Planting Corn

For most of our characters in the 19th century they enjoyed and needed to plant their own food. Corn was a staple in most homes and farms. Below are some brief tidbits about when to plant corn.

In a 1828 source it is recommended to plant corn on Long Island, NY from the 10th-20th of May.
In 1845 an individual began planting corn in April. Unfortunately it doesn't say where.
An 1854 also says from 10-25th of May.
In a 1895 source it recommends to plant corn when the white oak leaves are as big as a squirrel's foot or a mouse's ear. For New England and Middle states.

Of the various sources I read, most prepared the field by laying down the manurer a month before.

Noah Webster's Dictionary

Noah Webster's Dictionary of 1828 was a huge influence at the time but it's also a very good tool for writers and historians today.

Here's a link to a word search for the dictionary. Noah Webster's Dictionary 1828

The 1828 dictionary wasn't Noah's first. His first was in 1806. He learned 26 languages to develop the 1828 dictionary and it took 27 years to complete. Unfortunately, it didn't sell well, so Noah mortgaged his home to publish the second edition in 1840. It wasn't until after his death that Noah's efforts were recognized.

Another great point for researchers and writers is all of Noah Webster's dictionaries and other books are in public domain.

NY Canals 1860

According to the History of Railroads & Canals ©1860, the state of NY reported this list of Canals.

NEW YORK STATE CANALS

Erie Canal. Opened in 1825
Champlain Canal. Completed in 1819
Black River Canal. (was a feeder canal to Erie)
Oneida Lake Canal. Completed in 1802
Oswego Canal. Opened in 1828
Seneca River Towing Path. completed in 1839

Baldwinsville Side-cut. purchased by the state in 1853
Cayuga And Seneca Canal. completed in 1839
Crooked Lake Canal. completed in 1833
Chemung Canal. completed in 1833
Chenango Canal. commencement of work 30th Sept. 1859
Genesee Valley Canal. completed in 1859

American Ladies Magazine

During the early part of the 19th Century there was a magazine called "American Ladies Magazine." The first volume was actually titled "Ladies Magazine." Below is a list of links to Google Books for several volumes. The editor of this project is Sarah Josepha Hale, the author of Mary Had a little Lamb. By clicking the author's name you will be taken to the Wikipedia page about her. In 1837 the magazine was purchased by Godey and merged it with his Godey's Lady's Book.

Ladies Magazine Vol. 1 1828

Ladies Magazine Vol. 2 1829

Ladies Magazine Vol. 3 1830

Ladies Magazine Vol. 4 1831

Ladies Magazine Vol.5 1832

American Ladies Magazine Vol.6 1833. This link is not to Google Books and you can download a copy for your research pleasure.

American Ladies Magazine Vol. 7 1834

One more note, I've listed what is now available on Google books for free. However, other volumes are available for a substantial fee from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. So if you're interested in these volumes I recommend that you download and keep your own personal copy of them.

Irish Stew

Below are several examples of Irish Stew. The novel I'm working on now has a bloke who's Irish and well, there's a moment when he's wanting his mother's Irish stew but then he takes another forkful of the spicy cuban beef.

I've also added a poem and a comedic chorus from the 19th century referring to this common meal.

Anyway here are the various recipes.

Cutlets a la Irish Stew.
Get the best end of a neck of mutton, take off the under bone, and cut it into chops; season them with pepper, salt, a little mushroom powder, and beaten mace. Put them into a stewpan, add a large onion sliced, some parsley and thyme tied in a bunch, and a pint or veal broth. Simmer the chops till three parts done, then add some whole potatoes peeled, and let them stew till done. Serve it up in a deep dish.
N. B. Let the parsley and thyme be taken out when the stew is to be served up.
Source: Art of Cooking Made Easy and Refined ©1808

IrishStew.—There are two possible reasons for the name of this dish. The first is Hibernian—it is unknown in Ireland; the second is that the stuff of which Irishmen are made is redundant in it—potatoes. The Irish are not cooks. They are the most agreeable of companions at table, but they have done nothing to furnish the table except in the way of Usquebagh—water of life—which, however, it must be admitted is an immense achievement, worthy of the magicians, and proving beyond a doubt that in the olden time Ireland was the abode of giants.
Irish stew is a white ragout of mutton with potatoes for the chief garnish. Most ragouts are brown—it being always easier to heighten the flavour of a sauce by browning it than by trusting to mere decoction. What is called the haricot of mutton, for example, is browned. The beautiful simplicity of the Irish stew would be lost if it were allowed in any way to brown. The potatoes are so important in it that they are always double the weight of the meat, and the only other vegetable that they go with is the onion—which may be much or little according to taste. In the true Irish stew, too, both potatoes and onions are exceedingly well done, so that they are half reduced to a mash.
Take the neck of mutton and divide it into cutlets, well trimmed of the fat. No objection to some of the breast divided into squares. Season the pieces plentifully with pepper and slightly with salt. Place the meat in a deep stewpan with six or eight onions : cover it with water, and let it simmer for half an hour. As Irish stew must not be greasy, the liquor is then poured off, and poured back again after the grease has been removed. In the meantime potatoes have been got ready, parboiled and peeled. They should amount after peeling to twice the weight of the meat. They are added to the stew with a pint of broth or else a like quantity of water; and the whole is left to simmer for an hour and a half. See in serving it that it has salt enough and a decided flavour of the pepper pot.
In Scotland they produce exactly such a stew, cover it over with a crust, and call it Shepherd's pie. In Devonshire and Cornwall they make this pie, put apples into it instead of potatoes, and announce it as Devonshire, Cornish, or Squab pie. The Shepherd's pie of Scotland is evidently too farinaceous—potatoes within and paste without. The housewives of Devonshire and Cornwall are much more artistic in keeping to one kind of farina—the paste, and putting inside the pie only apples and onions. As the combination of apples and onions in the way of garniture has been long dedicated in England to pork, the Devonians and Cornishmen have also decided that their pie shall do honour to pork as often as to mutton—perhaps oftener.
Source: Kettner's book of the table ©1877

Irish Stew.—Take from two to three pounds of chops from tho best end of a neck of mutton, and pare away nearly all tho fat, for an Irish Stew should not be greasy. If liked a portion of tho breast may be cut into squares and used, but a neck of mutton is the best joint for the purpose. Take as many potatoes as will unount after peeling to twice the weight of tho meat. Slice them, and slice also eight largo onions. Put a layer of mixed potatoes and onions at tho bottom of a stowpan. Placo tho meat on this and season it plentifully with pepper and slightly with salt. Pack tho ingredients closely, and cover the moat with artother layer of potato and onion. Pour in as much water or stock as will moisten the topmost layer, cover tho stowpan tightly, and lot its contents simmer gently for three hours. Be careful not to remove the lid, as this will let out the flavour.
Irish Stew (another way).—Put some neat chops, cut from the neck of mutton, into a stewpan; they should be trimmed, and the bonea shortened a little. Braise them for half an hour, and season with pepper, salt, and a few chopped mushrooms. Butter a mould, and thickly line it with mashed potatoes; lay in the chops, and bake. When done, turn out on a hot dish, and pourr in some good gravy through an opening on the top. Time, about half an hour to bako. Two dozen potatoes will bo quite sufficient for this dish.
Source: Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery ©1883

A Poem
IRISH STEW.
an "Happy Land."

Irish stew, Irish stew I
Whatever else my dinner be, Once again, once again,
I'd have a dish of thee.

Mutton chops, and onion slice,
Let the water cover,
With potatoes, fresh and nice;
Boil, but not quite over,
Irish stew, Irish stew 1
Ne'er from thee, my taste will stray.
I could eat
Such a treat
Nearly every day.

La,la,la,
Source Humorous Poetry of the English Language ©1884


HURRAH FOR AN IRISH STEW.
An Original Parody, by J. Brace Wright.
Air.—Bonnets of Blue.
Hurrah for an Irish stew,
Hurrah for an Irish stew,
It's season'd so fine, and its flavour's divine,
Hurrah for an Irish stew.

It's good with pepper and salt,
It's good with potatoes a few, There's nought can equal, in this grubbing world, An elegant Irish stew.
Then hurrah (or an Irish stew,
Hurrah for an Irish stew,
It's season'd so fine, and its flavour's divine,
Hurrah for an Irish stew.

If you'd ask a young lover to dine,
And have him prove kind unto you,
To make love come out of his beautiful mouth,

You should stuff it with Irish stew.
Here's a health to John Bull and his beef,

Here's a health to Sandy and brew,
Here's a health to Paddy, good luck in brief,
Success to his Irish stew.

Then hurrah for an Irish stew,
Hurrah for an Irish stew,
It's season'd so fine, and its flavour's divine,
Och ! good luck to an Irish stew.
Source: Melodist and Mirthful Olio ©1828

Bleaching Sponges

Today we simply go to the store and purchase artificial sponges and on occasion ocean grown real sponges. My parents lived in Key West, FL. for many years and my Mom would purchase many sponges from the sponge fisherman and she would work for days cleaning these sponges. Below are some possible procedures your characters might have used to bleach their sponges.

On Bleaching Sponge. By M. Vogel, of Munich.*
Although sponge, in its chemical nature, very much resembles silk and wool, yet it cannot be bleached in exactly the same manner as those substances. M. Vogel was convinced that the bleaching of it would be the more difficult, as the action of the vapour of burning sulphur upon it reduces it so considerably, or, as we may say, almost to nothing; whilst both silk and wool, as is well known, are bleached by this means in a most complete manner. The finer the sponges, the more easily they are bleached. The following method has succeeded extremely well for this purpose:—
The sponges must first be sufficiently steeped in cold water; for if they were to be put into either boiling or even warm water, it would produce a most destructive effect upon them; as they would shrink, their pores would be closed, they would become hard, and it would be impossible to bleach them afterwards.
But if the sponges are steeped in cold water, which should be changed every three or four hours, and if at each time it is changed they were submitted to so strong a pressure as to be entirely freed from the water, at the expiration of five or six days they would become sufficiently washed, and be prepared for the bleaching.
If, as it frequently happens, the sponges retain, in their interior, small calcareous stones, which it might be supposed could not be extracted without tearing them or beating them to pieces, yet it is easily effected by allowing them to steep for 24 hours in muriatic acid, diluted with 20 parts of water: this produces a slight effervescence, from the extrication of the carbonic acid gas; and the calcareous concretions disappear, being dissolved in the most complete manner.
Then, after having been very carefully washed, the sponges are thrown into a solution of sulphurous acid, of the specific gravity of 1,024; or which marks about 4" on the areometer of Beaume. The following is the best manner of preparing this acid:—Put into a glass retort, one pound of pulverized charcoal, and one pound of concentrated sulphuric acid; and, by means of a bent tube, convey the gas, which is extricated, into a vessel, where it may be combined with eight pints of water, according to the Bavarian measure.t
The immersion of the sponges in this acid is to be continued for eight days; but during this time they are to be repeatedly submitted to the action of a press; and, lastly, they are allowed to remain 24 hours in running water.
When the sponges have thus been washed in a sufficient quantity of running water, they may be sprinkled with rose or orange-flowerwater, for the purpose of communicating to them an agreeable odour; after which, they must be allowed to dry gradually in the open air.
Source: The Franklin Journal and American Mechanics' Magazine ©1828

BLEACHING SPONGES.
There arc several methods by which sponges may be bleached, and thus rendered attractive and salable. The two best are presented below. Any druggist of ordinary skill can bleach his sponges, and thus double t heir value.
1. First clean, wash, and squeeze out the sponges; then dip them into a two-per-cent solution of permanganate of potassium. Here they become quite brown (from separated manganic oxide). After ten minutes, they are taken out, washed in water, again well pressed, and then dipped into a two-per-cent solution of oxalic acid [we prefer diluted sulphuric (1 : 20) or diluted hydrochloric acid (1 : 15)], in which they become perfectly white. Success mainly depends on the soaking in the permanganate solution. If they are macerated too short a time, they do not become thoroughly white; if too long, they are apt to become rotten.
2. First clean the sponges by immersing them in diluted hydrochloric acid; then soak them in the bleaching liquid, composed of hyposulphite of sodium one part, water twelve parts, and hydrochloric acid two parts. After some time they are removed and well washed. To the last wash-water a little glycerine is added in order to preserve the sponges soft. The liquid is best pressed out by passing the sponges through a clothes-wringer.
3. Toilet sponges which have been in use often become peculiarly slimy, fatty, and almost useless, owing to some action of the soap. Mere washing in distilled water does not remove the difficulty. It may be overcome byusing fused chloride of calcium. The sponge is pressed as much as possible, placed on a plate, the powdered chloride- of calcium sprinkled upon it, and allowed to deliquesce upon the sponge. After about half an hour the sponge may be washed in water, and dried, when it will become white.
Though all the above processes furnish satisfactory results, yet the following combination and modification of two of the above processes will be found to work better still.
Soak the sponges, previously deprived of sand and dirt by beating and washing, in a one-per-cent solution of permanganate of potassium; then remove them, wash them thoroughly with water, and press out the water; next put them into a solution of one-half pound of hyposulphite of sodium in one gallon of water to which one ounce of oxalic acid has been added, and leave them in the solution for fifteen minutes; finally take them out, and wash them thoroughly.
By this treatment the sponges are rendered perfectly white. Many sponges contain a more or less dark-colored, brownish core. If treated only with permanganate and acid, the core is cither not bleached at all, or, if it has been somewhat bleached, the tint is apt to grow again darker. By the above modification, every portion of the sponge is rendered white, and remains so.
Source: The Popular Science News and Boston Journal of Chemistry ©1883

Sponge.—(1) Saturate in a quart of buttermilk for 24 hours, and rub between the hands. (2) Soak in dilute muriatic acid (1 acid to 1J water) for 12 hours, wash well with water, to remove lime, then immerse it in a solution of 2 lb. hyposulphite of soda in 12 lb. water, to which 2 lb. muriatic acid has been added a moment before. After it is sufficiently bleached, remove, wash again, and dry. (3) Soak for several days in cold water, renewing the water and squeezing the sponges occasionally. Then wash in warm water, and put into cold water acidulated with hydrochloric acid. Next dry, take out, and wash thoroughly in soft water; then immerse in an aqueous sulphurous acid (sp. gr. 1 • 034) for a week. Afterwards wash in plenty of water, squeeze, and allow to dry in the air. (4) Soak in dilute hydrochloric acid to remove the lime, then wash in water, and place for 10 minutes in a 2 per cent. solution of potassium permanganate. Their brown appearance on removal from this is due to deposition of manganous oxide, which may be removed by steeping for about 2 minutes in a 3 per cent. solution of oxalic acid, to which a little sulphuric acid has been added. As soon as the sponges appear white, they are washed out in water to remove the acid. Very dilute sulphuric acid may replace the oxalic acid. (5) First wash in tepid water, and then in a solution of hydrochloric acid (o «. per litre = 5 fl. dr. per 7 pints), which frees the pores from carbonate of lime; next immerse for 24 hours in a solution composed of 5 pints hydrochloric acid in 100 of water, with addition of 6 pints hyposulphite of soda.
Source: Workshop Receipts ©1883