California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



oM-fashionecl straw bed, which can every 

 three months be changed for fresh straw, and 

 the tick be washed, is the sweetest and most 

 healthy nf beds. 



If, in the Winter season, the porousness of 

 the straw ))eds makes it a little uncomfortable 

 spretjd over it a comforter or two woolen 

 blankets, which should be washed as often as 

 every two weeks. With the arrangement, if 

 you wash all the bed coverings as often as 

 onee in two weeks, you will have a delightful, 

 healthy bed. 



Now, if you leave the bed to air, with open 

 window during the day, and not make up for 

 the night before evening, you will have added 

 greatly to the sweetness of your rest, and, in 

 consequence, to the tone of your health. 



I heartily wish the change could be every- 

 where introduced. Only those who have thus 

 attended to this important matter can judge 

 of the influence on the general health and 

 spirits. ^ili'/nw Farmer. 



an hour or so in the sunlight; and that you 

 quench you thirst with no other fluid than 

 water. — Journal of Health. 



At Lennoxtown, Scotland, a lady has died 

 from lead poisoning. She used, by medical 

 advice, the ordinary seltzer water in siphon 

 bottles, and the water has taken from the si- 

 phon such a quantity of lead that it is sup- 

 posed she received for many days at least a 

 grain a day. 





Practical Recipes. 



BY MES. M. E. THOMASSON. 



fANY 



SALT-KISING BKEAD. 



persons are fond of salt-rising 



PtiErFTiNO THE Blood. — Some persons ac- 

 tually read and believe the medical almanacs 

 and advertisements of nostrums that flood the 

 newspapers. How wisely they talk, these 

 advertisements, about the necessity of jnirify- 

 ing the blood; but they would lead the ignor- 

 ant and credulous to think that the only way 

 to get pure blood is to take doses of the par- 

 ticular kind of patent medicine advertised. 

 Many respectable families take it for gi-anted 

 that some kind of spring medicine is neces- 

 sary to set the human system in working or- 

 der, as Winter's cold gives way before the ap- 

 proach of warm weather; whereas it is only 

 necessary for them to "cease to do evil and 

 learn to do well" in their daily eating, drink- 

 ing, breathing, working and jjlaying. 



Persons who have learned and pay heed to 

 the laws of health, find no necessity for spring 

 medicines. They are all of the time purify- 

 ing the blood by their simple daily habits. 

 They aim to make their blood of good nour- 

 ishing materials, and to "cleanse" it by pure 

 air breathed into the lungs. 



It seems to me more and more astonishing 

 that the human body can stand so much abuse, 

 especially in the way of bad air. People shut 

 themselves into such close rooms in Winter, 

 especially at night, that it is no wonder they 

 are driven to all sorts of stimulants to whip 

 up their flagging energies, and no wonder that 

 they are "all run down" at the end ol Winter. 

 One of the most common mistakes is the 

 supposition that air is pure in proportion to 

 its coldness, so that you have only to open a 

 door into an unheated room, which is itself a 

 reservoir of foul air perhaps, in order to ven- 

 tilate sufficiently the living room or sleeping 

 room. I5ut the mistakes in diet alone are 

 sufficient to account for the biliousness that 

 prevails in early Spring. A Winter diet made 

 of fat pork or of hot pancakes saturated with 

 butter or fat, will pretty surely bring some 

 sort of sickness in its wake. — American Aijrl- 

 cuUwisl. 



bread and would be glad, perhaps, to 

 have a recipe that can always be relied 

 0^ on. For the benefit of such I send the 

 following: As soon as the fire is made for 

 the morning meal, put into a tin can or other 

 vessel (I like tin best) one quart of warm 

 water, one desert spoonful of salt and one of 

 sugar; stir in enough wheat bran to thicken; 

 place the vessel in a pot of warm water and 

 set in a w.arm place to rise. The water should 

 be kept quite hot, as a much greater degree 

 of heat is necessary for this kind of yeast than 

 for any commonly used. Be careful not to 

 scald it. In about five hours, or when the 

 bran has risen several inches, strain through 

 a cloth, adding to the liquor salt and warm 

 water sufficient to sponge the amount of flour 

 desired for bread. Keep the sponge warm, 

 and when light, knead and bake in the usual 

 manner. I never use any other bread, and 

 my neighbors often speak of "your good salt- 

 rising." 



OPENING FKUIT CANS. 



I would hke also to tell your readers my 

 method of opening fruit cans, which is very 

 simple and much better than the old plan of 

 melting and giiuging wax in order to remove 

 the lids. Hold the can in the left hand, while 

 with the right strike softly and quickly with 

 the handle of a knife on the lid and around 

 the top. The wax will fly off, leaving the can 

 as clean almost as when new, causing no in- 

 jury to the can and rendering no after clean- 

 ing necessary. 



MlscKLLANECtrs Eecipes.— PrOTm Cakes- 

 nth a teaspoouful of salt into a pint of thick, 

 sweet cream; sift in slowly a quart of flour; 

 roll it an inch thick, cut it out with the top of 

 a tumbler, and bake in an oven. 



VeqetaUe Oysters— Vwt one quart of slicep 

 oysters in two quarts of water, cook till very 

 tender, then add salt, pepper and butter, and 

 a h.-df pint of sweet cream. Serve with 

 crackers. 



7jo(te— Take a cup of sweet cream, the 

 white of three eggs beaten to a foam, a tea- 

 spoonful of salt rising, and a little salt; mix 

 in a pound of sifted flour with warm milk 

 enough to make a stiflf dough. Set it in a 

 warm place, and it will rise in an hour. 

 Knead it into rolls, and bake on a floured tin 

 in a quick oven for fifteen minutes. 



Scrai) FuihVwg—Fnt the scraps of bread, 

 crust and crumb, into a bowl with sufficient 

 milk to cover them well. Cover with a sauce- 

 pan lid or plate, and put into the oven to 

 soak for half an hour. Take it out and mash 

 the bread with a fork until it is a pulp; then 

 add a handful of raisins and as many currants, 

 a teaspoouful of brown sugar, half a cup of 

 milk, some candied lemon peel, and one egg. 

 Stir it up well, grease a pudding dish, and 

 pour the pudding in. Grate over a little nut- 

 meg, put it into a moderate oven, and let it 

 bake for an hour and a half. 



Oranfie Sirup— Squeeze the juice from the 

 oranges; to a pint of it put a pound of white 

 sugar; set on a moderate fire. When the 

 sugar dissolves put in the peel of the oranges 

 and set the sirup where it will boil slowly 

 eight or ten minutes; then strain. Do not 

 squeeze while straining. Bottla and cork 

 tight. Excellent eaten on almost any kind of 

 a pudding. An excellent sirup can also be 

 made from the peels and pits of peaches; also 

 the peels and cores of those late little sour 

 pears— some prefer half quince and half pear. 

 Such odds and ends can be made use of, and 

 when the wind and snows of Winter are blow- 

 ing, these sirups are nice eaten on our buck- 

 wheat cakes, when otherwise, perhaps, we 

 would be obliged to use black molasses. 



Sunlight a Necessity.— Sun-baths cost 

 nothing, and are the most refreshing, life- 

 giving baths that one can take, whether sick 

 or well. Every housekeeper knows the ne- 

 cessity of giving her woolens the benefit of 

 the sun, from time to time, especially after a 

 long absence of the sun. Many will think of 

 the injury their clothes are liable to, from 

 dampness, who will never reflect that an oc- 

 casional exposure of thair own bodies to the 

 sunlight is necessary to their own health. 

 The suu-l)aths cost nothing, and that is a mis- 

 fortune, for peO]ile are still deluded with the 

 idea that those things can only bo good or 

 useful which cost money. Let it not be for- 

 gotten that three of (iod's most beneficent 

 gifts to man — three things the most necessary 

 to good health — sunlight, fresh air, and wat- 

 ter, are free to all; you can have them in 

 abundance, without money and without price, 

 if you will. If yon would enjoy good health 

 then SCI! to it that you are suiiplicd with jiuro 

 air to breathe all the time; that you bathe for 



Eds. Ageiculuueist: I am very much inter- 

 ested in the "Domestic Department" of your 

 paper, but am very much surprised how little 

 interest is taken by the women in it. In go- 

 ing around to the farmers' houses, it is a con- 

 stant source of surprise to mo to see how 

 inconvenient the kitchens are, and how much 

 useless labor the farmers' wives and daughters 

 do. Now, I will venture to say there 

 is not five complete kitchens, in ranch houses, 

 in Santa Clara county. And what is more, 

 there is not one out of a hundred women that 

 spend their lives doing house-work who 

 knows how she wants a kitchen arranged to 

 be convenient. There is as much difference 

 in woman's work, between doing it easy and 

 making hard work of it, as there is in a man's 

 using a scytlie or mowing machine. Why, 

 even in putting in a sink, where they have 

 (ini, it is left to the car])enter, so that instead 

 .of a low, long and wide sink, with a pitch to 

 drain it prouq)tly, the carpenter puts m a nice 

 little thing, so high as to bo iiiconveuient,and 

 closed up beneath flush with the front, to pre- 

 vent a person standing close to it as they had 

 ought to to work easy, and so level that the 

 water will be hours running oS. 



W. A. T. 



Paeageaphs Woeth Kemembeeing.— Ben- 

 zine and common clay will clean marble. 



Dieting will aid you in removing pimples. 



Caster oil is an excellent thing to soften 

 leather. 



Spirits of ammonia, diluted a little, will 

 cleanse the hair very thoroughly. 



Lemon juice and glycerine will remove tan 

 and freckles, and will cleanse and soften the 

 hands. 



Stains on wall paper can be cut out -n-ith a 

 sharp pcnkifc and a piece of paper so nicely 

 inserted that no one can see the patch. 



A good, cheap paint for floors is made of 

 five pounds of French ocher, one quarter of a 

 pound of glue, and a gallon of hot water. 

 When well lU-ied, apply one or two coats of 

 linseed oil. 



A case of death by green wall-paper poison- 

 ing has occurred in Louisville, and exannna- 

 tion showed that the paper on the wall of 

 deceased's bed-chamber contained two grain8_ 

 of arsenic to the square foot. 



Tobacco and Beead.— Bishop Janes stated 

 at the Round Lake camp meeting, last Sum- 

 mer, that it costs the Methodist church more 

 for tobacco than for religion. 



The statistics of the Government show that 

 tobacco costs the nation many millions more 

 than its bread does. ., , , ,, 



Wcndd it not be a sad thing if the heathen, 

 for whose salvation we are contributing men 

 and monev, should learn these facts? 



Shall those who in some measure realize 

 the greatness of this evil, and are laboring to 

 prevent our voung people from being led mto 

 its wretclu'd'slavery, by the exanqile of church 

 members and ministers, bo frowned down by 

 men who are joined to their idols and either 

 cannot or will not reform'? 



