Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1891 — HEAL RURAL READING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HEAL RURAL READING

WILL. BE FOUND IN THIS DEPARTMENT Of Interest to the Farmer, Dairyman. Gardener, Housewife und Kitchen Maid— General Notes. THE FA KM. Money- Making tor Farmers’ Wives.

BOUNTRY women living near towns o r cities have many ways of “turning an honost penny,” if \ thoy but keep \ eyes and earsopen 1 to the wants of ;j!jH| those dwelling in I town. . / One way is to \Jn sell cold corn meal mush. Make it in fy cakes or squares, r latter preferable, of suitable size to Wg slice for frying, and sell one large sh. enough for four ooople for five

cents. One's grocer, if one be a regular customer, would sell them, but a bettor way would bo to go from house to house, delivering and taking orders. One woman, whom we know, sells yeast to her neighbors. It could also bo sold by the grocer, if it wore known to Do always good, for housekeepers complain that factory-made yeast is often poor. Another lady adds several dollars to her income by selling the soft cheese made from thick, sour milk. She prepares it ready for the table, and takes it to her grocer by the quantity, and he sells it by the pound, charging her a small commission. We do not remember how it retails, but we do know that we have gladly paid our milkman five cents a pound for dry cheese, afterward adding cream and seasoning at pur own expense. Still another raises large quantities of melons and cucumbers. The latter she engages to grocers at so much per dozen, and packs them down in salt by the barrel. Home-made pickles of all kinds find a ready sale, if they are engaged to the grocer early in the season. Perhaps the best selling ones are cucumbers and sliced tomato pickle; then would come chow-chow, peppers, mangoes (small green muskmelons), cauliflower, watermelon rinds and mixed pickles. If one has not many jars and is afraid to risk buying them at the start, put them in large jars and let the grocer sell them by the dozen or pint according to variety. It will probably pay better to ask the grocer to sell on commission than to sell to him outright If glass jars are used, ask ten cents extra for each —at least that is what we pay—the money to be refunded if the jar is returned.— Farm, Field and Stockman. A Home-Made Cultivator. The most effective cultivator I ever used, says a writer in the Practical Farmer, was a home-made one. The three main timbers, 111, were 3>£ by 3inches and the piece in front 2 by3>£ inches wide by 5 inches in depth, bolted to the center piece and cut away underneath in front to accommodate the clevis. The handles, 33, were ordinary plow handles bolted to the center piece about one-third the distance from the front end. The uprights, 4 4. are 1 by 2 inches, chamfered at the insides at the lower ends in '■"der to give the width

at the top to correaportl| to the width of the handles. They are attached to the pin which holds the handles together. The irons, 5 5, are by 1 inch, or heavier if desired. They are secured to a bolt with a hand setting nut. When a change of adjustment is necessary, the nut is taken off, the irons sprung off the bolt and arranged at the width desired. Two pieces of iron, 6 6, % by 2 inches, are bolted at the front, one at the bottom, the other at the top, and act as a hinge when adjusting at different widths. The teeth used were ordinary cultivator teeth. No wheel was used, which admitted of its being attached close to the horse. Such a machine is very cheaply and simply made. Any person that can make a pair of bar posts can do the work, except punching the irons. A Boy on a Farm. It Is my impression that a farm without a boy would soon come to grief. What a boy does is the life of a farm. He is the factotum, always in demand, and always expected to do a thousand and one things that nobody else will do. Upon him falls all the odds and ends, the most difficult things. After everybody is through he is to finish up. His work is like a woman’s—perpetually waiting on others. Everybody knows how much easier it is to cook a good dinner than to wash the dishes afterward. Consider what a boy on a farm is required to do—things that must be done, or life would actually stop. It is understood, in the first place, that he is to do all the errands, go to the store, to the postoffice, and to carry all sorts of messages. If he had as many legs as the centipede, they would tire before night He is the one who spreads the grass as the men cut it; be stows it away in the barn; he rides the horse to cultivate the corn, up and down the hot weary rows; he brings wood and water, and splits kindling; he gets up the horse and turns out the horse. Whether he is in the house or out of it there is always something to do. Just before school in the winter, he shovels the paths; and In the summer ho turns the grind-stone. And yet, with his mind full of schemes of what he would like to do, and his hands full occupation, he is an idle boy who has nothing to busy himself with but school and chores. He would gladly do all the work if somebody else would do all the chores, he thinks; and yet I doubt if any boy ever amounted to anything in this world, or was of much use as a man, who did not enjoy the advantages of a liberal education in the way of chores.