150 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



SALTING PORK. 



It ia important to have the pork well cooled be- 

 fore salting. And it should not remain unsalted 

 very long after cooling. It should never be allowed 

 to freeze. It should always have a great sujjply of 

 salt, and of the strongest quality, and brine should 

 be made and poured into the barrel. For if noth- 

 ing but water is put in with the salt, the pork may 

 be injured before the salt is melted enough to make 

 good brine. 



The meat should have a weight upon it, to keep 

 it under the brine ; for if pieces of meat are ])er- 

 mitted to rise above the brine, and remain there for 

 any considerable time, they will be tainted, and 

 will not taste sweet as well salted meat always 

 will. 



A WOODEN cover is often used to keep the meat 

 under the brine, but a stone cover is better. A 

 hole may be drilled in a stone cover, and a handle 

 inserted at a very small cost. 



In regard to the scum that our correspondent 

 speaks of, v.e say that standing pools of water, 

 either salt or fresh, will have a scum on them. 

 .Agitation is the remedy which nature provides. 

 The ocean is agitated to keep it pure, and agitation, 

 coupled v.ith salt, is effectual. 



Ponds have impure water — and why ? Ponds of 

 small dimensions are not agitated enough. As a 

 general rule, the larger the pond or lake, the purer 

 will be the water and more free from scmn. Run- 

 ning brooks have purer v/ater than ponds, because 

 in running, the water mingles with the atmosphere 

 — the grand purifier of all things. 



Motion, in streams of water, brings all the full 

 or riley maftcr in contact with other matter on the 

 bank that has an affinity for it — so that a long 

 brook m.ay run itself pure, though it may have been 

 affected with filthy matter near its source. 



Agitation of the pork barrel daily, will have the 

 effect of preventing the accumulation of scum on 

 the surface — but if this is not convenient, the white 

 surface may be skimmed off as often as it rises. 



It is quite important to every fomily to have 

 good salt pork. It is the very cheapest meat that 

 we can procure — and for cooking vegetables it is 

 the best that is used. It needs no butter to enrich 

 it — but it enriches all with which it comes in con- 

 tact. Farmers should not Aiil to have a supply of 

 pork in the cellar. Then, if the butcher forgets to 

 come, there will be something for dinner. 



SKILL VERSUS POOR LAND. 



The follov.'ing remarks are taken from an Address 

 by Prcfessor Marcy, before the Hampden County 

 Agricultural Society, at Springfield, in October last. 

 They show that the poorest land in the State can- 

 not long refuse to yield its increase when men get 

 hold of it who think as well as act : 



"There is a tract of the town of Wilbraham on 

 which the farmers of the last generation could not 

 obtain a living, though they seemed willing to live 

 poorly. They did not even raise the rye which 

 they ate. This they ol)tained by going to other 

 parts of the town, reaping rye by the day, and tak- 

 ing their pay in grain which they reaped. Now 

 that tract is occupied by some of the wealthiest far- 

 mers in the town, and they have made their money 

 from the soil which they occupy. That soil now 



grows rye — and it grows anything else that grows 

 in the town. I need not tell you that the present 

 occupants of that tract of country have been active 

 members of your society from its commencement. 

 I am informed that twenty-five years ago, two-thirds 

 of the farms of Ludlow did not pay the current ex- 

 penses of their occupants, and their expenses then 

 were not so great as the current expenses of the 

 occupants now, but instead of the heavy mortgages 

 that then existed, now there is money to let. 

 What is the cause of the change? Cause, sirs, 

 there is cause enough. Beside the temperance re- 

 formation, to which no doubt they owe something, 

 a flood of light and knowledge has been poured in 

 upon them from the agricultural press and from ag- 

 ricultural fairs. And if any are there who do not 

 take the papers, and who do not attend the fairs, 

 still, the light from their neighbors' farms has shone 

 in upon them, and dispelled the darkness in which 

 they would willingly grope." 



For the New England Fanner. 



PIES AND PIE-MAKING. 



It is said to be an ill wind that blows nobody 

 any good ; and the remark has truth in it. It has 

 encouragement, too. The slight mistakes into which 

 I have been led, as well as the suj)posed misappre- 

 hensions of your female correspondent, Mrs. H., 

 with regard to my real meaning, may yet lead to 

 something useful to the public if not to ourselves. 



My attention was turned to the folly of pie- 

 making, while a school-master, "boarding round." 

 The supper had been eaten on a certain occasion, 

 and no one ought to have (>aten more, when Mrs. 

 Iloadly brought forward the pie. "Ah, Mrs. H.," 

 said the generous-hearted but truly physiological 

 husband, "your pie will now be lost. We have 

 all eaten enough, we don't want it now. Save your 

 pies from time to time, instead of eating them up 

 when they are not needed, and before long you 

 will have enough of them to make us a whole 

 meal, when they will be of some real value." 



The moral of this lesson of economy I shall nev- 

 er forget. I love better to make a full meal of our 

 pies — whether few or many — when we eat them at 

 all, than to be found mingling them with other in- 

 gredients at the same meal ; it were better for 

 health as well as econom)'. Especially wouldit be 

 Christian economy. And I am happy to find even 

 07ie female who willco7?/es5 what thousands of house- 

 keepers yee/, viz., a desire to be emancipated from 

 slavery to pies and pie-crust. But I marvel that 

 there should be a shadow of doubt in the mind of 

 Mrs. 11., if in truth such doubts actually remain, 

 what my true meaning is, when I speak of pies 

 without any crust. A piece of bread with an ap- 

 ple raw or baked, or with a good slice or piece of 

 marrow squash, or with a little milk, or a properly 

 cooked egg, is the only pie which is compatible 

 with health, or to an unperverted taste ever agree- 

 able. I admit the wisdom of her conclusion, "Let 

 us have pie that is pie, if we have any, but" that 

 "the sooner" our pies are "counted among the 

 things that were, the better." 



The question, hovi'ever, which follows this wise 

 conclusion of your fair correspondent, seems to me 

 less wisely founded. "What are we to do," she 

 asks, "with our fruits, rich though ihey are, and 

 flavored and ripened by Divine V/i.sdoni, if we are 



