The roost should be made so that the poles can be raised or let down at pleasure. In the winter, have the poles raised as high as may be, as the heat ascends, and the fowls need as warm a place as possible for winter. In summer, lower the roost, that they may sleep where the air circulates freely. If possible, provide a good roomy yard back of the hen-house, where the hens may have ample space to range. Plums do well in such yards, and the hens do much toward destroying the curculio. Old pans or wooden troughs filled with water must be kept in the yard, that the hens may have drink at all times. If you have plenty of skim-milk or buttermilk, they will be grateful for all you can spare, and show their gratitude by the increase of their daily offerings.
Heaps of old plaster or oyster-shells must be kept in different parts of the yard; if part of the shells can be burned and pounded, it will be better. Any slops from the house will be of great benefit; and if no pigs are kept, everything that is thrown into the “swill-pail,” not salt, can be used to advantage. Keep all water in which potatoes and vegetables are boiled; throw their parings or skins into it, and after each meal put in all refuse bits, bring this water to a boil, stir in a handful or two of coarse meal, and in winter feed it to the hens warm, and you will find it very acceptable and profitable. Every scrap of fresh meat, soup bones, but no salt meat, will do them good. If near a butcher’s shop, he will sell you for a few pennies, or give you, the “lights” or the head of one of the animals. Chop it up and throw it into the poultry-yard. Worms and grasshoppers will help them through the summer months; but they must have something in the way of fresh meat in winter. Every morning and evening scatter cracked or whole corn about the yard in a clean place. In picking it up, they will take with it a little gravel, which is very necessary to keep them healthy.
In many cases it is not convenient or thought necessary to provide a hen-house and yard, all the poultry being allowed to roam at will over the premises. A little care will train them to keep from doing any great mischief in the gardens; but you must not expect too much; if you have grapes, currants, or small fruit, these will be too tempting for a hen’s nature to resist, and, in the end, it will be found to be worth considerable sacrifice of time and money to place them out of the reach of temptation. Besides, if they are allowed to roam, you cannot track their nests at all times, and you will be left without an egg in the house when most needed. With very little care, and by selecting the best and most reliable breeds, this need never happen where hens are kept in an inclosure and with a suitable house. The pure Leghorns molt but six weeks in the year,—in November and December. If they bring out their broods the first of April, the pullets will begin to lay in October, just as their mothers begin to molt. If hatched in August or early September, they will lay by the first of April; so that part of the hens will be laying all the time. Some people kill off their hens as soon as the pullets begin to lay, thus having no molting fowls on their premises; but we think this foolish. The second year’s eggs are usually larger, and a hen may be kept profitably for three or four years. Our own experiments lead us to think the White Leghorns and Cochins the best layers.
XLV.
INSTITUTIONS FOR THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN.
VASSAR is, we think, the first college for women ever established. The liberal provision for its maintenance, in accordance with the wishes of the founder,—the chapel, library, cabinet, recitation-rooms; the houses for the professors; the dormitories for the students; the dining-hall and kitchen; the laundry and the bakehouse,—every needed accommodation, are all completed in the most approved manner. The whole is heated by steam, and lighted by gas. Here physical culture receives all the care that modern science and experience can give. A floral garden is managed by the young ladies. Gymnastic exercises, horseback riding, driving, boating, or skating have their full share of encouragement and attention. The whole establishment and its arrangements are most excellent, securing a suitable amount of exercise to insure good health, and also clear heads for the hours devoted to study.
But in this generous provision for accomplishments for our young daughters, and thorough training in all healthful exercise, there seems to have been one department entirely overlooked, which certainly demands a large share of attention, and where, we think, faithful instruction in the rudiments should, in connection with other departments, begin in the earliest and most simple lessons, with the full understanding that it must go hand in hand with other branches through the whole course. We mean a full and most thorough instruction in all that belongs to domestic economy and household lore.
The preparatory instruction and full collegiate course, in a girl’s education, should embrace more years than are thought necessary to prepare a boy to graduate and enter upon the duties of manhood, because we are sure our girls’ minds are overburdened by an attempt to crowd too many studies into each year, thus keeping them constantly hurried and overtaxed. They have many things to do while in school that boys are not expected to do, or, at any rate, which they never undertake. No young lady, we trust, would sit down to her studies, in the morning, until her room was neatly put in order. Many little touches are needed to secure this, which they cannot depend upon a chamber or parlor maid to do well, and which it would not be consistent with womanly neatness to leave undone. Then a girl has her wardrobe to watch over; rips to mend, buttons to replace, and numerous other things which a boy has done for him or leaves undone. In girlhood as in later life, woman’s duties are more complex and varied than man’s. There are so many little things, insignificant in themselves, but of wonderful importance, in that skillful combination which must be woven together to make the perfect whole in a woman’s character, that it is unsafe to skim lightly over any. Some items appear very trifling and unimportant, when not viewed as connecting links, without whose aid the whole noble structure must be incomplete.
No one can tell, while the process of constructing and perfecting is going on, through what deep and stormy waters the precious bark, once launched, may be compelled to force its way. Therefore it is wise, in laying the foundations, to be sure that no timber, screw, or rivet, however insignificant it may seem at the time, has been discarded or insecurely fastened.
Even if it could be guaranteed that most of the young ladies who graduate from our excellent seminaries would never be placed in a position where they might find it convenient, if not necessary, to labor to secure home comforts, or prepare food for husband or children, yet there is no place free from care, where it would not be more conducive to comfort and happiness for the mistress, not only to know thoroughly what was proper to be done about the house, but also to know how to do it herself, should it ever be necessary. To know how to do it well will do no harm; not knowing how may sometimes subject one to great discomfort and mortification.
We once called on a lady of great wealth. Her establishment and style of living demanded a large retinue of servants, who received the highest wages. There had just been some disturbance among her servants. The cook, receiving forty dollars a month, imagined that her subordinate in the kitchen did not render her the proper assistance. She, the sub-cook, was quite above such service as was exacted. Neither would yield, and both left. The waitress, laundress, and nurse had been nursing a feud for some time, which only needed this explosion in the kitchen and the atmosphere it engendered to develop the final catastrophe. The noise and smoke of the battle had but just subsided when we rang the bell, which was answered by the lady herself with a laughing, happy face, in no wise ruffled by this unusual state of things. After our errand was done, she was led by it to tell us a merry story of the day’s experience.