VOL. LVIII
INDIANAPOLIS, MARCH 7, 1903.—TWENTY PAGES.
£atUcs' department.
Written (or tbe Indiana  Farmer:
Long Cuts.
(By Mrs. A. J. S.)
I am not a tanner's wife, (but would
like to be) yet I read all the farm papers
I can get hold of, and I was amused
when reading "Short Cuts," written by
"Farmer's Wife," iu- last week's Farmer.
I read, then reread the article, and must
say that I feel, as does Farmer's Wife,
that the "short cuts-' used by her kind
neighbor were longer cuts than she had
any idea of. As she told Farmer's Wife,
"mother's ways," (as a rule) are worth
being followed, but it is owing to what
kind of a mother one has, or had.
The memories I have of my mother are
the most pleasant of all memories of my
childhood, and I can never recall a single instance when she taught me any
"short cuts," but always taught me that
anything once well done was twice done,
and that perfect cleanliness was necessary Cor good health. Of course we all
have our "cranky" notions (I know 1
have mine) and do not all manage our
work, nor do it, in* the same way; but we
do all have one common idea, and that
is that we wish to be up-to-date in all
things, and especially in household affairs. In this hurry and push age of the
world.we are always looking out for, and
watching every new thing that comes
along, tending to "lessen" labor, and while
with these helps we do so much of our
work differently from what our mothers
did, yet I believe we have just the same
end in view that they had, and accomplish just as good results, yet we cannot
really call them "short cuts;" and all
these things put together bring us to one
point, that we all must consider if we
are successful, and that is system and
order. We cannot successfully carry on
any idea or business or work unless we
have system. I once heard an old woman
say she knew just as much as anybody,
end more than most anybody, and she
never had any cranky ways about her,
either; yet at the same time she was a
woman of whom everybody was afraid.
She did not believe in washing on Monday, because if you did, everything was
dirty before Sunday. She did not believe in having so many dish pans, because they cost too much money. The
well sink was good enough to wash anybody's dishes in, and as for "tea towels,"
never had she been so foolish as to buy
white dish towels to get black the first
time they were used and making so much
washing. She just used odd pieces of
colored table cloths, calico and the worn-
out colored shirts. She economized, she
said, and that was why she had something. This woman was a neighbor of
my own dear mother, and while she, iu
one sense, had more of the world's goods
than my mother she left behind her when
she died a history oft the most shiftless
housekeeping I ever heard of, and lessons my mother pointed out to me in regard to this woman's method and manner
of working are indelibly impressed on my
mind.
System, then, let me say, means all
things to one who wishes to be a successful housekeeper, as well as in any other
business. No matter how artistic a home
may be, nor how finely furnished, the
keeping of it must be the important part.
Monday is in all well regulated homes,
"wash day," and we wash unless hindered by sickness    or death, or other se
rious affairs, uud wo do not wash according to the rules of some of the short cut
wash powders of the day, but give tie
clothes a good rubbing with the machine.
ii we have one; if not, then on the old
fashioned wash board, such as my mother
used; and if the clothes are much soiled,
wash them through two suds, and no
matter how many or few rubbings they
get, we never omit the boil. No matter
how hurried or tired, or how much to b>;
done we always give the germ killing,
health restoring boiling; then rub again,
rinse well and dry. When clothes are
ironed we iron everything, even to dust
rags, or any other rag.    I believe a great
£ftc loultvu Wtvjft.
Duck Raising.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Dock raising, on tbe farm may be
tecommended as a profitable source of recline. Tliis year, tbey have sold for
letter prices than they have been known
to sell for several .years past. Every year
dinks become more popular as a table
fowl. It it only of late years that they
were eaten until full grown; now they
may be marketed when eight or ten weeks
of ago, if properly fed and taken care of.
The duck lays a very rich flavored egg,
and nlways manages to find some secluded
for they can scarcely eat with out it.
When feil i.n s.*ft food it sticks in their
1:11s Mid'they are liable to suffocate if
they haven't something with which to
r.irse the food down. l'nt some grit in
the drinking water and it will be quite
amusing to sct. them "go fishing" for it.
M. D. II.
'ahe Old  Kalr  rinj*   Mill,   Union  Township,   Parke    Co.,   Ind.
many of our contagious diseases have
been spread by this heedless way of
washing, drying and airing of clothes.
Then when it comes to dish washing,
how much more important to be cleanly
with what we eat than what we wear.
A good dish washer is to be prized
above most everything else. I know of
what I speak, for for I have so many
poor ones that I have almost given up in
despair of getting through life without
cancer, blood poison or some other of
those awful ills. To be a clean dish
washer one must have plenty of hot water (not a little in a crock, as Farmer's
Wife's friend had) soap and clean, white
towels. The dishes must be well washed,
scalded well with clean, hot water, then
dried on clean, dry towels. No matter
how inviting a meal, when I go to a table
and find sugar in the cups, egg on the
forks, and little rough patches round over
ihe dishes, my appetite vanishes. No
use, I can't even try to enjoy a meal at
that table. I once employed a girl that
could not bake a cake or cook anything
outside of bacon-, beans and potatoes, nor
arrange a table fit for anything, yet she
was one of the loveliest dish washers I
ever saw. I say lovely, because her dishes were always so clean, her glass so
sparkling, her dish pans shining, her dish
towels white as snow. Oh, she was a
jewel, and I kept her on* anil on, and did
iny own "extra cooking," as she called
it, just Iweause she knew how to do one
thing well, and knowing how she always
did it well.
There are so many, many ways by
which we might make short cuts. but. tu
"Farmer's Wife"  says.  I  wonder  if thev
Continued on page 12.
spot iir which to deposit them. Tree
trunks, hollowed by age or deep hollows
in the ground are favorite nesting places.
They like a nest that is invisible to the
passersby. The duck of a good breed,
the Pekin for instance, will lay from 100
t< 125 eggs in a season. They are good
setters ami will take extra good care
of the ducklings. A duckling grows twice
as fast as a chick, and is a much heavier
cater. To obtain a rapid growth of delicately meat its food must be given in a
soft mushy state and the rations must
In* well balanced. Dinks are very troublesome if allowed to run with the chickens;
when feed is thrown out you may be sure
Ihey will gobble it all up before the chickens have a chance to get any, then they
will paddle in the trough where the drinking water is kept and soon it is unfit to
drink. Keep them irr a yard away from
other poultry.
A good sized pen, made of low wire netting, makes a nice place to keep ducklings.
Make a shed in one corner for them to
roost in. This should be fixed so that
it can be moved about and thus fresh,
green grass may bo afforded them. Do
not let them out on the grass in the morning until the night's dew has been evaporated by the raising sun.
Most people think it impossible to raise
ducks unless they ran be kept where there
is a ditch, pond or some body of water.
Of course they enjoy nil these, but if a
wooden troudi is provided for them and
plenty of water in it they will fare well.
If allowed to swim in creeks, ponds, etc.,
when the water is cold they are liable to
live cramps and die. We have known
of a great many being lost in this way.
Give them water to drink at meal time,
Me An Joke Hefner.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
I didn't know I was tacklin' such a big
job when I undertook to write fur a paper. Wheu it comes to writiu' -common*
letters, I can git along very well, but it
.vou want to know about chickens without any grammar in the descriptions then-
Jane and me and Tilda can tell it.
It was a long time before we knowed
fur sure that we could stay out the five
years   (accorin'   to   law)   on   our  claims;
seemed   like   the   land   would   only   grow
buffalo   grass   ami   prairie   dogs.     There
was no market fur chickens except when
ihe new settlers come in, an' they didn't
want many, because feed was scarce and
because money was scarcer; but, Jane an'
Tilda kept raisin' chickens, and the young
roosters helped to make out Sunday dinners',   seemed   like   the   hens   was   about
all the way tlicre  was  to make  a liviu.'
itore  at   Clay  Center took  eggs  fur
provisions.     Whether   we     raised     much
grain   or   not   seemed   like   the   hens   got
along all right.
•lane an' Tilda looked like they had forgot about Indiana; was helpin** to pay fur
a home, See?
I nearly forgot to tell you about their
hen houses, they was made of sod and
covered with bny; the sod walls was thick
walls and so was the hay roofs, but the
south side was open. As Jane and Tilda
raised more chickens, me an Jake made
more hen houses. Seemed like it never
rained in this country then and the sod
houses  was bound   to  be  dry.
Me an .lake COttld get ten thousand dollars a pie** fur our farms, now any day,
ami there is no use denyin' it. Jane an'
Tilda an' the hens was the cause of it.
Of course, me an' Jake made the houses,
but what else could we do without ownin'
up that we was no account V
I like to git a joke off on Jake sometimes: the last time I got off one was
when I told Jake that if I was goin' to
marry a hundcrd wimin I would go back
to Indiana after 'em. But I'm strayin'
away from the chicken question. I'm
here to tell a good many chicken raisers
that their new fangled things about
chickens is not much improvement over the old way after all;
spendiu* the worth of a farm goin' into
the chicken business is not much ahead
of mnkin' the  hens pay fur a farm.
It seems to me that the chicken business is gettin' demoralized instead of
"revolutionized," as they call it. Instead
of the big long and wide sod houses,
straw houses or log houses, they must
have thin wall painted houses, made tight
as a drum; with the fool notion that it
was the right way to keep out the cold.
It's my honest opinion that if they don't
open up their poultry houses and let in
some air. ami tear down the fences around
the prisons that iu a few more years the
constitution of the great "American hen."
as they tell abont, will be braked down,
so that rupe will be tame alongside of
hen Tuberculosis and a dozen more constitutional complaints.
Winter egg  production looks finer than
silk, when tellin' of it is the only expense,
but when it comes to forcin' it by juggin*
Continued  oa   page   13.