October 15, 1868. 1 



JOURNAL OF HOKTIOOIiTOBBS AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



283 



" Huckleberries is Bkerse," and I believe they are always so in 

 the estimation of those who deal in the article. The complaint 

 is as " old as the hills," and was familiar to the ears of Bose 

 Standish and other early American housewives. 



Whortleberries are peculiarly an American institution. The 

 Germans have what they call hoiJel beere, or heathberry, from 

 the good old Anglo-Saxon lieortberg or hastberry — at best but 

 an indifferent fruit. The English have the Bilberry or Blea- 

 berry, a stunted shrub but a foot high — 



" Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept. 

 There pinch the maids as blue as Bilberry." 



And the Scotch have the Cowberry — long the badge of the Mac- 

 ieods — a small, sour, and puckery fruit that would make one 

 exclaim, as did the Yankee who tried the green Persimmon, 

 " Mister, am I whistling, or what am I doing ?" In our own 

 country, well known to be the real home of the Whortleberry, 

 we have half a dozen varieties, all known to consumers as 

 Whortleberries. They are gathered at this season in endless 

 quantities, and should be dog cheap. 



There was one man who made a marked impression on my 

 mind in early life, and stands out in bold relief as I review the 

 scenes of my childhood — Naaman Gardner. Berries, which he 

 always maintained were " skerse," were his staple of trade in 

 the summer. In his day — the halcyon days of those who were 

 fond of Whortleberries — they sold for three or four cents per 

 quart, milk measure at that, at which price evei-y one could 

 afford to indulge in them freely. We boys bought by retail, 

 and for a cent obtained a large beach clam shell fall — about 

 half a pint, which were turned into the crowns of our straw 

 hats till we could make way with the fruit. When berries 

 were out of season he filled his baskets with other commodi- 

 ties — wild Grapes, Berberries, Sweet and Sour Apples, and 

 " yarbs " — taking with him at the same time a bundle of brooms 

 or a basket or two to seU, the latter of his own make. They 

 were strong white oak baskets, with only one fault — the handle 

 was never in the centre ; and this man at length claimed that 

 they were put on one side intentionally, just as the Yermonter, 

 who had one long and one short leg, said he was made so on 

 ptirpose to mow on a side hUl. I could relate other peeuHari- 

 ties, but I have already rambled far enough from my subject — 

 the price of Whortleberries. 



A farmer in Narragansett once told me that he could gather 

 Whortleberries enough on the farm he hired to pay the rent ; 

 and from what I saw there I have no doubt but that he could 

 easily have done so ; and yet that fellow, with a miserable lot 

 of cow frames, tried to keep the appearance of a dairy farm in 

 a barren and " sparse "' section, where nought would grow but 

 wiregrass. Whortleberries, and Alders, with a sprinkling of 

 black snakes, woodchucks, and skunks. In a short time he 

 played out, and I have always associated him and others like 

 him with the steady increase in the price of berries. They 

 have neglected to gather the bountiful stores of the swamps 

 and wild lands ; and middle men — the sharpers — have fore- 

 stalled the market, substituted wine for milk measure, run up 

 prices, and played the dickens generally with the Whortleberry 

 trade. Think of Whortleberries selling at 16c. a-quart in the 

 middle of August, or rather think of being asked that price for 

 them, for they don't sell — much. 



Whortleberries are good in any form but dried, a process 

 that deprives them of every good quality, leaving us only the 

 shrivelled skin and seeds ; in pies, tarts, flapjacks, johnny cakes, 

 &c., but to my mind the " hollow " — a good old-fashioned 

 Whortleberry hoUow — is without a peer in the world. Some 

 cooks make a batter, then stir in the berries and boU the whole 

 together — making a heavy, doughy mass, and altogether a 

 waste of most excellent materials. With others it is the 

 custom to line a deep dish with puff paste, pour in the berries, 

 cover with a thin paste, bake and serve with sauce — a good, 

 palatable dish, but not the hollow of our forefathers, which 

 must be made of Potato crust — for the reason that it is far 

 more tender than puff paste — roUed out thin and spread over a 

 pudding cloth ; then pour in the berries, gather up the side of 

 the crust and pinch it together — not, however, in a way that 

 win make a lump of dough at that point — tie the bag and boil 

 till done. When ready for the table, serve with sauce, but let 

 it be sauce, not a little warm sugar and water thickened, nor a 

 lump of butter and sugar rubbed together till snowy white, as 

 firm as wax and as dry as table salt. These are makeshifts. 

 But here is a recipe worth to any housekeeper a year's sub- 

 scription to the Journal : — A cup of sugar, and a little less 

 than half the quantity of butter, worked together till white and 

 smooth ; add a wine-glass of good wine, flavour with nutmeg, 



and stir in boiling milk till the w^hole is of the consistency of 

 thick cream. Send it to the table, and stir it well when served. 

 Test the above, and my word for it, you will ever after use it 

 for puddings of all lands requiring sauce. — Aqcidn'ECK (in 

 Providence Journal.) 



F.VILURES IN BOTTOM-HEATING. 

 We have received several complaints with regard to pipes 

 laid in open rubble, and laid in a chamber covered with 

 slate, that though the pipes are made hot, the heat does not 

 rise into the bed above. This reminds us of a case that 

 came under our own practice in Cucumber-growing. We have 

 hardly ever been more successful than in a common brick pit, 

 all above the ground ; the walls formed of single brick on bed, 

 with Vl-inch piers to give strength, and the bricks laid in 

 cement, as all the heating was done with mounds of rank fer- 

 menting dung outside the pit, turned at times, and kept 

 banked up nearly to the wall plate. The bottom of the pit in- 

 side, for nearly half the depth, was roughly flued or chambered 

 with stones, brickbats, and furnace clinkers, and covered over 

 so as to have a thin layer of pebbles and clean-washed rough 

 gravel on the surface to receive the soil for the Cucumbers. It 

 was hoped that as the outside wall became hot, the heat would 

 so circulate amid the openings of this loose bottom, as to give 

 plenty of bottom heat. The closeness of the walls prevented 

 all steam entering, and the walls at the top gave out enough o£ 

 heat to keep up the top temperature, and when we wanted a 

 moister atmosphere we had merely to sprinkle the walls with 

 a little water, but in the winter that was only necessary in very 

 bright weather. Nothing could have answered better for a time 

 than the above plan for securing bottom heat ; but presently, 

 do what we could, though the walls outside were quite hot, we 

 could not make the soil in the middle of the bed as warm as 

 we wished. We racked our brains for some time to little pur- 

 pose, when by degrees we reflected that confined air is one of 

 the worst conductors of heat, and the air in our rough brickbat 

 chamber was as confined as it well could be. Luckily we had 

 a rough open flue, or space rather, along tho middle of the 

 bottom of our pit, and by putting down a drain tile at each 

 end, the one end of the tile resting above the opening, and the 

 other end standing a few inches above the soil, and furnished 

 with a plug, we found that the earth in the centre soon 

 began to be heated ; and to make more sure of the air being 

 put in motion, we had a metal pipe at each end outside, com- 

 municating with the open bottom, and by opening these pipes 

 a little at times, we found the heat from the sides circulate all 

 the way beneath the bed, so that the centre of the bed of earth 

 was nearly as warm as the sides. Now we mention this be- 

 cause a fact is often more convincing than precept. If a 

 heated chamber does not heat the bed above it, a little air ad- 

 mitted in two or three places near the bottom of the chamber 

 will give a circulation to the confined air, and cause it to heat 

 readily the bed placed over it. 



Another cause of want of success when the pipes are covered 

 with rubble, is having the pipes at too great a depth from the 

 bed to be heated. True, heat will rise, and v?ill not be lost ; 

 but the deeper the pipes the more liable will the heat be to be 

 diffused longitudinally instead of vertically, and the more 

 likely, too, will be the air round the pipes to be confined and 

 still, unless some means have been taken, as above, to keep the 

 air in motion. 



When hot-water pipes are used for bottom heat, it is well to 

 use no fermenting material in addition to the pipes. A says 

 he put a 2-feet bed of cocoa-nut refuse over his pipes, and in a 

 few weeks he could secure no heat for his pots, though the 

 pipes were warm. B used dung and leaves for a similar bed, 

 and as soon as the heat from them declined, he derived no 

 benefit from his pipes ; he felt they were warm, but the heat 

 would not rise. This was partly owing to the air about the 

 pipes being confined, but it was chiefly owing to the material 

 next the pipes becoming dry and caked, and through such dry 

 material neither cold nor heat will easily pass. For a plung- 

 ing bed above such heated medium, we therefore recommend 

 sand or fine ashes as being as good as anything else, and these 

 no deeper than is necessary. 



When a bed is supplied with pipes for bottom heat, it is 

 often necessary for distinct purposes to have the plants nearer 

 the glass, and then a raised bed of fermenting material may 

 be necessary. A genial heat is thus given at once, but if that 

 is to be continued with the jhelp of the pipes, then it will be 

 necessary to have the means, by tubes, &c., of potuing water 



