California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



let it stand on a hot stove over night, 

 ohauge the water and heat again. The 

 corn is as sweet as if fresh from the field. 

 Lovers of sweet corn, try it; you will 

 never buy the slop they call "canned 

 corn." 



miKD APPLES. 



Take nice, smooth tart apples, wipe 

 clean and slice across the core. To one 

 dozen apples use two tablespoonfuls of 

 lard or suet. Pour over a cup of water 

 when in the frying pan, cover tight and 

 let them simmer over a moderate fire till 

 done. Try with a fork, but do not stir 

 them. Sprinkle over two t.iblespoonfuls 

 of sugar, and serve without breaking the 

 slices. This makes a neat and palatable 

 dish. 



PICKLED ONIONS. 



Choose small button onions, as nearly 

 the same size as possible, peel them and 

 pour on strong, boiling hot brine; drain 

 them from the brine; wijie them dry and 

 put them into cold vinegar, with whole 

 pepper, bruised giuger root, blades of 

 mace and sliced horse-radish. Keep 

 them covered with vinegar, close the jar 

 tightly, and set in a cool, dry place. 



PICKLED APPLES. 



Three pounds of sugar, seven pounds 

 of apples quartered and cored, one iiint 

 of vinegar. Steam the apples till a fork 

 will go through them readily. Then 

 make a syrup of the sugar .ind vinegar 

 and pour over them while hot. Stick a 

 clove or two into each quarter. Very 

 nice. 



PICKLED PALMETTO EOOTS. 



Florida is to give the world a new con- 

 diment in the shape of pickles made from 

 the pith or bed of the palmetto roots, 

 which are said to be superior to cucum- 

 bers for the purpose. 



TO PILL FETJIT .lAKS. 



To prevent breaking glass jars when 

 putting hot water or fruit into them set 

 your jar on a wet towel or napkin folded 

 several thicknesses together. This is 

 very simple, easy to remember and to do, 

 and will insure glass from cracking. 



LABELS ON TIN CANS. 



A spoonful of sugar in a pint of paste 

 will make labels adhere to tin as well as 

 to wood. 



HOUSEHOLD PESTS. 



COCKROACHES. 



A lady inquires: "What is the best 

 thing to drive away cockroaches? I am 

 living in San Francisco, and my pantry 

 is infested with them. I have tried al- 

 most everything I can hear of, but with 

 only temporary success." 



Borax is the best cockroach extermin- 

 ator yet discovered. This troublesome 

 insect has a peculiar aversion to it, .and 

 will never return where it has once been 

 scattered. As the salt is perfectly harm- 

 less to hum.an beings, it is much to be 

 preferred for this purpose to the poison- 

 ous substances commonly used. 



Another recipe: Take dry red lead; 

 mix with thin molasses to a consistency 

 of thin cream ; then take pieces of glass 

 and broken plates, etc., spread it on 

 aViout as thick as thin window glass. 

 Where roaches are very numerous, give 

 them plenty of the mixture, as they eat 

 very greedily of it. I think the general 

 failure with roai'h poison is this: The 

 poison is so quick in sickening the 

 roaches tliat they will not eat enough of 

 it to kill them, for they are slow eaters. 

 The red lead being slow in its effect on 

 them, they will gel a good quantity into 

 them before it will sicken them, 1 have 

 notice when any of them would happen 

 to be trampled upon, it would appear 

 that they wore entirely filled with the 



red lead. Place the lead where the 

 roaches can get at it most conveniently. 

 If the lead should become too dry and 

 hard, mix a little more lead and molasses 

 with the old to freshen it up again, and 

 put it in diflferent places. 



BED ANTS. 



Correspondents of the American Grocer 

 having inquired what to do to rid jirem- 

 ises of red ant#, that paper called upon 

 its readers for their methods. Several 

 of them r_'plied, a majority naming cam- 

 phor gum as the best thing to use. Place 

 in a thin muslin bag and hang up .about 

 the places infested. One has used suc- 

 cessfully a cord saturated with spirits of 

 camphor. Another has used elder leaves 

 scattered about the shelves and boxes 

 with good success. 



OTHEE INSECTS AND ESTEEMINATOES. 



Mercury exterminiites fleas and bugs. 

 Cleanliness is the best preventive. The 

 common housefly more than compensates 

 for its trouble by clearing the atmos- 

 phere of eiiluvia and the animalcules 

 which always arise from the putrefaction 

 of decaying substances during warm 

 weather. 



Twenty-five cents' worth of eob.alt — a 

 mineral poison in black powder — will 

 last to kill the flies .about a house for a 

 whole year. Put a spoonful into a 

 saucer or soup-plate and keep the dish 

 half full of water sweetened with sugar. 

 Set where the flies will get at it. 



Birds capture a large share of the in- 

 sects in the larva state, and thus the 

 millers are prevented from depositing 

 their eggs for future worms. As to the 

 loss of fruit by the birds, the latter are 

 always sure to be on hand in force in the 

 season of ripe fruit, whether they come 

 early to take the worms or not. 



I'or insects that infest the vegetable 

 garden, the labor.atory of the chemist 

 furnishes materials fatal to them all, 

 among which white hellebore and cay- 

 enne pepper are of the most utility. The 

 bug or worm that cannot find vegetation 

 unflavored with these articles will seek 

 its breixkfast elsewhere and leave such a 

 garden unmolested. 



A few drops of carbolic acid in a pint 

 of water will clean house plants of lice 

 in a very short time. 



If mosquitos or other blood-sucker in- 

 fest sleeping rooms at night, uncork a 

 bottle of pennyroyal, ami these insects 

 will leave in great haste, nor will they 

 return so long as the air in the room is 

 loaded with the fumes of that aromatic 

 herb. 



Common coal oil is an excellent mos- 

 quito bar. Drop a little on a piece of 

 cotton, squeeze as dry as possible, and 

 rub over the exposed portions of the 

 body. The smell of the oil disai>pears 

 in about five minutes, and no mosquito 

 will alight upon the anointed places. 

 This is said to be better than pennyroyal 

 for the same purpose. 



If r.ats enter the cellar, a little pow- 

 dei'ed potash thrown into their holes, or 

 mixed with meal and scattered in their 

 runways, never fails to drive them oft'. 



A correspondent of the Gardener's 

 Monthly says the simplest ijlau to use 

 kerosene to destroy insects is to make a 

 moderately strong soap suds and mix 

 with it a little oil. It readily combines 

 with suds and can be applied with a sy- 

 ringe. It is the bestj thing for mealy 

 bugs, and may be used in dilution suited 

 to the nature of the plant requiring treat- 

 ment. 



EDUCATION AND LABOR. 



«/#D. Ageicultdeist: The "Ground- 

 2^ swell" complains that the "higher 

 j|i_ system of education has tended to 

 {pK bring labor into contempt." If 

 J^ the statement were not terribly 

 true, I should resent it .as an insult to 

 educators. But is not that system only 

 nominally "higher," but really /ou-cr, 

 which tends to bring any duty into dis- 

 repute'.' What is a teacher but a labor- 

 er, and if he does his whole duty, a hard 

 laborer? 



At a time when manual labor is strug- 

 gling against oppressive monopolies and 

 the degrading sentiment of aristocracy, it 

 is the especial duty of the teacher to 

 stand by the right, and to inspire in the 

 minds of his pupils a love of true repub- 

 licanism — true democracy — to teach that 



Honor and pbame from no condition ripe; 



Act well jour part— there all the honor lies. 



No; it is not higher, but lower — the 

 very lowest — education that tends to 

 bring labor into contempt. The teacher 

 whose influence tends thus to poison the 

 minds of his pupils, is ignorant of the 

 simplest principles of life and its duties, 

 and should at once give place to one of 

 more honest ideas. . A TE.icHEE. 



(E^ We have received from M. L. H. 

 Hare, local agent, samples of prcjiara- 

 tiouB of Ventura Rock Soap, which we 

 have tried and can cheerfully recom- 

 mend. We consider it without an equal. 



Plain Talk to Faemeks. — The farmer 

 must depend upon two classes of help — 

 his family and hired hands. These two 

 classes differ, or at least they ought to 

 difl'er, widely in their feelings in per- 

 forming their work. The hired laborer 

 serves for money alone, and though he 

 is under moral obligation to perform 

 faithful or honest work, whether he will 

 do it when the eye of the master is not 

 upon him, depends ujion his moral dis- 

 position and development. But with 

 regard to the co-operation of a man's 

 fiimily — his wife and children- -in earn- 

 ing a comi^etence for all, the case is far 

 ditt'erent, or ought to be. Tliis co-ope- 

 ration ought to be inspired by love and 

 common interest, and where this is not 

 the fact, success cannot be attained, as a 

 general rule. Where a man receives no 

 cordial sympathy from his wife and chil- 

 dren in making a sujiport for them he is 

 crushed by a power that he cannot resist. 

 Perhaps the keenest pang ever felt in 

 this life, by a noble nature is the con- 

 sciousness that there is no tie in the 

 family — no sympathy with the husband 

 and father in making a living — that wife 

 and children are as boarders, or strang- 

 ers, that they hold him as a slave, and 

 are not even grateful for what they re- 

 ceive. A man who sees this spirit in 

 his family, and does not become morose 

 or dissipated, is made of better material 

 than most persons. When the reverse 

 of this is the case, where a man receives 

 from his children the powerful — we had 

 almost said the omnipotent — sujiport of 

 love and cordial co-operation, he is a 

 demon of the pit if he withholds from 

 them his best efl'orts'. 



The duties of the domestic institution 

 of the several members of the family, 

 need a more thorough exposition than 

 the religious ethics of the day atTord. 

 The disposition to shun work, to live 

 without it in case and luxury, is one of 

 the bad characteristics of tho time. Our 

 system of education is not calculated to 

 remove this evil. The religious teach- 

 ing of the age is not a remedy for it. In 

 fact, our system of schools, or the spirit 

 which inspires them, and the general rc- 

 Ugious influences of society, help aug- 

 ment the spirit of idleness and extrava- 

 gance. There is a certain dash or spirit 

 of society which renders the cordial co- 



operation of the farmer's family impos- 

 sible. A miin who has several boys who 

 will not work steadily and heartily, has 

 a bad chance to m.ake the farm pay. If 

 the community but knew the amounts of 

 many a farmer's bill for dry goods, gro- 

 ceries, millinery, mantua-maker and 

 jewelry, the secret of ill success would 

 be apiJareut, yet the pritle of human na- 

 ture wiU conceal these drawbacks, and 

 only the thoughtful among men consider 

 this source of ruin. The fact is perfectly 

 well known to merchants, grocers and 

 other business men. The extravagant 

 purchase of goods of one kind and an- 

 other, eat up the profits of the farm. 

 Nor is this all — it discourages the far- 

 mer, and casts a dark shadow over the 

 business. The prevailing styles of living 

 cost too much, and none but the very 

 rich can indulge in them. A wife is not 

 exempt from household duties and labor. 

 A woman who feels herself to be exempt 

 from domestic duties is not fitted to be 

 the wife of any working man. Work is 

 necessary to the support of a family. 

 The wife and the mother who declines 

 and shrinks from it, is false to her afi'ec- 

 tions, false to her duties, false to the law 

 of agricultural prosperity. The farmers' 

 daughters should work in their depart- 

 ment. They can raise poultry, do their 

 own sewing, keep the house. Many of 

 the farmers hire all the house help. Wife 

 and daughters sleep till breakfast is 

 ready. Great, big, ruddy sons lie abed 

 till the sun is high in the heavens, and 

 then go to town to spend the day in idle- 

 ness. The children of many farmers in 

 this country are idle. They are for the 

 most part consumers, but not producers. 

 The daughters of well-to-do farmers in 

 these days are not so generally co-oper- 

 ants in making the common living as 

 they ought to be. Everywhere work is 

 shirked. The popular idea of a lady or 

 gentleman is to live in splendor with- 

 out work. AVhy should a man not 

 work? Can he give a good reason for 

 living at all without work? Can a good 

 reason be given to raise a girl without 

 work — the work of her department? The 

 son who will not work is unfit to live — 

 he deserves not the privilege of life in 

 the world. All over the country the 

 idleness of farmers' children is a dis- 

 grace. Farming does not pay because 

 so many dead-heads hang upon the pur- 

 suit. "The extravagance of the day is u 

 shame. The rising generation are im- 

 potent in regard to self-supporting. Th. 

 young men of the country are incapable 

 of thrift, because their early training li. 

 in the principles of indolence, ^^■e si < 

 the sad error of our farmers; they pay 

 for hired help and let their boys go free. 

 The whole subject of domestic economy 

 is ignored. We are fighting against na- 

 ture — against the Author of the world 

 and the Giver of tho harvest. Is it not 

 so? 



Farming will p.ay if it is managed well, 

 but industry is the law of nature; and 

 where a family is idle, nothing but ruin 

 can be anticipated. We want a reason- 

 able system, a sound philosophy, a wise 

 domestic economy, a rigid system of la- 

 bor for the family, sons, daughters, wife 

 and husband, to work to a common cud 

 — the welfare of the family. If wo speak 

 plainly, it is because we feel the import 

 ance of the subject. Human happint ^■ 

 is involved in this question. — Live Slock 

 Journal. 



^ 



l^' It wouldn't take some persons 

 very long to bury all their friends, but 

 Truemau & W'oodrow, who conduct thr 

 undertaker's business on First street, 

 make everybody friends by gontlemanl\ 

 fair dealing, and they surely deserve tli' 

 contidenco and esteem of ever 



