138. Cheesemakers.

A great deal of cheese is made in Central and Northern New York, and some in Ohio, Vermont, and West Massachusetts. Making cheese is a chemical operation, and requires experience. It is made in all civilized countries. I talked with an old gentleman who had been in the cheese business nearly all his life. He said a farmer's wife is the best help in cheese making. In making cheese, seven eighths of the work is done by women. A man usually places the cheese in the press, and removes it when it is dried sufficiently. The occupation is healthy. Women are paid from $1.75 to $2 a week and their board. Some people employ men, because they can go to work on the farm when not making cheese. The business can be learned in from six weeks to two months. When learning, girls give their work for instruction, but have their board. Neatness, good health, judgment, and common education, are desirable for a cheese maker. An individual must be able to reckon the pounds, weigh the salt, and regulate the temperature of the milk and curd by the thermometer. The first advice given by a lady who taught to make cheese was, "Keep your vessels clean." The prospect of employment in this branch of work is good, for it is difficult to obtain good cheesemakers. The best seasons are from the 1st of March to the last of November. The number of hours given by a girl to her work depends on the contract made—generally eight hours—sometimes ten. In most places cheesemakers have more leisure than house girls, but some employers expect them to do housework when not employed about the cheese. Some farmers hire girls who devote themselves exclusively to cheese making during the season for it. Some have the afternoon after the cheese is put in the press, and the jars, &c., are cleaned, until time to milk in the evening. The morning milking is usually done before breakfast, and the cheese made after breakfast. It requires until about two o'clock to get through. When cheese is put in a press, nothing further is necessary until it is ready to be removed. It remains in the press twenty-four hours. Most farmers have their cheese made on Sunday morning as on other days. The girls have Sunday afternoon or evening, according to contract. Some farmers do not make their cheese on Sunday, but retain the milk until Monday morning, and make it into butter. Women are best adapted to the work, and employed mostly because they can be got cheaper. The majority are Irish women. They are usually put on a footing by their employers, and eat at the same table. So little spinning and weaving are done now in the country, that the female members of farmers' families generally do the milking, unless the farmers have grown too wealthy and proud to have their wives and daughters so employed. Some dairymen make, with the aid of their families, all the cheese they use and sell. Milk should be drawn from a cow as rapidly as possible and while the cow is eating. One milker should be employed for every ten cows. Milk is very sensitive. Dairymen will make more by having the cream remain on the milk than by taking the cream off for churning, at the rate butter sells this winter (1861). Where the cream is used, an inexperienced hand would find it more troublesome to make cheese. Twenty-three million pounds of cheese were exported last year from the United States. American cheese is, in England, taking the place of English cheese. A German cheesemonger told me he makes the Limburg cheese—a preparation which has been known about eight years in this country. He was putting up some to send to New Orleans. It was very soft, and I thought the smell very offensive. He gets American cheese of a Yankee girl, to whom he pays $80 a year. She uses the milk of sixty cows. She works at it but eight months. During four months of the year but very little cheese is ever made. The arrangements of some cheesemakers for preparing the article are very complete.

139. Coffee and Chocolate Packers.

B. S. & W., Philadelphia, employ women in packing parcels of essence of coffee, spices, vermicelli, &c. They make paper cases, pour the article in through a funnel and ram it down, then label and pack the cases in boxes, which are nailed up ready for delivery. One or two persons obtain a livelihood by cutting the labels to paste on the boxes. They are paid fifteen cents a thousand for this work, and are able to support themselves by it. The women are paid by the piece, and earn from $2 to $6 per week. The work rooms are airy and comfortable. Females were formerly more employed than at present to put up coffee; but as coffee is now ground every day at most factories, and as it is considered best when just ground, less is put up than formerly. Messrs. L. & B., New York, employ girls to put the articles in papers, pasting labels on and sealing them. They work by the piece, and earn from $3 to $7 a week. The odor might be disagreeable to some, but persons get accustomed to it, and it is quite as healthy as most work. There are not over one hundred and fifty women so employed in the State of New York, yet such packing is generally done by women. It is customary to pay by the package. The girls change their dresses on coming to the workroom of L. & B. They do not work with the men, but with some boys who fill boxes with the same articles. L. & B.'s girls have employment all the year. They never have any difficulty in getting hands. I saw a man who makes up essence of coffee. A lady was assisting him to put it in papers. At another factory I was told they pay by the week, from $1.50 to $4, according to the industry, quickness, and practice of the worker. It is not unhealthy work. They give employment ten months of the year, but at present have little to do. It requires but a few weeks to become expert. In some establishments girls stand or sit, as they please, while at work; in others they are all required to assume constantly whichever posture the foreman directs. At W. & Son's two small girls are employed, who each receive $2.50 a week. There is one factory in Cincinnati, one in St. Louis, and one in Chicago.

140. Cracker Bakers.

At M.'s the young man said fancy crackers could be made by women. In making soda, oyster, and some other crackers, the dough is kneaded by machinery. In some establishments the dough is rolled out and conveyed to the oven by machinery. In a cracker bakery I was told the women might be employed in packing and selling crackers. It would not require all the time of one woman to pack for a large bakery. A cracker baker writes us: "We employ no women, and do not see that they could work to advantage in our business." Women could do all the work now done by men in this line, but I suppose considerable opposition would be experienced, except by ladies who have sufficient capital to carry on business for themselves.

141. Fancy Confectionery.

Most confectioners sell, in addition to their fancy candies, imported fruits; and a few keep cakes. Some also keep fruits preserved in brandy or their own juice; and some keep in addition pickles, oysters, sardines, &c. Some confectioners merely make sweetmeats—some sell them, and some both make and sell. In cities, confectioners usually furnish the refreshments for both public and private entertainments. A manufacturer of confectioneries in New York told me that in busy times he employs fifteen girls; but at that time (January, 1861) only half as many, for they have no Southern orders—the people in the South are doing without candies. The part done by girls requires no special training. He pays girls for their labor from the first. They pack, pick gums, envelop in fancy papers, fill boxes, &c. He pays $3 a week for those that have some experience, and keeps them ten hours a day. He gives the making and painting of fancy candies out to those that have families, and who do it at home. W., of Philadelphia, pays his girls, eight in number, $1.50 a week for the first two or three weeks, then from $3 to $4. Making common candy is said to be too hard for women. They assist in the finishing of fine candies, as rolling and covering chocolate nuts. They put the fancy candies in French envelopes, and cut the silvered or gilt paper that gives the finish. They can sit or stand as they please while at work, but while enveloping mostly sit. They work ten hours. It is rather a light business. M. employs fifty women in putting up and packing candies. He pays them, from the time they begin, $2 a week. They learn in two or three months. He pays then from $4 to $5 a week. A lady told me she was paid in one establishment $6 a month and board. A girl in a confectionery told me the prices usually paid girls are $7 or $8 a month, with board and washing, and the girl is expected to keep the accounts. A lady in another store said summer is the poorest season for confectioneries, as people do not like to eat candies, because it makes them thirsty; but in those confectioneries where soda water and lager beer are kept, there is more or less custom during the summer. They keep open till ten o'clock at night, and all day Sunday. Sunday is their most profitable day. She knows a girl that is paid $5 a month in the Bowery, with her board, or $7 without. To be kind and obliging, and have the faculty of pleasing the little folks, are the best qualifications for the business. Prices paid depend on the responsibility of the employed. Some that keep the books receive $5 a week without board, most others receive $1.50 or $1.75 per week and board. Judgment must be used in the selection of a stand. A lady who keeps a small confectionery and fruit store in Williamsburg, says she does not make much on cakes and bread, only half a cent on a loaf of bread. She says it is best not to trust any one for pay—that children often come and say they want so and so, their mother says she will pay on Saturday; but Saturday comes, and no pay; and if they go for the money, the parents will say, "Come again," and put it off from time to time, until they become discouraged, and give it up altogether. M—s, French confectionery and chocolate cream manufacturers, take learners at the proper season, which commences in August. They employ some girls to paint fancy candies. H. says one must commence at the very first step, and gradually advance—that to learn the business requires a long time. He pays four girls $5 or $6 a month each, and gives them their board, for selling confectioneries and waiting in his saloon. At S——'s confectionery I was told that the small fine candies are made by steam. They are made in pans, which are shaken back and forth over fires, the gas of which is very injurious, and cannot be carried off by flues. Their girls make so much noise, laughing and talking with the men, and waste so much time, that they are required to work on the first floor, the same as the store. They are paid from $1.50 to $2 a week. They are paid by the week, because they do their work better than if paid by the quantity; besides, it is less troublesome. They are paid for overwork (regular hours being ten), and some earn as much in that way as by regular wages. The girls pick gums, separate gum drops, put candy in boxes, &c. C. employs girls to paint, put up candies, and attend store, and pays $1.50 and $2 a week. Most of the painting is done by French and German men, who are paid from $10 to $12 a week. It requires a long time to acquire taste and experience; one, in fact, can be always improving. C. thinks girls are not likely to find constant employment in the kind of work he gives to females. A French confectioner told me he had employed a woman to make chocolate cream, paying $3 a week for ten hours a day, and could employ her all the year, as the demand for chocolate cream is very great. S. employed one girl to sell candy, paying $5 a week. She was at the store at 7.30 A. M., and remained till 6 P. M. in winter and 8 P. M. in summer. She did not keep the books, but washed the jars and case, and swept back of the counter, and dusted several times a day. Talked with a girl who stood in a confectionery store on Broadway. She knew a girl on Chatham street who received $12 a month and her board. She herself received $9 a month and her board, but not her washing. The proprietor told her she must sew for his family, when not waiting on customers. It seems that it is not an uncommon requisition. They have but few customers until about 11 o'clock, and he expected her to accomplish more sewing than a sempstress who gives all her time to it. The young lady is in the store by 7 o'clock in the morning, and remains until 11 o'clock at night. Any one wishing to commence a confectionery can learn from the wholesale dealer of whom she purchases how to regulate the prices of sweetmeats. Mrs. W. wants a girl to wait in her saloon, will give $8 a month, with her board and washing. She would be required to sew, when not waiting on customers, and would have to wash the jars and cases, keep the counter clean, and dust and arrange the articles in the window every morning. She would have to be in the store at seven, and remain until twelve (seventeen hours). In large confectioneries girls stand while picking gums used in making gum drops. They are mostly made in summer. There is now (December) a great demand for girls, as there always is about the holidays. Those now at work are kept three hours over time—from seven to ten—and paid extra. The chemicals used in making some confectioneries are unhealthy, but women have nothing to do with that, except in painting candy toys. A confectioner in Boston, who employs four American girls in attending store and making goods, writes: "We consider the occupation very healthy, never having had a case of sickness with girls while working at this business. Some are paid $3 and $4 per week, working ten hours a day; others by the quantity, averaging $1 per day. Male labor is paid for, according to the knowledge of the business, from $6 to $15. Girls could not do the work, and the work that women do it would not pay to have done by male labor. It requires a long time and a great deal of practice to learn the whole business, but that part done by women is learned in a few weeks. They are paid something while learning. Honesty, industry, and a good education are the most desirable qualifications. Spring and fall are our most busy seasons. In midwinter we do not have many at work. Retail stores require most help in summer. New York requires most hands, especially women; but the demands are now very small, the trouble at the South being the main cause. They are not strong enough to do some parts of the work. The large towns are best for our business." A lady in a fancy confectionery on Broadway told me she receives $8 a month and her board, and is paid by the month. She thinks many diseases are brought on women by having to stand so much, as they do in confectioneries, bakeries, and dry-good stores. Women that have stood in any kind of a store before, and have business qualifications, are paid while learning. There is never any difficulty about obtaining qualified hands. She finds the work very laborious, and complained of having to be in the confectionery and saloon from seven in the morning until twelve at night. In some saloons the attendants are up until 1 o'clock (eighteen hours!), and are on their feet most of the time. A confectioner in Concord, N. H., writes: "We employ from five to ten girls (because we find it most profitable) for helping make, rolling up, and packing lozenges and pipe candy. Also for standing in the confectionery. The work is very healthy. We pay about sixty-seven cents per day, and they work from six to ten hours. No man employed, except one who takes charge. There is a prospect for employment so long as children cry for lozenges. The girls are American, and work at all seasons. They are as well paid, according to the cost of living, as mechanics in this place. Women are superior to men in rolling up and packing lozenges. They pay for board $1.75 per week."

142. Fish Women.

In the United States, where every one has a right to fish in the rivers and lakes, there is a fair opening for those in this line of business. But it is only in the spring and fall that fish are much eaten. They are not considered healthy in the warm weather of summer. A pound of fish is said to be in nutritive power equal to eight pounds of potatoes. In the United States, according to the census report of 1850, there were engaged in fisheries 20,704 males and 429 females. The fishwomen of Philadelphia have long engaged in the selling of shad, and are to be seen in great numbers on the streets of the city, and even when not seen are likely to be heard crying fish. At one time they had a large market devoted exclusively to the sale of fish, but it became a nuisance, and the city authorities had it torn down; yet the women, possessed of strong local association, were not to be so routed. They are still seen sitting before their tables of fish in the neighborhood of where the market stood. Much money has been realized by the fishwomen, some of whom are said to own property of considerable value. What a lesson to patient industry! "From the time of Louis XIV. to the present, fish have been sold in Paris exclusively by women. They are now remarkable for the urbanity of their language and propriety of their conduct, having risen high in the scale of respectability during the last half century." "On the coasts of the department of Somme there are certain fish, the shrimps and 'vers marius,' which are exclusively reserved to the young girls and widows." On the coast of Great Britain thousands of women are employed in the herring, cod, mackerel, lobster, turbot, and pilchard fisheries. Women and children rub salt on the fish to be cured, with the hand. When cured, women pile them in stacks from four to five feet high, and as wide. Women are paid, at Newlyn, for this labor, 3d. an hour, and every sixth hour receive a glass of brandy and a piece of bread. Many are also employed in obtaining oysters and canning them; and on the return of whaling vessels, numbers of women assist in preparing the cargoes for market. In New York, fish are mostly sold by men, who drive about in a little wagon containing fish, and blow a horn, crying out now and then the kind of fish they have for sale.

143. Macaroni.

Macaroni is moulded and dried. Girls then pick out the whole sticks, and put them in boxes. The broken pieces are all thrown together in a barrel, then ground and moulded over. It is very easy work, and requires no learning. They are paid from $2 to $3.50 a week, working ten hours a day. The girls I saw, stood while at work.

144. Maple Sugar.

The cheapness of sugar made from sugar cane has almost annihilated the existence of maple sugar, except as a sweetmeat. The peculiar flavor of maple molasses and sugar makes them much loved by some people. The trees are tapped early in the spring, when the sap first rises. After sufficient water is collected, it is put on and boiled until of the consistence required. It is slow work and pays poorly, but can be performed by women capable of the heavy labor involved in carrying, lifting kettles, and stirring.

145. Market Women.

Mrs. Childs says, in her "History of Women," "On the seacoast of Borneo fleets of boats may be seen laden with provisions brought to market by women, who are screened from the sun by huge bamboo hats. In Egyptian cities, the country girls, closely veiled, are frequently employed in selling melons, pomegranates, eggs, poultry, &c." In the southern countries of Europe it is common to see women riding to market on donkeys, laden with marketing. We learn from "London Labor and London Poor," that there are 2,000 persons employed in the sale of greenstuff in the streets of London, as water-cresses, chickweed, groundsel, turf, and plantain. The cresses are eaten by people; the other articles are sold for birds. We may divide market women into two classes—those that raise or have raised the products they sell, and those that buy to sell again. The articles of the first are generally genuine and of fair price. Vegetables, poultry, eggs, and butter, with fruit, both green and dried, are carried to market, and there the market women, placing them on stalls or retaining them in their wagons, wait for purchasers. This class mostly supply the markets of towns and villages. Their articles are usually fresh and wholesome. There are thirteen markets in New York city where everything is obtained at the second or third remove from the producer. It is estimated that there are 1,300 huckster women attending the New York markets. The members of some families are engaged in the sale of different articles: one will sell eggs; another, vegetables; another, poultry, &c. It is said that better meat and vegetables are brought to Philadelphia than to New York markets. In New York there is a larger population requiring articles of a cheap kind. We think market women, considering their habits and modes of living, probably do as well in a pecuniary way as any other class of women. Their wants are few, their habits simple, and their occupation—though an exposed one—healthy. The variety of seeing new faces, and chatting with those similarly employed, yield more comfort and content than most women's work. They take in but a few pennies at a time, yet have their regular customers, and, in prosperous seasons, many besides. I will give an extract from my diary of a visit made to several of the New York markets: "I saw some women selling fruit; some, vegetables; and some, tripe and sausage. I judge, from the appearance of most dealers, it is not unhealthy. Most of the women were far advanced in life, particularly those who sold vegetables. They all complain that they do not sell so much since the commencement of the hard times. How is it? Do people buy less, and so eat less? or is less wasted in their kitchens? or are some unable to buy meat and vegetables at all? Here I would state the remark of a druggist: that, as times are hard, people do not indulge in so much rich food, nor in a surplus of it; consequently there is less sickness, and so little medicine sold that the druggists are discouraged. This druggist has since sold out, and moved to the country. Most of the market women looked to be Irish. One strong Irish woman told me that American women cannot bear the exposure in cold weather, and rent their stalls through the winter to men. They make their appearance in March with the flowers and early fruit. Butter is sold exclusively by men in Washington market, New York, and is more profitable than anything else. There is considerable difference in the class of custom in the different markets in New York; but the poor are usually more in number than the rich—so the markets frequented by them may receive as great a profit as where a smaller number of better customers attend. Some women regulate their sales to have a percentage, but many sell for what they can get, without regard to the amount of profit. I find those selling vegetables, buy of farmers who come early, and leave a supply for each seller in case she is not there. Any vegetables they may have left are locked up in boxes, or barrels, or covered over and left on the bench. The gates of the market house are closed and locked up at one o'clock every day except Saturday, with the exception of Washington and Fulton markets, which are open all day, and the first mentioned all night. Watchmen are about the markets at all hours of the day and night, and in some markets an extra fee is paid by the sellers to secure attention to their stalls. At two o'clock in the morning, Washington market is fully lighted, and the farmers begin to arrive to sell to grocers. The grocers usually buy from four to five in summer, and from four to six in winter. Boarding-house keepers mostly buy from seven to nine o'clock. Families buy during any of these hours, or later. All the markets are open by half past three. Fulton market is rather warmer than the others because of the stoves and ranges used for making coffee, cooking oysters, &c. Ladies do not come to market so much in winter as in spring and summer. I think the vocation of market selling must be very healthy, when the venders are comfortably clad, and have stoves, as many of them do. Market women live to a great age. Vegetables injured by frost or long keeping are sold at a lower price. As a general thing, less is sold in market during January and February, than any other months. In spring time the market presents the most inviting appearance, for the stalls are then freshly painted, and flowers and fruit exhibited to advantage on them. Mrs. B. told me that a woman who sold flowers in Fulton market had made a fortune at it. Some of these sellers let other women have flowers and fruit to take over the city to sell, and reap a profit in that way. One old lady told me she always made 12½ cents profit on her goods, they being pocket-knives, combs, &c. The stalls are sold or rented. One woman told me she paid 12½ cents a day for her stall; another, 9 cents; and this must be paid for even on days when they are absent from market. Another woman told me that she got a permit for the use of a stall in Washington market when it was first built, and not long since she sold it for $1,500, and the owner pays a tax of $2 a week besides. She paid $200 for the stall at which she stood in Fulton market, and pays a rent of 75 cents a week. She makes a living by selling smoked salt fish. The processes through which produce must pass from the producer to reach the consumer, might be avoided by permitting farmers to remain longer in the city, and furnishing them with a place for their teams and produce; but now they must all leave by ten o'clock, and can scarcely feel that they have a place to put anything down while they are in the city. In England are women who shell peas and beans at so much a quart. I have seen books, spectacles, canes, pocket-books, caps, shoes, hose, china, and even old clothes for sale on the streets, and around or in the market-houses of Philadelphia and New York.

146. Meat Sellers.

In markets and in meat shops of the United States, women may occasionally be seen selling meat. They are generally the wives or the daughters of butchers. They no doubt assist in cleaning tripe, and making sausage and souse. On the streets of London are nearly one thousand sellers of dogs' and cats' meat. Most of them are men. This meat is the flesh of old worn out horses, which are bought, killed, cut up, boiled, and sold by those who make it a business. Mrs. M. told me of a woman that sells meat in the New York market. She has made a fortune by it. She stands in market, and sells, and orders her hired men to cut it up as desired. Mr. W. told me that women are employed at the pork houses in Louisville, in putting up hogs' feet, to send to New Orleans. Less meat is sold in summer than winter. I have been told that curing meat is too heavy work for women, on account of the lifting. Besides, they would get wet from the brine used; but some German and English women do pickle meat, and some even buy and sell stock. The late census of Great Britain reports twenty-six thousand butcheresses.

147. Milk Dealers.

Kindness to animals always indicates something good in the heart. Life, in its every form, should be precious to us. Cows yield much less milk, and of an inferior quality, on the eastern than western continent. In Canada and some countries of Europe, the milk of goats is sold, and considerably used. In some parts of Rome it is customary for dairymen to drive their cows in every morning, and around to the houses of their customers, when the milkman draws from the cow into the vessel the desired quantity. In Belgium it is not uncommon to see milkmaids following their little wagons, containing vessels of milk, and drawn by dogs. Mayhew stated, in 1852, that in St. James's Park, London, eight cows were kept in summer to supply warm milk to purchasers; four in winter, and the number of street women engaged in the sale of curds, was one hundred. A lady called with me in a milk depot. The man has his milk brought in on the cars. Milkmen pay their women from $6 to $7 a month. They begin to milk about five in the morning, and the same hour in the afternoon, so that it may cool before being placed in the cans. Those hired to milk do house work or kitchen work in the intervals. When milking is done in the afternoon, the men that work on the farm, and the proprietor himself, assist. In some places where butter is made for market, the churning is done by horses and dogs. A milk dealer told me he sold to those who wished to sell again at cost price, four cents a quart; to other customers his price is six cents. At one depot, Williamsburg, the dealer was counting over an immense pile of pennies. His milk comes from New Jersey, seventy miles from New York. He crosses two rivers every night at twelve o'clock, to receive his milk at the Jersey depot. He sells at six cents a quart. To those who buy to sell again, his price is five cents a quart. He told me a separate freight agent is employed on some trains to take charge of the milk sent on the cars. Milk does not often sour while being brought in. Cream is brought in cans placed in large tubs of ice. He pays for freight, forty cents a can. Cream usually sells at twenty-five cents per quart. He sells twice as much milk in summer as in winter—he supposes, because it sours so easily. At shops, milk is usually sold at five cents; when delivered, at six cents. Milk is less rich in winter than summer. A milkman told me that in dairies in and near the city, men mostly milk. He mentioned one quite near a distillery. Women that take milk about in buckets to sell, have a cow of their own, and feed her on swill from the distillery, and slops from kitchens. The milk they sell is not healthy. Some of them buy a little good milk and mix with theirs. If a dairy woman's time is not entirely occupied with her business, she might in some places find it profitable to have an ice house, and send ice around with the same horse, wagon, and driver used for the sale of milk. Borden's condensed milk is boiled at a temperature of 112°, I think, and prepared in Connecticut. The American Solidified Milk Company, in New York, employ some girls in rolling, packing, and labelling. The superintendent writes: "The employment is healthy. Women receive from $7 to $8 per month, and their board. They spend twelve hours per day, including meal times, in the establishment. An intelligent person may learn in a week. There is a prospect of more being employed. All the girls we employ are Americans, except one. It is a very comfortable occupation. I find little difference between male and female labor. When I have hired men or youths, I have found them to be more habitually attentive, and less irritable; but women are usually neater. The women all board at a house, subject to the control of the Company. The price is $2.25 per week, washing included, and is paid for by the Company. The character of the house is unexceptionable, and the table is much better provided than that of most farmers living here."

148. Mince Meat and Apple Butter.

The preparation of mince meat might be performed by women. And it might be sold by them in stores where poultry, eggs, and butter are disposed of, or in clean, well-kept groceries. With a machine for cutting the meat, and another for paring the apples, it could be easily accomplished. Apple butter is an article that meets with ready sale in market. People that are very particular about their food only buy of those they know to be cleanly in their cooking. Stewing apple butter is laborious work. If a farmer has a cider press and an apple parer, much labor is saved in preparing the materials. In some places, apple butter is kept for sale in groceries, and in establishments for the sale of the products of the dairy. The apples that are partly decayed, and those picked off the ground, furnish an abundance from large orchards. And from orchards not accessible to market where defective fruit can be sold, there will be no want of a supply. It is sold by the pint or quart, or put up in jars holding more.

149. Mustard Packers.

Most of the mustard in this country has been imported, but some planters are now turning their time and attention to it. Mustard is cultivated to some extent for the oil pressed from its seed. Some factories exist in the United States. I have heard of a man in New York that used to be engaged extensively in grinding mustard with vinegar, and employed women to put it in jars, paying $3 a week. In some dry mustard factories women are employed to put the mustard in papers. A manufacturer of mustard writes: "Women are employed at some large establishments. The business is severe on persons with weak lungs, as a large quantity of steam or dust arises from packing. The work is paid for by the quantity, not the day. Women of good judgment would soon become mistresses of their work—in six months they would become good workwomen. They would probably spoil as much as their wages were worth for the first few days. When cholera and yellow fever are about, is the best time for the sale of mustard. Ten hours is the usual time for work, but in busy seasons the hands work longer."

150. Oyster Sellers.

I called on a woman who makes a living for herself and five little children by selling oysters. She sells most about tea time, and on until twelve o'clock. She thinks oysters are wholesome all the year. Physicians recommend them for their patients, and many can eat them when they cannot eat anything else. Of course a real oyster saloon can only be kept in places where fresh oysters can be had. Oysters are rather hard for a woman to open. In summer nothing is done. The room, vender, and oysters should be clean, to draw decent customers. It pays well; but too often, in small concerns, the profits are derived from the sale of liquor. At a little oyster shop the woman told me she barely made a living. She keeps boys to open the oysters. She supplies families with fresh oysters, and when she receives an order, prepares them for families and sends them to the house.

151. Pie Bakers.

"Many of the young Swabian girls of thirteen or fourteen years old are sent to Stuttgart to acquire music, or other branches of education, among which, household duties are generally included. A matron, who keeps a large establishment there, gives the instruction, which they voluntarily seek. They may often be seen returning from the bakeries, with a tray full of cakes and pies of their own making; and sometimes young gentlemen, for the sake of fun, stop them to buy samples of their cookery." The foundation of Miss Leslie's culinary knowledge was laid at a school of cookery in Philadelphia. In England, women make pastry for confectioneries. At the W. pie bakery I was told they employ women to prepare the fruit. They used to employ them to roll the dough; but they are not such fast workers as men. One man remarked, the shoulders ache from rolling by the time evening comes. The women are paid fifty cents a day, and board themselves. One woman boards with them, and receives $1.50 a week, with her board. M. & Co. pay their women five cents an hour, for preparing the fruit and making pies. They sell most to retail stores and hotels—consequently sell most in the spring and fall, when the largest number of strangers are in the city. They keep three wagons running part of the time, which start at six in summer, and, in busy seasons, sometimes do not get in to remain till twelve at night. When it rains or snows they do not sell so much, as those who sell at stands on the street are not out. The drivers come back several times during the day for pies, when very busy, and they mention how many are ordered. So the manager knows how many to have baked. They always sell most on Saturday, and I think sell least on Wednesdays and Thursdays. When the women work over ten hours, they are paid extra at the same rate, five cents an hour. C. and wife pay their best woman $9 a month with board and washing. It is her duty to roll out pastry, put the fruit in, and put the covers on. They employ some girls for $6 a month, to wash dishes, cook fruit, chop apples, pick dried fruit, &c. The work requires more strength than skill. There are only four large pie bakeries in New York. Madame L., who sells French pastry and confectionery, says very few women are employed in Paris, in making pastry, except for families. It requires too much strength and too long labor, to do so for a saloon. The saloons are usually open until twelve o'clock at night. At a bread bakery an attendant told me she prepares the fruit for pies, but the bakers prepare the crust, make and bake them. She says their men do that in the morning, when not otherwise employed, and it would not pay to have a woman for that purpose alone. Mrs. H. employs fifteen women. She pays $3.50 a month, with board and lodging, to those that slice apples and carry pies to and from the oven. Men place them in the oven and take them out. She pays $6.50 to those that roll out pastry and wash dishes, &c. She has three thousand pies made sometimes in one day. It requires more care to bake pies than bread. At another pie bakery, the lady told me she has the fruit prepared for pies in her kitchen and taken to the bakehouse, where they are made up by men, to save the women from working where the men are. She pays a woman for preparing fruit $5 a month and her board. In a pie bakery in New York, one of the attendants said in the old country women learn to bake pies and cakes for confectioners. They pay £30 for instruction, and spend two years' apprenticeship. They learn the whole process, including the stewing of fruit and preparing mince meat. In this country that is followed as a separate branch, and mostly done by women for bakers. She said in the bakery where she stood, girls were required, not only to wait on customers, but wash the counters, shelves, and windows of the store. The other attendant told me she found the smell of the pastry, and being so constantly on her feet, very injurious. They each receive $8 a month, and their board and washing. To succeed, a person should be quick in her motions and calculations, and a good judge of money. They are in the shop fifteen hours. In some bakeries the girls spend eighteen hours in the shop. The time could be shortened, if all the establishments of the kind would unite and make regulations to that effect; but it could not be done by one or two stores on account of the competition in the business. Such a store would lose its patronage. The majority of girls board with the bakers' families, on account of rising early to be in store. Summer is the poorest season on Broadway, as most of their customers are out of the city at that season; but in localities where the working classes are supplied, the summer is the best season, as most of them do not go to the expense of making up a fire to bake their bread and pastry.

152. Picklers of Oysters.

An oysterwoman told me that girls and women are employed at most places where oysters are put in cans to send away. They are paid by the gallon for opening the shells; and near New Haven, some girls make $4 a day. On the Great South Bay, they do not earn so much, as the oysters are smaller and rougher. It requires considerable practice to become expert, but not much physical strength. The business is considered healthy, and women are paid at the same rate as men. Miss B. told me that at Fair Haven some women are paid for opening oysters two and a half cents a quart.

153. Poulterers.

Much attention has been paid in this country, during the last ten years, to the breeding and feeding of poultry. All that read this will remember the hen fever that spread through our country a few years ago. Chinese chickens sold at from $40 to $100 a pair; and the usual price of one egg for a time was $5. The saving of feathers off poultry will be found profitable, for they bring a high price and ready sale. Poultry are best disposed of in large quantities at hotels, steamboats, and restaurants. Houses for poultry should be warm and tightly made. When there is a variety of poultry, each kind should be separately lodged. Plenty of space, water accessible, gravel, living plants and loose soil are the principal things to render poultry comfortable. The worms and insects obtained from the loose soil furnish them animal food, and sand or gravel is necessary to promote digestion. It is best not to draw poultry when preparing it for market, as it keeps longer when the air is excluded. In winter some farmers let their poultry freeze, and pack them in boxes of dry straw, and send them to market. They will keep so for two or three months. I was told of an old lady, back of New Albany, Ia., that has made several thousand dollars by the sale of poultry. The egg trade is a very extensive one. It requires a knowledge of the state of the market, and promptness in supplying its demand at the right time. Several establishments in Cincinnati entered largely into the business some years ago, and, we suppose, still continue it. Eggs are often shipped from Cincinnati to New Orleans and New York. "In France and England 6,000,000 eggs are used annually in preparing leather for gloves." In New York the poultry sold in market is mostly purchased from the wholesale commission merchants, who have stands in some parts of the market, or stores near the market. Poultry is there sold by the pound: chickens, 9 and 10 cents, and turkeys from 10 to 12 cents. It requires experience to learn the quality of poultry, but those in the business can judge of it by seeing the poultry when alive. The best time for selling is through the fall up to February. Some market women sell poultry in winter, and flowers in summer. Those who engage in raising poultry, could unite with it the raising of rabbits, pigeons, &c. About a hundred persons (mostly women) are employed in a henery near Paris, where thousands of chickens are annually hatched out by keeping eggs in rooms, heated by steam to a uniform temperature.

154. Restaurant Keepers.

In London and Paris, young and pretty women are employed in the best class of tobacco stores and in restaurants. This should not be so on account of the number, and often the character, of the men that resort to these shops. Indeed, we think it best not to employ them in any stores that men only frequent. Besides, the unseasonable hours that restaurants are kept open, make it objectionable for women. They are often not closed until midnight or after. In Great Britain girls and women are frequently employed as bar maids at inns.

155. Sealed Provisions, Pickles, and Sauces.

The plan is now almost universally adopted in the United States, of putting up fruit and vegetables in cans from which the air is excluded. It is one of the greatest inventions of the age for housekeepers. It saves labor and expense; and if well put up, the fruit and vegetables are as fresh and taste as natural as we have them in the growing season. Quite a number of large houses are engaged in the business in New York, and a few in Philadelphia. E. Philadelphia employs women to put pickles and preserved fruit in jars, sealing and labelling them. They can earn from $2.50 to $3 a week. They sit while at work. The season begins in July, and is over in October. K. & Co., New York, employ about a hundred females during the fruit season. The occupation consists in preparing the articles to be preserved; that is, peeling, seeding, washing, &c., labelling bottles, and painting cans. Those they employ are mostly Irish, and not capable of any very elevated position of labor. The fruit season lasts six months, after which only about thirty remain the rest of the year. The hours of labor are ten, and the compensation from $2.50 to $3 per week. In another establishment they employ only small girls, to whom they pay $2 per week, and occasionally $2.50. Mrs. Dall suggests that farmers' daughters put up candied fruits like those imported from France, which bear a good price and yield a handsome profit. Some women engage in making pickles on their own responsibility. Owners of gardens not convenient to market would find it profitable to put up fruits and vegetables, and to make pickles and sauces. The spices they would have to purchase; but if they had an orchard, they could make good vinegar. They could either sell the articles in the nearest large city, or pay a commission for the sale of them. Mr. D., in one of the New York markets, employs women for putting pickles in jars—gives $8 a month and board. The number of hours they are employed depends on the quantity of work they have on hand. B., New York, employs for six months from six to eight women; for four months, some twenty-five; and the remaining two months, from ninety to one hundred and twenty-five. B. has always had his work done in the city, but contemplates having it done hereafter in the country, as the articles will then be on the ground, and save the trouble of transportation. They send South. He thinks the South must for a long time be dependent on the North for pickles. They even furnish some of the pickle houses in Baltimore. They fear they will lose much because they have now no demand for pickles from the South, and they are likely to spoil by keeping. They are most busy in summer and fall. They keep some steady hands all the year. They find it difficult to get good hands, and pay learners from the first. Many girls go from New York in the summer, to the country, to put up pickles, gather berries, and weed gardens; and it pays them pretty well. B. pays his women fifty cents a day of ten hours. It is not unhealthy, and requires but a little time to learn. In this, as in most other mechanical work, practice makes perfect; consequently, experienced hands receive the preference. At most places men attend to fruit while it is being cooked. The preserving is mostly done in large kettles, around which pass pipes containing steam, encased by larger vessels. Lifting the kettles would be too heavy for women, when they contain, as in some cases, thirty-five gallons of fruit. And the steam used would require some one that knew a little of such matters, yet a smart woman could soon learn. M. & M. have their work done in the house, paying from $2.25 to $4. They can always get hands. W. & P. have their pickles, preserves, and sauces put up in the country. Their girls get from $3 to $6 a week. They employ two hundred girls, and take most of them from the city in the busy season from June to October. G. pays $3 a week. Any one that can use their hands can do it, and become expert in two or three months. Another pickler pays $2 per week. His wife does most of the work. Mrs. M. lives near Washington market. She employs some women to preserve, and some to put up pickles. Most of her preserves are put up by an old lady who does it at her own home. She pays her women from $2.50 to $4 a week. It requires long experience to become proficient. Nearly all the work is done in her house, and of course is done only in the summer. Her custom is mostly confined to the city. If she is preserving a very large quantity of fruit, she has a man to stir it. He spends most of his time taking purchased articles home. She uses only the best articles. She can always get enough hands. An extensive pickle manufacturer writes: "I employ women in packing pickles and all goods of the kind into glass—labelling, corking, making jellies, jams, &c., packing, labelling catsups, bottling syrups, &c. Women are so employed wherever these goods are manufactured. The employment is healthy—so much so that I have known invalids gain their health. I pay $3 per week—men $6 to $10; all work ten hours a day. Women can learn in from three to twelve months. Some learners receive $2, and some $2.50 per week. Quickness, neatness, and skill are required. Summer and fall are the busy seasons. The females are mostly young Irish, born in the United States. Women are superior in handiness, inferior in strength." A gentleman in the business writes from Newburyport: "I employ usually from eight to ten women. I pay eight cents per hour, and they work from four to seven hours. The men's work is worth more than women's, and entirely different from it. The prospect for this kind of work is good. There is no work in winter or early spring. Seaports are the best localities for the business. My women pay from $1.50 to $1.75 for respectable board."