caps. Turner and Herstine are good
and hardy red sorts, and Antwerp Yellow is a creamy
orange berry of good quality and flavor.
Raspberries should be planted in rich, mellow soil,
three or four canes to the hill. After the berry harvest
is over each fall, the old stalks or canes should be cut
out, as it is the new ones that bear the next year's fruit,
and they will be far more vigorous and productive from
having the field to themselves.
SMALL FRUITS A^D GARDEN" FRUIT TREES. 115
Blackberries. The Lawton and Early Wilson bear
fruit of enormous size, and well repay good cultivation.
Gooseberries. Smith's Improved is moderate and com-
pact in growth, and largely productive, thus recommend-
ing itself for garden culture. Roe's Early Ruby is an-
other excellent sort.
Currants. The Black Naples is a large, fine sort, ex-
cellent for wine and jelly. The White Grape is an early
and profuse bearer, and the Red Cherry, a sort that
should be grown in every garden in place of the small,
common variety.
GRAPES.
In Europe "grape-cures" are established, to which all
sorts of debilitated, blood-poisoned people go, to live
aside from a little bread entirely upon grapes, sunlight,
and pure air for weeks at a time. It is one of the "reg-
ulations" that these happy invalids must pick their own
grapes, and, as their appetites rapidly increase, it is no
doubt a fact that they owe, in part, their recoveries,
which are generally certain, to the almost constant sun-
light and the invigorating mountain air in which they
pass their waking hours.
Grape-cures, or almost any kind of fruit-cures, might
be established in our own gardens and on our own hill-
sides. The prescription is a very simple one ; enough
of sound, ripe fruit (eaten at regular intervals) to satisfy
hunger, the fruit to be picked by the invalids themselves,
thus insuring pure air, sunlight, and mild exercise. The
grape is one of the best and purest of tonics, and eaten,
as it is in such instances, almost exclusively, a cleansed
and purified system is the result, with all its happy man-
ifestations in brightened eyes, clear and ruddy complex-
ions, tranquil nerves, and active mental and physical
powers. Beginning with currants which are almost
116 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AXD OUT-DOORS.
equal to grapes, medicinally and eating one's way
through strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, into
the pears, plums, and grapes of autumn, accompanying
the course with the best of wheat-bread, morning baths,
plenty of sleep, plenty of bright, dry, out-door air and
pleasant exercise, would build a weakened constitution
up "as good as new."
First upon my list of Grapes I should place the early
and delicious Delaware, a single cluster of which fills a
room with delightful, fruity aroma. It is a sweet, juicy,
thin-skinned grape, growing in compact bunches, in color
a light, half -transparent red. It is one of the best sorts
for the table, and particularly suited, on account of its
early ripening, to the extreme Northern States.
The Lady is a new white grape, also early. It is large,
sweet, rich, and thin-skinned. At present it is sold at a
higher price than the more plentiful sorts.
The Clinton is a vigorous, hardy, profuse-bearing
grape, not so good for eating, but excellent for wine and
jelly.
The Catawba and Isabella are among the best varieties,
but, being late in ripening, are sometimes cut off by
frosts in the Northern States.
PEARS.
In this most desirable fruit the Bartlett and a new
sort, the Souvenier de Congress, are the best to choose
for summer ripening, the latter being in perfection early
in August. Swan's Orange, Seckel, and Vicar of Wink-
field, are splendid fall and winter sorts.
PLUMS.
Choose the Lombard, Golden Drop, and Imperial
Gage.
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 117
PEACHES.
Barnard's Yellow Rare-ripe, Large Early York, and
Mixon's Free, are all first-class varieties. It is a consoling
fact to people living above the peach "belt "that this
fruit is now so nicely preserved by the "evaporation"
process. It is much cheaper than the canned fruit, and
when gently stewed in a thin white-sugar syrup is very
delicious.
CHAPTER X.
THE BEST FOODS AND SOME BEST METHODS OP
PREPARING THEM.
"The best human food," writes an eminent physician,
" I believe to be Wheat the king of grains ! It contains
all the flesh-forming, nerve-producing, bone-making, fat-
creating elements of nutrition. Bread is, indeed, the
Staff of Life, and wheat is the perfection of bread. I
know of no article of food which so perfectly sustains all
the powers of the human system as wheat properly cooked
and eaten in its integrity."
By integrity the Doctor means in its complete and un-
adulterated wholeness.
There is no division as to the desirableness of pure
wheat flour. No one wants to eat chalk, alum, or plaster
of Paris, and the farmer who has his wheat ground under
his own eyes, and his bread made at home, is happily
spared all " refinements " of this sort in his daily loaf.
The open question is, whether the fine, white portion
of the wheat alone, or the whole grain ground together,
118 FARM HOMES, LNXDOOES AKD OUT-DOOES.
makes the healthiest bread for the human family the
majority of investigators favoring the whole grain.
Prof. Thurber says : "In fine flour the percentage of
starch is much greater, and that of the albuminoids and
earthy matters less, than in the whole grain ; conse-
quently this is not so nutritious as a flour which more
nearly represents the wheat itself. Pure l Graham ' flour
should consist of the whole wheat ground fine, but much
that is sold under this name is merely bran and shorts
subjected to a second grinding. Properly made, Graham
flour is very nutritious, but, owing to the amount of
crude fibre it contains, it irritates the bowels of weak
persons. "
New ways of grinding have been invented, by which
simply the hull or bran is removed and the wheat then
ground, which makes a fine, and at the same time, a
most nutritious flour. And this must be the flour to be
chosen by those who hold in the hollow of their hands,
so to speak, the health of the family.
Without waiting for the new processes any farmer can
have his wheat ground into genuine, honest Graham,
reserving a portion of the grist for " fine flour " for occa-
sional use, or for any unfortunately " weak persons " in
the family with whom Graham may disagree.
Boiled Wheat. Wheat boiled or steamed until it cracks
open, and eaten either cold or warm with good, rich milk,
and sugar, if liked, makes an excellent breakfast dish,
and also a good dessert for dinner.
Wheat Mush. Coarsely ground wheat stirred into
salted boiling water, cooked for twenty minutes, and
served with milk and sugar is, as Dr. Nichols declares,
"one of the nicest and best forms of food, and very
hearty. " A good sized steel coffee-mill might be used
for "cracking" the wheat, as enough for half a dozen
persons can be ground in five minutes.
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 119
Wheat Bread. It would be superfluous to tell the ma-
jority of farmers' wives how to make good bread, but
possibly some young or inexperienced reader may derive
benefit from these recipes :
If dry yeast is used, dissolve one cake in a little warm
water, with enough flour for a thin batter, and let it
stand in a warm place until light and foamy before pro-
ceeding to mix the sponge. If hop or potato yeast is
used, be certain that it is fresh and sweet, as no good
bread can be made with poor yoast. Use a cupful for
four loaves of bread.
Sift six quarts of flour into a pan or bread-bowl,
sprinkle over it a teaspoonful of salt, make a hole in the
center for the yeast, which pour m and stir slowly in
enough of luke-warm water to make a soft dough of
all the flour. Beat thoroughly witli a strong iron or
wooden spoon, cover with a pan, and set it by the stove
or under thick cloths, until morning. Then knead
it from twenty minutes to half an hour, and let it rise
again in the pan. When light, divide the dough into
four loaves, with not more than five minutes kneading,
and place them in buttered pans to rise. When they are
light and spongy to the touch they are ready for the
oven. The oven should be briskly hot at iirst, and then
tempered down to milder heat. From forty-five minutes
to an hour is required for the baking. When done slip
them from the pans and cover with a light cloth.
Another excellent way to make bread, and one which
always involves the freshest and best of yeast, is as fol-
lows : Eeserve three or four boiled potatoes from those
cooked for dinner, mash them while warm with a little
salt, pour over them three pints of boiling water, and stir
in two large cupf uls of flour. When this batter is cooled
to luke-warm heat, add a yeast-cake, previously dissolved
in water, as in the first recipe, and keep it near the stove.
In the evening stir in flour enough for a soft dough, and
120 FARM HOMES, INVDOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
let it stand, warmly covered in winter, until morning.
Then give it a vigorous kneading for twenty minutes, or
more, preparing it for the oven as in the foregoing recipe.
Graham Bread. The best Graham bread is made by
taking a portion of the "sponge," or thin batter, set for
white bread, and kneading into it enough of Graham flour
to make it into loaves. If liked a tablespoonful of brown
sugar may be added to each loaf.
A Good Yeast. To six thoroughly mashed potatoes,
add a small cupful of white sugar, a teaspoonf ul of ginger,
and a teaspoonful of salt. Place all in a kettle or pan
upon the stove, and pour over it three pints of boiling
water, in which a handful of hops has been steeped.
Stir m flour enough for a thin batter, and set aside to
become nearly cool, when a cupful of yeast, or two dis-
solved cakes of dry yeast, must be added. Keep the pan
in a moderately warm place, and entirely undisturbed un-
til it becomes light , then stir it down and let it rise again.
It must then be poured into a jug or jar, and put away
in as cool a place as possible. A large cupful will be
sufficient for four good sized loaves of bread.
When Bread is Fit to be Eaten. Bread cannot be said
to be "done" until it has been out of the oven at least
twelve hours. A mouthful of fresh- baked bread lies
upon the stomach very much like a leaden bullet ; and
the wise house-keeper will endeavor to keep the bread-box
so supplied that there may be no necessity for cutting an
unripe loaf, in which the spongy cells caused by fermen-
tation have had no time to harden into the palatable form
which distinguishes bread from dough.
Substitutes for Bread. By keeping plenty of white
and Graham bread in readiness for the table, those miser-
able substitutes, salaratus biscuits, short-cakes, and the
like, will seldom be resorted to, In fact there are very
few kinds of biscuits, rolls, muffins, and other hot breads.
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 121
but are more beneficial to the human stomach if left off
the bill of fare altogether. But sometimes emergencies
arise in which it becomes necessary for the house-keeper
to whisk up something of the sort, and I give such
recipes as are the least pernicious, and, at the same time,
the least trouble to follow. Besides, they have been
found to be very palatable :
Cream Puffs. One cupful of sour cream, one cupful
of sweet milk, two eggs, a little salt, and enough of sifted
flour for a smooth, but not stiff batter. Beat all thor-
oughly together for five minutes, and add half a teaspoon-
f ul of soda dissolved in a little water. Stir again briskly.
Have the oven and the gem-irons at a lively heat. Drop
the batter into the buttered irons and bake until the
puffs are delicately browned. Slip them from the irons
upon a warm plate and cover with a napkin.
Graham Puffs. Beat one quart of sweet milk and
one quart of sifted Graham flour together for ten min-
utes. (An egg-whisk is excellent to use in this case, as
the perfection of the puffs depends upon the thorough
whipping of the batter and the proper heat of the oven.)
Add two beaten eggs and a teaspoonful of salt. Bake
the same as Cream Puffs. Half these quantities can be
used for a family of three or four persons.
Wlieat or Corn Muffins. Mix into one quart of wheat
flour, or one pint of corn-meal, two beaten eggs, a little
salt, and enough of rich sweet milk to make a thick bat-
ter. Add a teaspoonful of Royal Baking Powder, beat
well together, and bake in buttered muffin rings, or a
muffin pan, in a brisk oven. When done, cover them
for a few minutes with a light cloth, then slip them from
the rings or pan and send to the table on a warm plate
with a napkin over them.
Baked Corn Grits. Stir a cupful of hominy or grits
into a quart of boiling salted water, and cook for twenty
122 FARM HOMES, LNVDOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
minutes. When cool, add two eggs and beat it thor-
oughly. Bake it in a shallow, well-buttered pan for
twenty minutes, and cut into squares for the table.
Pioneer Johnny- Cake. Over two cupfuls of sifted corn-
meal sprinkle a teaspoonful of salt and two teaspoonfuls
of sugar, and add boiling water be sure that it is boil-
ing until a thick batter is formed. Place a thick-
bottomed frying-pan or "spider" upon the stove, well
rubbed with a piece of salt pork or suet. Pour in the
batter, place a tin cover over, and let it bake slowly for
twenty minutes, when turn it with a broad-bladed knife
and bake for ten minutes more.
Green- Corn Cakes. Two cupfuls of grated sweet-corn,
half a teaspoonful of salt, two beaten eggs, one cupful of
new milk, a large teaspoonful of Eoyal Baking Powder,
flour enough for a thin batter. Beat all thoroughly to-
gether and pour into gem-irons to bake. Or it may be
baked in a tin and cut into squares.
Corn Starch Crackers. Three cupfuls of flour, one cup-
ful of corn starch, half a teaspoonful of salt, and one tea-
spoonful of baking powder. Sift all together in a pan,
and rub in one teaspoonful of tiice lard. Then add a
sufficient quantity of sweet milk to form a dough.
Knead it for a few minutes and let it stand covered with
a cloth for a quarter of an hour ; ten minutes will an-
swer in summer. Then roll the dough out very thin, cut
m round cakes, prick them with a fork, lay them on
buttered tins, brush the tops with a cloth dipped in milk,
and bake in a brisk oven from eight to ten minutes.
These crackers are nice, warm or cold, and excellent for
school lunches and pic-nic occasions.
Sunday Morning Rolls. One and a half pint of new
milk, one cupful of hop yeast, half a teaspoonful of salt,
and flour enough for forming dough, which must be cov-
ered and left to rise over night. In the morning add the
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 123
whites of two eggs well beaten, half a cupful of butter,
and flour enough for kneading. Knead the dough
briskly for ten minutes, roll it out to the thickness of
half an inch, cut in four-inch squares, brush the tops
with sweet milk, and fold them over cornerwise ; place
them close together in buttered pans and set in a warm
place to rise until light, when bake in a quick oven.
Fried Corn Mush. This is a nice breakfast dish when
prepared in the following way : Dip cold, firm slices of
properly cooked mush first in beaten and salted eggs, and
then in fine bread crumbs or rolled crackers, and fry
them in a kettle of boiling lard until nicely browned.
The mush does not absorb the lard, and is much nicer
than when merely "stewed" in a frying-pan, as it so
often is.
Steamed Corn Bread. This, like most preparations of
corn-meal, is best eaten in winter, when the system is in
need of warmth-producing foods. Pour a pint of boil-
ing milk on half a pint of sifted corn-meal. When cool
add a teaspoonful of melted butter, two tablespoonfuls
of syrup, a little salt, and three well-beaten eggs. Stir
well together and pour into a buttered bowl or granitized
pan, place it in a steamer and steam it steadily for two
hours and a half ; then place it in the oven for ten min-
utes to brown.
Rice Muffins. Two cupfuls of cold boiled rice, two
eggs, a little salt, a tablespoonful of melted butter, one
cupful of sweet milk, and two cupfuls of flour in which
is mixed a teaspoonful of baking powder. Beat all thor-
oughly and bake in a muffin-pan, filling the rings about
half full. A cupful of sour milk, and half a teaspoonful
of soda, can be substituted for the sweet milk and baking
powder, if more convenient, and the batter can be baked
in a common tin and cut into squares when served.
124 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
OATMEAL.
" Next to wheat," says Dr. Nichols, " I rank Oatmeal."
It is very rich in nutriment, and with the accompani-
ment of the pure milk and cream which every farmer
has at hand, it is so nice and palatable it is a wonder it
is not a familiar form of food in every American farm-
house. And yet, after many visits to the country, one
of the good things which I hail with delight on my re-
turn to the city, is a breakfast saucer of oatmeal mush
and real cream, surmounted with a slowly-dissolving
lump of crushed sugar !
Far more expensive dishes are heaped upon the tables
of these good and generous country friends. There is
no lack of preserves, fruit-cake, rich pies, and the like ;
but the good, healthful, simple offerings of nature the
grains cooked in their "integrity," the noble army of
vegetables nicely prepared, the creamy omelettes, the
best fruits, the perfect bread, the fragrant amber coffee
how very queer that one finds these things on twenty ta-
bles in the city where he finds them on one table in the
country ! the place where, with the exception of a very
few foreign articles, everything necessary for the best and
most healthful living abounds on every hand. Farm-
homes should not be subservient, as they often are, par-
ticularly in the West, to mere wheat and pork raising.
They should have more fruits, larger varieties of vegeta-
bles, and more intelligent and healthful methods of pre-
paring foods.
One little move in this direction might be a morning
dish of oatmeal mush (or oat grits, as it might more
properly be called), with an accompaniment of good,
rich milk, and a sprinkle of sugar, in place of the almost
universal " fried pork " with which country people break
their fast. It is net only palatable and nourishing to
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING.
children and " weak persons," but is hearty and full of
bone and sinew to laboring men.
Oatmeal, being now used so extensively in this coun-
try, is much cheaper than it was years ago, and can
always be obtained, sweet and fresh, in city and town
markets ; but in small country places, where the demand
for it from the forming regions around is light, it is apt
to lie on the dealers' hands so long that it becomes stale
and bitter, and no doubt disgusts many a country exper-
imenter in its merits. The genuine "oatmeal "of the
markets always comes in clear, solid little grains or grits,
and is sold at about six cents per pound. It swells im-
mensely when cooked, one cupful of grits making mush
enough for four or five persons.
Oatmeal Mush. Slowly stir a large cupful of grits into
a little more than a quart of salted boiling water. When
well mixed, set the dish or kettle containing it into a tin
or a stew-pan in which there is boiling water. Cover the
mush and let it cook, without stirring, for twenty min-
utes. The pan of water prevents all burning or scorch-
ing, and the grain is cooked without being mashed into a
starchy compound by frequent stirring. In some weather
the water evaporates rapidly, and more may be needed
before the cooking is completed. The mush can be eaten
warm at breakfast, or it can be poured into a pudding
mold and eaten as dessert for dinner, with cream and
sugar. In the latter case, a handful of raisins or nice
dried currants might be occasionally boiled with the
grits. Or the pudding might be served with apple mar-
malade. It is always good, however, when perfectly
plain.
BICE,
There is a good and an indifferent way to cook rice.
The indifferent way is to throw the rice into boiling
water, stir it to death as it cooks, and serve it in blue,
126 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
soggy masses that are only rendered palatable by plenty
of cream and sugar, or some kind of rich pudding sauce.
The good way is to soak a large cupful of rice in cold
water for two or three hours or even over night ; then
turn off the water, put the rice into an earthen or granit-
ized dish ; pour over it a quart of new milk sufficiently
salted, and set the dish into another containing boilin^
7 on
water the same as in cooking oatmeal. Cover it closely,
and let it cook for an hour without any stirring. When
served, its superiority to indifferently cooked rice will be
decidedly apparent. Rice-boilers, which can be used for
oatmeal, wheat, hominy, and the like, are manufactured
expressly for cooking grains in this way ; but they are
quite expensive, and the above method, although not quite
so " handy," answers very well.
FRUITS FRESH AND PRESERVED.
" If every one would eat an orange or two every morn-
ing before breakfast," says a clear-headed doctor, "I
should soon lose all my patients !"
Fortunately for the doctor, every one cannot have one
or two oranges, or even half an orange, before breakfast.
And particularly in the country are they an expensive
luxury.
But there are many substitutes for oranges, which are
both delicious and plentiful, and if we can add so much
to our stock of Good Health as this physician intimates,
by breaking the night's fast with a little fresh fruit, we
ought not to be slow in adopting such an agreeable pre-
scription, and providing, as far as possible, a plentiful
supply. Toward the end of winter, and through the
spring months, nothing is so grateful and beneficial to
the system as fruit not the sweet "preserves," but the
fresh or nicely canned article ; if these cannot be had,
use the dried fruits stewed, and just palatably sweetened.
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PKEPAKIKG. 127
"The amount of nutriment in the juicy fruits," says
Dr. Nichols, " is not large, but it is excellent in quality ;
and the juices of grapes, peaches, oranges, pears, straw-
berries, currants, cherries, raspberries, and cranberries
have a most benign and purifying effect upon the system."
The more pulpy fruits, such as apples, bananas, figs,
dates, plums, etc., are not only very nutritious, but
exceedingly healthful. "A dish of stewed prunes or
apples, or a few figs, eaten daily, is a sure cure for
constipation. Plums are certainly better than pills !
And even when fruit is costly, it is less costly than
physic. There is no telling the beneficial influence of
the annual orange crop in mid-winter upon the health
of the large cities of the world."
In an article on "Food Cures," Dr. Hall prescribes
Watermelons for painful and feverish "summer com-
plaints," and for fevers of all sorts ; the fresh juice of
Apples for nervous dyspepsia, and the free use of raw,
ripe, and perfectly sound fruit for both constipation and
the opposite condition ; for sluggish livers, and for list-
less appetites.
So because fruit is so beneficial, as well as delicious,
every house-keeper should adopt all possible means for
maintaining a good variety for the table the year round.
Aside from Good Bread, there is no item in Nature's
"bill of fare" that will so bounteously reward one's
labors to obtain it.
A good variety of Apples especially of the late-keep-
ing sorts with a barrel of Cranberries (that sound, clean,
brave-keeping fruit, that is such a blessing to spring-time
tables !) will go far in supplying the family with whole-
some fruit, and, with a few cans or jugs of peaches,
pears, plums, and currants, and the different sorts of
berries particularly red and black raspberries, which
keep their flavor so perfectly the months between Decem-
ber and the time of fresh fruit will be bountifully bridged
128 FAEM HOMES, IX-DOOES AND OUT-DOORS.
over, and the family can have, every day, a taste of sum-
mer-time.
In the country one has every advantage for successfully
canning fruits. They can be gathered at just the right
stage of ripeness, and put up while perfectly fresh. And
if the glass cans, which are, of course, nicer than jugs
and jars, are bought in quantities, the expense is not
great, considering that with good care they will last for
years.
Half-gallon jugs, with wide mouths, can be used for
tomatoes, currants, blueberries, and, in fact, all the small
fruits, if sufficient care is taken to seal them up com-
pletely ; and as they will not break when the hot fruit
is poured into them, and need no "parboiling," like
glass, it is considerably less trouble to use them. The
corks should be pressed in tightly and melted sealing-wax
poured plentifully over.
Most house-keepers, however, will prefer glass. One
can be sure that it is scrupulously clean. Also, it is a
pleasure to survey the glistening rows of cans, and observe
through their transparent sides how beautifully the
peaches and strawberries are conducting themselves !
Jugs, however, might be used for tomatoes, pumpkin,
string-beans, pie-plant, etc., and even if the sealing-wax
should sometimes prove treacherous, the loss of the con-
tents would not be so very deplorable. To have half ti
gallon of Antwerp raspberries fermenting over a cellar
shelf would be another affair !
It is not necessary that the canning of fruit should be
midc an herculean task. Jars and jugs, filled every iron-
ing and baking-day through the fruit-season, will make
up a large winter supply without special conflagration in
the cook-stove, or long hours of woman-roasting.
Always place glass jars in a pan of water with a board
beneath them, and let the water come to scalding heat
before pouring in the hob fruit. Quart cans are generally
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 129
the best to use, as if one becomes cracked, it is not so
great a loss.
CANNED FRUITS.
Pears. Small pears can be put up whole, after being
pared ; but the fine large ones must be cut in quarters,
and the cores removed. Scald them in a clean syrup of
white sugar and water, scalding a few at a time, that
they may keep their form. When the jars are nearly
filled, pour the syrup in until quite filled, and put on the
covers. A few spoonfuls of clear honey poured over
canned pears, when served, improves their flavor.
Strawberries. Place as much loaf or granulated sugar
in a preserving-kettle as would make the strawberries
sweet enough for immediate eating (this being the rule
for all canned fruits), and add water enough to keep it
from burning as it dissolves. When it boils, pour in the
berries, and stir them gently two or three times, so that
all may be evenly scalded. Then pour them into the
jars and seal.
Peaches. Pear and cut them in halves. Take all the
pits, and boil them in a little water to extract their flavor.
Strain this water into the preserving-kettle, and as it
boils, pour in the peaches, sprinkling over them the
necessary amount of sugar. When well scalded, and
poured in the cans, place round white papers, dipped in
brandy, over the tops, and put on the covers.
Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries, and Currants,
are all easily canned in their own juices, with a little
water at -the bottom of the kettle, to prevent burning.
Plums. These fruits should be canned without being
pared scalding them until the skins burst open, in a
white sugar syrup.
Apples. Sometimes early varieties of apples decay faster
than it is possible to use them. They can be easily stewed
130 FAEM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
and canned, and are very good and very convenient for
spring-time use when fresh apples are scarce.
CHOICE PRESERVES.
For holiday occasions there are some fruits especially
delectable in the form of "preserves," and to have them
in perfection is an achievement every housewife may be
proud of.
If put up in self-sealing cans like the preceding fruits,
only half a pound of sugar is required ; but if stored in
jars and bottles, the old rule of ' ' pound for pound " is
necessary in order to prevent fermentation.
The canned preserves are to be preferred, first, because
they are best ; the fruit-flavor is not lost in an over-
whelming sweetness. Secondly, they are less expensive.
A General Rule. For four pounds of fruit put two
pounds of loaf sugar in a nice porcelain kettle or sauce-
pan, with one pint of fresh, clear water. When it is dis-
solved, and before it becomes hot, stir into it the beaten
white of an egg. As it boils remove all the scum as fast
as it rises until it is perfectly clarified. Then put in a
little at a time of whatever fruit is to be preserved, boil-
ing it very gently, and not allowing it to be broken.
Only choice, sound fruit should be used. Have ready
the glass cans in a pan of water after the usual manner
of canning. As the first is done, place it carefully in the
cans, until all is scalded, then pour the syrup in and seal.
Strawberries should be hardly more than scalded in the
syrup, while plums, peaches, apricots, and pears can re-
main in a little longer. I think the preserve is improved
by "boiling down" the syrup one- third before pouring
it over the fruit.
Marmalades A General Rule. This preparation of
fruit is excellent for eating with the morning dish of
oatmeal and cream ; or with milk- toast ; or with rice,
^ BEST FOODS METHODS OF PKEPARIXG. 131
sago, and tapioca puddings. And it is healthy and
toothsome if spread on children's bread in place of butter.
The fruit for marmalades must be fresh and well
ripened. Plums and other pulpy fruits must be stewed
in a little water, and then sifted through a colander.
Peaches, apples and quinces must be pared and sliced.
To every pound of pulp allow half a pound of coffee-
sugar, and set it to boil gradually, that it may not be
ruined by scorching. From half to three-quarters of an
hour is usually long enough to boil the marmalade, but
it is not done until it looks transparent and becomes
quite firm and thick when cooled in a saucer.
Apple marmalade is sometimes improved by a little
ginger-root pounded and .tied in a thin muslin cloth, and
boiled with it.
Small bowls are nice for storing marmalades and jellies,
which can be poured into them while hot, and when
wanted for the table they come out in good form.
All marmalades, jellies, and jams should be first cooled
in the bowls or glasses, and then covered with papers, cut
out to fit, dipped in brandy and placed directly on the
fruit. Then paper should be placed over the top and
pasted down at the sides while mother's little boy or
girl will be proud to write labels for them.
Currant Jelly. Have just-ripe fruit fresh from the
bushes. It is not necessary to remove it from the stems,
but look it over carefully. Place about a pint of the
fruit, at a time, in a stout cloth, squeeze out the juice,
and strain it through a flannel bag. Have ready some
white sugar, measured in pints or quarts, boiling and
clarified, in the preserving kettle. Then for every pint
of sugar pour in a pint of the strained juice, and allow it
to boil until it will drop in a lumpy way from the spoon.
Twenty minutes is given as a rule, but it often becomes
jelly in less time.
132 FARM HOMES, IK-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
Grape Jelly. This is most delicious when made
from the cultivated sorts. The little Delaware makes
jelly of beautiful color and rich, aromatic flavor. It is
made in the same way as currant jelly. Wild grapes
make a jelly that is excellent for various things in
cooking.
Apple and Plum Jelly. If the fresh fruit can be
crushed in a press, and the juice carefully strained, the
jelly will be clearer and finer than when the fruit is
stewed in order to get the juice. The yellow Crab-apple
makes a deep amber-colored jelly, and the blue or Dam-
son plum a rich ruby.
To Crystalize Cherries y Currants, and Grapes. Select
perfect fruits and leave them on their stems. Beat the
whites of two eggs to a stiff froth, in which dip the fruits
and lay them on a sieve to drain for a few minutes. Then
roll them, cluster by cluster, in a dish of pulverized sugar,
and lay them on white paper in a nearly cooled oven, or
before a window where a brisk breeze is blowing. When
dried put them away in a cool, dry closet. They make a
very pretty and delicious dessert.
Baked Quinces. Bake sound, ripe ones until thor-
oughly done. When cool, remove the skins, roll them in
granulated sugar, place in a glass dish, and serve with
sweet cream.
Baked Pears. Good pears when ripe are always best
in their natural state, but when they are hard or of in-
ferior quality, they can be prepared after the recipe for
Baked Quinces.
Steamed Sweet Apples. These are excellent for supper.
Pare, quarter, and core them ; place them in an earthen
dish in a steamer, cover closely, and let them steam un-
til tender. When cold, sprinkle with a little sugar, and
pour over them a pint of rich milk.
Baked Apples. These are improved by paring, re-
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 133
moving the core without splitting them, filling the cavi-
ties with sugar, and baking them in an earthen dish m
which is a cupful of water.
Apple Cream. Pare and slice six fine pleasantly fla-
vored apples ; steam them, or stew them in a very little
water until soft ; add four tablespoonfuls of white sugar
and the whites of four fresh eggs ; beat together until
light, and place in a glass or tall fruit dish with cream
poured around.
A Pretty Dish of Currants. Red and white currants
can be placed in layers in a clear glass fruit-dish ; or by
placing pieces of pasteboard between, they can be ar-
ranged in stripes or squares on a flat dish, and the papers
removed after it is filled. Currant leaves should be
placed around the edge. A dish of pulverized sugar
should always be served with currants and berries, that
each one may sweeten the fruit to his own taste.
PICKLES AND CATSUPS.
Spiced Peaches. For seven pounds of peaches use
three and a half pounds of good brown sugar, one quart
of the best vinegar, two ounces of stick cinnamon, and
one ounce of whole cloves. Pare the peaches and stick
three or four cloves in each. Boil the sugar, vinegar,
and cinnamon for a few minutes, and then put in the
peaches. When tender, remove them to glass or stone
jars, boil down the syrup nearly one-half, and pour it over
the peaches.
Spiced Currants, Crab- Apples, and Green Tomatoes.
These can be made by using the same proportions of
sugar, vinegar, and spices named in the recipe for Spiced
Peaches all being good relishes to eat occasionally with
meats.
Tomato Catsup. Boil one peck of ripe tomatoes in a
preserving kettle until reduced to a pulp. Add one pint
134 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
of good cider vinegar, half a cupful of salt, one cupful of
sugar, a teaspoonful of Cayenne pepper, a teaspoonful of
cloves, two of allspice, and three of celery-salt. Boil for
twenty minutes and then strain and bottle it. The corks
should be pressed in tightly and the tops covered with
melted rosin or sealing-wax. The catsup is improved to
many tastes by the addition of two or three onions boiled
with the tomatoes.
Salted Cucumbers. If salt is added to water until an
egg will float in it, a brine is formed that will keep
cucumbers for almost any length of time. They can be
picked from the vines when of nice size, washed, and
thrown in the brine until the keg or barrel is filled
always keeping them well under the brine with some
suitable weight.
Cucumber Pickles. If salted cucumbers are used,
soak them in frequently changed water for two days.
Boil together for fifteen minutes two quarts of good vine-
gar, one ounce of whole pepper, one cupful of brown sugar,
and a piece of alum as large as a bean. Pour it over the
cucumbers while hot. When cool, dram off the vinegar,
scald it and pour it over the pickles once more. In
twenty-four hours they will be ready for use.
Chow-chow Pickle. Chop one peck of green tomatoes
with four solid little cabbages, six onions, and six green
bell-peppers. Sprinkle over a cupful of salt and let the
mixture stand over night in a large earthen pan or por-
celain kettle. In the morning dram off the juice and
add to the chop two pounds of brown sugar, one cupful
of English mustard-seed, and a gallon of vinegar. Boil
until it is tender and clear, and then put it away in jars
or wide-mouthed bottles.
Mixed Pickles. Cauliflower, string-beans, .and tiny
onions and cucumbers, with a sprinkle of red cherry-
peppers, can be scalded together, first in salted water and
BEST FOODP> METHODS OF PREPARING. 135
then in vinegar, and put up in bottles, with a little sweet-
oil poured in each to cover the tops before the corks are
put in.
Pickled Onions. Remove two or three layers from
small white onions, and lay them in a strong brine for a
day or more. Place vinegar on the stove to boil, with one
or two bell-peppers, or a handful of the^ cherry-peppers.
Remove the onions from the brine and pour the hot vin-
egar over them.
THE VALUE OF MILK AND EGGS.
Next to Bread and Fruit, in the scale of Best Foods,
comes Milk in its various forms in its fresh, foamy new-
ness, in luscious cream, and m the concentrations of but-
ter and cheese. In Milk and Eggs, as in Bread, exist
nearly all the qualities needed for nutrition and growth.
Authentic tables show that cheese is worth, as nutriment,
three times as much as the same weight of beef ; that it
is "precisely the same as beef in its flesh-forming quali-
ties ; and, what is more, presents itself in a much purer
form." Milk is not only the food for "babes," giving
them flesh, and bone, and muscle, and blood, and making
them, with the help of warmth and fresh air, the fair
types of purity, health, and beauty, but it is better for
grown-up children if they but knew it than the
"strong meat " with which they think they must fortify
themselves, and which costs so much more, both in the
buying and in the preparation.
Yet good meats are a requisite. It is well to take
vegetation now and then, in the concentrated form of a
fine roast of beef, or leg of mutton ; while a fried brook
trout, or a broiled white fish, lying in its fringe of Sara-
toga potatoes and parsley, is never to be passed lightly
by ! It is only in feeling that meat is the staple, the
indispensable basis of good living, that one goes wrong.
136 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
So many delicious things, not only delicious to the pal-
ate, but deliciously nourishing to the whole system, can
be placed upon our dining-room tables without slaughter-
ing anything ! ay, and without diving down into the
unlovely recesses of the PORK BARREL that "household
god " of the country which I would like to demolish,
no, not demolish, but cause to step down several steps
to its proper place below bread, fruit, milk, eggs, beef,
mutton, fish, and vegetables !
"Pork is a coarse food fit only for coarse people,"
snaps our good Dr. Nichols. But he lives in a large city
where the antecedents of his pork are unknown, and he
has unavoidable thoughts about the insidious trichina, a
touch of measles, or the questionable diet on which so
much fatness has been achieved.
A clean pig and such a thing is possible if the animal
is given a decent place to live in fattened on one's own
corn, and slain and cured by one's own hands, is always
a good item to have among one's provision stores. But
even this perfection of pork should form an occasional
and not an every-clay article of food.
With wheat, corn, oatmeal, milk, fruit, eggs, and veg-
etables to draw from, country people can live on the finest
foods that the world affords ; and that, too, without de-
voting too much time to the art of cooking. Generally,
the simplest things are the best, and it is just as easy to
prepare palatable and nourishing food as the reverse.
OMELETS.
Cream Omelet. Mix smoothly with a cupful of sweet
cream, a tablespoonful of ilour, and add five well-beaten
eggs and a pinch of salt. Have ready an omelet pan or a
thick-bottomed "spider, "in which place a small lump
of sweet suet-fat, which is better tlian butter, beeauso
less liable to burn. Have the pan hot enough to bake,
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 137
but not to burn the omelet. Pour in the eggs and cream,
and when the mixture has thickened, but not hardened,
fold one-half over the other with a broad-bladed knife,
slip it upon a warm platter, and serve. Omelets should
not be made until the meal is nearly ready, as they are apt
to become tough and leathery if kept waiting too long.
Ham Omelet. Have ready a cupful of chopped boiled
ham. Beat together six eggs and six tablespoonfuls of
milk ; pour half into the pan, and sprinkle over it the
chopped ham. When the eggs are partly thickened,
pour in the remaining portion, and set it in the oven to
brown on the top. Slip it upon a round platter without
folding, and place a few sprigs of parsley, if they are to
be had, around the edges.
Vegetable Omelet. Chop an onion finely together with
two crisp heads of lettuce ; season with salt and pepper,
and stir in six eggs and three tablespoonfuls of cream.
Bake the same as Cream Omelet.
Cheese Omelet. Beat six eggs, half a cupful of grated
cheese, and six tablespoonfuls of milk together, and bake
rather slowly.
Sweet Omelet. This is a specially good edible for the
supper table. For each person, take one egg, two tea-
spoonfuls of white sugar, and one teaspoonful of flour.
Flavor the omelet with either extract of orange, vanilla,
or nutmeg. Beat the yolks, sugar, and flour together,
reserving the whites to be added last. Have the omelet-
pan at proper heat, and well buttered. Beat the whites
to a froth, stir all lightly and quickly together, and pour
it into the pan. When nearly done, set the pan carefully
into the oven to brown. Then slip the omelet upon a
plate covered with a napkin, spread over it some rasp-
berry jam, or nice preserved fruit of some sort, fold one
half over the other, cover with another napkin, and ring
the tea-bell ! This recipe has a fussy sound, but the
138 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
omelet is made in a very few minutes, and will be pro-
nounced delicious by all.
CUSTARDS AND PUDDINGS.
If overdone, all custards are curdled and spoiled.
They should be smooth and creamy, when eaten, and as
cold as the ice-chest or cellar can make them.
Baked Custards. Mix one and a half pints of new
milk, one cupful of sweet cream, four well beaten eggs, one
cupful of white sugar, one teaspoonful of orange, lemon,
or vanilla extract. Fill the custard-cups, or any small
tea-cups, two-thirds full. Put them into a baking-pan
containing hot water, and let them remain in the oven
until the custard is set, remembering that it will continue
to cook for a minute or two after being removed from
the oven. If liked, the whites of two eggs can be whisked
to a froth, flavored, sprinkled with a little sugar, and
piled on top of the custards when they are partly cooled.
Boiled Custard. Put one quart of new milk in a
sauce-pan over the fire, and when it begins to boil, stir
in five beaten eggs and four tablespoonfuls of sugar ; stir
it until it thickens slightly, then remove to a cool place,
and add whatever flavoring is liked.
Corn-starch Custard. While a quart of milk is heat-
ing, beat two eggs until light, and stir into them four
tablespoonfuls of sugar, one tablespoonful ol corn-starch,
and, one tablespoonful of cold milk. Pour this mixture
gradually into the boiling milk, and let it cook gently,
stirring it all the while, for five minutes. Flavor with a
little extract of orange or lemon, and pour it into the
dish from which it is to be served.
Cocoanut Custard. Soak a cupful of dessicated cocoa-
nut in an equal quantity of new milk for two hours, and
add it to the materials used m the recipe for Baked Cus-
tards.
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 139
Corn-starch Pudding. Stir two tablespoonfuls of
corn-starch, mixed with cold milk, into three pints of
boiling milk slightly salted. Let it stand where it will
cook without burning for ten minutes ; then stir in one
cupful of sugar and the yolks of three eggs, with what-
ever flavoring is liked ; pour the pudding into a mold,
or into a large bowl, that has been dipped in cold water,
and set it in a cool place. When it is wanted for the
table, turn the pudding into a glass or earthen dish, and
serve it with a fruit-sauce, or with cream and sugar.
Tapioca and Sago Puddings. Tapioca and sago make
delicious puddings, especially when one has cream and
fruit to serve with them. They are also easily made, re-
quiring but little time either in the preparing or the
baking, and are good whether warm or cold. Stir a cup-
ful of sago or tapioca that has soaked several hours in
cold water into a quart of boiling milk. Add two tea-
spoonfuls of corn-starch mixed with a little milk, three
beaten eggs, four tablespoonfuls of sugar, and a pinch of
salt. Stir well, pour it into a buttered dish, and bake it
twenty minutes. If preferred, the bottom of the dish
may be first covered with canned apples, peaches, or
pears ; or a handful of raisins, soaked in warm water,
may be added.
Steamed Corn-meal Pudding. This is very relishable
with a winter dinner of corned beef and vegetables. Mix
one quart of sweet milk, two eggs, a cupful of currants, or
chopped raisins (it is very good, however, without any
fruit), a small cupful of brown sugar, half a teaspoonful
of salt, one cupful of wheat flour, enough of corn-meal
to form a thick batter, and two teaspoonfuls of baking
powder. Pour it in a pudding-dish, and steam steadily
for three hours.
Baked Corn- Meal Pudding. Stir one cupful of corn-
meal into a quart of boiling milk. Set it aside to be-
140 FAKM HOMES, IN-BOGUS AND OUT-DOORS.
come partly cooled, and then add two eggs, four table
spoonfuls of sugar, half a teaspoonful of salt, and either
cinnamon or ginger, as preferred. Pour it into a buttered
dish, turn over it half a cupful of cream or rich milk,
allowing it to remain on top, and let it bake from thirty
to forty minutes. It should be partly cooled before being
served. A boiling-hot pudding or pie is a needless addi-
tion to human woes.
Christmas Pudding. Mix three cupfuls of flour, one
cupful of milk, one cupful of molasses, one cupful of raisins,
three tablespoonf uls of finely chopped salt pork, one egg,
half a teaspoonful of cinnamon, the same of nutmeg, and
a pinch of cloves ; add, lastly, two teaspoonfuls of baking
powder, beat thoroughly together, pour it in a pudding
dish, and let it steam for three hours.
Sauce for Christmas Pudding. Make a smooth butter
gravy, stir into it four tablespoonf uls of good brown sugar,
and the juice of a lemon, letting it boil until clear.
Boiled Fruit Pudding. Mix one cupful of sugar, two
cupfuls of sweet milk, one egg, a little salt, half a nutmeg,
two cupfuls of dried currants, chopped raisins, or sliced
sweet apples, enough of flour for a stiff batter, and two
teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Pour the batter into a
buttered pail, or a floured pudding-cloth, and let it boil
steadily for three hours in plenty of water.
Simple Bread Pudding. Pour a quart of hot milk upon
a pint of bread-crumbs that have been placed in a but-
tered dish ; add two eggs, a dust of cinnamon or nutmeg,
a little fruit, if liked, and bake it twenty minutes. Serve
with cream and sugar.
Simple Bread Pudding, No. 2. Dip slices of stale
bread into hot water, and lay them in a buttered earthen
dish. Into each slice, press a few fine raisins and sprinkle
over a little cinnamon. Beat together two eggs and a
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 141
pint of milk, which pour over the bread, and bake in a
moderate oven for twenty minutes.
Rice Pudding. Make a custard of three cupfuls of new
milk, the yolks of two eggs, and a tablespoonful of corn
starch. Into this stir one cupful of boiled rice, four table-
spoonfuls of sugar, a little salt, and a teaspoonful of orange
or lemon extract. Pour into a pudding dish, and bake
in a brisk oven fifteen minutes. Have the egg whites
beaten, sweetened, and flavored ; spread them over the
pudding when it is done, and return it to the oven for
an instant, until delicately browned. It is to be eaten
with fruit, or with cream and sugar.
Rock Rice A Pretty Holiday Dish. Boil a large cupful
of rice in one and a half pints of new milk, with a little
salt. By keeping it closely covered it will cook evenly,
and requires no stirring. Add more milk, if it is needed,
before the rice is done. When it is thoroughly cooked,
remove the cover, and let it become rather dry ;
then sweeten it with fine white sugar, flavor it with
lemon, and pile it in a rough, rock-like shape in a glass
dish. Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, add
a little sugar, a few drops of lemon extract, and a table-
spoonful of sweet cream. Pour this all over the rice,
and turn a cupful of cream around the base.
Rice Bird's-Nest, for Holidays. Boil rice as in the
foregoing recipe, and put a part of it to mold in six or
eight egg-cups, previously dipped in cold water. When
cold slip the rice " eggs " out into a low round dish, and
place the remainder of the rice around them to form the
"nest," laying over it little strips of marmalade for
" straws." Serve with sweet cream.
THE BEAUTIES OF CREAM.
With a little tin cream- whipper, costing but a few cents
at the hardware stores, and plenty of cream and fresh
fruit, the most delicious desserts can be made ; and their
142 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
introduction upon farm-house tables, for a Sunday treat,
or for little anniversary feasts, or company occasions,
would be what Barry Gray would call "a good thing,"
in place of the richer and more unwholesome dishes of
state-occasions.
A Fine Charlotte Russe. Make a large thin sponge-
cake, taking care to bake it in an even sheet about an inch
thick. When done and cooled, cut out a piece to fit the
bottom of a round dish four or five inches deep, and then
cut regular pieces to fit around the sides. Into this pour
a cream, prepared as follows : Whip one pint of sweet
cream, flavored with orange or vanilla, to a stiff froth,
and add to it the frothed whites of two eggs and a cupful
of pulverized sugar. Stir all lightly together, pour it
upon the cake until the dish is filled, and set it into the
refrigerator, or upon ice with a pan turned over it, until
the cream is stiffened.
A Simpler Charlotte Russe. A simpler dessert of this
sort is made by laying lady-fingers or squares of sponge-
cake around the sides of a glass dish, filling it with
whipped cream, and putting it in a cool place to harden.
Bavarian Cream (Mrs. Henderson). Set a pint of cream
upon ice until chilled, then whip it to a stiff froth. Boil
a pint of rich milk, flavored with extract of vanilla ; re-
move it from the fire and add half a box of "Cox's Spark-
ling Gelatine," that has soaked for an hour in a cupful of
warm water at the back of the stove. When the milk
is partly cooled, stir in the beaten yolks of four eggs.
When cold and beginning to thicken, stir in the whipped
cream lightly, put it in a mold, and set it on ico or in
some cool place.
Wfiipped Cream with Fruit*. Whipped cream is palat-
able served with an kind of fresh fruit, turning the cream
from a mold upon a handsome dish, and surrounding it
with the fruit.
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 143
Cream Shells. Bake nice little sponge cakes in gem.
irons until quickly and delicately done. When partly
cool, open them at the sides, and put in a teaspoonful of
whipped cream, flavored with orange or vanilla.
Cream Gravy for Toast and Vegetables. For a family
of six, pour one and a half pints of milk and one cupful of
cream in a saucepan, with half a teaspoonful of salt. Mix
a large tablespoonful of flour with three of cold milk, and
stir into it the boiling milk ; when thickened, remove it
from the fire, and stir in the beaten yolk of an egg. This
is very much liked by children as a "gravy" for baked
and boiled potatoes, or when poured over slices of toasted
bread. It is also a nice dressing for asparagus, green
peas, and string beans.
A Substitute for Cream. When cream is not plenty,
a very passable substitute can be made by pouring a pint
of hot milk upon the well-beaten yolks of two eggs, and
adding a teaspoonful of white sugar.
PIES.
There has been a great outcry among food-reformers
over "pie." But there are pies and pies ; and the latter
sort are still worth perpetuating. There is that pie of the
dark ages, a thin layer of spiced fruit between two sodden,
greasy layers of "crust." And there is the pie of the
skilled cook of to-day, rich, juicy, self-flavored fruits, en-
closed in a pastry as delicate and tender as congealed
foam ! Ah ! sad the fafce of such pie, when it finds it-
self alone with a knife and fork and a " crowned head !"
One important objection to pie-making, is that it re-
quires a good deal of time, compared with other prepara-
tions of food ; and a busy house-keeper had better rely
on a good variety of puddings and fruit desserts, as a
general thing, in place of these elaborations. But, if pies
are made, let them be worth while let them be good
144 FARM HOMES, IK-DOORS AtfD OUT-DOORS.
forms of food, rather than laboriously concocted worri-
ments to the digestive powers.
A Good Paste or "Crust." Mix four cupfuls of sifted
flour, one and one-half cupfuls of butter, the yolks of two
eggs, and a little ice-water, or else water directly from th
well. Beat the yolks, add a little cold water to them,
and mix slowly with the flour until a smooth, firm dough
is formed. Eoll it out, taking pains to keep it in square
shape. Have the butter as hard and firm as possible, and
divide it into three equal parts. Spread one part over
one half the paste, fold the other half over, and roll out to
the same size as before ; lay on the second portion of but-
ter, fold and roll ; then use the remaining butter in the
same way. Have the fruit in readiness, and the oven at
a brisk, but not scorching heat. Work rapidly and handle
the dough as little as possible, setting a part of it near
the ice until it is wanted. The secret of tender and
"fluffy" paste is to have it as cold as possible, and the
oven briskly hot when the pie is put in to bake. The
best of butter should be used for this purpose. Poor
butter cannot be used successfully in any branch of
cookery.
Another Paste. If it is warm weather, and one has no
ice, this paste can be made. It will be found light and
tender. First prepare the fruit, and have the oven heated.
Mix a large teaspoonf til of Royal Baking Powder in three
pints of sifted flour. Into this rub one cupful of butter,
and add enough of cold sweet milk to form the dough.
Put it on the plates with as little handling as possible.
If the fruit is very juicy, sprinkle a little flour over the
bottom-crust before the fruit is put in, to prevent it be-
coming soaked and sodden.
Apple Pie, No. 1. Slice nice tart apples, and make the
pies with upper and under-crusts, merely putting a tal de-
spoonful of water in each. When baked, remove the top-
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 145
erust, sprinkle over the apples half a cupful of sugar, a
few bits of butter, and, if liked, a dust of cinnamon.
Keplace the crust, cover with a napkin, and serve, when
partly cooled, with a white cream over each piece.
Apple Pie, No. 2. Stew about a dozen pippins, or green-
ings, in a very little water. When soft, stir in a cupful
of sugar, and a teaspoonful of butter. Prepare two
pie-plates with an under-crust and rimmed edges, fill
them with apples, and bake.
Custard Pie. Use deep earthen plates, and line them
with a rather thick paste. For one pie, beat two eggs
and three tablespoonfuls of sugar together, add two cof-
fee cupfuls of rich milk, and grate a little nutmeg over the
top after it is poured in the paste. Remove it from the
oven a minute or two before it is quite firm, as it will con-
tinue to thicken with its own heat, and three minutes
over-cooking spoils it.
Cream Pie. For one pie, use the yolks of two eggs,
two cupfuls of sweet cream, and two tablespoonfuls of
sugar, beaten thoroughly together. Bake it in an under-
crust only.
Mock- Cream Pie. Make a quart of corn-starch custard,
stir into it a tablespoonSul of butter, and a little vanilla
or orange extract, and bake the same as Custard and Cream
Pie.
Orange Pie. Cream half a cupful of butter, with one
of sugar ; add the yolks of three eggs, and the juice and
grated rind of a fine orange. Just before filling the paste,
stir in the egg-whites beaten to a froth.
Lemon Pie. Mix a tablespoonful of corn-starch
smoothly with a little cold water, and pour into half a
pint of boiling water, stirring; it to prevent burning. Add
a bit of nice butter, and a cupful of sugar. Remove from
the fire, and when it is partly cooled stir into it a beaten
egg, and the juice and rind of a lemon. Bake the same
7
146 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
as Custard and Cream Pie. Some cooks whisk and flavor
the whites of three eggs, and spread them on the top wlu-n
the pie is done, letting it remain in the oven a moment
to brown.
Rhubarb Pie. Have deep plates for this pie, and
sprinkle the under-crust with a little flour before filling
with fruit. Peel and cut the stalks into small bits, and
fill the plates, first with a layer of fruit and then a layer
of sugar, until they are well heaped up in the center.
Sprinkle more flour over the top, and pinch -the top crust
well down over the edges, as the charm of this pie, aside
from plenty of sugar, consists in its retainment of all its
juice.
PumpTcin Pie. This, like the celebrated little girl in
the rhyme, can be "very good, indeed," or it can be
" horrid." When I want to make the richest, creamiest,
and altogether loveliest pumpkin pies, I use squash. But
as squash pies are never celebrated in rhyme, or made to
figure in country romances, I permit them to be called
Pumpkin Pies. One can be sure of sweet fine-grained
squashes always ; while, on the other hand, even the best-
intentioned pumpkins will sometimes prove stringy and
flavorless.
Stew the squash in just enough water to prevent burn-
ing, and pass it through a colander. For each pie, IK nt
together one egg, three tablespoonfuls of sweet cream, four
tablespoonfuls of squash, half a cupful of light-brown
sn.^ar, a coffee-cupful of new milk, half a teaspoonful of
mixed ginger and cinnamon, and a dust of nutmeg.
Have rather deep plates, lined with good, tender, but
not too rich paste. Fill them to the depth of an inch, or
a little more, and bake in a rather moderate oven until
slightly browned.
If pumpkin is used, I would advise another egg to each
pie, and less pumpkin.
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 147
Mince Pie. Even a mince pie can be made that will
not bring to one's slumbers painful visions of great grand-
mothers. Suet, and citron, and brandy, are all abomina-
tions, and really add nothing to the good flavor of the pie.
For one quart of finely chopped beef, use three quarts
of finely chopped tart apples, two cupfuls of raisins, cut
in halves, one cupful of currants, washed and dried, two
teaspoonfuls of ground cinnamon, one teaspoonf ul of nut-
meg, and a scant teaspoonful of cloves. If the meat was
not salted when boiled, add one teaspoonful of salt.
Place the chop in a preserving-kettle, or large earthen
pan, upon the stove, and mix v ith it two cupfuls of good
syrup, one cupful of either boiled cider, or currant or grape
jelly, one cupful of brown sugar, and enough of water in
which the beef was boiled to make the mixture sufficiently
juicy. Let it scald up together, and it will be ready for
filling the pies. Pastry recipe, No. 2, will be good to use
on this occasion.
Hasty Pie. For a good and easily prepared dessert,
place any kind cf fresh or canned fruit in the bottom of
an earthen dish, to the depth of two inches. Beat to-
gether one egg, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a
small cupful of sweet milk, a cupful of flour, and a tea-
spoonful of baking powder. Pour or spread this evenly
over the fruit (which, to hasten matters, may set on the
stove while the batter is being prepared), and bake until
the crust is well done. It may be eaten with a pudding-
sauce, or with milk and sugar.
CAKE.
Sponge Cake. It is no easy matter to make perfect
sponge cake, but on holidays or company occasions it is
worth while to make it. It is not only delicious, but it
is entirely wholesome, something which can not be said
of all cake. Beat the whites and yolks of ten eggs sep-
148 FARM HOMES, .IX-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
arately for half an hour [the cook must have an assistant
in this part of the formula], one and a half cupful of
fine pulverized white sugar to be mixed with the yolks.
Beat the yolks and whites lightly together, and stir in
another cupful and a half of sugar, two and a half cup-
f uls of sifted flour, and the grated rind and half the juice
of a good-sized lemon. Have ready a smooth, deep bis-
cuit-pan, lined with white, buttered paper, and the oven
moderately hot. Pour in the batter, and, if possible, do
not move it after placing it in the oven until it is done.
The heat may be increased after the first ten minutes.
When removed from the oven, spread over it a thin icing
flavored with a little extract of lemon.
Orange Cake. Mix two cupfuls of sugar, two cupfuls
of flour, one-half cupful of water, the yolks of five eggs,
and the whites of three, a little salt, the juice and grated
rind of an orange, and a teaspoonful of baking powder.
Beat all thoroughly together, with the exception of the
flour and baking powder, which add lastly. Bake this
in four jelly-tins, and spread between the cakes an icing
made of the whites of two eggs, the grated rind and a
little juice of an orange, and enough of powdered white
sugar to make it rather stiff.
Roll Jelly Cake. This can be made and baked in a few
minutes, and is sometimes eaten warm, with a pudding
sauce, as a dessert for dinner. Beat four eggs with a
teacupful of white sugar, a scant tcacupful of sifted
flour, a teaspoonful of vanilla or orange extract, and a
teaspoonful of baking powder. Bake it in a thin, even
sheet in a quick oven ; turn it out, bottom side up, on a
napkin ; spread it with thick grape or currant jelly, and
roll it, beginning at the end.
Corn-starch Cake. This is very nice if not eaten later
than twenty-four hours after it is baked. Cream one
cupful of powdered white sugar, with half a cupful of
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 149
butter, and stir into it half a cupful of sweet milk and
two-thirds of a cupful of corn-starch. Then add the well-
beaten whites of five eggs, a teaspoonful of extract of
rose, and a cupful of flour in which is mixed a large tea-
spoonful of baking powder. Bake rather gradually in a
paper-lined cake-tin. A thin icing, flavored with a few
drops of rose, may be spread on top. This delicate, snow-
white cake looks nicely along with contrasting squares of
golden sponge oake.
Lady Fingers. Mix eight tablespoonfuls of powdered
white sugar, four eggs the yolks and whites beaten
separately six tablespoonfuls of flour, a little salt, and
a teaspoonful of lemon, orange, or vanilla. Beat the
batter for ten minutes ; roll some rather stiff paper into
a tunnel, and pour the batter through it upon buttered
pans in long, slender little cakes. Dust a little sugar
over them, and bake as quickly as possible without
scorching.
Alum Gingerbread. Put a bit of alum the size of a
walnut in a cake-bowl, and pour upon it a cupful of boil-
ing water. When nearly cool, add half a cupful of but-
ter, two cupfuls of syrup, a tablespoonful of ginger, a
large teaspoonful of so^la, and enough flour for rolling.
Plain Gingerbread. Mix one cupful of molasses, one
of boiling water, a tablespoonful of butter, two teaspoon-
fuls of ginger, two cupfuls of flour, and a teaspoonful of
soda. Pour the batter in a thick tin, and bake slowly.
Bread Cake. Mix three cupfuls of light and sweet
bread-sponge, one small cupful of butter, two cupfuls of
light brown sugar, two eggs, one cupful of chopped rais-
ins, a teaspoonful of nutmeg and cinnamon, and a coffee-
cupful of flour, to which is added a large teaspoonful of
baking powder. Let it stand near the stove for a quar-
ter of an hour before placing it in the oven, and let it
bake rather slowly.
150 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
Tea Cakes. Beat three eggs with half a cupful of
sweet cream, a pinch of salt, and half a teaspoonful of
cinnamon. Add a teaspoonful of baking powder, and
flour enough to roll out easily in a very thin sheet ; cut
in squares, fry in boiling lard, and sprinkle over a little
fine, white sugar.
Doughnuts These will not absorb fat. They are
made with two eggs, a scant cupful of sugar, a coffee-
cupful of sweet milk, a little salt, half a nutmeg, two
teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and just flour enough to
roll out ; avoid a stiff dough. Fry in boiling lard, in
twists or rings.
Cream Cake. Set upon the stove a saucepan contain-
ing a cupful of cream and a cupful of milk ; when the
milk boils, stir into it three teaspoonfuls of flour, mixed
with the yolk of an egg, a teaspoonful of orange extract,
a pinch of salt, and a little cold milk. Stir the milk un-
til the flour is well cooked, and set it aside to cool. Make
a batter after the recipe for Corn-starch Cake ; bake it
in four or five jelly-tins, and spread the above cream be-
tween.
Christmas Cookies. Mix one cupful of wbite sugar
and half a cupful of butter creamed together ; one cupful
of sweet milk, one tea*spooriful extract of rose, and one
teaspoonful of baking powder. When flour is added, and
the dough rolled out in a thin sheet, sprinkle all over it
some granulated sugar (a flour-dredge should be used) ;
cut out the cookies, and bake them without browning.
If the sugar is properly coarse, they will sparkle like
frost-work.
HOME-MADE CANDIES, ETC.
Cream Candy. Place a large cupful of white sugar in
a porcelain or granitized kettle, with three tablespoonfuls
of water, and let it dissolve at the back of the stove ; then
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 151
set it forward, and let it boil until it will crisp in water.
Stir in a teaspoonful of rose or vanilla extract, and half a
teaspoonful of cream- of -tar tar. Pour it into a buttered
pan or platter, and when cool, work it until it is per-
fectly white ; cut it in little squares, and set it away to
dry.
Horehound Candy. Dissolve one pound of white sugar
in half a pint of water, and boil until it threads or crisps.
Flavor it with extract of horehound, pour it into buttered
pans, and finish like Cream Candy.
Molasses Candy. Mix one pint of molasses, a small
cupful of white sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar, and a
lump of butter the size of a walnut. If flavored with
ginger or horehound, it is good for children's coughs.
Boil, and finish the same as the above.
Peppermint Drops. A cupful of white sugar and two
tablespoonfuls of water should be boiled briskly, stirring
it all the while, until it is nearly ready to grain, when
add a small teaspoonful of essence of peppermint ; boil a
moment longer, and drop it in little pats on buttered
white paper.
Crystalized Pop-corn and Nuts. Boil one cupful of
white sugar with three tablespoonfuls of water, and one of
butter, until it shows threads when dropped from the
spoon. Then pour in three quarts of freshly-made pop-
corn ; stir until the sugar is thoroughly distributed,
and then set it away to cool. Nut-meats can be used in
place of pop-corn, and will be found delicious. From
"Golden Rule."
Pop-corn Balls. Grind rather finely two quarts of
popped corn, and stir it into a boiling syrup made of a
cupful of white sugar and three tablespoonfuls of water.
When partly cooled, form into balls, and roll them in
pulverized sugar.
152 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AXD OUT-DOORS.
SOUPS.
Soup is another form of food rarely seen on farm-house
tables, partly because of the distance from butchers'
stalls, and partly because the people have a vague idea
that it is " sloppy " and of no account. Doubtless many
a farmer would turn away from a bowl of delicious broth,
but- would cheerfully tackle the joint or the fowl that
made the broth, and gave up the greater part of its best
qualities to it.
In boiling meat, the farm-wife often throws out most
of its nutriment to the pigs or into the slop-drain, and
triumphantly carries to the dining-room the impover-
ished joint now despoiled of half its worth.
Let these people think twice about this matter.
Various kinds of palatable and nutritious soups can be
made without any meat whatever, although nearly all
soups are improved by the addition of a little " stock,"
as the water in which fresh meats have been boiled is
called. Nearly all children like soup, and with good
bread and fruit it is far healthier for them than fried or
fat meats, with the too common accompaniments of pie
and cake.
Green-corn Soup. Take about ten fine, tender ears of
sweet-corn ; grate them, not too closely to the cob, and
scald up cobs and corn together in a quart of boiling,
salted water. This secures the milk that otherwise
would remain in the cobs. After ten minutes, remove
the cobs, and pour in a quart of new milk ; season with
salt and butter and a little pepper, and let it cook gently
for ten minutes more.
Pea Soup. In the morning, put a pint of split peas in
two quarts of water, and let them stew about four hours,
or until soft ; then throw in these vegetables, cut in
email pieces : Two carrots, two parsnips, half a ruta-
baga, a small onion, and three potatoes, adding water
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PKEPAKI^G. 153
enough to make good the quantity that has evaporated
during the four hours. Let the soup boil for half an
hour, then strain it througn a colander, mashing the
peas and vegetables through with a spoon. Season it
with salt and pepper, and add a cupful of sweet cream
just before carrying it to the table.
Bean Soup. Put a pint of beans, with a shin or a
pound of lean beef, in a kettle with cold water, and let
them stew gently all the forenoon. An onion can be
added if it is liked. At noon, remove the meat, mash
the beans if they are not already pulpy, add enough water
to make two quarts of soup, season with salt and a little
pepper, and pour it in a tureen upon slices of toasted
brown bread.
Potato Soup. Thinly slice four or five nice potatoes ;
pour upon them a pint and a half of boiling water. After
stewing ten minutes they will be soft. Then add a pint
of rich milk, salt, pepper, a bit of butter, and two table-
spoonfuls of rolled crackers. Let it boil up, and serve.
Vegetable Oyster, or Salsify Soup. Make the same
as Potato Soup, and serve with little crackers and mixed
pickles.
Tomato Soup. Peel and slice ten ripe tomatoes; boil
them three-quarters of an hour ; add three tablespoon-
fuls of rolled cracker or fine bread crumbs, a bit of soda
the size of a bean, half a cupful of butter ; salt, pepper,
and a quart of rich milk. Let it simmer for ten minutes.
Mutton Broth. Remove the fat from a quart of water
in which a leg of mutton or lamb has been boiled, and
add two cupfuls of clear water, a handful of rice, a stalk
of celery, and an onion cut in halves. Simmer half an
hour, remove vegetables, and serve.
Chicken Soup. Cut up two chickens, or one good-
sized fowl, and place in a kettle with a pound of veal
and three pints of water. Boil gently for two hours.
154 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
Take the kettle to the kitchen table, and remove the fat
from the top ; strain the soup through a colander, and
add to it half a cupful of rice and a little parsley. Let it
simmer for half an hour, adding water to replace what
may have boiled away ; season with salt and a little white
pepper, and just before it is served, pour in a cup/ul of
sweet cream. The chickens can be used for a salad.
Palatable Soup for a Sick Person. Cut a pound of
lean beef or mutton in small bits, and put it in a sauce-
pan with three pints of cold water ; cover it, not too
closely ; let it come to simmering heat, and remain cook-
ing until the water is reduced to little more than a pint.
Toast a slice of bread slowly, until it is browned clear
through, but not at all burned ; put it in the sauce-pan
with the meat, and let it remain ten minutes ; then strain
the soup, and season it with salt and a very little Cayenne
pepper.
Veal Soup. Put one onion, half a cupful of rice
or pearl barley, and a knuckle of veal, with the bones
broken, in two quarts of cold water, to simmer slowly
for two hours and a half. At the end of that time, beat
the yolks of two eggs in half a pint of cream, with a tea-
spoonful of salt and a little Cayenne pepper. Pour this
into the soup ; let it boil up once, then pour it through
a colander into a tureen, and serve.
Plain Beef Soup. This soup requires longer time than
any other. Six hours or more of gentle simmering (and
soup-meats should never be boiled in any other way) will
do it no harm. Put a good beef shin, or three pounds
off the neck, in a gallon of cold water, and when it comes
to a boil, set the kettle at the back of the stove where it
will cook very moderately through the forenoon. About
forty minutes before it is wanted, add six potatoes, one
turnip, two carrots, and an onion, cut in small pieces.
Just before serving, mix two taolespoonf uls of flour very
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 155
smoothly in a little cold water, with a teaspoonful of salt
and some pepper, and stir it into the soup, letting it boil
two or three minutes longer. The meat should be placed
on a platter, in this instance, and the soup and vegeta-
bles poured into a tureen.
Oyster Soup. Put the oysters, with their own liquor,
in the soup kettle, with butter, salt, and pepper in pro-
portion with the quantity of soup to be made. When
they begin to bubble, pour boiling milk and water over
them, and let the soup simmer for ten minutes.
Seasonings for Soups. The best kind of pepper to use
for soups, or nearly everything else in which pepper is
used, is pure Cayenne, which is a tonic in itself ; and
next to Cayenne, the white pepper, which even a country
house-keeper can obtain if she will keep it in her mind
when she does her next town shopping. It is rarely sold
in country stores. Celery-salt is another excellent item
to remember ; while parsley, onions, and salsify can be
kept always at hand.
SALADS.
Salads are appetizing, wholesome, and refreshing. Be-
sides, they cost next to nothing. But are they not almost
as rare in the country as Bavarian creams and soups ?
Simple salads can be made by every one. If of vegeta-
bles, they should always be placed on the table freshly
made ; and it takes but an extra minute to arrange them
in pretty form.
Plain Dressing for Salads. Beat the yolks of three
eggs with five tablespoonfuls of good vinegar, a table-
spoonful of sugar, and a teaspoonful of mixed mustard.
Add a little salt, a bit of butter, or, if liked, a tablespoon-
ful of olive oil, and stir all together in a saucepan over
the fire, until a smooth dressing is formed of the consis-
156 FARM HOMES, IN- DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
tency of cream. This is good with chopped cabbage,
fresh lettuce, and various kinds of salad.
French Salad Dressing. Mix. a saltspoonful of salt with
one of pepper ; add a teaspoonful of grated onion, three
tablespoonfuls of olive oil, and two of vinegar. When
well mixed put in the salad, and stir well together.
Lettuce Salads. Choose tender little heads, and lay
small radishes or nasturtium blossoms around them.
Plain dressing.
2. Lettuce and young onions, cut finely, and mixed
with plain salad dressing will be generally liked.
3. A pretty salad is made by laying slices of cold boiled
beets around the edge of a dish, and filling the center
with fresh lettuce heads.
4. Another variation is a dish of lettuce, with hard-
boiled eggs sliced and laid over the top.
Cabbage Salad, No. 1. Place a saucepan on the stove
containing one cupful of good vinegar, half a cupful of
white sugar, a bit of butter, a teaspoonful of salt, and n
teaspoonful of mixed mustard. When it boils up, pour
it over five cupf uls of chopped cabbage.
Cabbage Salad, No. 2. Mix chopped cabbage, lettuce,
pepper-grass, and a small onion together, sprinkle with
sugar and salt, place in a broad bowl or salad-dish, lay
sliced eggs on the top, and pour over a cupful of vinegar.
Raw cabbage, chopped fine and agreeably seasoned, is an
appetizing and healthful relish ; but when cooked, and
especially when boiled along with fat meats, it is quite the
reverse, and the human stomach should not often be bur-
dened with it.
Potato Salad. Mix thinly-sliced cold, boiled potatoes
and young onions, sometimes adding a little chopped
parsley, and pour over them a French Salad dressing.
Ham Salad. Mix cold, boiled ham with har: 1 -boiled
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 157
eggs, in the proportion of about half and half. Pour over
it a plain salad dressing, anoj. place around the edges fresh
lettuce or leaves of parsley.
Spinach, No. 1. Boil the spinach twenty minutes, drain
off the water and chop finely with a knife. Return the
kettle or saucepan to the fire, with a little butter and salt,
and let it remain, without scorching, until it is quite dry.
Dip a deep dish, a bowl will answer, in cold water, press
the spinach into it, and then turn it out upon a plate, and
place sliced eggs over and around it.
Spinach, No. 2. After boiling, chopping, and season-
ing the spinach, as above, remove the saucepan to the
kitchen- table, and stir into it a dressing made of one
cupful of cream, yolks of two eggs, a little pepper, and
half a teaspoon ful of mixed mustard.
Spinach is very good with nearly all kinds of meat, and
is particularly good with boiled ham and corned beef.
Chicken Salad. Cut the meat neatly from two tender
roasted chickens, and chop with a bunch of celery and
some sprigs of .parsley. Sprinkle over salt, a little white
or Cayenne pepper, and half a cupful of vinegar and oil.
Let this stand two or three hours, then place it on a plate
or salad dish in the midst of fresh lettuce or parsley leaves,
and pour over it a salad-dressing,
FISH.
Baked Fish. A good-sized fish of any sort is especially
fine when baked. Cut the fish open from head to tail ;
clean and wipe it dry ; fill it with a stuffing made of chop-
ped bread, seasoned with butter, pepper, salt, and two tea-
spoonfuls of powdered sage ; wind it with twine ; lay it
in a baking-pan on a grate or tin, to keep it from touch-
ing the water, and pour salted water into the pan with
which to baste it. The ove.n must be hot enough at first
to crisp the fish ; afterward it may bake more moderately
158 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
from half to three-quarters of an hour, according to the
size. Serve it with a butter-gravy, to which is sometimes
added two tablespoonfuls of chopped boiled eggs.
Boiled Fish. If one lives in the vicinity of the sea,
lakes, or streams, where fine fish abound, a "fish-kettle"
should be added to one's kitchen supplies. They are of
oval shape, and have strainers fitting the inside, in which
a fish can be boiled or fried (immersed in boiling lard)
without being broken in the least. A passable substitute,
in boiling fish, is to lay it in a circle upon a plate, and
tie the plate in a napkin, by which it can be lifted out
without breaking the fish.
Fresh- water fish are improved by being soaked for a
while in cold salted water, and being boiled with a bag
containing sliced carrots, an onion, a little celery, and some
cloves and peppers. Some cooks add half a cupful of
vinegar to the water.
Fried Fish. Wipe the fish, brush it over with the
white of an egg, roll it in grated crackers, corn-meal,
or fine bread-crumbs, and lay it in a kettle of boiling lard.
The lard must be hot enough to immediately crisp the
fish, and deep enough to float it. None of the fat will
be absorbed, and the fish will come out beautifully browned,
and well done in every way. If care is taken not to scorch
the lard, it can be used for several fish-days. This man-
ner of cooking is far superior to the commoner frying-
pan method.
Broiled Fish. A double wire broiler is best for fish,
as it can be turned without disturbing it. A large fish
should be split, or have gashes cut across its sides.
The coals should be clear and hot, and the broiler turned
in time to prevent all burning. (The fish may first be
rubbed inside with salt, and sprinkled with a little lemon-
juice). Have a warm platter ready, with a bit of butter,
and some salt and pepper in the bottom of it. As soon
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 159
as the fish is done, lay it upon the platter, sprinkle over
it some salt, and a few bits of butter, and set in the oven
until the butter is melted.
Boiled Fresh Cod. Cut it in slices, and boil it in salted
water, in which is a cupful of vinegar, and half a cupful
of grated horse-radish. Serve with drawn butter, or with
an oyster sauce.
Codfish Calces. Mix one cupful of boiled and mashed
salt codfish with three cupfuls of mashed potatoes, a small
chopped onion, the yolks of two eggs, and a large table-
spoonful of flour. Form into small cakes, and brown
them on a griddle, or drop them into boiling lard.
Codfish and Cream. Pick the codfish into small feathery
bits, removing all particles of bone, and let it soak in cold
water for two hours. If for breakfast, it can stand all
night. Drain off the water, pour over the fish a pint and
a half of new milk, and set the saucepan at the back of the
stove, where it may slowly arrive to simmering heat. After
it has gently cooked for ten minutes, add to it a table-
spoonful of flour mixed smoothly in half a cupful of sweet
cream, and let it boil up for a moment. Then remove it
from the stove, stir into it the beaten yolks of two eggs,
and it is ready to dish.
Broiled Salt Cod. Soak nice white strips of the fish
for several hours, in cold water, dry them with a cloth,
and lay them over clear hot coals on a broiler that has
been rubbed with suet. Brown the fish nicely on both
sides, remove it to a warm platter, and lay upon each piece
a little fresh butter. A fringe'of fried potatoes is a good
accompan iment.
Scalloped Oysters. Put two quarts of oysters in a col-
ander to drain. Roll a dozen crackers fine, or grate half
a loaf of stale bread. Butter a deep earthen dish, and
fill it with alternate layers of oysters and crumbs, season-
ing the oysters with salt, pepper, and butter, and leaving
160 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
bread crumbs on top. Pour over the oyster liquor, and
balf a cupful of cream or new milk. Bake half an hour.
Fried Oysters. Sprinkle pepper and salt over two
dozen large oysters, and set them in a cool place for
twenty minutes. Have ready beaten eggs, rolled crackers,
and a kettle of boiling lard. Roll the oysters first in
crumbs, then in the egg, then in crumbs again [this
makes an adhesive coating], and drop them into the boil-
ing lard. When well browned, lemove them with a
skimmer, letting them drain a moment, and carry them
to the table on a warm platter.
Roasted Canned Oysters. These are very "comfort-
ing," in winter, after a long sleigh-ride, or on coming
home chilled and, as a general thing, hungry from a
concert or lecture. They can be cooked on the dining-
room coals, and a plate of crackers and a pint of bottled
cider, gently warmed before the fire, form an accompani-
ment that gives no one any trouble.
Make an opening in the end of the can, put in salt and
pepper, bend the tin back into place, and set the can upon
the coals. When it has bubbled over for two or three
minutes, the oysters are done, and can be emptied out
upon a hot platter, and have a little lemon juice sprinkled
over them. If well roasted, they will be found delicious.
Stewed Oysters. Have ready a quart of boiling milk.
Scald one quart of oysters in their own liquor, skim them,
season with salt, pepper, and butter, put them in a tureen,
and pour milk over.
A FEW GOOD SAUCES FOR FISH AND MEATS.
Horse Radish Sauce, for Roast Beef and Beefsteak*.
Mix half a cupful of grated horse-radish, the same oi
grated cracker, one cupful of cream, and a little salt and
pepper. Simmer together for twelve minutes.
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 161
Sauce for Broiled Meats and Fish. Mix together a little
chopped parsley, the juice of half a lemon, three table-
spoonfuls of butter, and some pepper and salt. Pour it
over steaks while they are hot, and place in the oven for
a moment.
Mint Sauce for Roast Lamb. Put one cupful of vine-
gar, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and four of chopped
mint in the gravy-boat, and let it stand two hours before
it is used.
Oyster Sauce for Roast Turkey. Boil up two dozen
small oysters m a pint of drawn butter.
Drawn Butter. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter in a
saucepan, and when it has melted, sprinkle in a table-
spoonful of flour, and stir it, without browning, until it
is well cooked ; then slowly add boiling water until it is
of the right consistency. Pour it through a gravy-
strainer, and add a little salt and another tablespoonful
of butter. This is the basis for a variety of sauces, and
should always be made with care. Scorched or lumpy
drawn butter may not materially shorten life, but it is an
evidence of either carelessness or ignorance, or of "too
many irons in the fire " on the part of the cook.
Boiled Egg Sauce for Baked and Bailed Fisli. Add to
half a pint of drawn butter, three hard-boiled eggs cut in
small pieces.
Parsley Sauce for Boiled Fisli or Fowl. Add two
tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley to half a pint of hot
drawn butter.
Holland Sauce for Boiled Fish, Cabbage, Asparagus,
and Cauliflower. Stir into half a pint of hot drawn but-
ter, the beaten yolks of three eggs, and a little lemon-juice
and Cayenne pepper.
Brown Sauce for Cutlets, Steaks, and Potted Meats.
Put a small chopped onion and a tablespoonful of butter
in a saucepan over the fire. Brown, but do not scorch
1G2 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
it ; stir in a tablespoonful of flour, and then add a pint
of stock. Let it boil for three minutes, and then strain
it into the gravy-boat.
Roast Beef Gravy. When a sauce or gravy is made
from the drippings of a roast of beef, be careful to re-
move all the fat, thicken, not too thick, with a little flour
mixed smoothly with cold water, and pour it through a
gravy strainer.
Tomato Sauce for Mutton Chops. Mix half a can of
tomatoes, a little Cayenne pepper, a sliced onion, and some
salt. Stew slowly for half an hour ; strain, and add one
tablespoonful of butter and two of vinegar.
Cold Sauce for Cold Roast Beef. Mix one tablespoon-
ful of grated horse-radish, one of sugar, two of vim\L r ;ir,
and four of sweet cream. This is sometimes relished
with hot steaks.
Currant Jelly Sauce for Roast Venison. Mix half
a lemon peel, one tablespoonful of sugar, a teaspoon-
f ul of cinnamon, and a few cloves, six or eight, pounded
together, and a cupful of water. Simmer for half an hour,
and add a glassful of currant jelly. When the latter is
melted, strain the sauce into a gravy-boat or bowl.
BEEF, MUTTON, FOWLS, ETC.
Eoasting is the best method of cooking nearly all
meats, but as very few country kitchens have conveni-
ences for roasting, the next best method is baking, and
when the meat is well basted, and removed from the oven
at the right time, it is almost as good as when roasted.
Twelve minutes to the pound is a very good rule for bak-
ing beef.
Roast Beef. If it is a rib-roast, remove the bones so
that it c:in be rolled compactly together, and kept so by
a piece of twine. Dredg3 the meat all over with flour in
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 163
which salt and pepper has been mixed ; place it in the
dripping pan, raised from the bottom by a grate or tin,
and put it in a brisk oven. After a quarter of an hour,
or when the meat is crisped on all sides, pour a pint of
salted water in the pan, and baste it often.
Corned Beef. Allow half an hour to each pound of
beef. Boil it very gently, the cooking process is not at
all hastened by a furious fire, and if it is to be eaten
cold, set it off, and let it remain in the water until partly
cooled ; then place it in an earthen dish, lay a plate over
it, and press it with a three-pound weight.
Stuffed Beefsteak. Even the toughest beef becomes
good when served in this way : Take a round steak, and
spread it an inch thick with a stuffing made of chopped
bread and butter, seasoned with salt, pepper, and sage.
A little onion may be added, if liked. Roll the steak up,
tie it with twine, lay it in a pan with a few thin slices of
salt pork on top, pour around it a pint of water, cover
closely, and bake it in a moderate oven for three hours.
Roast Lamb. Rub it with salt and pepper ; place it
in a brisk oven, and baste it frequently until it is done.
Ten minutes to each pound is about the time required.
Potted Beef. Put the beef in a kettle, with some lit-
tle slices of salt pork at the bottom ; sprinkle with salt
and a little Cayenne paper, pour over two tablespoonfuls
of vinegar, and set the kettle over the fire, covering it
closely. When it has fried a little at the bottom, turn
the meat, and in ten minutes add half a pint of water.
Do not let the meat boil dry, but add a little water occa-
sionally, letting it cook slowly, and keeping it closely
covered.
Roast PorJc. Allow twenty minutes in the oven to
every pound of pork. A stuffing made of bread and bat-
ter, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs, is
164 FARM HOMES, IK-DOORS AKD OUT-DOORS.
an improvement to all pork roasts, and apple sauce and
cabbage salad should be served with them.
Good form for Cold Meats. Remnants of boils and
roasts are very good if chopped with twice their quantity
of bread, seasoned with salt, pepper, and herbs, moist-
ened with eggs and a little melted butter, and either
baked in a loaf, or in small cakes on a griddle.
Boiled Ham. A neat and relishable dish for a com-
pany tea is a platter of nicely sliced boiled ham, with the
fat mostly trimmed off, and a slice of lemon placed on
each slice of meat.
Dried Beef and Cream. This is a delicious breakfast
or supper dish. Put thin shavings of dried beef in a
saucepan, with a pint of cold water, and let it slowly come
to simmering heat and cook for ten minutes ; then dram
away the water and add a small lump of fresh butter ;
when it is bubbling hot, and fries a little, pour in one
cupful of milk and one cupful of cream. When it has
simmered awhile in the milk, add two teaspoonfuls of
flour, mixed with a little cold milk, and let it boil up for
a moment, after which remove it from the stove. Stir in
the yolk of an egg, and pour it into a warmed tureen.
Boiled Leg of Mutton. Wash the leg and put it into
a kettle containing enough- boiling water to cover it, and
let it simmer gently without stopping for two hours and
a quarter if of large size. At the end of the first hour
throw in a tablespoonful of salt. Let the mutton remain
in the water, after it is removed from the stove, until
nearly cold in this way it takes back some of its juices ;
then drain and dry it with a cloth, and set it in a cool
place. Tomato sauce should accompany it to the table.
Salt Porky No. 1. Cut the pork in thin slices and let
them soak in cold water for an hour or two ; drain, broil
them in a frying-pan until slightly crisp, and place them
in a tureen. Turn out nearly all the fat in the frying-
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 165
pan (it can be used for frying fish), and make a gravy of
a pint of milk and a tablespoonful of flour, which pour
over the meat in the tureen.
Salt Pork, No. 2. Boil four or five pounds of pork
having "streaks of lean " in it, in plenty of water for an
hour and a half. Take it out, remove the skin, cut
gashes across the top, sprinkle over a little powdered sage,
pepper, and rolled crackers, and set it in the oven until
browned a little. It is to be eaten cold.
Roast Turkey. The perfection of this bird depends
first upon its age and condition, and next upon its being
frequently basted and thoroughly cooked. From two
and a half to three hours should be allowed for a com-
mon-sized turkey ; a large one requires from three and
a half to four hours. In cool weather, or if one has a
refrigerator, the fowl should be prepared for the oven the
day before it is to be rousted. Fill it with a stuffing
made of a loaf of soaked white bread, a small cupful of
chopped salt pork, a minced onion, a tablespoonful of
powdered summer-savory, a little pepper, and two raw
eggs. Before placing it in the oven, lay thin slices of salt
pork on top, baste it with salted water, and sprinkle over
it flour and pepper. See that its wings and legs are tied
closely to the body in good shape. Let it rest upon a
tin or grate, so as not to be stewed in the water that
must be poured in the baking pan. Baste it half a dozen
times an hour, at least. It can be served with Oyster
Sauce, or with a gravy made from the drippings, after
the turkey is removed from the oven. In the latter case,
the liver and heart of the fowl should be boiled, chopped
finely, and added to the gravy, after it is strained. Cran-
berries, stewed in a little water, sweetened, and partly
frozen in a mold, are good with turkey ; so also is plum
marmalade.
Fried Chickens. Chickens are admirable when, after
166 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
being cut up and boiled in salted water for half an hour,
they are fried in a pan, with a little salt pork, until nicely
browned, placed in a tureen, and a gravy made of milk
and cream, and a little flour poured over them.
Roasted Quails. Place the birds in a baking-pan, with
half an inch of boiling water slightly salted. Lay a thin
slice of bacon or of salt pork over each breast, cover the
pan closely, and set it m the oven for a quarter of an
hour to steam and "plump" the birds. Then remove
the cover and bake three-quarters of an hour, basting
them often.
Roast Goose. Do not attempt to roast any but a young
goose. Make for it a stuffing of bread and butter, sea-
soned with chopped onions, sage, salt, and pepper, and
moistened with an egg or two. Like turkey, it must be
basted often and well cooked. From two to two hours
and a half is a sufficient time. Apple sauce should ac-
company roast goose.
Stewed Pigeons. Place a bit of salt pork in each, and
lay them breast upward in a stew-pan along with a carrot,
an onion, and a little parsley, and pour over enough boil-
ing water to cover them. Cover closely and let them
simmer until tender. Place them on pieces of toasted
bread ; remove the vegetables from the broth, thicken it
with a little flour and water, adding a little pepper and
salt, and pour it over the pigeons.
Pressed Veal. Boil a loin of veal in as little water as
possible. "When done and cooled, chop it rather finely,
seasoning it with salt, pepper, and sage, and pour over it
a pint of the water in which it was boiled. Put it in a
deep, oval dish, lay a platter on top, and press it with a
weight.
Calf's Liver. Fry thin slices of salt pork until crisp ;
lay them upon a platter and keep warm. Dip thin slices
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 167
of liyer in boiling water, dredge them with flour, and fry
them in the pork fat, turning them often until done,
when place on the platter with the pork, and serve with
a lettuce or spinach salad. This dish is improved for
some tastes if an onion is sliced and browned with the
pork.
Baked Beans with Pork. Beans are much more pal-
atable and much more nutritious when they are not sat-
urated with the fat of pork or any other " grease." Any
one who tries this recipe will recognize the superiority of
the dish to the usual method of preparing it. If the
beans are more than a year old, let them soak over night
and scald them in the morning in water containing half
a teaspoonful of soda. (If they are of the year's harvest,
twenty minutes gentle parboiling in soda water will an-
swer.) Then put them into clear water with a leanish
piece of salt pork, neatly cleaned of brine, and gashed in
slices across the top, half way to the bottom. After boil-
ing slowly for an hour, or a less time if the beans become
tender, skim them from the water into an earthen dish,
leaving the meat to continue cooking in the kettle. Pour
upon them three tablespoonfuls of syrup, a small cupful
of clear hot water, and sprinkle over them a little Cayenne
pepper and salt ; if it is a small mess the meat will have
salted sufficiently. Set them in a moderately hot oven
to bake from half to three-quarters of an hour. An
onion sliced over the top and removed when they are
done, improves the flavor for many. Take the pork from
the kettle when it is sufficiently cooked, and set it in the
oven until it is crisped a little.
Cranberry or Wren's Egg beans are very nice, cooked
and seasoned in the above way, without any pork, but
with an addition of plenty of salt, pepper, and an ounce
of butter.
168 FARM HOMES, IX-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
VEGETABLES.
It is proverbial that only one cook in a thousand knows
how to cook a potato. In nine cases out of ten the best
portion of this vegetable is thrown away in thick parings,
and in ninety-nine times out of a hundred they are boiled
instead of steamed. Thus this common viand has slim
chances, in many kitchens, of reaching the table in its
perfection. None but old potatoes should be pared at
all ; and even old potatoes, if they have just a strip taken
off the longest way around them, to facilitate the process
of peeling, will prove better for having had their jackets
mostly left on. Potatoes buried in earth or powdered
charcoal never become old, and by using good methods
of cooking, excellent preparations of this largely eaten
vegetable may always be had.
Steamed Potatoes. Thinly pare and cut in halves as
many potatoes as are wanted. Lay them in ice-water for
ten minutes. Have a close-covered steamer ready upon
a kettle containing plenty of boiling water ; place the
potatoes in it', and they will, if steadily steamed, be done
in half an hour. Then set the steamer off to the back of
the stove and open the cover slightly, that all moisture
may evaporate.
When a pudding or a loaf of corn -bread is being steam-
ed, the potatoes can be put in at their proper time
around the pudding or bread dish, and so two birds se-
cured with one stone.
Boiled Potatoes. If one prefers to pare the potatoes, let
the paring be as thin as possible, and put them in a ket-
tle with enough of cold salted water to cover them.
When they are done, pour off nearly all the water, set
the kettle at the back of the stove, keeping it closely
covered, and let them steam until dry and flaky.
Potato Snow. For a handsome dish, and one that is
BEST FOODS METHODS OF PREPARING. 169
also delicious, press a dozen hot nicely-boiled "Snow-
flake " potatoes through a wire sieve into a vegetable dish
previously warmed, and carry to the table immediately.
A bowl of hot cream, seasoned with salt and a little white
pepper, should accompany it.
Breakfast Potatoes. Place a pint of new milk, a table-
spoonful of butter, and half a teaspoonf ul of salt, in a
saucepan. When it boils stir in a tablespoonful of flour
mixed with a little cold milk. As it boils up again pour
in a quart of sliced, cold, boiled potatoes, and set the
saucepan on the back of the range or stove, where the
potatoes may be thoroughly warmed without any scorch-
ing of the milk.
Baked Potatoes. The charm of a baked potato con-
sists in its being served at exactly the right stage of
" doneness." A few minutes waiting detracts much from
its good qualities. So something depends upon those
who come to dinner as well as on those who prepare it.
Baked potatoes are very comfortable for winter suppers,
with cream gravy.
Ruta-baga Turnips. Pare, slice thinly, and either
steam them or boil them in salted boiling water. When
done, drain away the water, dry out the moisture, mash
finely, and season with plenty of butter, salt, white pep-
per, and a little white sugar. '
Cauliflower. Have salted boiling water ready ; cut
away all outer leaves, and put the cauliflower in the ket-
tle. In a short time it will have cooked enough. Re-
move it to a vegetable dish, being careful to keep it
unbroken, and pour over it a pint of milk and cream
seasoned with salt and pepper, and thickened slightly
with flour.
Parsnips. When boiled and seasoned with salt, but-
ter, and pepper, for one dinner ; prepare enough, so that
a part can be reserved for next day's fritters.
8
170 FAKM HOMES, IX-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
Parsnip Fritters. To half a dozen boiled, mashed
parsnips, add two tablespoonfuls of flour, two eggs, and a
little pepper and salt. Form into little cakes, and brown
them in a little suet in a frying-pan.
Egg Plant. Cut this vegetable into slices about half
an inch thick, which dip in salted beaten eggs and rolled
crackers, alternately, and fry until richly browned in hot
lard or suet. Serve on a warm plate.
A Nice Variation of Sweet Corn. Grate the corn from
a dozen fresh, tender ears ; season it with salt and pep-
per, and cook it with an ounce of butter in a frying-pan,
being careful that it gets no scorching.
Boiled Onions. Peel them with the hands under
water, and no "idle tears" will accompany the process.
Put them in boiling salted water, and let them cook un-
til nearly done, when pour aw r ay the water, and replace
it with a cupful of rich milk and some salt and pepper,
letting them simmer until tender.
Boiled Winter Squash. Remove the seeds, and place
it without paring in a steamer, with the rind uppermost.
When tender, scrape the squash from the rind, mash
smoothly, and season with salt, butter, and a little sugar.
Squash Fritters. Mix cold boiled or baked winter
squash with an egg, salt, pepper, and a little flour ; form
into little cakes, dredge them with flour, and brown them
nicely on both sides in a frying-pan containing a little
suet or lard, and pile them on a warm plate, with bits of
butter .between.
Celery. After cutting away the roots, remove the outer
tough stalks, wash thoroughly, and place it in cold water
until wanted for the table. Women having the care of
large households should eat freely of this savory esculent,
for it gives strength to the nerves, and brings sound and
healthful repose at night. It has also been announced
lately as a remedy for rheumatism. Ordinarily, it is
A FEW SIMPLE LUXURIES. 171
dipped in salt, and eaten as we eat radishes ; but as a
cure for rheumatic twinges, it must be steeped in water,
and the water, seasoned with salt and pepper, may be
drank either warm or cold.
CHAPTER XL
A FEW SIMPLE LUXURIES.
AN ICE HOUSE.
Select or make a level space of ground near the house,
where least exposed to the summer sun, and cover it with
any kind of cheap boarding odds and ends answering
just as well as selected lumber ; leave spaces between the
boards for drainage. Place stout posts at each corner, the
two at the front being two feet higher than those at the
back, to support the slanting roof. Nail rough boards
all round to the hight of two and a half feet, and then
nail similar ones on the inside ; fill up this space on all
sides with sawdust or tan-bark, and cover the floor to
the depth of ten inches with the same. Select a freezing
day, when the ice is in its best condition for storing this
summer luxury. Have the ice cut in as large squares as
can be handled, and pack it as closely and evenly as pos-
sible, filling up all gaps with pounded ice, and turning
water over each layer. Nail on more boards when the
space is filled, and put in more layers of ice until enough
is stored for a summer's use ; then cover the top two feet
deepVith the tan or sawdust, and build over it a roof of
172 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AXD OUT-DOORS.
boards covered with slabs. When ice is removed from it,
care must be taken to replace the covering as completely
as possible. Of course, a more elegant receptacle can be
builded if a farmer has time and money to devote to it ;
but if completely builded and shaded by trees or graceful
vines, even this arrangement will not be an eye-sore,
especially when dog-days shall have arrived !
A HOME-MADE REFRIGERATOR.
A good refrigerator from the shops costs anywhere
from $18 to $50, according to the size and finish. Every
house-keeper may not be able to possess one, and so it is
worth while to see what can be done in the way of a de-
cent substitute : Secure two dry-goods boxes, the more
substantjal the better, one of them to be three or four
inches smaller than the other on all sides, and fix the
tops to open on hinges of iron, or stout leather. The
larger the boxes, of course, the more convenience and
.comfort is afforded. Place an inch or two of sawdust
over the bottom of the larger box, and set the smaller one
into it. Bore three-quarter-inch noles through both
boxes at either end, near the top, and insert a roll of stiff
pasteboard in each to act as ventilators. Then fill in all
the space between the boxes with sawdust. Put in shelves
at either end, leaving space in the center for the large
deep pan or pail that is to hold the ice. There can also
be two or three pegs, on which to hang pails of milk or
fruit. A large tin pail, with a thin round board at the
bottom to prevent its being bruised, would be the most
convenient thing for holding the ice. Such a refrigerator,
placed in the pantry, or some cool room, and covered in
the hottest days with a folded blanket over the top, which
is not protected with sawdust, would keep ice for twenty-
four hours ; and in half a dozen such days, pay f8r its
A FEW SIMPLE LUXUKIES. 173
slight cost many times over in the amount of food it would
help to preserve.
A WATER FILTER.
Serious sicknesses would often be averted from the
household if, among other sanitary regulations, none but
filtered water was drank by its members. Water may
look and taste like the purest, and still contain disease-
germs that we would retreat from in horror if they but
presented themselves duly labelled. Wells, cisterns, and
springs that occupy ground lower than that of drains,
vaults, or barn-yards, within a hundred feet or more,
should be regarded with suspicion, no matter how "splen-
did '* the water may appear.
A good and efficient filter can be made in this way :
Take a cask, remove one end and set it upright, the open
end at the top. At one third of the distance from the
bottom place a round partition, pierced with small holes.
On this arrange a layer of clean, small pebbles, and over
them a layer of charcoal and another of sand, topping it
with more pebbles. Over this put another partition with
holes in it, or a layer of good-sized stones, to prevent the
pebbles from being disturbed when water is poured in.
A faucet is to be placed in the bottom to draw off the
water. A pail of water and a lump of ice, placed in the
top of the cask and closely covered, supplies the perfec-
tion of drinking water for twenty-four hours.
ICE-CREAM WITHOUT A FREEZER.
Make a smooth, thin custard of one pint of milk, one
pint of crearn, one cupful of white sugar, two eggs, a tea-
spoonful of lemon or vanilla extract, and a dessert-spoon-
ful of corn-starch. When cool, pour it in a tin pail with
a close cover, which set in a large pail or tub containing
174 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS ASTD OUT-DOORS.
ice and salt. Heap the ice about and over the tin pail,
and in about an hour the cream will be nicely frozen.
COOL HOUSES IN SUMMER.
During severe heat, close the doors and windows of
lower rooms* after eight o'clock in the morning, with
the exception of some north door or window, and
open the doors leading into the hall or the stair-
way. Upper rooms not being in use until night will
naturally be left open to sun and breeze, as all sleep-
ing rooms should be. From these, the cooler air will
descend to the rooms below, while the wanner current
will ascend. Toward the middle of the afternoon,
four or five o'clock, east and south windows can be
opened ; and at sunset all can be flung wide, and, if there
are screens, remain so through the night. In the morn-
ing, the house will seem to have absorbed coolness enough
to last until the relief of another sunset.
ROOMS WITHOUT FLIES.
Farm-house rooms in daily use are generally found
swarming with flies. It is only now and then that
the visitor in rural districts enjoys the luxury of a
dining-room where there are screens at windows and
doors, and a delightful absence of these buzzing and
somewhat filthy annoyances. If farm-wives only realized
how easy it is to get the upper hand of flies, they would
not submit to them as they do. Fifty cents worth of
mosquito netting, if the wire screening can not be pur-
chased, securely tacked on plain pine frames, and placed
in the doors and windows of the dining-room, before the
flies have taken possession of the house, will keep the
room almost entirely free of them all summer. If there
is a baby in the house who likes to poke his fingers
A FEW SIMPLE LUXURIES. 1V5
through the door-screen^ the lower half can have slats
nailed across, or be composed of boards entirely. A bit
of coiled wire spring will keep the door from being left
ajar. There should also be netting at bedroom and pan-
try windows. If these screens are all put in place before
the flies make their appearance, there will be very few
intruders. Flies know enough to become " wonted " to
places, and it is not so easy driving them away after they
have once made themselves at home.
A POT-POURRI, OR SCE^T-JAK.
Some of the " decorated " jars which tyive given pleasant*
occupation to so many young fingers the past two years,
can be put to appropriate use by filling them alternately
with layers of salt and any fragrant leaves or blossoms that
can be obtained. Spices should also be sprinkled on the
leaves. Sweet clover, rosemary, lemon verbena, rose gera-
nium, June roses, sweet briar, lavender, and as many more
as can be found may be used. Cinnamon, clove, and nut-
meg ground together add greatly to the strength of the
perfume. After filling, keep the jar closely covered for
three months. After that, if the contents are occasion-
ally stirred with a stick, and the cover left off for a few
moments, the room will be filled with a delightful fra-
grance.
Another scent-jar that will keep its perfume for years
is made chiefly of materials from the drug store. Bruise
together four ounces of orris root and sweet flag. Add
three ounces of sandal wood, one ounce of cedar, one
ounce each of gum benzoin, styrax, and nutmeg, pow-
dered, half a drachm of essence of lemon, one drachm of
millefleurs, twenty drops of oil of lavender, ten grains of
musk, and three ounces of rose leaves. Mix all together,
and add a pound of fine salt. Mrs. " Daisy Eyebright"
finds this mixture excellent for perfuming linen, furs,
176 FAKM HOMES, INVDOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
and woollen goods, as well as for filling scent-jars. It
should be kept covered. When used for drawers and
boxes, the salt and rose leaves are omitted, ten drops of
otto of rose substituted, and the powder placed in silk or
flannel bags.
GRAPES AND PEARS FOR THE HOLIDAYS.
Select the choicest and soundest specimens, and lay them
on shelves in a cool, dark, and well-ventilated closet, or a
darkened upper room, where there will be no danger of
freezing, and where they can have plenty of space so as not
.to touch each oth^r. Clusters of grapes should have the
ends of their stems dipped in melted wax, and will keep
best if hung up on slats to prevent any contact with the
wall. Choice fall apples and pears, that otherwise mi^ht
not appear at Christmas, should be wiped and placed on
white paper. The cooler the room is, without freezing,
the better the fruit will keep, and good ventilation is
strictly necessary. The Concords, Isabellas, and other
late-ripening grapes are excellent for such storing, and
when freezing weather arrives can be packed in sawdust,
and kept nearly all winter.
WARMED BEDROOMS.
There is no surer pathway to the tomb, says Mrs.
"Eyebright," than cold bedrooms and cold beds.
" Neuralgia, pneumonia, and consumption itself can
often be traced to the comfortless room in which child-
ren and delicate persons are forced to sleep." It is not
at all true that "cold bedrooms are healthy." This
favorite idea should cease to be held by people who lay
claims to common sense. The less w r e are roasted m
summer and frozen in winter, the nearer we approach a
climate most conducive to health. It should be the
A FEW SIMPLE LUXURIES. 177
home-keeper's study to secure as far as possible a tem-
perate climate for the house. Nothing can be better for
bedrooms in winter than fresh air, with the chill re-
moved from it. Any one who can afford to have such an
atmosphere, and still permits himself and family to go
shivering to bed to breathe over and over again the same
icy air, the impurity of which is not at all "healthy,"
because it is so cold, ought to be prosecuted for at least
an attempt to commit murder. By a happy provision of
nature, most people live either where coal is cheap or
where wood is plenty ; and in ordinary houses, such as
are not warmed throughout by furnaces, a hall-stove,
burning either hard coal or chunks of oak and hickory,
will give to the upper rooms in winter an atmosphere
that has the bite taken out of it ; while a window in each
bedroom, if there is no better method of ventilation, can
be let down an inch at the top, to feed sleeping lungs
with a comfortable amount of oxygen.
If economy in fuel must be used, the stove through the
day need not be fed, but at night right-minded economy
will see that it sends out and sends up its comforting
cheer.
178 FARM HOMES, I^-DOORS AXD OUT-DOORS.
CHAPTER XII.
FARM NEIGHBORHOODS.
Just as where two or three are met together in His
name, there reigns in their midst the blessed Spirit, so
where two or four farms front each other, exists the pos-
sibility of NEIGHBORHOOD. And a neighborhood is an
excellent thing m the country. It is only the work- weary,
noise-deafened, and perhaps slightly dyspeptic city mind
that ever sings in earnest of the charms of solitude, and
the all-satisfying companionship of nature. "If I must
choose between men and trees," says a wise and witty
somebody, " I must say that I prefer men." Transplant
your weary city-ite to the quiet and solitude of some farm
lying five miles from its little country post-office, give
him the sighing of the breeze and the chirp of the crickets
night and day, with an Agricultural Report for reading,
and the chickens and calves for companions, and in less
than a year's time you will probably have on your hands
a man gratefully ready to return to the cheerful activities
and ocial advantages of his city home.
No one wants too much of anything, even of the serene,
companionless quiet of a beautiful country region, and
the happiest existence must be that which can command,
along with green fields and singing streams, something
of the good cheer and inspiration of congenial fellowship,
both in social and business life.
A jocose city friend, who is more than half in earnest,
however, says life can never possess its full meaning for
her until she can have a fine fruit and dairy farm within
ten minutes walk of the post-office ! And so, while we
recognize the stern fact that we cannot combine all the
FA.RM NEIGHBORHOODS. 179
advantages of the city with all the beauty and freshness
of the country, we can, in either situation, combine a
little of the good in. both.
It is characteristic of some farmers to jeer more or less
at cities and city-life, and to regard city-people with a
sort of derisive compassion. Visitors from cities to the
country Till grow familiar with such expressions as this :
" So you've concluded to come out where you can live for
a while !" Now if farm-people did but know it, it is an
undeniable fact that, as farm-life now is, it is in these
same derided cities that one often lives most and lives
best, providing one is not crushed within the narrow
groove of poverty. While farmers shrug their shoulders
at cities, let them remember that cities are drawing their
sons and daughters away from them ! that culture, so-
ciety, and the pleasant clash and sparkle of immense
business activities, often make lonesome, monotonous
farm-work very distasteful in comparison.
And whose fault is it that farm-work is lonesome and
monotonous ? Certainly not the fault of the children
born to it. Nor can the trouble be attributed to Dame
Nature, who has given such lavish materials for beautiful
homes. If farmers want to fortify their lofty position in
regard to real " living," and if they want to keep their
children near them, they must make an effort to lighten
the lonesomeness and the monotony, and to create homes
from which the children will not glide away as they grow
older.
Let them try, among other things, the NEIGHBORHOOD
cure. Half a dozen families, settled in neat houses within
"calling" distance of each other, with spacious fruit and
flower-gardens, snug barns and granaries, and a single
wide street adorned with shade trees and neat walks,
would form a community richly productive of good. And
what a charming contrast it would be to the same number
of houses strung lonesomely a mile or more apart !
180 FARM HOMES, IST-DOORS AXD OUT-DOORS.
In the West, where land lines are drawn with geometric
precision, and the comparative newness of the country
makes the plan easily practicable, it is a wonder that farm-
neighborhoods have not sprung naturally into existence.
Four " forties," or four " eighties," or even larger farms,
touching each other at a central point, might have all
their houses, barns, and other buildings collected in a
social and picturesque little settlement at this center.
The cross-roads running through, might be set with shade
trees, and fenced with neat and thrifty hedges. It would
not be a great expense to make narrow gravel or flag
walks on either side of these streets, with pretty rustic
gateways leading into the grounds of each home. In the
center of the small square formed by the intersecting
roads, a well might be sunk, and a pump placed, shaded
by a light rustic roof, and provided with drmking-cup and
trough. Enough blessings, both from man and beast,
would descend upon such an effort, in even one hot and
dusty summer day, to pay the cost of it. One of these
corner homes might maintain a good croquet-ground ;
another, a capital swing large enough to send fathers
and mothers into the air, as well as their children.
Another could furnish a smooth and capacious stretch of
turf for foot-ball and other games ; while the ambition of
the remaining corner might perhaps unfold beautifully
in a comfortable and pleasant reading and club-room,
where, in long winter evenings, the little community might
gather sometimes for the reading and discussion of things
of interest.
An attractivejiucleus like this once formed, a portion, at
least, of the sons and daughters growing up would be apt
to build homes near at hand, and so the growth and
beauty of the neighborhood would increase rather than
diminish under the touch of the swift years.
Where four or five friendly families are gathered together,
it would be no great task for some one of the fathers to
FARM NEIGHBORHOODS. 181
collect the children, in winter weather, into a generous
sleigh-box (I would suggest plenty of sleigh-bells and
warm robes), and take them to school, some other father
going for them at night. The dreariness and inefficiency
of the average country school is bad enough, without sub-
jecting children to the added misery of wading through
miles of snow, and facing biting winds in order to reach
its portal. And just here it may not be out of place to
assert that if even these four or five families would but
take hold of their country school, and resolve to make it
something worthy of the name, a great reform would take
place. If they would see that their school-building is
capable of being decently warmed and decently ventilated ;
that it is kept clean and wholesome, and also free from
the scribblmgs and scrawlings which are now its inevi-
table characteristic ; if they would take one brief day,
and set out a few shade trees and hardy shrubs, and en-
courage the " big scholars " to take care of them ; if they
would cultivate the acquaintance of the teacher ; if they
would visit the school, not on the last day, but every two
or three weeks ; and if every Saturday evening they would
give five or twenty minutes to a review of their children's
progress, the " District School" would speedily become
an institution fit to take in hand the plastic minds and
hearts of innocent children.
Many more or less important advantages would spring
from such a community. Each family subscribing for one
or two first-class magazines and newspapers, a profitable
"circulating library," full of instruction and entertain-
ment, would be the result. Clothes, groceries, and farm-
supplies, could be purchased at wholesale rates, and
divided according to individual orders. Some happy boy,
with a pony and stout leather satchel, could be chosen
mail-carrier to and from the, perhaps, distant post-office,
and there would follow the luxury of a daily paper for
the reading-room, and letters delivered at the door. A
182 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
blacksmith's forge might be maintained, and save many
trips to the village for simple repairs. A large easy
wagon and four horses could occasionally convey the lec-
ture or church-going portion of these families to town,
when there should be something specially worth hearing ;
and the same vehicle would be fine for pic-nic expedi-
tions and harvest frolics. A good sermon, out of the many
now reported in the newspapers, might be selected for
reading at some neighbor's house on rainy or snowy Sun-
days ; and it would be strange if, even in so small a vil-
lage, there might not be an organ and two or three good
voices for the accompanying hymns. Such things do
good, sometimes more good than is obtained in some
stately church, with its imposing fashion and formality.
Sewing-Bees might be held, and the women expeditiously
help each other through the hurr.y of spring and fall
sewing. Husking-frolics and Wood-sawing Socials would
occur ; and what to both men and women is often hard
and monotonous drudgery, would prove almost a recrea-
tion, because of the good clieer of humanity's helpful and
inspiring c ^mpanionship.
Such a NEIGHBORHOOD would be worth while, if only
for its interchange of friendly lights on a stormy Decem-
ber night ! What mother's heart but would beat braver
as she rocks her sick baby in her arms, to know that
three minutes distant, were other mother-hearts ready
with their sympathetic aid and worthy counsel ? What
children but would grow up happier, and better, and more
intelligent from having daily companionship with other
happy, good, and intelligent children ? What man but
would enjoy and profit by the neighborly chat over farm
matters, and political aspects, the neighborly help and
the pleasant competition in making neat and thrifty
homes ?
TO FARMERS' WIVES. 183
CHAPTER XIII.
TO FARMERS' WIVES.
A vigorous and truthful English writer declares that
" unless a woman lives with a sister or a faithful woman-
friend, it must be scored one against her chances for
good health, that she has no wife to take care of her !
There is seldom any one to do for her what she does for
her husband. Nobody reminds her to change her boots
when they are damp, or tenderly jogs her attention as to
draughts, or gives her the little cossetings which so often
ward off colds, headaches, and similarly small ills."
When she is half sick from any of these same petty
ills, she can not, or at any rate will not, turn her back
upon the kitchen and the children, and go off to the com-
fort and quiet of half a day's repose in her bedroom, with
no notion ^of being intruded upon. Her husband would
do this and come out refreshed, and perhaps cured ; but
for herself such "laying off" is generally out of the
question. The bread-sponge will be rising up in judg-
ment against her, the baby will be falling down stairs, or
tumbling into the well ; the morning dishes will be all the
harder to do if left standing ; and then there is the inevita-
ble dinner, and the roaring lions coming home to it by and
by ! Of course, she can not rest. She "drags around"
through the day, and, by leaving a few things undone, gets
to bed by nine o'clock for the much needed rest and sleep,
if she is not too ill to sleep, or if the possible baby does
not disturb her.
It is because of this lack of time for self -nursing that
farmers' wives ought to take the best precautions against
having any illness. "An ounce of prevention" is par-
ticularly valuable to those who have no one to take care
of them when they become ill.
184 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
Maternity is womanhood's shadow ; and, whether glad
or sorrowful in its possession, women are generally fol-
lowed by it into all their professions, whether they be
farm-wives, missionaries, or editors of fashion magazines.
Man seldom has the care of children added to his business
work. It would strike us as a very melancholy sight to
see a man devoting the energies of one arm to a reaper,
while he holds a worrying baby in the other ; or planting
rows of potatoes in the hurry of spring work, while a small
infant follows close at his heels crying to be taken ! Such
a man would expect half the town to rush to his rescue ;
and yet these are like the sights we see in women's work
every day.
It is because of this double burden, so patiently and
often so joyously borne, that women deserve happier lives
and longer lives than they often experience. And the
fault is largely their own that they do not experience them.
Pour upon me no torrent of reproaches, dear reader, but
it is a fact. You do not take care of yourself. In addi-
tion to care of children and husband and the housework,
you have to be mother and nurse to yourself, or else suf-
fer more or less from neglect. Did you ever reflect upon
this fact ? Years ago the blessed mother-hands cared
for you ; you were not over-worked ; you had plenty of
sleep, you had "good times" now and then with your
friends, and, above all, you had something happy and
beautiful to look forward to. Now, you are away from
the brooding mother- wings, and have a brood of your own ;
cares and duties have quite banished the little festivals
and jollifications of the old days ; and the hope and
dream of your life, husband and home, having been
achieved, you have lost the healthful stimulus of a great
hope, and settled into an endless round of housework
seeing away off somewhere a vague glimmer of sweet-by-
and-by rest, with the children grown up into talented
men and women, and still clinging to you with the whole-
TO FARMERS' WITES. 185
hearted love of their childhood. Dear woman, do not
longer be given up to the endless round of dull, unrelieved
labor, or else take you gaze quite away from that distant
glimmer ! Ten to one you will not live to realize such
pleasant hopes ; or, if your life is prolonged, you will find
that talented sons and daughters can not turn with the
old clinging love of their early days to the mother they
have so completely outgrown and distanced to the poor,
old, self-sacrificed mother, shrivelled, both in body and in
mind, with only her faithful, loving heart to feel vaguely
hurt and unsatisfied over the pitying love which her
children can not help showing for her ! Very few of us
can enjoy a regard in which is mixed the element of com-
passion, and such regard, coming from child to parent,
is as painful as anything life affords.
There may be a deep and touching beauty, to some
minds, in such complete body and mind sacrifice of the
mother to housework and child-care ; but it is all wrong,
nevertheless. We may be pardoned for throwing our-
selves into whirlpools, or into the jaws of lions and tigers,
to lose our lives in saving our children ; but to slowly sink,
until we are buried, in the slough of broken-down health
and mental stagnation, is something not to be condoned.
Busy mother, you who are not "taking care" of your-
self, you who are toiling early and late for husband and
children, and bestowing less attention on yourself than
you would naturally give to the commonest four-footed
beast of burden, reflect a moment, and see if it is not a
solemn duty you owe to yourself and to your husband
and children, that you make sure no such future opens
before you ! If you have thus far made a cipher of your-
self, turn a new leaf at once, and commence caring a little
for the wife of your husband and the mother of your
children ! You had a fair stocii of good health and happy
spirits to begin with. What right have you to squander
such precious capital ? If attention to one's own health
186 FARM HOMES, LN"-DOORS AND OTJT-DOOBS.
and well-being looks "selfish," it looks otherwise when
you reflect that upon your health and well-being depends
the happiness and best welfare of the household.
I saw a blessed sight the other day. A lady on the
shady side of fifty (why "shady ?" we ought to say the
golden side of fifty !) going to her bedroom mirror to
fasten some pink and white asters in her hair and at her
collar, before summoning her husband and son to the
neatly spread tea-table that awaited them no sombre
purple tints, such as somehow seem to be chosen by peo-
ple of "years," if any are chosen at all, but the bright,
delicate coleur de rose that youth likes to select ! And
how sweetly they looked in her half-silvered hair, and in
the soft white ruffle under her chin ! Her dress was merely
a striped print, and her white apron of that ample shape
that makes aprons worth while ; but what neatness, and
what faint bewitching scents of lavender and rose-leaves
enveloped her person ! I am afraid she thought she saw
surprise mingled with my glance of admiration, for she
said " Do you think they are too gay for me ?" and added,
as if half apologizing, "The boys like to see me wear
something pretty."
When the "boys" came in to supper I thought to my-
self that the mother's neat, personal ways must have in-
fluenced the other members of the household, for the
working jackets had been exchanged for clean linen coats;
and though very richly tanned, their faces and hands
were clean enough to be kissed by queens, while one look-
ed in vain for the proverbial "hay-seed" in their well
cut and well-brushed hair and beards. And what intel-
ligent and up-to-the-times talk there was from the lips of
these three plain farm-people ! the mother not one whit
behind her " boys," and as dextrous in her views of the
Presidency and Black's n*w story, as in pouring the tea
and dispensing the stewed pears.
I fancied it must have been from a home like this, or
WIVES. 187
what it was before the pretty daughters married and went
away, that our Whittier caught that song of "Life
Among the Hills."
'Twere well if often
To rugged farm-life came the gift
To harmonize and soften.
If more and more \ve found the troth
Of fact and fancy plighted ;
And culture's charm and labor's strength
In rural homes united.
The simple life, the homely hearth,
With beauty's sphere enshrouding,
And blessing toil where toil abounds,
With graces more abounding."
Is not this a pleasanter home-woman to look at than
she who as some one says, "begins by being worth more
than a hired girl at twelve dollars per month, and ends
in a nervous, fretful, empty-minded, ' broken-down ' old
woman at forty-five " ?
Religiously consider, then, a few little rules and regu-
lations that will help you to maintain health and to pre-
serve in yourself the beauty and freshness of mind, and
looks that will make you not only a comfort to yourself,
but a cheering comrade to your husband and the fond
friend and genial companion of your children.
Fresh air, cleanliness of person, comfortable clothing,
nourishing food, sufficient sleep, and occasional recreation
and diversion, are six indispensable requirements for
Good Health. If I were addressing any but a farmer's
wife, or an active home-keeper anywhere, I should add
" plenty of exercise," which you already have.
In summer, where a farm-house is favorably situated,
the morning work in kitchen and dairy, and I trust a
bit of flower garden, is all done in "fresh air." For
the afternoon there is generally a shady porch or a pleas-
ant open window, where pure, blood-sweetening air can
188 FARM: HOMES, IN-DOORS AKD OUT-DOORS.
still be enjoyed ; and at night there should be a window
or two let down from the top in as spacious a sleeping
room as the house will admit of. Small bedrooms ought
never to enter into a house plan. In winter, fresh air is
not so easily obtained, or its absence so easily detected.
Shut up in the house the greater part of the time, you
fail to notice its vitiated atmosphere ; but go out for a
walk or a ride, and you will discover on returning to the
unventilated living-room (it ought to be called a dying-
room !) a "close," impure taint in the air. And this is
the kind of stuff you breathe all the time, unless you
make some arrangements for letting the foul air escape.
You must not tolerate its presence any more than you
would that of toads and snakes. A window let down a
little from the top will permit great quantities of bad air
to escape, and the fresh air will find a way to replace it
somehow. Your husband and school-going children
will find a good deal of their air out of doors, and you
are entitled to the besf you can make of the m-door at-
mosphere.
A room with a warm floor, plenty of sunlight, and an
outlet for impure air, is the only one fit to be chosen for
a winter living or working room.
If you have a bath-room in the house capable of being
comfortably warmed in winter, and affording its cool
showers and douches in summer, with pipes to bring and
carry away water, you have one of the greatest luxuries
of civilization. If you have not such a room, fit up some
closet for the purpose, and have a stove-pipe run through
it from the kitchen or living-room stove or perhaps the
bedroom stove may be placed near enough to warm it
through the open door. If you must depend upon your
own resources for its arrangements, you may be obliged
to content yourself with a common tub large enough to
stand and bathe in without slopping the floor, and a large
tin pail for bringing and carrying away the water. I
TO FAEMEES* WIVES. 189
have seen a half -barrel cut down and, with cushioned
edges, made into a very good sitz-bath tub. (Those made
of zinc or tin cost three or four dollars. ) There should
be a sponge for each individual, and always plenty of dry
towels. A bottle of ammonia and some good Castile
soap should never be wanting. If there is a window for
sunlight to come pouring through for half the day, so
much the better ; the place can then be easily kept dry
and well aired.
And now, after making sure of your fresh air, will you
try, if you have not tried, the rejuvenating influence
of a daily bath ? You may think you have no time for
it. I often notice that those mothers who have "no,
time " have houses and children in spic and span order,
while they themselves look neglected and jaded, and
sometimes, alas ! just a little negligent in their dress.
It is like the vine-leaves and blossoms dancing high up in
the air and sunlight, while low down in the darkness and
shadow grows the unlovely, unnoticed mother-root that
gives them life. Such maternity is more beautiful in
vines than it is in human life. Take a few moments
from your housework and your child-care for yourself.
Once in the habit of a daily bath, it comes as natural and
requires almost as little time as washing your face and
hands. Just before going to bed is the best time for it.
You are not only certain of being uninterrupted, but you
will find yourself so refreshed and "rested" that good
sound sleep will at once follow. Quickness and thor-
oughness will always prevent any " catching cold" or
any disagreeable chill ; and so five minutes is ample time
for an all-over bath. The water should be nearer warm
than cold, and there need not be an ocean of it ; two
quarts in the washbowl, with a few drops of aromatic
ammonia and a large, soft sponge, constitute all that is
needed where baths are taken every day. After the bath
a well-aired night gown of cotton or flannel should be put
190 FARM-HOMES, IN-DOOBS AND OUT-DOORS.
on, and the flannels and chemises worn through the day
hung where they will be accessible to air. Our clothes
are continually absorbing waste and putrid matter through
the pores of the skin, and it is strictly necessary to per-
sonal cleanliness, that day-garments should not be worn
through the night, but be given a chance to throw off
something of the invisible impurities they have collected.
In the morning, the busy morning, when so many
things to be done confront your waking eyes, you have
only to take a dash of cold water on your face, chest, and
arms, and proceed to dress. For this morning ablution
a bottle of brine made from sea-salt is excellent to have
at hand. Pour a little upon a wet cloth, or sponge, and
rub face, breast, and arm-pits. It purifies and invigo-
rates the skin. Sitz-baths in blood- warm water should
be taken once a week for the space of five or ten minutes.
They help prevent many of the diseases and weaknesses
that woman-flesh seems to be heir to.
Secure another five minutes from your twenty-four
hours, and devote it to your hair and teeth. If the scalp
is washed once or twice a week in water in which is dis-
solved a little borax, or in which is mixed a few drops of
ammonia, it will need no raking from ivory teeth, and
the hair will be clean and glossy, especially if thoroughly
brushed with a stiff brush once a day. Never use oils or
pomades. If the hair is too dry and fluffy for comfort
(it cannot be too much so for fashion at present !), ap-
ply to it a little of the mixture of bay-rum and glycer-
ine, which druggists will put up for twenty-five cents.
Every new moon, clip the ends of your hair ; this may be
a "notion," but it is one that repays adoption.
If you have sound teeth, you. cannot be too grateful
for such a possession, and should not grudge giving them
such care as will preserve them, if possible, into old ;ii:v.
Brush them thoroughly at night in soap and w;iU-r. in
which is a drop of the ever useful ammonia, and rinse
TO FAKMEKS' WIVES. 191
mouth and throat in clear water. After each meal but
half a minute will be required to rinse the mouth, so that
no particle of food may remain in the teeth to breed tar-
tar and decay. If there are bad teeth that are past filling,
summon a little grit and have them removed at once ;
as besides being unsightly they are like constant ma-
laria to the lungs. If one is afflicted with bad breath,
even if the teeth are sound, the stomach needs atten-
tion, and a series of charcoal powders with plain diet
will soon correct its evil ways.
White and soft hands are not always compatible with
big ironings and all the miscellaneous work of a farm-
kitchen, but .your hands can receive better treatment
than you perhaps give them. "My mamma's hands
are white, and she wears a pretty ring," boasted one
little four-year old to a playmate who, with pitifully
downcast eyes and mute lips, was realizing the fact
that her mamma's hands were nothing to brag of.
Both these mothers were busy workers, but on^e "took
care" of herself a little, while the other did not, and
kept her rings in a box.
It is not vanity or silliness to make the best of even
our hands. In sweeping floors, polishing stoves, and in
garden work, old gloves should always be worn ; and
there should be plenty of holders about the stove for
managing kettles, and saucepans, and taking things from
the oven. An excellent thing in winter is a thick flan-
nel mitten made large enough to slip on easily, and hung
handily at the back of the stove, to be used in opening
the stove and putting in wood. At night a little glycer-
ine thinned with lemon juice and rubbed on the hands
will tend to keep them soft and prevent roughness and
chapping. This mixture is also excellent for burning
from wind and sun.
Glycerine, borax, ammonia, sea-salt, and lemon juice,
are all cheap and excellent "cosmetics" and aids to
19'<J FARM HOMES, IX-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
cleanliness ; and if to these can be added a bottle of some
pure, delicate perfume, like essence of English violet, or
white rose, your toilet table is quite plentifully supplied.
The next question to consider is comfortable and be-
coming clothing, for notwithstanding the seeming im-
possibility of the task, they can be combined. There
is a happy medium between the grotesque "bloomer" of
thirty years ago and the peacock tails of the present day,
that brave women can and do adopt everywhere, and still
are within that very proper region that is bounded by
the pales of fashion. There is a woman living who years
ago very quietly made for herself some under garments
somewhat like close-fitting basqumes, so that with raws
of buttons around the waists and ruffles at the bottom,
they answered for four articles of dress, viz. , chemise, cor-
set, skirt-supporter, and underskirt. She has worn them
ever since with great comfort and satisfaction, and has
never thought of being strong-minded or blowing a "re-
form " trumpet over her self-emancipation.
If you live anywhere within our so-called temperate
zone, you should wear under flannels throughout the year.
It is not necessary to proclaim their great comfort in
winter, for you are well aware of it ; but you may not
know that you will be cooler and more comfortable in
summer for wearing them, and greatly protected from
chilly morning and evening air, and from sudden changes
in the weather. Summer flannel can be of light quality,
and that made of half wool and half cotton is less liable
to shrink, and answers every purpose of protection.
Those for winter wear should be of all-wool flannel and
made high in the neck, and with sleeves coming below
the elbow. Whether for summer or winter wear, they
should be made long enough to cover the hips. A great
many ladies now wear winter flannels in vest and drawers
combined in one garment, with another "union suit" in
cotton worn over it ; then with a warm balmoral skirt
TO FARMERS' WIVES. 193
and sensible woollen stockings, no more underwear is
quired.
This is such an improvement on the old regulation of
separate under flannels, chemise, drawers, corset, under-
skirt, overskirt, and perhaps a dress divided into a basqua
and two additional skirts, that no woman who has once
tried the delightful comfort of dressing so sensibly will
go back to the irksome and complicated toggery she used
to wear.
Let us dress as comfortably and at the same time as
becomingly as we can. How much of our nervousness,
and irritability, and weariness, might be traced to a drag-
ging skirt, or the compression of half a dozen bands
about the waist, or a "hateful" corset, or an ill-fitting
or out-of -fash ion dress ! To be clean and to be comfort-
ably and tastefully dressed is the condition that is indeed
"next to godliness." Have we not often seen the good
effect of a bath and a clean, nicely-ironed frock or apron
upon some tired, dirt-demoralized little child ? And
what are we but children, to be overcome now and then
by the dust and grime of our work and the depressing
influence of a faded calico ! When we find ourselves in
such sloughs, let us lose no time in getting out of them.
Being a farm-wife, and not accustomed to the more
leisurely mornings of "eight-hour" workers, you must
have clothes into which you can jump, as it were.
And is it not just as easy to jump into a pretty, nicely-
fitting percale or gingham working-costume, with its
clean collar or ruS already basted in the neck, as it
is to jump into a limp, stringy calico "wrapper" of
some dark, ugly pattern, and having about as much
comeliness as a meal-sack with a string tied around
its center? Percales and ginghams cost a trifle more
at the start, but they will outwear and outwash half
a dozen cheap prints ; and besides will always look
fresh and new if light, firm colors are selected.
9
194 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
t There are always to be found neat and simple, and at
e same time stylish patterns for making up these work-
ing suits in one garment, the trimming being put on to
simulate jackets or sacques. The skirts should be made
short enough to escape dust and dew, say within four or
five inches of the floor, and one cannot realize until she
wears a dress so shortened, the increased ease and dis-
patch with which work can be accomplished.
Always maintain a good supply of collars and ruffles.
Their cost ready made is trifling, and they are still
cheaper when made at home ; half a yard of linen,
the same of book-muslin or organdy, and a little edg-
ing, will make up a year's supply for every-day wear;
and no " trifle" adds so much to woman's dress as
something pure and white about the neck, fastened
with a becoming knot of ribbon or an inexpensive little
brooch.
If you make it a rule to baste or pin something of
this sort in the neck of your dress after undressing
at night, it will be something of a help toward expe-
ditious dressing in the morning.
Morning caps of book-muslin, cambric, or lace a cir-
cular piece of the material gathered into a band of velvet
or ribbon to fit the head are exceedingly convenient, and
can be made very becoming; besides, they protect the
hair from dust when sweeping.
Remember that you are to be "mother" to yourself !
You do not permit the children to leave the warm room
and go out in the cold or damp to play without an extra
scarf or cape. You do not Jet them keep on their wet
shoes and damp stockings when they come home from
school on a stormy day. If they have sore throats, and
colds, and little bad feelings, you wrap up their necks,
give them simple remedies, and try to keep them from
getting worse. See that you are half as considerate to
yourself unless you are anxious to leave them mother-
TO FARMERS' WIVES. 195
less ! Don't run out of the heated kitchen to wrestle
with the line full of frozen clothes, bare-headed and
thinly shod. Don't sit up sewing at night and let the
fire go out, thinking it silly to burn wood just for your-
self. Don't sit up at all beyond bedtime hours, unless
it is a case of sickness or some strictly necessary sew-
ing, and then do not go cold and shivering, or faint
and hungry, to bed ; but keep a comfortable fire, and
before retiring take a cup of hot milk and tea, and
some bread and butter, or a bowl of chicken broth or
oyster soup. Never keep damp stockings and shoes on
your feet or sit in a room where you feel chilly. If you
have headache, or backache, or a " wretched cold"
(you will not be troubled with these ills very much if you
take good sanitary precautions against them), do not
try the sometimes too smart remedy of "working it off,"
but coddle yourself to the best of your ability, and let at
least a part of the work await the sure coming of another
day, and do not "fret" about it, else the shirking will
do no good; but just rest a little and get well. Do
not wear tight or dragging clothes. When going to ride
in winter, put on an extra pair of stockings and button
a newspaper or a piece of flannel inside your dress over
your chest and lungs.
Be friendly and good to your stomach. Do not live
on hot biscuits, incessant pork, pie-crust, cake, and del-
uges of tea and coffee. The farm generally affords plenty
of milk, eggs, poultry, wheat, fruit, and vegetables. You
are surrounded with a world of delicious and healthful
foods. As for tea and coffee, they are not food at all,
except for the accompanying sugar and cream. But
one cup of good coffee, or one cup of good tea, does
no one any great harm, and is often the gentle stimulant
and "care-breaker" that a woman needs. It is an out-
rage on the stomach to drown it at meal times with any
kind of fluid, ice-water being the most hurtful of all.
196 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AXD OUT-DOORS.
It is your right to have eight or nine hours out of the
twenty-four for sleep. Let nothing but sickness shove
aside this important corner-stone of health. It is all
wrong to rise at day-dawn in summer, and long before
sunrise in winter, feeling only half rested, and as if you
would "give the world" for one more hour of sleep.
Nothing is gained by lashing nature on to extraordinary
feats of endurance. Sooner or later she will show that
she does not submit to such things without ample re-
venge. If there are portions of the year when farm-
work, and consequently housework, must be rushed, or
it seems necessary to use the "cool of the day," viz., be-
tween four and six o'clock A. M. , an afternoon nap, even
if it lasts but ten minutes, will go far to soothe the nerve-
weariness that comes of lost sleep. Indeed, my home-
keeper, a ten-minute nap is always beneficial to you ; and
when you lay your baby down for his after-dinner repose,
remember that you, too, are in need of a little refreshing
rest. Lie down beside him, or what is better, lie down
away from him, and resolutely close your eyes for fifteen
minutes, whether you sleep or not. You will rise feeling
stronger and clear-headed, and the afternoon work will
come easier to you than if you had plodded on without
stopping.
Plan easily-prepared breakfasts and suppers, and have
the brunt of the day's work in the forenoon, when you
will naturally feel most like grappling with it. There
are some women who are always in a whirlpool of work,
yet they do not accomplish as much as their calmer and
more systematic sisters, who find time for a little reading
or out-door recreation now and then. To rise in the
morning and cook potatoes, bake biscuits, fry or broil
meats, spread the table, attend to small children, and
strain and set away the morning milk, as I have seen
more than one farm-wife do, is enough to tire one out in
the very beginning of the day. A breakfast of white and
197
graham bread, cold roast or boiled meat, hashed pota-
toes, oat or wheat grits, and some kind of fruit, is good
enough for kings and emperors, and it almost cooks itself.
The same bill of fare, varied by an omelet, or milk-toast,
or baked potatoes, or an easily-made johnny cake, an-
swers equally well for supper, and what a vast amount of
flurry and fluster might be saved by its adoption.
Do not neglect that world within your head ! that
brain-world wherein you used to dream fine dreams, and
build many an airy castle ! Do not give up hopes and
aspirations and special tastes. If you once loved to
"twang the guitar," or "sweep the dulcimer," or had a
talent for drawing, or writing for the newspapers, or pos-
sessed a gentle taste for botanizing, and collecting shells
and minerals and butterflies, continue to cultivate the
faculty. A gratified longing for such things is just as
necessary for the mind's welfare as gratified hunger for
beef and vegetables is necessaiy for the physical well-
being. Interest your children in these things, and
among them you will be sure to find more than one eager
and sympathetic co-worker.
Above all, do not turn your back upon good reading.
Subscribe to nothing weak and trashy. A good practical
newspaper, such as treats of the household, the garden,
and the farm, and some first-class journal filled with
stories, poems, sketches, and science articles, by talented
and scholarly authors, are worth tons of "pictorials"
and cheap romances.
Have something "going forward," if it is nothing
more than the cultivation of new kinds of strawberries
and chickens, a winter reading club of three or four
neighbors, or a pleasant little annual excursion, or
"camp-out," on some lake-side or mountain-top with
your children. Beware of the " all work and no play "
that breaks down health and spirits, and starves the
mind." And do not depend entirely upon your husband
198 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
|
for all the happiness and good cheer of your life, else you
will sometimes be disappointed and disheartened. Di-
verting occupations, friendship, good books, and the care
and companionship of children, will healthfully fill any
voids in your heart that otherwise might ache ; and at
any rate you will be cared for none the less if you prove
yourself able to worry along without constant adoration.
In a word, take care of yourself physically, mentally,
and spiritually, and we shall see fewer sad-faced, hope-
less-eyed women in our farm-homes, and fewer bereaved
husbands casting about for their second and third wives.
CHAPTER XIV.
REARING AND TRAINING OF CHILDREN.
Every mother should bear in mind that it is easier to
keep children well than it is to cure them after they be-
come ill. A few simple rules, faithfully and unflinch-
ingly observed, would banish nine-tenths of the sicknesses
among children that too often lead to fatal results.
Give them in the first place plenty of love expressions
of love ! Oftentimes fathers and mothers deeply love
their children, yet show such little evidence of affection
that the children are apt to have a forlorn feeling that it
doesn't exist at all. An occasional word of praise, a
caress, an expression of sympathy these are necessary to
healthy and happy child-life as summer-showers to grow-
ing vines. Especially bear this in mind, they should never
go to bed cold, or hungry, or unhappy.
Let them have plenty of healthy and palatable food,
at regular hours. Small children should have a slice of
bread and butter, or an apple, or some simple "bite,"
half way between meals, and nothing more in the Way of
REARING AND TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 199
lunches. It is the constant nibbling and <( piecing " that
does harm. Never force a child to eat anything he has
a real dislike for. When plain food is declined because
of the more tempting dessert ahead, it is a different
affair ; but I have seen little children compelled to eat
things, when every mouthful would be swallowed with
tremendous effort and genuine disgust. Some of us have
an utter abhorrence of onions or tomatoes, or codfish, or
some article of food that ought to be relished. How would
we like to have some mighty giant put such food upon
our plates, and compel us to eat it amid wild nourishes
of his knotted club ? Would we sweetly feel that the
dear giant knew what was best for us, and proceed to
swallow every mouthful ? or would we say to ourselves
" We'll eat it, because we must, but we hate it all the
same, and we hate you, too !" Children have as much
right to their likes and dislikes as we have to ours.
Thorough, all-over baths should be given to the little
people once a week, at least, and in summer oftener.
They should be given in comfortable rooms, out of
draughts, and the water should never be colder than new
milk. Rub the skin thoroughly dry with coarse soft
towels, and put on the night-dresses or clothing imme-
mediately. Often severe colds and fever attacks can be
broken up by giving the bath as warm as it can be borne,
putting the child comfortably to bed, laying a handker-
chief wrung from cold water on the forehead, or where-
ever the ache is, and giving him- all the cold water and
pounded ice that he wants. One mother writes that she
has never had any serious sickness in her family of five
children. At first complaints of headache, thirst, weari-
ness, and "toothache in the legs," as our little girl
called it, she undresses and gently bathes the child, puts on
a warm, comfortable wrapper, and lays him in bed, rub-
bing the " toothache " with her hands for a few minutes,
and perhaps staying to tell a pleasant story, or to sing a
200 FAEM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
lullaby, if the child is small. If she must attend to
housework, she leaves the bedroom door open, so that
while the patient is composed and quiet, he still has the
feeling of not being left alone. In almost every instance
a sweet, restful slumber follows ; and, by extra attention
to diet and out-door wraps, the child is as well as ever in
twenty-four hours/' This modest mother does not lay any
stress on her pleasant stories and lullabys, but no doubt
her gentle and cheerful "way" with her children goes
far to banish the demons of serious sickness.
Children should always wear flannel vests thin and
light for summer, and of heavier quality, long sleeved
and high-necked, for winter, and always long enough to
cover the hips. Flannel over the bowels, especially for
teething children, is very beneficial. It is no wonder
that the " second summer " is a trying one for the babies,
since they are often clad in thin, short, cotton garments,
in which they are exposed to all the variations of atmos-
phere between sunrise and bedtime.
Be sure that children have comfortable clothing cloth-
ing that never pinches or scratches, or feels as if slipping
off. It is not in human nature, young or old, to tran-
quilly endure irritable clothing, and boots or shoes that
torture. Make the clothes, firstly, to be comfortable ;
secondly, to be neat and becoming. Flannels should
always be loose, and waists well fitting, but not in the
least tight, and provided with buttons for drawers and
skirts. The only garters fit to be worn are those of elastic
that fasten to the waist and top of the stockings. They
cost fifteen or twenty cents, and by supplying fresh elastics
now and then, will last through a whole childhood. It is
said to be beneficial for children to go barefooted during
hot weather, but a good lookout must be maintained for
the broken glass, nails, and the rubbish that sometimes
abounds on uncivilized premises ; and no expedition to
field or woods should be entered upon without long stock-
REARING AN"D TRAINING OF CHILDREN". 201
ings and stout boots or shoes. In winter some inside
soles of felt, or even of thick paper, add much to the
warmth and dryness of the feet ; and ear-muffs and wrist-
lets, though small enough in themselves, are big rein-
forcements against chills and frost-bites that otherwise
will come.
Never hamper and torment childreff with clothes that
are "too nice "to be anything but wretched in. They
may be taught reasonable care in regard to soiling their
clothes, but to see a child in a constant spiritual straight-
jacket, for fear the mud-cakes, or the game of marbles,
or the jolly romp will soil the knees, or "muss" the
apron, or dissarrange the hair, is an indication of idiotic
parentage. There are cheap, light, half-wool fabrics,
sold in gray, and in brown plaids and stripes, that, piped
with bright colors, make up into excellent dresses or
blouses for little folks, being just as cool as print and
gingham, requiring no starching when washed, and not
soiling or rumpling easily.
Let the children have plenty of sleep. I have seen
young children, almost infants, wakened and made to
get up two hours before their natural sleep was finished,
merely because it was thought best that they should "eat
breakfast with the others." Again, imagine yourself
in the hands of a giant, and being hauled out of bed
while in the midst of profound and refreshing slumber,
just for the privilege of eating breakfast with a lot of
other giants who grin at you if you are cross, and per-
haps vigorously spank you, some one of them, if you say
or do anything expressive of your wretched feelings.
There are no healthy children who take more sleep than
they need; and yet we often see young boys "routed"
before sunrise and set to work, with empty stomachs and
dizzy heads, at chores that might just as well await the
coming of a decent ho-ur. Let us all pray to be preserved
from that slashing, mule-headed, and generally ignorant
202 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
farmer who "drives" everything before him, including
his wife and children ! In the long run he comes out a
good ways behind his more efficient and more enlight-
ened neighbor, who takes things easily and does things
pleasantly, and steers clear of that kind of haste which
makes waste. The first step toward making boys "hate
the farm " is to cut down their rightful hours of sleep,
and make the beginning of every day thoroughly wretched
to them.
Children can hardly be too much in the "open air."
We all observe how much healthier and happier they are
in the bright dry weather with which we are blessed for
a portion of the year. With the long, cold rains of
autumn begins the dismal time for birds and children ;
and even we grown people, in spite of our work and our
mental resources, feel depressed and saddened. To the
children's loss of soft breezes, warm sunlight, and the
freedom of all out- doors, is added the crushing knowledge
that they "make tracks," that they "litter the carpet,"
and they "kill people with their noise." In our North-
ern States there will be five or six months of this sort of
thing. Now, much of the winter discomfort to all par-
ties might be saved if children had such clothes as would
enable them to be out at play a part of the time even in
forbidding weather. No matter how coarse and plain
the clothes if they are warm and stout, and as waterproof
a possible. An investment in thick, high-buttoned
over-shoes, and extra cloaks and jackets is, of course,
pleasanter and less expensive than an investment in
doc tor- visits. To be sure doctor-visits are not always the
alternative, but the better the regimen under which
children live, the fewer visits of this sort. As for
" toughening " children by sending them half -dressed in
the damp or biting air, none but ignorant and stupid
parents do such things, our churchyards are already suf-
ficiently full of little graves. Give the children warm
BEARING AND TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 203
feet, something over their ears, and good staunch flannels
between them and Jack Frost, and they will grow up
far stronger and " tougher " than the poor little shiver-
ing ones who have to pull their heads into their shoulders
and huddle themselves together like calves in a winter's
storm, for lack of sensible clothes.
It is a fact that country children suffer for want of
pleasant and improving amusements. Says a writer in
one of our farm monthlies :
"A. small dwelling, stable, cornfield, working team,
farm tools, and the usual farm stock comprise the home
companions and articles connected with the employment
and every-day life of seventy-five per cent of farmers'
children. Day by day they meet with these or some of
them, their monotonous life goes on ever the same, and
their love for the beautiful lies undeveloped and dormant ;
their opinions and tastes are unheeded, or are not brought
out, and finally that which might be developed into
something really praiseworthy, becomes seared and hard-
ened until at last, when more mature, they find employ-
ment only in the commonest and cheapest pursuits of
life. No kind of stock possesses so many attractions for
the little chaps as poultry ; the hidden nest, the smooth
white eggs daily renewed, the w r aiting and watching for
the hatching day, the dozen little downy chicks running
about the coops, their change to full-grown chanticleers,
with brilliant garb and prolonged crows, all have their
influence and tend to inspire the youngsters with love
and admiration, and to develop a lasting fondness for
the beautiful throughout the brute creation."
To the chickens there might be added, with little ex-
pense, a few handsome ducks and .a pair of rabbits.
And if the home be near a brook, a trout pond might be
manufactured, which would be not only a joy to the boys,
but a very good thing for the breakfast-table, occasion-
ally, during the trout season.
204 FARM HOMES, IK-DOORS AXD OUT-DOORS.
A genuine shepherd dog, a good-natured and a faithful
animal who knows almost everything, would be a capital
companion for the children in their sports and wander-
ings, and very useful for watching and for bringing up
the sheep and the cows.
Every farmer should possess a workshop, with a fair
supply of tools. He will find it a great convenience in
case of simple mechanical jobs to be done ; and it will
seem marvellous, the amount of attraction a few boards,
a plane, and hammer and nails, will have for an ingenious
boy on a stormy day ! The garret might be fitted up for
a "carpenter's shop," or a small comfortable lean-to
might be added to the woodshed, or a part of the wood-
shed itself marked off for this use. The shop should be
well lighted, and have conveniences for a fire in cold
weather ; and an ungrudged supply of lumber and neces-
sary tools will weigh but lightly in the scales against
the useful occupation and the self-teaching in mechanical
ideas which will be afforded the boys, and the added at-
traction they will find in their farm 'homes.
All work and no play not only makes Jack a dull boy,
but it is very apt to make him a surly and unpleasant
boy. We are all surly and unpleasant when we are put
to work week in and week out, with no breaking away
from the tread-mill, into the green fields of restful, happy
recreation, no pleasant hope or kindling aspiration fling-
ing its radiance over the dull, every-day things about us.
Give Jack a share in the wheat-crop, or in the corn-
field, in which he has toiled. Give it to him to do as he
likes with, instead of spoiling the deed with the stingy
proviso that it must be "laid out" in brown-drilling,
brogans, and winter shirts !
Let him and his brothers and chums try a week or two
of "camping out " in the pleasant fall weather ; and go
sometimes yourself, my farmer, and try the taste of
broiled quail and squirrel-stew under the forest trees, A
REARING AND TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 205
capital, and at the same time very practical, little book on
"Camping Out" was published two or three years ago.
It is full of helpful instruction about making tents,
building camps, what supplies are needed, how to cook
game, and how to make the whole business a comfortable
and jolly recreation, instead of a laborious pursuit of
bad colds ! Every boy should have this book.
If you wish your children to love you, and also to
respect you, do not be constantly scolding and nagging
them. Calm, earnest rebuke is one thing, and snappish,
angry scolding is another. We often see children in-
stantly and cheerfully obey the father, while the mother
drives them with little pushes and repeated commands,
and sometimes a shake or a blow, before her wishes are
acceded to. Why is there this difference ? Because the
father is of few words and means what he says, and the
poor mother is a worried, nervous, fluttering woman,
without dignity or self-control, and consequently unable
to control others.
A scolding tongue is worse than a hornet's nest or a
drizzling rain in the house. It irritates, embitters, and
discourages. It never softens and convinces, and gently
conquers. If we grown-up people endure " scolding "
with such bad grace, consider its effect on the still more
sensitive soul of childhood. Better a good rousing tem-
pest, followed by clear deep skies of love and joy and
peace, than a continual dripping of fine but excessively
dampening sleet, and a perpetual east- wind of rebuke and
fault-finding !
Do not break your promise to the children, no matter
how trifling they may seem to you, any more than you
would evade some sacred pledge to a cherished friend.
What should the children be but cherished friends ? If
you would have them true and loyal, and "as good as
their word," you must be perfectly true to yourself in
your dealings with them. There is too much of tricky
206 FARM HOMES, IK-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
deception and mean "putting off" in our conduct with
the confiding, earnest-hearted children. They are not
slow to see through sham excuses and lying subterfuges ;
and woe unto you as a parent, if you succeed in estab-
lishing yourself in their clear judgment as a " humbug."
Do not shame and humiliate a child before strangers,
or even before other members of the family. Punish-
ment or rebuke ought to be between just the two persons,
the parent and the child. Yet it is a common thing to
see ill-bred parents " showing off " their authority before
visitors, and making children perfectly wretched and
overwhelmed with confusion about little misdemeanors
that need but a word, and that word privately addressed
to them.
I shall never forget the sight of a sensitive little girl to
whom her mother called the attention of a tea-tableful of
yisifcors, because she had taken a too large bite of some
yery nice jelly-cake she was eating. The child first
glanced appealingly at her mother, with eyes that might
have pierced the heart of a savage, then turned her shy
gaze around upon the circle of smiling faces, and dropping
her face into her napkin, began to sob as if her heart was
breaking. There are plenty of children who would not
have minded such speech and such looks directed to them,
and would have serenely munched on. But this little
lady, being so sensitive to rudeness, felt differently. I
expected that the mother would at least leave her to her-
self, or allow her to leave the room, now the mischief was
done ; but, no, she was compelled to stop crying, hold up
her head, and finish her supper. The feat required some
time, it seemed as if the poor thing would burst a blood-
vessel in trying to swallow her sobs and appear calm, but
in three or four minutes she was indeed holding her head
up and " finishing" her supper, fumbling through a blur
of silent tears for the toothsome cake that was now no
more to her than so much saw-dust. The mother, with
REARING AND TRAINING OF CHILDREN, 207
a toss of triumph, then graciously consented to change
the subject. Such treatment of children is nothing less
than brutal.
The " awkward age " in boys renders them often deeply
sensitive to being rebuked or criticised before visitors,
and especially before their own friends. If you are a true
and sympathetic mother, you will gracefully help your
boy out of little mishaps, and quietly pass over his faults
and blunders, until you can speak to him at the right
time. A boy wants a reliable, faithful, kind-hearted
friend in you, and not an anxious, constantly-nagging gov-
erness. Somebody has said " There is nothing so beauti-
fully chivalrous as the love of a big boy for his mother.
I never yet knew a boy to ' turn out ' badly, who began
by falling in love with his mother." It would very much
brighten and reform our social world, if we could see
more of this happy, trustful, thoughtful devotions of boys
for mothers. And how is it to be had unless the mothers
are wise, faithful, high-minded, yet tenderly sympathetic
friends of their boys ?
Angry punishments are always avoided by the best
parents. Very few of us, while in our right minds, will
fly at a child and give him furious, unexplained blows.
We should choose people of our own size for such out-
breaks, and then we may possibly receive what we richly
deserve in return. There are not many children that are
improved by being whipped ; and angry whippings, such
as are often given, lower and belittle the parent, and
make him hateful, not only to the child, but to himself,
if he has any conscience. There are ways of punishment
that spare the self-respect and dignity of the child, pos-
sessions to which he has a divine right, and at the same
time detract nothing from the self-respect and dignity of
the parent.
. The child can be deprived, not of his supper, for that
would be a physical injury, but of some special privilege
208 FARM HOMES, IX-DOORS AXD OUT-DOORS.
or amusement, or to some expected good thing to which
he was looking forward. Such a punishment is felt all
through, is well remembered, and need not occur but
rarely.
Never put children into dark closets or cellars as a
means of punishment. Nervous children have been per-
manently injured by such stupid cruelty. Spare them as
far as possible, all ghost-stories, practical " scares " and
evil shocks of all kinds.
Finally, since we cannot be perfect in any of the offices
to which we are "elected" in this life, since with earnest
effort, and hour-by-hour striving, we can only not repeat
the blunders and short-comings of yesterday, and try to
make fewer to-day, let us be as just and gentle as we
know how to be to the children who are with us now.
And when moments come in which we almost forget our-
selves, and give way to impatience and anger, and harsh
vengeance that will leave their ugly shadows upon us, let
us think how swiftly the years are bearing our children
away ! let us think how surely the time will come when,
in the still, orderly autumn of life, we will be yearning
to give all our possessions for one of those same hard-
working, noisy, nerve-trying blessed old days with " THE
CHILDREN."
CHAPTER XV.
RULES FOR RIGHT LIVING.
1. Keep the body clean. The countless pores of the
skin are so many little dram-tiles for the refuse of the
system. If they become clogged and so deadened in
their action, we must expect to become the prey of iU-
health in some one of its countless forms. Let us not
BULES FOR RIGHT LIVING. 209
be afraid of a wet sponge and five minutes brisk exercise
with a crash towel every night or morning.
2. Devote eight hours out of the twenty-four to sleep.
If a mother is robbed of sleep by a wakeful baby, she
must take a nap sometime during the day. Even ten
minutes of repose strengthens and refreshes, and does
good "like a medicine." Children should be allowed to
sleep until they awake of their own free will.
3. Never go out to work in early morning in any
locality subject to damps, fogs, and miasrns, with an
empty stomach. If there is not time to wait for a cup
of coffee, pour two-thirds of a cup of boiling water
on tAvo teaspoonfuls of cream, or a beaten egg, season it
with salt and pepper, and drink it while hot before going
out. This will stimulate and comfort the stomach, and
aid the system in resisting a poisonous or debilitating
atmosphere.
4. Avoid over-eating. To rise from the table able to
eat a little more is a proverbially good rule for every one.
There is nothing more idiotic than forcing down a few
mouthfuls, because they happen to remain on one's
plate, after hunger is satisfied, and because they may be
"wasted" if left ! It is the most serious waste to over-
tax the stomach with even half an ounce more than it
can take care of.
5. Avoid foods and drinks that plainly "disagree"
with the system. Vigorous out-door workers should
beware of heavy, indigestible suppers. Suppers should
always consist of light, easily-digested foods, being, in
the country, soon followed by sleep, and the stomach
being as much entitled as the head to profound rest.
The moral pluck and firmness to take such food and no
other for this last meal of the day can be easily acquired,
and the reward of such virtue is sound sleep, a clear
head, a strong hand, and a capital appetite for breakfast.
210 FARM HOMES, IX-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS.
6. Never wear at night the undergarments that are
worn through the day.
7. Cultivate sunlight and fresh air. Farmers' wives
"fade" sooner than city women, not alone because they
work harder and take no care of themselves, but because
they stay so closely in-doors, and have no work or re-
creation that takes them out into the open sunlight. It
is a singular fact that women in crowded cities generally
get more sunshine and pure air than their hived up
country sisters.
8. Have something for the mind to feed upon, some-
thing to look forward to and live for, beside the round
of daily labor or the counting of profit and loss. If we
have not any talent for writing splendid works on politi-
cal economy or social science, or the genius of creating a
good story or a fine poem, the next best thing, and in
fact almost as good a thing, is to possess an appreciation
of these things ! So have good books and good news-
papers, and read them, if only in snatches, and talk about
them at dinner-time or by the evening fire. Cultivate
choice flowers and fruits, and help some poor neighbor
to seeds and cuttings, or take an interest in bees, or fine
poultry, or trout culture. And study always farm and
household science, and take advantage of the new and
helpful things that are every little while coming to light.
9. Live in Peace ! Fretting, worrying, fault-finding,
borrowing trouble, giving away to temper, and holding
long, bitter grudges, all these things affect the liver,
poison the blood, enlarge the spleen, carve ugly lines on
the face, and shorten life ! Try to be half as wise at that
little creature, the bee, who takes all the honey she can
find, and leaves the poisons to themselves.
INDEX.
PAGE.
Air, Pure, Secure 27
Annuals, A Few Desirable 90
Antirrhinum 90
Asters 90
Balsams 90
Buttercups 90
Coreopsis .. 90
Candytuft 90
Cypress Vine 90
Lavender 91
Mignonette 91
Nasturtiums 91
Pnnsies 91
Petunias 92
Salvias 92
Sweet Alyssum 90
Sweet Peas 90
Verbenas 93
Annuals, Seeds of 89
Annuals, Transplanting 89
Apples, Varieties for Garden 113
Autumn Leaves, Ferns, etc., for
decorating Windows 40
Bath-Rooms 25
Bay- Windows 15
Bay-Windows, Substitute for 14
Bed, A Good 44
Bedroom, The Spare 42
Bedrooms, Ventilation of 26
Bedrooms, Warmed 176
Beef, Mutton, and Fowls 162
Berries 114
Blackberries 115
Currants 115
Gooseberries 115
Raspberries 114
Strawberries 114
Borders at Top of Tinted Walls. . . . 34
Boys' Room, The 48
(211)
PAGE.
[.Graham 120
Substitutes for 120
Wheat 119
When Fit to be Eaten 120
Building 9
Four Essentials in 14
Site, Improvement of ... 11
Site, Selection of , 10
Bulbs and Plants, Hardy 86
Bulbs, Summer 93
Dahlias 94
Gladiolus 94
Jacobean Lily 94
Tritoma Uvaria 94
Tuberose 93
Butter, Coloring in Winter .*. 80
"Grain 1 ' of 79
Salting the 79
Butter-Making 75
Cake 147
Calcimine 33
Calcimine, Delicate Tints 33
Candies, Home-made 150
Cellar, Clean, Dry, for Milk 76
Cheese 80
"Sage" 81
"Stilton" and "Cheddar".. 80
Whole-Milk 81
Churns 79
Cleanliness in Dairy -Room 78
Climbing Vines 97
Children, Rearing and Train ing... 198
Conveniences, Modern, for Kitchen 64
Cows for Home Dairy 77
Cows, Good Care of 76
Cream from One Milking Churned
by itself 79
Cream, The Beauties of 141
Cupboard with Glass Doors 67
INDEX.
PAGE.
Cupboards and Drawers 5>3
Custards and Puddings 138
Dairy-Room, The 75
Decorations, ''Knack "for 35
Dining-Room, The 68
Dining-Rooms, Woodwork Finish. 35
Drainage 28
Dumb-Waiter in Dairy -Room 76
Earth Closets 30
Eggs and Milk, Value of 135
Essentials, the Four 14
Farm Neighborhoods 178
Farmers' Wives 183
Farm-House, Cheerful Western 21
Filth, Preventable 28
Finishing 32
Fire-Board 39
Fire-Place ... . . 37
Fish.
.157
Flower-Beds, Varieties of Shape. . . 85
Flower- Borders, Location of 86
Flower Garden, The ... 82
Foods, Some Best Methods of Pre-
paring them 117
Foods, The Best 117
Foot- Blankets 1- 45
Fruits. Canned 129
Fruits, Fresh and Preserved 12C
Fruit Trees, Garden 113
Furnishing 41
And Ornamenting Boys' Room. 48
Girls' Room 59
Mother's Room 56
Tasteful and Inexpensive 41
the Dining Room 69
the Parlor 71
Furniture, Old-Fashioned for Old
People's Room 53
Gases, Bad, No Excuse for 29
Girls' Room > 59
Glass-Panels, Ornamented, for Man-
tel 38
Grapes 115
Grapes and Pears for the Holidays.. 176
Hall for Daily Use 25
Lighting the 25
Windows 39
Halls 24
Halls, Cheerless 25
Hardy Plants, A Few Desirable.... 86
Hats and Caps, Regular Place for. . 24
Health Laws, Disregard of 28
PAGE.
Hearth, Open, Delightful 37
Home, Build it now 13
Hot-Bed, How to Make 112
House, Finishing in the 32
One-Story, Plan of 18
Small, on Picturesque Knoll ... 19
Well-lighted 17
Without Sunlight 16
House-Plans, Studying the 12
Houses, Cool, in Summer 174
Ice-Cream without a Freezer 173
Ice-House, An 171
Kitchen, Large and Pleasant 63
Small Wing for 18
The 63
Waste 29
Wood- Work Finish 35
Floor, Oiling the 65
Furniture 66
Window 15
Lambrequin for Mantel 38
Lilies, A Few Good 87
Living, Right, Rules of 208
Luxuries, A Few Simple 171
Mantels 37
Milk and Eggs, Value of 135
Milk, Straining into Pans 79
Milk-House 75
Mother's Room 55
Mottoes, Appropriate 47
Oatmeal 104
Omelets 1 36
Old People's Room 52
Parlor, The 71
Paths or Walks in Garden 86
Peaches 117
Pears 116
Pickles and Catsups 133
Pictures for Bedroom Walls 47
Pics 143
Pillow and Sheet Shams 45
Plans for Building 12
Plans for Small Houses 20
Plants, Hardy 88
Plums 116
Preserves, Choice 130
Privy, Old-fashioned 30
Privy Vaults, Dry Earth or Ashes
for 31
Puddings and Custards 138
Rag-Carpet 44,56
Recipes (see Index, pages 202-204).
IKDEX.
213
PAGE.
Refrigerator, Home-made 172
" Remember Mother " 50
Rennets 80
Rice 123
Rooms without Flies 174
Roses 96
Rugs, Pretty 44
Salads 155
Sauces for Fish and Meat 160
Scent-Jar 175
Shower- Bath, Sprinkling-pot 26
Shrubs, Hardy 93
Sink, Zinc-lined, in Kitchen 05
Site, The, for Building 10
Small Fruits 113
Soups 152
Spare Bedroom, Furnishing the 44
Stove, Open, in Bedroom 27
Straw-matting for Bedroom 43
Sunlight 14
Toilet-table, Dry-goods Box 45
Vegetable Garden, The 105
Asparagus 106
Beans ...107
Beets 107
Cabbage 107
Carrots 109
Cauliflower 108
Celery 108
Corn, Sweet 108
Cucumbers 108
Egi: Plant 109
Herbs 112
Lettuce 109
PAGE.
Vegetable Garden, Melons 109
Onions 109
Parsley ...110
Parsnips 109
Peas no
Peppers no
Potatoes no
Pumpkins no
Radishes Ill
Spinach ill
Squashes Ill
Sweet Corn 108
Tomatoes Ill
Turnips Ill
Vegetables, Recipes for Cooking. . . 168
Ventilation 26
Ventilation. Cheap Simple 27
Ventilator, Revolving 27
Verandas 16
Wall-Paper 35
Water Filter 173
Whi tewash, An Excellent 34
Window-Plants 98
Callas 102
Foliage Plants 101
Fuchsias 100
Geraniums 98
Heliotropes 101
Monthly Roses 102
Window-Plants, Suggestions for
Beginners 103
Windows, Bay 15
Wood-work 35
Wood-work Finish, Staining the. . . 36
INDEX TO RECIPES.
PAGE.
Apple Cream 1&3
Apples, Baked 132
Apples. Sweet, Steamed 132
Beans. Baked with Pork 167
Beef, Corned 163
Dried, and Cream 164
Potted 163
Roast 162
Beefsteak. Stuffed 163
Bread, Corn, Steamed 123
Cake 147
Bread 149
Christmas Cookies 150
Corn Starch 148
Cream 150
Doughnuts 150
Gingerbread, Alum 149
Gingerbread, Plain 149
Jelly. Roll 148
Lady Fingers 149
Orange 148
Pioneer Johnny 122
Sponge 147
Tea 150
Cakes, Green Corn 12-2
Calf's Liver 166
Candies, Home-made 150
Cream 150
lion-hound 151
Molasses 151
Nuts, Crystallized 151
Peppermint Drops. 151
Pop-Corn, Crystallized 151
Pop Corn Balls 151
Catsups and Pickles 133
Charlotte Russe, Fine 142
Charlotte Russe, Simple 142
(314)
PAGE.
Cherries, Currants and Grapes, To
Crystallize 132
Chickens, Fried 165
Crackers, Corn Starch 122
Cream, Bavarian 142
Gravy 143
Shells 143
Substitute for 143
Whipped, with Fruits 142
Currants, Pretty Dish 133
Custard, Baked 138
Boiled 138
Cocoanut 138
Corn-Starch 1S8
Custards and Puddings 138
Fish 157
Baked 157
Boiled 158
Br iled ... 158
Cod, Fresh. Boiled 159
Cod, Salt, Broiled 159
Codfish and Cream 159
Codfish Cakes 159
Fried 158
Oysters, Canned, Roasted 160
Fried 160
Scalloped.. 159
Stewed..... 160
Fruits, Canned 129
Apples 129
Blackberries 12!)
Blueberries 129
Currants 129
Peaches 129
Pears 129
Plums 1-29
Raspberries 129
IXDEX TO RECIPES.
215
PAGE.
Fruits, 'Canned, Strawberries 129
Goose, Roast 106
Grits, Corn, Baked 121
Ham, Boiled 164
Jelly, Apple and Plum 132
Currant 131
Grape 132
Lamb, Roast 103
Marmalades, General Rule 130
Meats, Cold, Good Form of 164
Muffins, Cora 121
Rice 123
Wheat 121
Mush, Corn, Fried 123
Oatmeal 125
Wheat 118
Mutton, Leg of, Boiled 164
Omelets 136
Cheese... 137
Cream 136
Ham 137
Sweet 137
Vegetable 137
Pears, Baked 132
Pickles and Catsups 133
Catsup, Tomato 133
Chow-Chow 134
Crab Apples, Spiced 133
Cucumber Pickles 134
Cucumbers, Salted 134
Currants, Spiced 1:33
Mixed Pickles 134
Onions, Pickled 135
Peaches, Spiced 133
Tomatoes, Green, Spiced 133
Pies 143
Apple, No. 1 144
Apple, No. 2 145
Cream 145
Custard 145
Hasty 147
Lemon 145
Mince 147
Mock-Cream 145
Orange 145
Paste or Crust, A Good 144
Paste or Crust, Another 144
Pumpkin 146
Rhubarb 146
Pigeons, Stewed 166
Pork, Roast 163
Salt.No.1 164
PA^E.
Pork, Salt, No. 2 165
Preserves, General Rule 130
Pudding Bread, Simple 140
Bread Simple, No. 2 140
Christmas 140
Christmas, Sauce for 140
Corn-Meal, Baked 139
Corn-Meal, Steamed 139
Corn-Starch 139
Fruit, Boiled 140
Rice 141
Rice, Bird's Nest 141
Rice, Rock 141
Tapioca and Sago 139
Puddings and Custards 138
Puffs, Cream 121
Puffs, Graham 121
Quails. Roasted 166
Quinces, Baked 132
Rolls, Sunday Morning 122
Salads 155
Cabbage. No. 1 156
Cabbage, No. 2 156
Chicken 157
Dressing, French 156
Dressing, Plain, for 1E5
Ham 156
Lettuce 156
Potato 156
Spinach, No. 1 157
Spinach, No. 2 157
Sauces for Fish and Meats ICO
Boiled Egg, for Baked and
Boiled Fish 161
Broiled Meat and Fish, for 161
Brown, for Cutlets, Steaks, and
Potted Meats 161
Butter, Drawn 161
Cold, for Cold Roast Beef 162
Currant Jelly, for Baked Veni-
son 162
Mint, for Roast Lamb 161
Holland, for Boiled Fish, Cab-
bage, Asparagus, etc 161
Horse Radish, for Roast Beef
and Beefsteak 160
Oyster, for Roast Turkey 161
Parsley, for Boiled Fish or Fowll61
R.oast Beef Gravy 4 .162
Tomato, for Mutton Chops 162
Soups 152
Bean 153
216
INDEX TO RECIPES.
PAGE.
Soups, Beef, Plain 154
Chicken 153
Green Corn 152
Mutton Broth 153
Oyster 155
Palatable for Sick Person ..... 154
Pea 152
Potato 153
Salsify 153
Seasonings for 155
Tomato 153
Vefel 154
Vegetable Oyster 153
Sunday Morni ng Rolls 122
Turkey, Roast 165
Veal, Pressed 166
Vegetables 168
PAGB
Vegetables, Cauliflower 1C9
Celery 170
Egg Plant 110
Onions, Boiled 170
Parsnips 169
Parsnip Fritters 170
Potato Snow 168
Potatoes, Baked 169
Potatoes, Boiled 168
Potatoes, Breakfast 169
Potatoes, Steamed 1C8
Squash. Boiled 170
Squash Fritters 170
Sweet Corn, Nice Variation 170
Turnips, Rutabaga 169
Wheat, Boiled 118
Yeast, A Good 120
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ
SCIENCE LIBRARY
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